AV 24th January 2015

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1,600 US security men to guard Barack Obama during India visit

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Kiran Bedi is BJP's Chief Minister candidate in Delhi

Pragnesh Modhwadia - Managing Partner

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Hundreds come together to commemorate Kashmiri Hindus' Forced Exodus Day

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VOL 43. ISSUE 36

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

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Sri Lanka warms up to India

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister has already visited New Delhi and spoken to the External Affairs Minister and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who expressed his pleasure in the renewing relationships between the two countries.

The new President of Sri Lanka and the Prime Minister of India are expected to visit each other in the near future.

In the wake of this rejuvenating and reinvigorating relationships between the two countries, it was revealed that Sri Lanka has 'expelled' the Colombo station chief of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for allegedly plotting against former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 Presidential elections that eventually led to his defeat.

Though a spokesperson for India's external affairs ministry denied expulsion and preferred to call it a 'routine decision', political and intelligence sources in both countries said otherwise.

The sources said that in December last year, India was asked to recall the diplomat who allegedly

Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa

was instrumental in encouraging the present Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena to quit Rajapaksa's cabinet and defect from the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), sources said.

The diplomat also played a pivotal role in putting up Sirisena as the joint opposition candidate, reports added. A December 28 report in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper also said that the agent lost his job in Colombo due to his "links with the common opposition."

The diplomat was also

accused of convincing former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to enter the fray and instead support somebody who stood a good chance of defeating Rajapaksa, said an Indian official and a Sri Lankan lawmaker. The diplomat was also keeping touch with the country's former president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

"They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organised, talking to Chandrika," the lawmaker said and confirmed that the RAW diplomat was asked to leave.

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Wickremasinghe's spokesperson said that he met the diplomat's "two or three times" but was probably not aware of the real identity. RAW officers are given diplomatic cover during their overseas assignments to enjoy immunity.

Rajapaksa preferred not to comment on RAW's role in his defeat and said "won't suspect anybody until I get my real facts.

There are certain things you don't talk about... there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements," said a close associate of the Rajapaksa family.

Rajapaksa's China tilt irked India Analysts attribute India's manoeuvres against Rajapaksa's proChina stance and India's perceived security concerns. An Indian official said that matters reaching a flashpoint when Sri Lanka allowed Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lankan waters twice last year without informing India, in violation of an agreed maritime pact.

"The turning point in the relationship was the submarines. There was real Continued on page 26

24th January to 30th January 2015

Indian diaspora rejoices at Alphonso mango ban lift The Indian diaspora is celebrating the Alphonso mango ban lift, clearing the way for them to return to their much loved customers in Europe, especially Britain.

Indian mango shipments to the EU were suspended in May after fruit flies were found in consignments. But an European Commission committee voted to lift the ban on Tuesday.

However, other foodstuffs such as aubergines, bitter gourds, snake gourds and patra leaves - remain

Continued on page 13

Astonishing rise of Kutch from rubble of 2001 quake

On 26th January 2001 a huge earthquake razed many parts of Gujarat, especially Kutch. The place has now trans-

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suspended subject to sustained improvements in plant pest control.

After the unanimous vote, the European Commission said there had been "significant improvements" in India's mango export system.

formed from a pile of rubble in a neglected backwater into an economic powerhouse.

Continued on page 26

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Jonathan Shalit OBE, Chairman of ROAR Global

Professor Jonathan Shalit, OBE, is Chairman of ROAR Global the largest independent talent management agency in London. He was honoured in the Queen’s 2014 Birthday Honours list for his services to the Entertainment Industry.

Jonathan is also an Honorary Professor of the Arts at Henley Business School. ROAR Global represents around 200 individual talents. During the last year its stars have broadcast over 5000 hours of television, sold over 1 million CDs and appeared in the best-selling book charts. Jonathan also provides personal consultation and introductions to private individuals, commercial and public sector organisations.

1) What is your current position?

I am Chairman of ROAR Global – the largest independent talent management agency in the UK representing around 200 clients including Jamelia, Joan Collins, Kelly Brook, Lorraine Kelly, Mel B, Myleene Klass, Pixie Lott, Rebecca Ferguson and Gregg Wallace.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

Being awarded an OBE for Service to the Entertainment

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

In recent years wife Katrina whom I have known for 10 years – we married four years ago. In the past, undoubtedly the late great Larry Adler through whom I worked with Elton John, Sting, Cher, Sir George ‘Beatles’ Martin, Jim Carrey and Robin Williams.

Industry this Summer and being made an Honorary Professor of the Arts at Henley Business School. Having my parents with me at the investiture at Buckingham Palace ensured the day was one I will treasure for the rest of my life.

3) What inspires you?

Talented people with conviction and belief 4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?

Not knowing anyone in the industry I am in when I started out. Now I know everyone in the great entertainment family which is wonderful professionally and personally.

Car enthusiasts' club dedicates meeting to three men who died in Hastings Road collision Friends of three young men who were killed in a road crash earlier this month have placed flowers and cards at the scene of the tragedy.

Members of a car enthusiasts’ club dedicated a meeting on Sunday night to Ammar Ingar, Muhammedabdullah Patel and Abubaker Hussein Mohamed who

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died after they were involved in a crash with an other car in Hastings Road, Leicester on Saturday, January 10.

Their friends visited the crash site, near the junction of Buckland Road, on Sunday night to lay their tributes.

The group then moved on to McDonald’s, in Thurmaston, where they held a minute’s silence.

The collision happened on Saturday, January 10 at about 8.25pm, near to the junction of Buckland Road and involved a black Honda Civic and a black Mitsubishi Shogun.

Police want anyone who witnessed the crash to call them on 101, or Crimestoppers, which is anonymous, on 0800 555 111.

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

Working with inspiring and talented people and now being in a position where my success gives me the opportunity to create opportunities for others.

7) And the worst?

Paperwork 8) What are your long term

goals?

To see one of my clients win a Grammy, Oscar and Emmy.

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

I would lessen the debt burden on students in further education. Education is the key to the future and should not come at the cost of delivering our brightest talent into a world of overwhelming debt before they even start on the career ladder.

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

Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, best known for his contributions to the design of the modern electricity supply system. He was a visionary who saw and understood the future. If only we could all see into the future, we could avoid wasting so much time chasing down blind alleys!

Suspended sentence for Coventry shopkeeper who hid illegal tobacco

A shopkeeper who hid illegal tobacco inside a vacuum cleaner, a sealed air conditioning unit and a locked safe has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Hajji Haji Mustafa, from Coventry, was caught out when trading standards teams went to his shop with sniffer dogs after they were tipped off that tax-free tobacco was being sold there.

During the raid 514 packs of illegal cigarettes were found as well as 353 pouches of hand rolling tobacco. Tobacco was also

found hidden in rubbish bags and holdalls. If it had been genuine it would have been worth ÂŁ9,500.

The products, seized from Shop and Save in Regent Street, Hinckley, will now be destroyed.

Last week at Leicester Magistrates Court Mustafa, of Beresford Avenue, Foleshill, pleaded guilty to five separate counts of possessing counterfeit goods for supply, as well as having cigarettes that failed to meet European safety requirements and possessing packets of cigarettes not

intended for UK distribution. He was given a 12week suspended prison sentence, ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work, and told to pay Leicestershire County Council’s costs of £2,523.73.

Man sent to prison for child abduction A man was sent to prison for three years and nine months for child abduction after he took a 14year-old girl to a hotel room.

Rukhon Uddin, who was 18 at the time, took the girl to the Travelodge in Loughborough, despite being given a prohibition notice banning him from seeing her, Leicester Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Mathhew Lowe told how Uddin was arrested after the girl’s worried parents tracked her mobile phone to the hotel and called the police.

Uddin, now 19, of Loughborough, pleaded guilty to child abduction between March and May last year. He also admitted two charges of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and one charge of possessing M-Cat with intent to supply.

Mr Lowe said Uddin met the girl after they contacted each other on the internet. Her worried parents called the police and he was spoken to and made subject to the prohibition order banning him from seeing her.

Mr Lowe said he

ignored the order and carried on seeing the girl. He said after Uddin was arrested police searched his house and found ÂŁ260 worth of M-Cat and ÂŁ240 worth of cannabis.

Uddin was banned from contacting the girl for five years. He was also made the subject of a sexual prevention order banning him form contacting girls under the age of 16 on the internet or having any contact with girls under the age of 16 without consent from their parents or a judge or the Social Services.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

COMMENT

Paris atrocity fallout: Questions, answers

The political fallout from the jihadi atrocity in Paris has reverberated across France and beyond to all corners of the world, Belgium has been on red alert as jihadi groups were arrested before they could strike. Germany, too, has been forced to take similar preventive measures. Sadly, the Jewish community has been the principal target of these attacks in France and Jewish migration from the country to Israel has reached disturbingly high levels. Two Indian columnists (in the Hindu and Telegraph January 15 respectively) took up cudgels against the French establishment, whom they accused of being insensitive to the concerns and grievances of their North African Muslim immigrant population. Charlie Hebdo was taken to task as the alleged instrument white Christian prejudice against Islam and Islamic people in general. No respect is shown to them and their professed culture, they say. But Charlie Hebdo has been a relentless opponent of the French right, especially of Marine Le Pen’s Front National.The French socialist government of President Francois Hollande has attracted censure for its knee-jerk reaction, for sending an aircraft carrier to idle Eastern waters, and more land forces to the Francophone states of west Africa. Like the 18th century Bourbon monarchy which learnt nothing and forgot nothing, President Hollande and his colleagues appear to be impervious to the damage done to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan by the misbegotten American and British-led wars of intervention in the region. They have disturbed the hornets’ nest of international and regional jihadis, whose activities are spreading to every continent. All this and more is true. The West, with its accustomed cynicism and selfishness is awakening to a threat that now affects its geographies. The US and EU were (and are) notably coy about Islamist depredations outside their zones of interest and have frequently used jihadis for strategic advantage in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir and the Middle East, as part of Cold War statecraft. The problem, as always, lies in the regimes favoured by the US and its NATO allies, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which have long been incubators of militant jihadi groups,

whose regimes are centres of Islamist bigotry, whose persecution of minority faiths and political deviants are ground realities.

The two Indian columnists, however, seem not to recognize that religious minorities in much of the Islamic world are subjected to unrelenting persecution. Pakistan’s blasphemy law is used randomly against the country’s Christian and Hindu communities. Christians are routinely persecuted in the Middle East, so much so that their numbers in the region’s overall population has declined from the once 10 per cent to around 2 per cent today. The two Indian media gurus must surely have heard of the Saudi Arabian blogger, Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to public flogging, for running a liberal website calling for freedom of speech in the kingdom. The Indian columnists would have done well to read the Muslim-born Bangladeshi novelist Tasleema Nasreen’s editpage article in the Times of India (January 13) calling for the modernization of the Faith in the manner of other world religions; the columnists must know that she lives in India as an exile, that her social documentary on women, not just Muslim women, was withdrawn from a Kolkata television channel simply because Tasleema Nasreen was the author of the script, because local mullahs and imams had threatened violence if their demands for a ban were not accepted. They banned her entry into Kolkata, where Tasleema has numerous friends, when it is for the Government of India to pass judgment on such matters. Emboldened by their success, the local Muslim clergy demanded that Ms Nasreen be expelled from India. Finally, was there any protest, any public expression of anguish, in the Islamic world at the jihadi terrorist assault in Mumbai [26/11/2008].Did the Organization of Islamic countries condemn the action? Was there any condemnation of the Pakistani military’s genocide in East Pakistan in 1971from the Islamic fraternity ?

It is easy to flaunt one’s moral indignation on Western transgressions because such censure is accepted as part of a natural, democratic discourse. Likeminded scrutiny of the Islamic record is likely to open a can of worms.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the Tata Motor, which owns JLR and is Britain’s largest manufacturer, plans to add 1,300 new jobs at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands for the production of the new Jaguar model to be launched in 2016 This crossover model follows the Jaguar XE, and is to be manufactured at the company’s upcoming facilities within the Solihull plant, where JLR produces Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Land Rover, Discoverer and Defender. The announcement of intent marks Jaguar’s entry into the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment with the Jaguar F-Pace unveiled recently at the Detroit auto show.The company plans 50 product actions in the coming five years, of which 12 will be in the next 12 months. “Today’s announcement (January 12) once again demonstrates our commitment to the UK and the advancement of a high-tech, high skilled, manufacturing-led economy,” said JLR CEO Ralf Speth. JLR is spending 3.5-3.7 billion pounds sterling on new

product creation and capital expenditure in the current financial year, and has invested a total of over 10 billion pounds sterling in the last five years. Its workforce has doubled over the past few years to more than 32,000 globally, of which 20,500 are in the UK. JLR retailed 462,678 vehicles in 20l4, a growth of 9 per cent over the previous year.”With 12 significant new product actions planned for 2015 and the introduction of the new Jaguar XE and the and the Land Rover Discoverer Sport, we anticipate retailing over half a million vehicles for the first time in the company’s history,” said Andy Goss, JLR Group Sales Operations Director. In 2014 Land Rover sales registered record sales of 381108 units, a 9 per cent growth based on continuing strong customer demand. Jaguar sales rose 6 per cent during the year to 81,570 vehicles, according to company figures. This Indo-British economic platform is surely set to grow to new heights in the coming decades.

A meningitis A vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune, has received World Health Organization (WHO) approval for use in infants in sub-Saharan Africa. “In the four years since its introduction in Africa, the [vaccine] has had an immediate and dramatic impact in breaking the cycle of Meningitis A epidemics,” said a WHO statement. The vaccine has been used in patients aged 1 to 29 years, but the vaccine can now be given more freely to infants so “protecting millions more children at risk of the deadly disease.” About 200,000 people in the region are struck down by meningitis A, which kills 20,000-25.000 people every year. “Like in the case of measles, not many meningitis cases are seen in children younger than one year,” said Dr Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director of Serum Institute. “A mother, who has had meningitis, transmits the meningitis antibodies to newborns and these antibodies protect them for one year.” Almost everyone lin the meningitis belt, stretching from Senegal in west Africa to

Ethiopia in the east, gets infected by the disease before the age of 29, hence mothers invariably carry the antibodies against the disease.

Explaining the rationale for choosing to immunize children at the ninth month, Dr Jadhav said: “It’s one opportunity to treat both measles and meningitis. A booster dose will be given when the child reaches 12-18 months old. The first meningitis dose will protect the child for five years, and a booster dose will ensure lifelong protection.

The Serum Institute made the vaccine heat stable in order that it can remain outside the cold chain at a temperature less than 40 degree Centigrade for up to four days, without affecting its potency. The heat stable nature of the vaccine proved to be a game changer in meningitis control.

“It’s a great Indian success story,” said Dr Jacob John, a former virologist at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. It certainly is. India’s impact on Africa transcends the exploitation of the continent’s natural resources.

JLR to add 1,300 jobs in UK

Meningitis vaccine: Indian success story

3 Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else

- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Lord Gulam Noon of St John’s Wood Labour Peer

Call for a national debate on how to deal with convicted terrorists As I watched the events in Paris unfold last week; along with my horror and fears for the innocent people caught up in this callous act, I relived, in my mind, the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 2008.

As I was entertaining guests in my suite at the Taj Hotel we came under attack and I along with my guests feared for our lives. We immediately barricaded ourselves in our room – moving furniture and anything heavy we could find to block the hotel room door from being opened. In the corridor outside heavily armed terrorists were walking around and indiscriminately firing their weapons.

These men did not fear jail or even death, they were intent on killing at any price – nothing would deter them just like Chérif and Said Kouachi in the attacks in Paris and Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale who brutally murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013, or the attackers of the Army Public School and College in Peshawar last month.

I believe there is a “public demand for a full review of how we deal with these most dangerous and fanatical terrorists, (this could include the first major debate on capital punishment for 50 years).

What the public see is ever increasing restrictions on the law abiding

citizen, tighter checks at airports, stop and search in the street and more security alerts but at the same time they see terrorists let out of prison onto the streets, the European Court of Human Rights telling us to give votes to terrorists while they are in prison and that our judges cannot lock them up for life even though that is the wish of our Parliament. If we fail to act – the public will turn to the right wing parties in their droves – something that troubles me dearly.

I was an early voice calling for confiscation of passports for radicalists returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria, these people are trained and battle hardened and I welcome government proposals for new powers to restrict travel and confiscate passports from known extremists.

I also welcome the placing of the PREVENT policy on a statutory footing, I have always been a strong voice for more help for communities in tackling extremism and radicalisation at root cause and for helping families at risk.

Unfortunately due to ill health I had to pull out of the debate at second reading of the government’s Counter-terrorism and Security Bill on Tuesday 13 January.

If I had been able to attend the debate these are the points I would have raised.

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MIDLANDS VOICE

Trojan Horse: education UKIP locks horns with 'Charlie Hebdo' protestors revolution begins

The education governing body is fighting back aggressively after facing criticism about their lax approach to Muslim extremists who infiltrated schools in Birmingham and other locations in the Midlands. Small Heath academy, one of the schools at the centre of the scandal, is introducing new steps such as pupils receiving free uniforms, special training for teachers, a new Executive Principal and finally, home visits for each individual child. This is all part of an effort to shake-up the changes and ensure that reforms are properly embedded.

As of September 2015, Small Heath will be closed for the first two weeks of term as teachers receive the vital training and pupils the confidence in their institution. The academy will also change its name and organise new school uniforms by way of a fresh start: “We haven’t got time to waste,” their new Executive Principal Rebecca Garratt told the Birmingham Mail. “We’ve got to make up a lot of time for the kids because they have been let down in the past (…) Losing the first two weeks of term means we can reap the benefits later.

“There’s no point being sat in an office for two weeks talking about changes – we need to be in the classrooms with the teachers, training them and implementing the changes.”

This resilient attitude comes in the wake of new

reports that the Department of Education have known of the Trojan Horse-style scandal for twenty years in advance.

Chris Wormald, a top official in the high-profile investigation, found that complaints were filed with ministers about Muslim hard-liners affecting school agendas as far back as 1994, the time of the last Tory government.

Documents revealed that

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

were.” Tim Boyes, head of Queensfield school in Birmingham, having written twice in 2010 about Muslim infiltration, told 'The BBC': “It’s farcical that central government can dodge responsibility when it wants to, that ministers feel that such stark warnings could be ignored and neither immediate action nor policy change needs to take place.”

OldKnow Academy

complaints had been made about a radical group 'Hizb ut-Tahrir' by three separate senior school figures, with the Prime Minister copied in.

Concerns were stated about the way governors were corresponding with the staff, especially at the Moseley School. The education secretary at the time, Michael Gove, was allegedly unaware of these reports.

Wormald stated: “While I have not found instances of warnings having been ignored or of individuals having acted inappropriately, I have found the department has lacked inquisitiveness about this issue, and that procedures could have been tighter than they

At the beginning of 2015, there is promise in the form of Rebecca Garratt who has been lauded for her developmental work. Also the head of ARK Tindal Primary Academy in Balsall Heath, she says Oldknow, Small Heath will work closely with the Tindal Academy: “We’ve already invited teachers from Oldknow over for afternoon tea to get to know each other,” Garratt continued. “There is a lot of hard work ahead but it is an exciting and challenging time.”

Ms. Garratt has elevated her other establishment from 'satisfactory' in May 2010 to 'good' with 'outstanding' features in October of last year.

Sameena Imam: missing body identified

The body of 34 year-old Sameena Imam was finally discovered in Groby Road, Leicester. The discovery was made on the fourth day of a forensic combing of the Groby Road allotments.

Sameena was reported missing on Christmas Eve, where two men have now been formally charged with her murder.

Brothers Roger Cooper (40), of Tile Hurst Drive, Coventry, and David Cooper (38), of Hughenden Drive, Leicester are being detained for trial.

Sameena's car was also found discarded, about a fortnight ago in Luton.

Sameena, who resided in Cardiff, was visiting a Costco wholesalers in Coventry as part of her role in regional market management when she was last seen alive. A post-mortem examination is soon to take place,

Sameena Imam

establishing the cause of death. Her devastated friend Nina Hancock said of 'Sam' as she was known to her friends: “She is a beautiful person both on the inside and the outside, and we all love her dearly.”

UKIP and multi-faith leaders clashed over the right to freedom of speech on Saturday 17th January when a rally was held to defend Muslims who suffered the backlash after shootings at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Leading the demonstration was MP for Bradford West, George Galloway: “I am here to defend the honour of Muslims, Islams and Muhammad” he announced in front of the Bradford Town Hall.

“These are not cartoons, these are obscene insults to the prophet Muhammad (…) The backlash against Muslims is under way in France and the UK (…) It seems there are limits to freedom of speech in France.

That's hypocrisy, not democracy.”

Roughly 200 people, including members of the Muslim Youth League, gathered at Bradford city's Centenary Square, and received green ribbons as a symbol of unity in peace. UKIP's candi-

date Jason Smith raised objection, complaining to the Bradford Council that the demonstration was in bad taste: “While I am a big advocate of freedom of speech, I have major reservations regarding this protest and its timing” he stated in an interview with the Telegraph and Argus. It took place “just days after the funerals of the victims of the Paris shooting (…) this is not only disrespecting the people who died in Paris but could potentially be very inflammatory.

“All Bradford communities should be protesting against the murders in Paris, not protesting against newspapers drawing satirical car-

Father charged for Kinder-egg style drug exchange

Mohammed Ashrif, a father of four children, was charged for dealing heroin and cocaine via a small 'Kinder-type' egg.

Police were patrolling in an unmarked vehicle when they arrested Ashrif.

They observed him in a car, pulling suspiciously up to a man who was walking on the street: “Initially he (Ashrif) refused to open the doors so the window was broken and an officer reached in to remove the ignition keys” the prosecution at Bradford Crown Court said. The court also heard that Ashrif had concealed the class-A drugs in eight little wraps, tucked inside the 'egg'. Another £480 in cash was found separately inside the vehicle.

The 'Kinder-type' egg, worth £100.00 in cash, were part of Ashrif's ongo-

Mohammed Ashrif

ing drug addiction, the Crown Court heard. Both using and supplying the substances, Ashrif has been in and out of jail since 2005. His defence lawyer argued that he had become addicted to heroine after suffering an ankle injury in the late 1990s and feeling extreme pain since.

Paris shootings: A tiny sculpture makes a profound statement Hedley Wiggan, pictured, a forty-nine year old dad from Tonge Moor in Bolton, has sculpted a tribute to the cartoonists who were shot at 'Charlie Hebdo' as fellow men and artists.

A miniatures artist by trade, Wiggan etched a picture of a man holding a sword outwards in the teeny tiny lead of a pencil. The wider width of the pencil emphasises the message that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword'. After

toons (…) This will almost certainly be a disaster for Bradford’s reputation.” Bradford council reported that multi-faith protesters had not sought endorsement from them and that local police were briefed as part of standard precautions.

Councillor Imran Hussain, deputy leader of Labour-run Bradford Council, also announced at the rally: “Let's have freedom of speech, not freedom to openly insult.” Although there was anxiety about the controversy of the protest, the EDL scheduling to attend just a day before, the event went drew on peacefully with no violence to speak of.

spending days carving the image with a microscope or a magnifying glass, Wiggan produced a work that he feels honours the victims of the extremist attack: “The events in Paris were devastating so I just thought I would do something to say the pen is mightier” he told the 'Manchester Evening News'. “It is a statement. It represents the freedom of the written word (…)

Paris is the city of love and I

have friends out there. It has affected everyone.” Wiggan has already been invited to exhibit his range of miniature pencil carvings at a show in Paris and hopes to include this one. I could even “auction it off for a charity over there” he commented. A theatre technician at Wigan Royal Infirmary, Hedley will now join millions of others in the world-wide 'je suis Charlie' solidarity movement.

Barrister Emma Downing stressed to the court that Ashrif's dealings were to fund his own drug addiction and pay off his debts as opposed to building a life of decadence. After an initial release from prison, Ashrif was reportedly drug-free for nearly five years, before again relapsing. Downing, representing her client, said the 46-year old dependent had accumulated a vast debt from cocaine and heroin abuse and underwent great pressure to resort to dealing drugs himself.

Ashrif pled guilty, receiving a reduced jail sentence of three years and four months. The presiding Judge David Hatton QC re-iterated that this would have been five years had he not been more co-operative.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

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UK

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister attends India UK Trade Meet

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Rani Singh

Monday 19th January 2015 London saw an India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) at London’s Institute of Engineers.

The Indian High Commission was a lead and took an organisational role. The proceedings, which kicked off in the afternoon with speakers from the UK Department of Trade and Industry. The UK India Business Council was a partner organisation and its Chair, the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt was much in evidence.

Mr Richard Heald, CEO UKIBC welcomed delegates from the business and academic worlds across India and the UK. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Dr Vince Cable was there.

Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry was the Chief Guest.

The CII was the lead on JETCO's Joint Working Group on Technological Collaboration, Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing and organized a delegation.

At a reception hosted by High Commission of India and UKIBC on January 19, from (L to R) UK Minister of State for Skills and Equalities, Nick Boles MP (Joint Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Dept of Education), High Commissioner of India Mr. Ranjan Mathai, Hon'ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry of India, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, and UKIBC Chair, Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt

Gopi Katragadda, Chief Technology Officer , Tata Sons spoke as the India co-chair of the JWG. He told The Asian Voice exclusively: "The India-UK Jetco meetings today were productive.

Along with our UK counterparts we identified specific areas in automotive and aerospace manufacturing for technology collaborations. Skill development was also another area we tackled and identified specific actions.

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Both ministers, Smt. Sitharaman and Dr. Cable showed resolve and commitment to strengthen bilateral economic relations and address policy level obstacles specifically in labour mobility issues."

Then came a press interaction with Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman organised by the High Commission of India. Mrs Sitharaman discussed how quickly the new Government of India has moved forward and demonstrated that projects can be rapidly executed. She stated, “Every hurdle which exists will be removed.”

The Hon. Minister explained that the Companies Act had been amended and the rules corrected, stating, “While I was Minister for Corporate Affairs, 40 changes were made in the Companies Act after a stakeholders meeting.”

She stated that FDI had increased 25% with the advent of the Modi regime.

Mrs Sitharaman commented that taxation and its structure had been simplified. With 5% rising growth, she also said that while doing business with India was now easier; Delhi was interacting with states and the provinces, which have to provide law

and order.

There is, said the minister, a long term invest-

Mathai, elegantly chaired, after welcoming delegates.

The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt was also on stage.

The Hon. Mrs Sitharaman, and the Rt Hon Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills and Equalities spoke.

Manoj Ladwa was present as were peers like Baroness Usha Prashar and Businessman Rami Ranger.

Nick Boles said "there is absolutely no limit for Indian students to come and study here. There were a number of bogus universities which we have closed down. If the students get a job with a certain income level, they can start their career here."

He said that the UK had something to learn from India, so The Asian

husband took degrees in the UK! "There is a perception...The impression is that it is difficult to get a scholarship and they have to pay three times the fee (than applicable to local students). Most go to the USA," she said.

She also commented that there are many from India who finds it difficult to get visas giving examples saying “chefs, paramedics, and University teachers find it difficult."

Indian's High Commissioner to the UK Ranjan Mathai said "We, as in The Government of India, have as much interest in bogus colleges being closed down because that would help Indian students in not getting duped.

But if Indian students are caught in this situation

The 10th UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in London on January 19, 2015. Seen are Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon'ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry (on extreme right) and The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (next to Commerce and Industry Minister)

ment in the industrial “corridor” linking Bangalore and Mumbai.

She added that the UK could share its technology and expertise with India, and that growth was expected in the two way investment; especially with Britain and Europe investing in India.

Later, The Indian High Commission hosted an event called “Strengthening India-UK Business Partnerships” which H. E. The High Commissioner, Mr

Voice asked him what this was. He answered that generally; those in the UK complain and argue over small things, whereas in India he finds much more of a “can do” attitude which he finds heartening.

Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman said that she did not think "there is a rosy picture for Indian students to come to the UK for higher studies" and that her daughter did not want to come here even though she wants to study English. Even though both Mrs Sitharaman and her

they should be given adequate time to find an alternative and efforts should be made to ensure that they get some compensation for what they have lost."

Interviewing exclusively with the Asian Voice on the UK and India, Mrs Sitharaman said, “it’s a very old relationship, based on a context historical and otherwise, so it is important to sustain it at that level and give it as much importance as it deserves. The relationship has to be strengthened.”

Doctor ‘performed FGM on mother’

A doctor carried out female genital mutilation on a young mother after she gave birth in a London hospital, a court was told Monday.

D h a n u s o n Dharmasena, 32, and a second man, Hasan Mohamed, 41, are standing trial accused of carrying out the illegal procedure in the first prosecution of its kind in the UK. Jurors at Southwark crown court were told that the operation on the

Hasan Mohamed (left) and Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena

woman had been conducted at the Whittington hospital in North London and not in

“a back street clinic”.

The victim, then 24, had her vagina sewn up after she gave birth to

her first child in November 2012. The prosecution claims it was done by Dr Dharmasena with the “insistence and encouragement” of Mr Mohamed.

Dr Dharmasena, of llford, Essex, has pleaded not guilty to one count of carrying out the procedure and Mr Mohamed has denied aiding and abetting the procedure as well as an alternative count of intentionally encouraging and assisting the offence.

GENERAL ELECTIONS 2015

7

What does the 'prolonged political gridlock' hold for our future?

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Rupanjana Dutta

Britain is heading towards the most awaited general elections of the era, perhaps. The broadsheet, national tabloids and mainstream media are discussing the dire needs of a reform for this country, fearful politicians trying to protect their brand, some ostracising the immigrants for any fall and decay, problems of regionalism, religious fundamentalism– are leaving the electorates totally confused.

Looking at the last election, analysts initially felt that the 2015 would be a relatively straightforward. But the government now faces the most difficult task of negotiating devolution roughly 3.5 months before the general elections. Gurus and specialists are predicting a hung parliament, while others are speculating a Coalition between two or more parties, without exactly identifying them.

Voters are not sure of the status of the Lib Dems in their lives any more, but Deputy PM Nick Clegg is sure that they are to make a come back as a part of any Coalition.

Labours believe the clear victory lies in their hands, while the Independent says that UKIP poses an unprece-

PM David Cameron

DPM Nick Clegg

dented threat towards the Torieswhether by syphoning off votes or actually winning seats, leaving Cameron fighting on two fronts. The greatest dilemma that he faceshow will he remain the leader of the party, appeasing traditional Tory voters and MPs tempted by their line of reasoning, and simultaneously sticking to his own beliefs, differentiating the party from UKIP’s platform and keep its appeal to the middle ground?

This is further accelerated by his refusal to appear at the leaders' debate on tv, ahead of the general election unless the Green Party is also included. Mr Cameron reportedly told BBC that it was 'a question of fairness'.

Perhaps it could refer to something biggera potential ally for a future Coalition?

The current proposals for the TV election debates only include the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP. The suggested schedule is for debates on 2 April, 16 April and 30 April, ahead of the election on 7 May. The BBC reported that Labour leader Ed Miliband has said to that the PM "owes it to the people" to take part. UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the PM was "running scared", and allegedly called him a "chicken" on Twitter, the BBC reported.

Mr Farage also claimed Mr Cameron was using the Greens "as an excuse" not to have a debate with UKIP, and said the debates should go ahead without him.

The Labour leader Mr Miliband also said Mr Cameron was "chickening out" and "trying to find

A

Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, Ed Miliband

any excuse to stop these debates happening", saying he should "stand on his record". Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Mr Cameron should "stop ducking” and commit to taking part. He said the public expected the debates to take place.

Mr Cameron however rejected all the claims, pointing out that he took part in the leaders' tv debates in the run up to the 2010 election.

One of the main challenges that Mr Cameron faces is the radical demographic shift of Britain's ethnic minority vote, that will significantly determine the outcome of the 2015 election, according to a recent research.

A study by the crossparty group Operation Black Vote (OBV) reportedly found the number of

Nigel Farage

seats where black and Asian voters could decide the outcome had rocketed by 70% compared with the 2010 election.

The party which has earlier accepted that it is struggling to win over ethnic voters, has tried to woo them by occasionally celebrating Asian festivals in the Parliament and the PM's residence, but the recent incidents like the Paris and Belgium attacks will be of particular concern to the Tories. The party secured only 16% of the minority vote at the last election, compared with 68% for Labour.

Experts say the trend will continue, especially in the current scenario of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the government backlash, more after the Community Secretary's letter to the mosques, and this may change the political

dynamics in the upcoming general elections.

On Monday 19th, the FT has reported that City bosses have warned that the prospect of 'prolonged political gridlock' caused by an inconclusive general election in May is casting a cloud over the outlook for British business.

According to a survey of some of the biggest names in the City of London, it was revealed that this situation could endanger the country's fragile economy. Several city bosses have reportedly signaled unease with Labour's perceived antibusiness stance, while others are worried about the rising hostility towards immigration under a Tory led administration. At least 40% of City workers are estimated to be non British.

Though the PM's international ally the US President Barack Obama has poured praise on his economic strategy, describing him as a 'great friend', Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader concluded precisely- if Obama suggests that David Cameron has run the economy in a good way, then “the impact (it) will have is- most people will feel that Obama does not really know what is going on in this country.”

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UK Recently I was out of the UK for fourteen days and for twelve of them I was in India. Almost one full day was lost travelling from London Heathrow to Ahmedabad Airport.

On average four hours are wasted at transit airports - either Mumbai or Delhi or some airports in the Middle East. Almost twelve years ago there was a direct flight where in less then nine hours, sometimes eight with the cooperation of the wind god, one was able to fly to Ahmedabad.

For British travellers going to Gujarat the cancellation of the direct flights was the legacy of the then UPA Government’s mismanagement and the Civil Aviation Ministers argy bargy. Never mind. A direct flight campaign is in full swing but the real problem is the £4 billion accumulated debt of Air India. The then Chief Minister Narendra Modi was able to start the direct flights using his leverage in the NDA Government but today Prime Minister Modi’s hands appear to be tied in spite of his personal support of the direct flights.

Correction and apology

In last week’s Asian Voice on page 25 there is a very interesting and inspiring news item about the launch of an online competition on Gandhiji’s life. At the Kochrab Ashram on 9th January exactly a hundred years after his permanent return from South Africa to India at 45 years age with international name and fame for his antiapartheid campaign, the project was launched.

This website is the brain child of Ms Piaili Ray, Director of Sampad Arts, a Birmingham-based organisation who last year successfully had another online competition on the writings of Tagore and received well over 1,600 entries from forty countries.

The ceremony in the early morning of 9th January was a historic event and Dr Anamik Shah, a distinguished scientist (chemist) who is the Vice Chancellor of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth launched the project and spoke about promoting the Kochrab Ashram. He also said CB Patel has pioneered promoting Gandhiji’s first Ashram.

The headline was inaccurate and I genuinely apologies.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

From India with love, hope and confidence As I See It

Wealth generation and its utilisation

India and the US are coming closer much more rapidly, since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India.

Today (24th January) President Barack Obama will travel to India to attend the

Republic Day celebrations on 26th January in Delhi. Let’s not remind ourselves about the misguided visa stoppage for the then Chief Minister Modi but today he and President Obama appear to have resolved their differences and become friends.

In the recent past President Obama has heaped enormous praise on Prime Minister Modi.

Apart from material success of the US it’s scholastic endeavours on almost all aspects of life is exceptional. Yes it is important to make money. Wealth creation is not easy. It requires vision, devotion, dedication, etc. The question comes when you accumulate vast sums of money. I

am not only talking about the recent reports about inequality on a world stage in which one percent of the human race (some 7 billion and more) control 50 percent of the world’s economic assets both in cash and kind. In Hindi we call it ‘adhe me ram, adhe me gam’.

When you make lots of money the question baffling most tycoons is not only how to spend it but to how to spend it wisely.

Squandering wealth is not so difficult and you will always have ample assistance from chumchas (cronies) who will be very willing to misguide all the time. But to utilise one’s wealth for the welfare of others is the most admirable and

also difficult to implement and put in practice Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and several other US billionaires are a few names that come to mind.

In India Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and others are able to follow in the footstep of Andrew Carnegie, Henry

Ford or John D Rockefeller. But one Kathiavadi who made his billions in diamonds is making waves. Ninety percent of the world’s diamonds are polished in India predominantly in Surat. Most of the workers, traders and tycoons in Surat in this trade hail from Saurashtra. Nearly half a million Kathiavadi Patels have made Surat the fastest and richest growing city in India.

Govindbhai Dholakia is one of the rare breed.

He has set aside the equivalent of several million pounds into a trust fund and a few months ago he was making headlines almost all over the world when he gave a gift of a small residential house or a car to some seven hundred of his employees.

Mr Dholakia has created the Santokba Manav Rana (Jewel of a Person) Awards.

Last month one such award was presented to the Dalai Lama. On 8th February similar awards will be presented to Father Carlos Valles (a Spanish Jesuit priest based in Ahmedabad at St Xavier’s College and has written over 50 books in Gujarati and presently is residing in Spain and will be flying with medical doctors to receive this well deserved award in Surat.

Another well earned recipient is Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy. She qualified as an engineer, helped her husband build the company as well as contributed so much to education and literature.

Another recipient is our very own Prof Lord Bhikhu Parekh who needs no introduction to the readers of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar.

Govindbhai Dholakia

celebrates his wealth in his own unique style.

Every recipient of the award will not only receive Rs 2.5 million but in addition there will be a specially prepared coffee table book of the recipient’s life story (similar to ‘This is your life’) along with a 40-minute specially prepared video. A book of each recipient will also be distributed as a gift to 1,500 people who will grace the auspicious occasion.

So here we have an ideal blending of wealth creation and its admirable use.

Then there are two events taking place over the next few days. The University of Cambridge has organised a special event in Delhi on 12th February - the theme of which is ‘The Life and Legacy of Nehru’. amongst the speakers are Professor Bhikhu Parekh, Professor Akeel Bilgrami of Columbia University, Dr Faisal Devji, fellow at St Anthony College, Oxford, Dr Shruti Kapila, Fellow of Indian History at King’s College London and Shri Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Delhi.

On 29th January a different type of event is taking place in Vadodara, Gujarat. Professor Lancy Lobo of the Centre for Culture and Development at Vadodara has organised a high level seminar for “A critical assessment of Nehru’s contribution to India”.

So in India now there is more and more interfacing of various recourses, material and intellectual.

Gujarat earthquake

During my five and a half hour wait in Mumbai Airport (while returning to London) I met a Japanese technocrat who hails from Kobe and had visited Kutch a few days earlier. On 26th January 2001 a massive earthquake killed thousands of people including hundreds of children who were celebrating Republic Day and destroyed several thousand properties. It was shocking and people believed that India and specially Kutch would not recover after such a devastation in the future. But

according to this gentleman what he saw in Kutch today is unbelievable. The relief, regeneration and reconstruction that has taken place in Kutch was perhaps as good as the reconstruction of Kobe after its devastating earthquake of 1995 if not better - especially if you take into consideration the wealth and experience Japan has gained in handling the aftermaths of earthquakes. This tragedy will also celebrate its fifteenth year next Monday and I hope nobody will proclaim again that Indians can’t manage their affairs properly.

I would like to draw the attention of my esteemed readers to this week’s Scrutators column on page 12. There is so much hope, confidence and expectation in India’s new government both from young to old, students to entrepreneurs and that in itself is a big turnaround for the progress of any society and country.

History and traditions of the Patels

It will be of immense advantage for the nearly 1 million Patels residing abroad to know about their history and traditions as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and whose maternal grandfather was C. Rajgopalachari has studied the Patel community and its characteristics over many years.

The following three paragraphs have been taken from Rajmohan Gandhi’s latest offering entitled ‘Prince of Gujarat: The Extraordinary Story of Prince Gopaldas Desai: 1887-1951 (2014) and has been published in India by Aleph Book Company based at 7?16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002.

“The customs of different Indian communities attracted European curiosity.

Alexander Kinloch Forbes, a Briton serving as a judge in different parts of western India, offered an early portrayal of some Gujarati jaatis in his

Devastation from the earthquake

Rasmala, Or Hindu Annals of Western India, first published in London in 1878. Of the Patidar peasant, who was also described as a kanbi, kunbi or koonbee, he wrote: “The Koonbee, though frequently all submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue office, is sturdy and bold enough among his own people. He is fond of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without his aid, on which subjects he has several proverbs, such as, ‘Tens of millions follow

the Koonbee, but the Koonbee follows no man’.

“The [Koonbees] rise before daybreak, and throwing grass before their bullocks, busy themselves for a few minutes … By the time their cattle have finished their food, they are themselves ready for the field, to which they now set out, driving their beasts before them.

There they remain the whole of the day … About nine o’clock their wives, having prepared their breakfast at home, bring it out to them in the field, and they return home for the evening meal, which is served after sunset.”

Rajmohan Gandhi has written many books including: l Punjab: A history form Aurangzeb to Mountbatten (2013) l A Tale of Two Revolts: India 1857 and the American Civil War (2009) l Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire (2006) l Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns (2004) l Revenge and Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History (1999) l Rajaji: A Life (1997) l The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi (1995) l India Wins Errors: A Scrutiny of Maulana Azad’s India Wins Freedom (1990) l Patel: A Life (1989) l Understanding the Muslim Mind (1987) - CB

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Leading Lights

Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

The Beautiful Indian Designer making others look beautiful Designer Rina Dhaka burst onto the Indian fashion scene in the late eighties.

The BBC described her as the Gaultier of the East.

She has her own show, ‘The Style ‘N’ the City on Fox Traveler.

Rina has an impressive history.

She has shown her work in The Louvre, Paris, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, London, Mauritius, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and the USA. She was awarded Best Designer category at Miami fashion week 2004.

The jury consisted of representatives from Saks Browns and IMG. She also showed at a Bollywood promotion at Selfridges, Galeries Lafayette Paris, Lord and Taylor New York, Jaeger at Harvey Nichols, Tashi, London, and Gloria Gratacos, Spain.

The designer is in 175 Anthropologie stores, Indomix, USA, Lodenfrey, Munich, Fine Rhine, Hong Kong, Sanskrit, and in

Rina Dhaka

over 20 boutiques in India and the rest of the world.

Rina supported a fund raiser for Bill Clinton and helps charity through her fashion shows.

She has a retail outlet in New Delhi at DLF Emporio. Her design studio is located is in Mehrauli, New Delhi. Her export backed factory is in Gurgaon and has an inhouse capacity for producing 5,000-10,000 pieces a month. She has a boutique sampling production employing 100 employees.

But to do all this and show a few collections a year means a hectic

lifestyle. Rina told The Asian Voice, “Pre- show or pre- collection deliveries are the busiest times and always very stressful as there are so many factors involved and deadlines to be met.

The collection can encounter problems at any stage from fabric sourcing, delivery delays in fabric, embellishments, embroidered stages, seasonal illness of workers, festivals, etc. It’s always a huge relief when a collection is completed!”

Known names such as Naomi Campbell, Uma Thurman, Tara Palmer Tomlinson, Kylie Minogue, and Lynn Rothschild are clients of Miss Dhaka.

We asked her to spill the beans on some of these clients. She explained, “Uma Thurman bought my clothes when we participated at a private showing in New York; it was the home of Meera Gandhi. I designed an outfit for Kylie for the Indian movie ‘Blue’. Naomi has several outfits of mine; the one she wore most publicly

was a blue sari to a Harpers Bazaar event in USA.” Rina also talks of inventing Lycra Churidars (stretched leggings) in the 90s.

“Uma Thurman bought my clothes when we participated at a private showing in New York”

Many ladies will be forever grateful to Rina for doing this. (Maybe men who like the lycra churidars on their women appreciate Rina for the same purpose!)

Anyway, how did the garment come about?

“I invented it as it was a necessity for me when getting married in the nineties. I used to make a lot of catsuits and brought my imported lycra from Aldgate East in London. I just grew it into a Churidar, nobody had ever thought of it earlier. I tried to patent it then but the process was very complex.

Now of course every designer carries lycra churidars!”

Rina Dhaka first came to the attention of The Asian Voice via Aisha Tabani Chowdhry, Director of the Faisana Studio in Mill Hill. The studio curates and shows collections from the leading designers across South Asia.

Rina enjoys working with Aisha and Aisha’s codirectors Aamna Lakhany and Radhika Hasan.

“It’s wonderful to have fashion representation from India and Pakistan in London, where east meets west. I thoroughly enjoy their events in London and the chance to work with my colleagues from Pakistan. It is fascinating to see different regional crafts interpreted in their collections. I wish their studio luck and success in helping promote tradition and its inferences and look forward to our ongoing association.”

The Asian Voice asked Aisha why she chose Rina for the Faisana collections,

and what made her stand apart from other designers.

“Rina is one of the designers we work with regularly. We have been working with her since our fashion weekend in May 2014. Rina’s experience in the fashion industry is unparalleled and her repertoire extends to both traditional and western wear. Despite her celebrated status Rina is a joy to work with- friendly, down to earth, accommodating and passionate about dressing her customers. It is her drive and accessibility that makes her such a good fit for our brand as it embodies our ethos and lends an ongoing positive energy to our enterprise.”

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Caste bias

Remembering our past

Murders most foul

Two and a Half Centuries

Looking at the letters page on 17th January I felt that I had to respond to more than one letter on that page. Let me deal with caste bias first.

We all know that the pressure of Hindu organisations has had an effect on the Prime Minister on holding back on caste discrimination as we are so near the election. What I have never understood is that if there is no discrimination on the basis of caste, why is everyone worried about the law saying that caste discrimination should be illegal? Surely there is no need to worry since according to all the Hindu organisations it does not exist.

So why so much anxiety? Surely the law will then never be used.

Secondly I want to say a word about religious conversion. I think that we are forgetting a fundamental point. Both Islam and Christianity are prosletysing religions. It is the duty of Muslims and Christians to convert people of other religions to follow their own. In view of both of those they are actually saving those they convert from going to Hell.

Hinduism is not a prosletysing religion. We have never done any mass conversions, in fact it is not that easy to really convert to Hinduism.

If the Muslims and Christians had been doing mass conversions in India it does not mean that we should embark on that road. It is so not a Hindu practice and I think it makes us demean ourselves and put ourselves down at the same level as Christianity and Islam.

I enjoyed reading your comment about Kutch and Kutchis in the December special issue.

Perhaps as far back as the time of Mohenja Daro and Harappa in the first and second millennium BC, Indian seaborne traders had contacts with East Africa through the monsoon winds.

Sometime during the first millennium immigrants from Gujarat had settled in Zanzibar, Tanga, Kilwa, Bagamoyo and other coastal areas of East Africa and were engaged in an extensive trade using dhows.

It is believed that in 1498 when Vasco da Gama passed through Zanzibar on his way to India he took with him a couple of Indians to help in the journey – one of whom was a Gujarati pilot who navigated him to Calicut.

The Sultan of Zanzibar greatly valued the contribution of Indian merchants some of whom were appointed to important administrative posts in the Government.

Other well-known personalities were Ibji Sivji, Sivjee Haji, Alidina Visram (about whom I will say more) and Sir Tharia Topan who all contributed in economic and social development of the country. The latter progressed from a stowaway and a sweeper to a wealthy trader then to Knighthood and finally as the Sultan’s Chief Administrator and most trusted Adviser.

Jairam Sivji was the banker to many European, Arab and Indian business houses. Thus, he gave a great impetus to the trade of Zanzibar, which was, in the beginning negligible, but in due course, became so great as to make Zanzibar the entrepot of the whole East African commerce.

The Hindus followed by Muslims, formed an influential lobby and inasmuch as they emerged as the single largest community of India in Zanzibar and in Tanganyika. They held important positions during the reign of Sultans and virtually controlled the revenue-yielding departments of the Sultanate.

It is worthy to be remembered that in those days India used to manufacture Brocade, which was exported to East Africa.

Alidina Visram an Ismaili Khoja whom I mentioned earlier born in Kera, 22 kilometres from Bhuj arrived in 1863 at the age of 12 and over the years built large fortune. He sponsored schools and hospitals (Alidina Visram School in Mombasa) and gave much to the charity.

In 1916 a street was named after him in Kampala.

The barbaric nature of murder of twelve people, ten of them journalists and subsequent fallout should bring home the threat of terrorism that poses Europe, particularly to France, Britain and Germany with high percentage of Muslims among their ethnic minorities.

France has always been soft touch, falling to Hitler’s army within two weeks, defeated in her colonies of Algeria and French Indochina, being rescued by America and especially Britain in two world wars, yet unwilling to learn from past mistakes.

Now France is failing to provide security to its citizens, particularly to Jewish population who are under attack daily and are emigrating enemas to US, Canada, Australia and surprisingly to Israel where they feel safer than in France, although Middle East is in turmoil.

While it is in French culture to poke fun at every religion, culture, using satirical publications most of us would find it difficult to envisage, we must not forget Europe has given us shelter while fleeing from our countries in search of peace, freedom, harmony and prosperity, the characteristic that attracted us to these shores.

Democracy is tool we can use in our favour to change and challenge the evil in Western culture which by no means is perfect, not by murder, terror and intimidation. Although most Muslims, especially from their own minorities are decent, law abiding, peace loving citizens, it is difficult to find anyone who would defend Islam in private, although utterance for public consumption is different matter.

Following on from CB’s article under his “As I See It” column (AV 3 January), I would like to report that I have now published over 250 letters in AV, and a few in GS. No mean feat this!

I try to make my letters interesting and informative while staying within the 250 words limit. Having worked all my life in the education field - first a teacher in Dar-es-Salaam, then a demonstrator at the University of East London, followed by over three decades in the Department for Education, I try to express my concerns at the way education is shapiing up in this country and how it affects our children.

In a job market where covert and even overt discrimination still persists, our children need to be armed with higher educational qualifications in order to get a bigger bite at the cherry. Otherwise in a highly competitive environment where in many instances the colour of the skin determines who lands plum jobs, they will not get a chance to succeed.

I am grateful to AV and GS for affording people like me a platform to express their views or vent their frustations. Not many weeklies provide such space to their readers! “Your Voice” and “Tamari Vaat” columns are unique and not matched by other newspapers. Not only do they give readers a sense of belonging but also provide a forum for discussion on current topics.

So roll on my fellow letter writers!

Baroness Flather By email

The Paris Tragedy

Your editorial about jihadis’ attack on Paris and Alpesh Patel’s sketchbook have covered the Paris tragedy well. Alpesh optimistically concluded that rule of law be respected and ballot used to change the laws. This is negated by your remark: scourge of jihadi terrorism is aided/abetted by US as statecraft in the cold war, and by its client states eg Saudi Arabia, Gulf Shiekhdom and Pakistan.

Expecting moderate Muslims to take drastic steps to reinvent image of Islam/contain jihadi terrorism becomes futile and worldwide sympathy becomes charade.

Yet, we must pray for the dead and also for suffering relatives.

Following points need cogitation.

Why did Charlie Hebdo team repeatedly mocked Islam/provoked terrorists, in spite of global fury, murders and fire bombings? The West has gifted pleasant civic sense to the world, but why such practice is discarded to hurt religious sentiments of Muslims?

Freedom of speech and expression is cited as defence, then would the same freedom will be indulged to abuse/hurt LGBT, sexism, ageism, disability, taste/ decency, law/ order etc? Does right of expression become right to hurt and duty to hurt?

Therefore it becomes ill of best of us to abuse/ shoot the rest of us.

(Sir)JK Chande Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, By email

India must rise above her differences

Although India has achieved both Independence and Republic, it is one of the most corrupted and polluted nations in the world.

Unemployment is at an all-time high.

Majority of the States in India today are fighting among themselves and people,

Subscribe Today Ramesh Jhalla By email

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Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

Make it in India

I applaud Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for launching his “Make in India” campaign to boost manufacturing, but would respectfully point out that the slogan’s message is not as clear as it might be because the word “it” has been omitted.

A more effective slogan would have been “Make it in India” which would have served the dual purpose of not only attracting manufacturers to India but indicating that they stood to prosper by doing so.

Think about “it”.

Rudy Otter By email irrespective of caste, creed, colour and religion are being persecuted for no fault of theirs, while the ministers and the politicians are misusing the common’s man hard-earned money which they contribute to the nation in the form of Professional Tax, Income Tax, etc.

Unless and until we rise above our differences and petty squabbles, India will not become a prosperous nation.

Jubel D’Cruz, Mumbai, India

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Dowry - a social reward

Referring to Jubel D’Cruz’s letter in Asian Voice dated 17/01/15 it seems that the writer has obtained knowledge of dowry blurred with prejudice and has hesitated to mention the specific society.

He has omitted the fact that after Independence the Hindu society has been changing fast and the young people are allowed to make their own choice in choosing their partners; and dowry is a reward for the married couples as the parents give money, jewellery etc to the couples willingly considering the couples’ merits. Afterall the parents’ wealth given to their children is naturally acceptable to all.

Dowry has nothing to do with the emerging superpowers but due to the impact of such power on society, on the contrary, many married people are found remarrying to seek economic status claiming partners wealth during divorce.

They can’t be considered generally settled in life peacefully as without joint responsibility their children and parents happen to suffer in spite of having recourse to law. Alarmingly the trend is increasing in India.

RN Patel Essex

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Missing Bradford children on education record

As latest figures are published, there comes the worrying revelation that more than 300 children are missing on the attendance register in Bradford institutions.

The statistics show that school children in their hundreds are spending time at home or playing hooky and missing out on their British curriculum.

Bradford Council logs 156 children who should be at primary school and a further 169 who should be receiving a secondary school education.

Councillor Ralph

Berry, the Council's executive member for children services, stated that matters were more "complicated" than they appeared, while MP for Bradford West, George Galloway said: "It sounds like a high number. And the rest are in schools that are at the bottom of the league.

There is one big problem with schooling in Bradford."

David Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, opined: “What adds to the problem is those children coming in during the year, which is very difficult to plan for”.

In a seemingly unlikely move, a Liberal Democrat councillor, Diane Horn, has defected to the right and pledged her allegiance to the UK Independence Party.

Horn claimed she had become disillusioned with her party after eight-anda-half years as their representative. Horne is a member of Shepshed Town council and will proceed to stand for re-election as a UKIP candidate in the next election.

Horne said she had been struggling with the decision for a good few months: “Nick Clegg’s broken tuition fees prom-

ise was the main thing” she said in an interview with 'The Leicester Mercury': “I was unhappy but the party supported him. I’m not against Europe” she continued, “but I am for the British people having control of the country (…) I am not against all immigration but I am against illegal immigration and I think that a person coming here should already have a job to and should be paying taxes.”

Horn has said that talking her thoughts over with other UKIP supporters has hugely informed the move.

Lib Dem councillor unexpectedly opts for UKIP

EDUCATION/COUNCIL VOICE

11

Dr S Y Quraishi to join King's College London as the 2015 Visiting Fellow

On 14th January, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and King's College London announced that Dr S Y Quraishi, India's former Chief Election Commissioner would become the 2015 Visiting Fellow at the prestigious India Institute at London’s King’s College.

He will help to promote and develop a relationship that will be of enormous benefit to staff, students and researchers within the college and engage with policy-makers, media representatives and the business community in the United Kingdom and Europe.

This is the third year of this unique Fellowship.

Fellows are persons of eminence in the fields of business, public policy, government, media and the likes. Each Fellow delivers lectures, conducts panel discussions, guides and mentors students, interacts with policy and business networks in the UK, and works on a policy research paper.

Dr. S Y Quraishi served as the Chief Election Commissioner of India for 6 years between 2006 and 2012 and presided over some of the

largest elections ever in history.

Dr. Quraishi introduced a number of innovative electoral reforms in his role as Chief E l e c t i o n C o m m i s s i o n e r, including innovations to control so called money power in elections, which brought about a participation revolution among voters. He also founded the I n d i a International Institute of Democracy and Election Management to professionalize election management and share it with the emerging democracies of the world.

Dr Joanna Newman, Vice Principal (International) at King's made the announcement at the inaugural India Skills and Education Innovation Conference 2015, being hosted at King's College London, immediately after a highlevel Joint Working Group of Indian and UK Education and Skills providers met as part of formal UK-India Joint

Dr S Y Quraishi

Economic Trade Committee (JETCO) to discuss the furthering of trade ties between the two countries.

Dr. Newman, said: "King’s is very proud of our relationship with FICCI. FICCI is one of India's leading industry bodies and has long served as the torchbearer for India's private sector.

FICCI has made noteworthy contributions to shaping policy and I congratulate them on their continued support of internationalising higher education in India.

Dr Quraishi is highly respected for his important contributions to electoral reform and has also overseen the implementation of critical social sector reforms in India. I congratulate Dr Quraishi on his nomination and acceptance of this exciting opportunity and look forward to greater success in the King’s-FICCI relationship in the years to come”, Dr Newman added further.

Dr. A. Didar Singh, Secretary-General, FICCI said: "FICCI has a long tradition of supporting advancement of knowledge in the wider community, and this association is a further step in that direction. We are delighted Dr. Quraishi has taken up the Fellowship as it continues our proud tradition of thought-leadership in policy-making in this scheme, which started with Ambassador Shyam Saran and former Chairman of Shell in India Vikram Mehta in last years."

12

MEDIA WATCH

The Vibrant Gujarat summit was by all accounts a remarkable success. Deeds in terms of firmed up deals appear to match the eloquent words uttered by the great and good of India and those of their foreign guests. US Secretary of State John Kerry was impressed by what he saw and felt of the buzz around him. “I am impressed by what I have seen here.

The number of businessmen, enthusiasm, energy and excitement of people to engage in entrepreneurial activities, not just with the US but worldwide. It’s palpable…..you can feel it….you can touch it.” He added: “Gujarat has been taking initiatives with respect to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made his reputation here.

US Secretary of State John Kerry in Namaste salute to crowd at Vibrant Gujarat

“He did it by building efficiency, trying to make government decisions faster, trying to streamline bureaucracy and giving decisions shape.”He hoped that other Indian States would emulate Gujarat’s business-friendly approach.” We all know business wants confidence in their decisions, whether or not to allocate capital. Capital works best with confidence,” said the Secretary of State (Times of India January 13). The ball is now in the Prime Minister’s court. Much will depend on the speed of his government’s approvals for foreign investment applications. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government had set up a businessfriendly regulatory clearance system to attract investments with special attention on manufacturing. Time will reveal all.

Rafale deal stalled

However, it does take two to tango in business or politics.

The stalled deal with the French firm Dassault for the purchase of 126 medium role fourth generation fighter planes is an example of how not do business.

The contract document stated quite clearly that the company would have to make the necessary technology transfer to India with the sale of the aircraft and undertake guarantees on the Rafales’ Indian production line worthiness. Negotiations over the past year have led to an impasse. A senior Indian Defence Ministry official is leaving for Paris in a final attempt to finalize the deal. Meanwhile, Dassault keeps hiking the price.

The sum worth an initial $11 billion has risen to $20 billion, and more may now be demanded.

The tedious tendering process and evaluation has lasted 10 years – a wasted decade, with the Indian Air Force desperately short of frontline aircraft (Hindu January 15)

DRDO chief sacked

The fence Research and Development (DRDO) Director Genera and Adviser to the Defence Minister, Dr Avinash Chander, has had his extension terminated from January 31. He

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

no intention of maintaining this levy (Hindu January 13)

worth $2 billion, the second a diamond extraction facility in Madhya Pradesh worth $500 million, according to company CEO Sam Walsh, who said that government approvals were awaited. He said he had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was awaiting environmental clearance from the Indian government (Hindu January 13)

Bhagwati lauds, Modi, Singh

Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, who heads the Economics faculty at Columbia University in the US, lauded Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi during his Madhavrao Scindia lecture in New Delhi.

He also called on Narendra Modi to rein in some of his RSS MPs from making “embarrass-

Assurance to US companies

US companies in India have been assured of a level playing field with their Indian counterparts by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, during talks with Catherine Neville, Under

was due for retirement in November but received an 18 month contractual extension.

The reason for this abrupt termination is believed to be the DRDO’s lackluster performance in producing cutting edge weapon systems. Dr Chander

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan

website, centralbanking.com.

“His deep understanding of the root cause of economic problems, combined with an impressive leadership style, inspires confidence and has helped to transform perceptions about vulnerabilities of the Indian economy,” said Christopher Jaffrey, Chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee and Editor of Central Banking Journal. Rajan said he was honoured by the award, but that his work was far from done. (Mint January 13)

RBI rate cut

Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar

was credited with producing the acclaimed Agni series of missiles, short-range, medium range and intercontinental range.

Having said that, it has been revealed that the organization was a house divided, with charges of cronyism doing the rounds.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said it was time to appoint a younger man as DRDO chief to bring dynamism into its functioning (Telegraph January 15)

OECD, World Bank projections hopeful

According to the Paris-based think-tank Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicators, for Japan and India growth in both countries are showing a new thrust. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said there was justified optimism among international company executives about doing business in India, which in “our [World Bank] projections is expected to grow 6.4 per cent this year [2015-16] and even faster in 2016-17]” (Hindu January 13)

Mega Rio Tinto Investments

Global mining giant Rio Tinto has plans to invest $2.5 billion in two giant Indian projects, the first an iron plant in Odisha

Secretary, US State Department.

Ms Neville, for her part, told the Indian Minister that US companies were excited by the prospect of joining India in promoting manufacturing in the country.

Minister Prasad said: “Net neutrality is an area in which the US Federal government has taken a firm stand. We do not want any compromise on neutrality.”

(Hindu January 14)

Sikka strategy works, Infosys profit up

Beating market expectations, Indian software major, Infosys, reported a 13 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 3,250 crore in the third quarter (OctoberDecember) of the current fiscal (closing March 31,2015) reflecting strong demand from its clients in the US, its best result in three years. Commenting on the company’s improved performance, Vishal Sikka, CEO and Managing Director, said: “We are excited about the breakthrough results in Q3, especially with margins, utilization and volume growth, despite it being the weakest quarter for us traditionally with holidays and clients’ furloughs.. Our ‘renew and new’ strategy is being received well by our clients and our ecosystem, and we are already seeing its early stages.”

(Business Line January 12)

Rajan Governor of the Year

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, has received the Governor of the Year award by London-based

The Reserve Bank of India rate cut for which Indian industry, government and public were looking for with keen anticipation over the last two years arrived at long last by 25 basis points, taking almost everybody by surprise. The Sensex rose 729 points, the highest rise in five years. Industry has welcomed the cut, as has Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is expected to present his budget at the end of February. Insiders believe that 2015 may see a series of RBI rate cuts.(Times of India January 16)

Non-adversarial taxation on anvil

Pointing to the adverse impact of retrospective taxation on investor confidence, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured Indian industry that the government was determined to bring “in perfectly non-adversarial taxation. We are creating mecha-

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

nisms inside the Revenue Department to suggest changes in the taxation regime,” Describing retrospective taxation “as the defining moment against investment in India, Jaitley said the government had

Professor Jagdish Bhagwati

ing” statements, mentioning the case of BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj who said “crazy things.” Like recommending that Hindu parents produce more children to safeguard national security.

Such “crazy things” could obstruct India’s economic prospects, opined Professor Bhagwati. He said he was an enthusiastic votary of the Gujarat model of economic development. With Mr Modi in charge, India could expect a cycle of accelerated economic growth in the coming years. He complemented Dr Manmohan Singh (who was in the audience with former fiancé minister P. Chidambaram) for piloting the economic reforms of 1991 that opened up the economy and made the changes undertaken by Prime Minister Modi possible.

Both men had released India from the debilitating licence and permit raj system (Hindu January

Top jihadi nabbed

Rezaul Karim, the Jamaat-ulMujaheedin Bangladesh operative, who has been on the run since the Burdwan (West Bengal)bomb blasts several months ago, was finally trapped and arrested in Pakur town, in Jharkhand, by India’s National Investigation Agency sleuths.

Having discovered a telephone number etched on the hand of a dead jihadi, in Burdwan, NIA agents were on his trail. The breakthrough came when Karim telephoned his wife on a mobile phone borrowed from a fellow workman at a stone quarry, where gelatin sticks are used routinely for breaking rocks.

NIA agents asked the foreman to telephone Karim to come and collect his wages. He was arrested on arrival. Rezaul Karim was responsible for procuring detonators and made frequent trips to Pakur to obtain gelatine sticks for operations in Burdwan and other districts, and in neighbouring Bangladesh. (Telegraph January 13).

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Je Suis Kashmiri

This past weekend’s march commemorating the exodus of Hindu Kashmiri’s which I could not attend due to travel, reminded me of a recent visit to the Indian border. I trekked near the Line of Conrol in Kashmir some months ago.

In Bharat we look at the Himalayas of Kashmir and know for 5000 years without dispute, they are a part of Bharat.

Governments invaders imperialists come and go but Hindustan is eternal. As Kennedy said 'ich bin ein Berliner' (I am a Berliner) so we say 'I am a Kashmiri'.

Before all of you this land was mine. By lineage this is my land. I claim it by birthright. This is my land. To those squatting upon the land of my Fathers. I claim it. By precedence this is my land. I claim it. Shame on you to desecrate the conse-

crated. My Gods live on this land.

For the ashes of my Fathers and the temples of my Gods I claim it. All of us everywhere in the world who have suffered at the end of an invading sword or imperial pen, we are all Hindustani Kashmiris.

Je suis Kashmiri should be the motto of all those displaced from their lands by religious fanatics – from Kashmir to Syria to Iraq. Where Suni kills Shia – Je suis Kashmiri; where Shia kills Suni – Je suis Kashmiri. Where anyone kills a Hindu for being Hindu – Je Suis Kashmiri. Where ISIS kills Jews for being Jewish – Je suis Kashmiri.

‘Here, in this place, they call it Hindustan, they call it Bharat’ I thought to myself as I approached the Indian border with Pakistan at the Wagah crossing to see the daily parade. Soldiers stomped their feat, Vanda Mataram blasted through the loud speakers, as young girls ran with billowing Indian flags larger than themselves and the families shouted ‘Jai Hind’.

I must have stood ten feet tall.

In Bharat there is no line of control.

That is how we think in Bharat, in Hindustan. I don’t care to know how they think in India.

London remembers Mahatma on Martyr’s Day The India League - a British-based organisation that evolved from the Commonwealth of India League, established in 1922 with the aim of campaigning for complete independence for the Indian people - in association with the Indian High Commission in London are celebrating the death anniversary of Gandhi Mahatma (Martyr’s Day) on Friday, January 30, 2015, at Square, Tavistock

London WC1 which is also where Bapu’s statue is situated.

The programme will commence at 1100 hrs and will be attended by the High Commissioner of India, the Lord Mayor of Camden, as well as other distinguished dignitaries from the Indian Commissions, High British MPs and Peers.

On this occasion a solemn programme of wreath laying and short speeches will be held.

Newborn baby is youngest organ donor A baby who died soon after being delivered has become Britain’s youngest organ donor after her kidney and liver cells were given to two other patients.

Doctors said the first neonatal organ transplant, conducted last year, could offer hope to the families of children on the transplant

waiting list.

The girl was delivered by an emergency caesarean at Hammersmith hospital in London, weighing just over 3kg.

However, because her brain had been starved of oxygen for a period during the pregnancy, she was seriously ill. After it

became clear that she would not survive, her parents and doctors discussed the possibility of her organs being donated.

Gaurav Atreja, the paediatrician who facilitated the donation, said that the baby’s parents had been “only too keen” to help other families.

UK

13

Indian diaspora rejoices at Alphonso mango ban lift

Continued from page 1 The UK government previously said it was working towards the ban being lifted and was one of the member states that participated in the vote to lift the ban.

The Minister for the Natural Environment, Lord de Mauley said, "We have been working closely with our Indian and European counterparts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and I am pleased that trade in mangoes will resume.

"Today's decision demonstrates the marked improvements India has made to its export system and it is important that these standards are maintained so that trade can continue and UK plant health remains protected.

Imports will start again in about a month's time, once new EU legislation has been formally adopted and published by the European Commission.

An overjoyed Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, who had promised the Brit-Indians of doing the most he can to help lift this ban said:“I am delighted that the Commission and all EU member states who voted in favour have acted to end a ban which has caused so many problems for businesses in the UK and India.

Many people have been very supportive of the campaign, and my thanks go to the team from Fruity Fresh (Western) Ltd for working so hard on this issue for many months. The traders of Leicester must also be thanked for their unwavering support, and I am sure they will be delighted the campaign has come to fruition.

Prime Minister Cameron was also very helpful, and I am pleased I can now keep my promise to deliver another basket of Alphonso mangoes to No. 10.”

The Prime Minister’s UK-India Diaspora Champion and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Priti Patel MP, welcoming the ban lift said, “The ban

Rt Hon Keith Vaz, MP

on mangoes from India has been devastating for many Indian businesses in the UK and growers in India. It has also deprived

Priti Patel MP

the Indian Diaspora and the rest of the UK of being able to enjoy great tasting mangos. I have been working closely with colleagues in the Government to secure the lifting of the ban and today’s news is welcome.

However, we all now need to get behind Alphonso mangoes to ensure that they once again have the demand needed to support growers and businesses trading with them.”

Seema Malhotra MP, commenting on the lifting of the EU ban on importing alphonso mangoes, said: “From the beginning Labour MPs campaigned hard to lift the ban which was affecting small businesses in our constituencies, and we are delighted that the government and the EU have listened to us at last. I pay tribute to the campaigners and businesses who worked so hard with politicians to address concerns that were raised and which led to the ban.

“We need to now work to end other damaging import bans affecting com-

panies in the UK. “Now everyone in Britain can enjoy delicious Indian mangoes once again.”

The Prime Minister said:“I welcome today’s announcement by the European Union to lift their import ban of mangoes from India. Not only is this good news for trade between the UK and India it’s also good news for the many consumers and hard-working small businesses in the UK who were affected. I am

Seema Malhotra MP

delighted the British Government was able to play its part in helping to get the ban lifted.”

The British High Commissioner to India, Sir James Bevan said: “The British Government worked hard to have the ban lifted. This includes sending an expert to provide technical training, prior to the EU inspection in September. This is great news for the UK-India and EU-India trade relationship and especially for Indian exporters and UK consumers. We are pleased to have played an important role in bringing the ban to an end.”

14

ART & COMMUNITY

Hundreds come together to commemorate Kashmiri Hindus’ Forced Exodus Day

On Sunday, 18th January, people from all over London and around joined the Peace Walk organised by Kashmiri Pandits Cultural Society, UK in large numbers including several Kashmiri Hindu families, most of who have been direct victims of the forced exodus in the harsh winter of 1989-90.

It was an emotionally charged atmosphere that brought back the haunting memories of their pain. To offer support and solidarity to their brothers and sisters, a number of other Hindu community members joined in and extended their support.

A Memorial Event was organised the next day at the House of Commons, supported by the All Party Parliamentary Group of British Hindus, co-sponsored by Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East) and Virendra Sharma MP (Southall & Ealing), to offer tribute to the martyrs of the forced exodus.

The KPCS, UK released a book of first person accounts of victims of the exodus, living in England

Peace walk reaches Trafalgar Square in Central London & film maker, Siddhartha Acharya (23 years old) who captured the factual sequences of events during the exodus –an attempt to document facts

A young Kashmiri Hindu sharing experiences and Bob Blackman MP

called “We Remember: 19.01.1990”.

A special screening of a poignant film, “Abandoned Cranes” was held. The film is made by a young Indian law student

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice24th January 2015

of the Kashmri Hindus’ displacement. The film features interviews of the likes of Mark Tully, Francois Gautier, Jagmohan, some militants and key Kashmiri Hindu

and other activists.

At the Memorial Event, members of the Yezdi community and representatives of Bangladeshi Hindu community shared their stories, which are starkly similar to that of the Kashmiri Hindus plight. A solemn reflection and sharing of personal experiences provided for the first time a formal platform, for the recognition of ethnic extermination of minority Hindus around the world.

Lakshmi Kaul, Founder & Executive Member, Kashmiri Pandits Cultural Society UK, said: “It is very important for the international community to recognise and accept that the genocide of the Kashmiri Hindus is infact a matter of global concern – it ought to be acknowledged and justice sought and delivered accordingly.”

Trupti Patel, the first

Paresh Maity’s 70th solo show Stellar International Art Foundation and Hyatt Ahmedabad were pleased to open for the first time a selection of watercolour seascapes by Paresh Maity from his famed series of Kerala to coincide with Vibrant Gujarat on the eve of 09 January 2015. This was the 70th solo exhibition by this eminent Indian artist.

The guest of honour was the secretary of tourism of Kerala, Mr. Kamal V Rao who graciously opened the event alongside the artist and representatives of Hyatt Ahmedabad and Stellar International Art Foundation.

Also in attendance were some of the most

important gallerists and collectors of the region, as well as artists and attendees of the Vibrant Gujurat Summit from around India and abroad.

In support of Stellar International Art Foundation’s presenta-

tion, the Hyatt Ahmedabad featured Keralan snacks for the opening and continues with a Keralan set menu at its international restaurant Collage for the duration of the exhibition until 26 January.

ever woman President of the Hindu Forum of Britain said, “HFB stands hand in hand with our Kashmiri Hindu brothers and sisters. We must not forget thousands of Hindus who lost their life and also those who suffered horrific atrocities during the ethnic cleansing of Kashmir.”

Madhava Turumella, Vice President, Hindu Forum of Britain said, "Kashmiri Hindu Pundits are living like refugees in their own country.

Perhaps this kind of misery only Yazidis in Iraq are facing. This situation is not acceptable. I urge the Government of India to take all necessary steps to restore the dignity and the homes of Kashmiri

Manoj Ladwa addressing the gathering at Trafalgar Square

Pundits."

Neetu Jalali, Kashmiri Hindu victim of 1990 exodus, resident of London, said, “For the first time after years, I witnessed passion, enthusiasm and

hope.”

Dr. Ashish Tyagi, from Colchester said, “It has been 25 long years in search of justice - felt good joining and walking for a good cause.”

Crystal Travel celebrates it's 18th annual 'Beat the New Year's Blues Party'

Moresand Group - Crystal Travel celebrated it's 18th annual 'Beat the New Year's Blues Party' held at the Cumberland Hotel, Central London.

The popular and eagerly awaited event was attended by over 130 management heads from the world's major airlines, banks and travel industry personnel.

Moresand Ltd trading as Crystal Travel and Sam Travel & Tours is one of the leading independent Travel Agency’s in the UK. In 2013 Moresand was listed in the London Stock Exchange Group of 1000 Companies to inspire Britain and 2014 been ranked in Investec MidMarket 100 list of fastest growing companies, Moresand Group for over 38 years have offered value for money airline

Directors P S Kang and John Kalia

flight travel and hotel accommodation worldwide. With over 350 experienced travel staff worldwide and easy to book online website www.crystaltravel.co.uk the Moresand Group contin-

ues to provide the very best in personal travel, In 2014 a new division has been set up to service the Corporate business traveller.

All travel bookings are fully secure under their CAA ATOL licence 3517, their license is ranked number 43 in the largest UK ATOL holders which covers over 75,000 seats with a turnover in 2014 of £129M an increase of 23% over 2013.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Teacher jailed for sex with 'vulnerable' pupil

A teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 'vulnerable' 16 years old pupil has been jailed for two years. Amardip Bhopari, pictured, who is the daughter of Birmingham based legendary Punjabi singer Malkit Singh MBE admitted to three counts of sexual activity with a child at the Birmingham Crown Court. She was also ordered to be placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

The court reportedly heard that Bhopari, 28, had plied the victim with alcohol and slept with him at many places, including in a car, an industrial estate and as well as the school art room. Amardip who began teaching at a school for children with learning difficulties in 2012, had confessed to the charges and was arrested

in December 2013. She was sentenced on Friday.

Her father has remained incommunicado ever since news of the case spread.

According to reports, Amardip's relationship with the 16-year-old boy, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, started just before Valentine's Day in 2013. The court was told that the boy, who cannot be named due to his age, had handed Bhopari

Virendra Sharma MP meets Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana

Virendra Sharma with Bobby Jindal

Virendra Sharma, Member of Parliament for Ealing Southall, and Chair of Indo-British APPG on Monday met Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana to discuss the diaspora in both America and United Kingdom and also the future of relations between the two countries. In the middle of Gov. Jindal’s much vaunted economic and foreign policy tour of Europe he came to Westminster to talk to British politicians. At a frank and highly personal meeting Virendra Sharma and Gov. Jindal discussed their own backgrounds, and how they were the first of their families to become involved in politics. The impact of the Indian, and wider South Asian, diaspora on politics in both countries was high up the agenda. The Indian

diaspora in America is small but increasingly powerful, and not without their political views. They noted that the new administration in Delhi was a chance to reinvigorate ties not just with India but for Indian communities across the Atlantic. Both Gov. Jindal and Virendra Sharma reiterated the position that America and the UK are the closest of allies, and would speak with one voice. The refusal by the Indian government to grant visas to many Sikhs who wish to visit was also discussed and noted.

Mr Sharma said, “Our relationship with America is arguably our most important, and cultural communication across the Atlantic between Indians both sides can only improve relations.”

A Sikh lawyer has won a discrimination claim against Britain's Ministry of Justice. Amrik Bilkhu, a criminal defence lawyer was barred seeing a client at Belmarsh prison in South London in October 2013 because of the four pins holding his turban together, though he was allowed in before on previous occasions.

Mr Bilkhu was awarded undisclosed compensation after the Ministry decided to settle out of

court.

Mr Bilkhu’s legal representative reportedly said that his client had suffered “indignation and distress” at his treatment by prison staff and added that any security concerns that prison staff may have had should have been “more proportionately addressed” instead of Mr Bilkhu being barred from entering the prison altogether. The Ministry of Justice refused to comment on individual cases.

Lawyer wins religious discrimination claim against MoJ

his phone number during an art class. Bhopari is then said to have called the boy later that day to have a “sexual” conversation before the relationship got under way.

Prosecutors have reportedly said that Bhopari had continued to “pester” the boy for sex even after he had told her that he did not want to be in the relationship.

Bhopari’s lawyers said she had been “in love” with the boy but was “full of remorse” for her actions.

On Sunday it also reportedly emerged that Bhopari’s father, who was made an MBE in the 2008 New Year’s Honours List, had de-activated his Twitter and Facebook accounts after he was repeatedly tagged on Twitter as news of the case was revealed.

UK

15

Islamophobe Graffiti attacks on Birmingham city walls

Birmingham Police have acted swiftly to remove two related cases of racist graffiti found on the walls of the city Mosque in Selly Oak and those of the Russell Group University.

A swastika, accompanied by the phrase “Islam must die”, were scrawled in tall black letters on the campus psychology building.

Officials were careful not to reveal what was plastered on the Jahalabad Mosque, located on Dartmouth Road.

A spokeswoman for the University of Birmingham said: “The graffiti was removed as soon as it was discovered” and confirmed that the establishment was working diligently with the West Midlands Police force

to bring the culprits to light.

Sergeant Pete Sandhu, based in Edgbaston, said in a statement to 'The Birmingham Mail':

“Mindless hate of this kind has no place in 21st century Birmingham and work is underway to find the person responsible” and also that “Evidential photographs have been taken and CCTV which may have captured the vandal is currently being reviewed.” On the Neo-Nazi sentiment

clearly evident in the crime, Hannah Myerson, a third year Jewish student told the university newspaper 'The Tab': “As a Jewish student, I find it deeply disturbing that the rising antisemitism in Europe has reached our campus (…) this incident makes students of all minority groups feel alienated on the basis of their religious beliefs or background, and must be condemned.”

Anyone with useful information is being urged to call the police on 101.

TELL MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) have said this incident must be taken seriously where they believe these perpetrators have the intent "to kill".

THE SILVER LINE AND EAWA OFFER 24 HOUR FREE HELPLINE SERVICE

In many cultures, the extended family role is disappearing, with many younger people living and working abroad or having other reasons where they may not be able to meet the social needs of their parents. Health problems can also cause a person to become physically isolated at home. A combination of these factors can lead to an increased sense of isolation and loneliness for older people in these communities.

Research shows that prolonged isolation and loneliness can pose a serious threat to the physical and mental health of older people. The statistics are frightening. More than half of all 75 year olds in the UK live alone and one in ten

suffers “intense” loneliness, but is reluctant to ask for help.

The Silver Line the new 24 hour free and confidential helpline service for older people founded by Dame Esther Rantzen DBE, offers information, advice and friendship on 0800 4 70 80 90. The Silver Line is now working in partnership with the Enfield Asian Welfare Association, which was established in 1998 to “support, care for, empower and improve the quality of life of older people and their families/carers, liv-

ing within the London Borough of Enfield and surrounding Boroughs.’’

The Silver Line, together with EAWA, would like to work with older people and other partners in the Gujarati community to learn how best to address the issues of isolation and loneliness by offering information and advice over the telephone and friendship on the phone and by letter.

To achieve this, the Silver Line has received six months’ funding from a Gujarati foundation, which will enable them to recruit a part time Gujarati Out-

reach Coordinator to help them identify the best way to help reduce isolation and loneliness for older people.

If you are interested in this post please see the advert below. If you would like to know more about volunteering or how you can help with the project, please call the Silver Line on 020 7224 2020 and ask for Anthea or Tina, or email us at amy@thesilverline.o rg.uk If you would like to know more about EAWA and the services they provide, please call Chetna call 0208 443 1197 or alternatively visit their website http://www.eawa.org .uk or email them on eawa.library@gmail. com

The Silver Line Gujarati Outreach Coordinator

You will be experienced in community engage- friendship, information and advice service. ment with the ability to speak Gujarati and You will be value driven, committed to one other Asian language. You will be commit- working as part of a creative and flexible team ted to helping us reduce isolation and loneli- but also be self-motivated and have the ability ness through the provision of a telephone to work on your own initiative.

This role is available for a pilot period of 6 months, working 15 hours per week.

Salary £25,000 pro rata per annum. Location – home based.

To request a role profile please email amy@thesilverline.org.uk or telephone 020 7224 2020.

To apply for the role, please email your CV and cover letter to amy@thesilverline.org.uk The closing date for applications is 16 February 2015.

16

SPECIAL

Indian-origin Rahul Verma takes charge as new US envoy to India

Richard Rahul Verma, the first American of Indian origin, took charge as the new US envoy to India.

He has impressive credentials and come with considerable diplomatic and administrative experience.

He presented his credentials at a ceremony held in Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17.

On his arrival in India, Verma, whose parents migrated from India in the 1960s, said he was looking forward to work with India on the shared goals of security, development and prosperity as he described the times as "exciting" for the ties.

At his confirmation hearing in Washington, Verma told the Senate Foreign Relations committee that US President Barack Obama's "historic visit to India in January" will build on " Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's highly successful visit to the United States this past September."

"There is no question that this is a defining and exciting time in the US-

blowing and drifting snow.

His father had emigrated from Punjab, arriving in New York City in 1963 with $ 24 in his pocket, and his mother and siblings had followed a few years later. ''The times were hard. We had no money. The kids could be mean in school to this new immigrant family. But they persevered,'' he recalls of his growing up years in Pennsylvania where the family finally settled. ''They showed us what it meant to be strong, what it means to stay together, and confront challenges as a family, and they taught us to be proud of our roots.''

Born in Edmonton, Canada when his father was earning a PhD, the Indian-American of Punjabi stock is himself no slouch when it comes to academic and professional accomplishment.

His formidable resume (including an ongoing Phd program at Georgetown University) and the Washington roadmap he has traversed for two

much Verma guarded her back and how much he meant to her. “My mother lives with us in our house in Washington, and I was saying goodbye to her and she said, 'What's wrong, you don't look very good.'

And I said, 'Well, I know, I am not just in a very good mood today.' And she says, 'Well, you know, there's so much going on in the world, all over the country, and the economy.'

But I said, 'No, it's not it; it's Rich Verma (leaving).”

President Obama himself sent his National Security Advisor Tom Donilon to the farewell with a personal letter that paid glowing tributes to his contribution to the administration. It read: ''Dear Rich, I extend to you my sincere thanks for your valuable service to my administration. Over the past two years, our country has faced a host of challenging foreign policy and national security issues. At each turn, your skilled judgment and leadership has helped shape effective Congressional

Richard Rahul Verma presenting his credentials to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee

India relationship," he said. Verma also acknowledged the contribution of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and vowed to "strive to live up to the high standards they have set." They "took a chance like my parents, who worked hard, who continue to pursue their dreams, and along the way have helped ensure India and the United States become the closest of friends and partners," he told the panel.

His appointment came just days ahead of Obama's arrival in India to attend the Republic Day parade as chief guest and also hold a bilateral strategic dialogue with Modi.

He served as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs at the State Department in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011.

Verma remembers the time, when he was a little kid, seeing his mom in her sari waiting for a bus to go to work in sub-zero centigrade temperatures in

decades make him a shooin for the New Delhi job.

Verma is a consummate Washington insider who has worked in both the legislature and the executive; in fact, his last post bridged the two - he was the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs during Hillary Clinton's stewardship of Foggy Bottom - and that job came to him by virtue of his years as a chief foreign policy aide to Senate leader Harry Reid. Before that, between clerkships and stints at law firms, he worked with the legendary Pennsylvania lawmaker Jack Murtha, learning the ropes on the Hill. There was no greater Verma supporter in town than the former secretary of state, although Verma first signed up for the Obama camp when he prepped the President for the presidential debates in 2008.

In fact, in a farewell to Verma when he left the state department job in 2011, Clinton recalled in a very personal way how

engagement. You played a key role in our efforts to ratify the New START treaty, to manage the response to the tragedy of the Haiti earthquake and to negotiate a powerful Iran sanctions bill. You worked in a demanding environment and always responded with able advice and good humour. I appreciate your dedication and professionalism.''

Obama know Verma personally. Verma assisted Obama in debate prep during his 2008 Presidential campaign, and like the President and his wife, Verma and his Armenian-American wife Melineh (Pinky) are also legal eagles, a power couple with law degrees from American University and UPenn respectively.

Verma has brought with him not just diplomatic and legal savvy, having worked on a ton of legislation and international treaties, but also a smattering of Hindi, which he is said to have kept up with.

1,600 US security me Barack Obama during www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Around 1,600 American security personnel are expected to be in India during President Barack Obama visit. This is double the number of US officials who came here during the US President's last visit in 2010.

He will be the chief guest during India's Republic Day function in Delhi. US security delegations have been landing in India for the past few weeks, since the time Obama's visit to India was confirmed in November. An advance delegation that was in India last week to prepare ground for Obama's visit held discussions with their Indian counterparts. Most of them were security and intelligence personnel from the US secret service and CIA. In 2010, during Obama's visit to India the total number of officials involved were around 800. “This time President's engagements are significantly outdoors and more complex than his last visit,” an official said. Last time, some 40 aircraft were involved in ferrying officials and secure vehicles for the President's visit.

Obama would be spending almost two hours in the open at the Republic Day parade along Rajpath on January 26. An advance security team of the US that visited Rajpath had expressed serious concerns about the vulnerability of the arena.

However, the Indian side assured them that its years of practiced drill is foolproof, and that they have also started installing CCTV cameras along the stretch.

Further tightening the security for the parade, the government is also expected to reduce the number of passes issued to public.

According to officials, the US side has also been suggesting several other measures to further sanitize venues of Obama's visit. Among the steps would be to keep stray dogs away from those areas to be accessed by the US President.

India turns down nofly zone request: India has politely turned down a suggestion by US security teams that a 5-km “no-fly zone” be imposed around Rajpath during the Republic Day parade.

A no-fly zone would have led to the customary flypast on January 26 being cancelled.

“The US team was told that this was simply not possible,” said a source. The US security detail was apparently in touch with the Dectorate General of Civil Aviation about the no-fly zone but the proposal was shot down by military authorities. “In any case, only twin-engine military aircraft and helicopters fly during the Republic Day parade. The actual flypast duration over Rajpath is around 10 minutes.

Otherwise, throughout the year, there is a no-fly zone over Rashtrapati Bhavan, South and North Blocks, the

PM's residence and other nearby places,” he added.

Sources said 18 fighter jets, five aircraft and 10 helicopters will take part in the flypast this year, flying at heights from 60 metre to 300metre above the ground. It will include the Navy's first supersonic fighter MiG-29K as well as IAF fighters like Sukhoi-30MKIs and Jaguars, which will take off from different airbases in north India and converge over the Rajpath.

US warns Pakistan: The US has asked Pakistan to ensure that there is no crossborder terror incident during Obama's visit and hinted of consequences if any such attack is traced back to the country. The warning has been issued keeping in mind the record of Pakistan-based terror groups that have regularly carried out terror strikes coinciding with visits of highprofile dignitaries to India from the US. Meanwhile, the India government said it would do everything to ensure his convenience and to make it a visit that he 'will cherish for a long, long time'. "President Obama is an honoured guest in India and we will do everything that ensures his convenience. This is an honour that we have extended to the head of state of one of our mostly friendly partners," External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said. "So, we will do everything that is possible to ensure his stay here is comfortable, is something that he will cherish for a long, long time," he said.

Obama and his wife Michelle Obama arrive in India Jan 25 for a three-day visit that would see the US president hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Jan 26, he would attend the Republic Day parade as the chief guest and in the evening the At Home reception hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee. He is likely to address a town-hall style meeting in an educational institution.

Obama and his wife Michelle would fly down to Agra the following day for a visit to the Taj Mahal before flying out of India. A high alert has been sounded in Agra ahead of his visit on Jan 27, officials said. Special officials and personnel of the local intelligence unit (LIU)

have been asked to step up vigil and stay in coordination with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other intelligence wings, a home department official said.

Security deployment has been increased at the railway stations - Raja Mandi, Fort and Cantonment - and bus stations in the city. The security has also been enhanced following a letter threatening a terror attack "somewhere" on the Yamuna Expressway, which connects Agra with New Delhi. Special security personnel and sharp shooters would be positioned on vantage and high-positions, officials said.

Only six visits in 67 years: Only six US presidents have visited India in 67 years since independence.

Top level exchanges between world's largest and the oldest democracies began with India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru visiting the US in 1949. But it took another 10 years for Washington to return the call with president Dwight D Eisenhower going to India in December 1959.

John F. Kennedy, who succeeded Eisenhower, could not visit India, but sent vice president Lyndon Johnson to India in the very first year in office in 1961. First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy toured India the next year. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

Richard Nixon came calling as president in July 1969, six months after assuming office, to ease tensions with then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi. The two leaders never really hit it off with Nixon taking a hostile stand against India during the 1971 Bangladesh war.

It would be another nine years before Jimmy Carter became the third US president to visit India in January 1978 after the general elections in India in 1977 when Gandhi lost power after popular revolt against her emergency regime (1975-77).

The US soon became India's largest trading partner, but Carter who came to deliver a "cold and blunt message" to India over its nuclear ambitions failed to get Morarji Desai's Janata Party government to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

It was another 22 years before Bill Clinton came in March 2000 to take out the

en to guard g India visit

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Important things about visit During his three-day visit, Obama will have a really tight schedule. Important things about Obama's visit:

1. Obama will be the first US President to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade in India.

2. During his visit to attend the Republic Day celebrations in India, Obama will be accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama and a team of senior officials in his administration.

3. During the Day 1 of his three-day visit, the American president and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likely to hold comprehensive talks on the entire gamut of bilateral ties and discuss ways to enhance cooperation in key components, including civil nuclear and defence pacts.

The visit is also expected to boost the sevenyear-old civil nuclear deal, facilitating the establishment of USdesigned nuclear power plants in India.

4. On second day of the visit, Obama will attend the Republic Day parade and later, along with Modi, will reportedly take part in Indo-US CEO roundtable.

5. On the final day of the visit, Obama is expected to address a town hall.

6. Before his departure from India, Obama and his wife also have a plan to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra.

7. Ahead of Obama's visit, there is already a flurry of terror threats coming everyday from different parts of the country. While the Islamic State (ISIS) has threatened the Mumbai Airport by scribbling notes with

chill from India-US relations since India's second set of nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998. In many ways, this was a turning point in Indo-US ties that were earlier termed as "estranged democracies".

Clinton, who came with his daughter, visited Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mumbai besides Delhi during a fiveday trip, the longest by a US president.

George W Bush, who was the fifth US president to visit India, in March 2006 with first lady Laura and estasblished a rapport with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

His 60-hour visit, by far the shortest after Nixon's 23

threat messages t w i c e , Indian Army has imposed high alert in Jammu and Kashmir with the news of militant insurgency in the state.

8. After input f r o m Intelligence agencies that bombs could be hidden anywhere, Special Cell and Crime Branch officers have been asked to be vigilant about the flower pots around Rajpath and India Gate, 24/7.

9. To beef up the security systems, high level of planning has been done that will cover both on-ground and air security for Obama. hours, marked the beginning of the end of India's "nuclear apartheid" with the two countries signing the historic India-US nuclear deal.

Barack Obama, who had in November 2009 held the first state dinner of his presidency in honour of then prime minister Manmohan Singh, visited India in November 2010. He became the second US president after Nixon in 1969 to visit India in his first term in office and the second after Eisenhower to address a joint session of the Indian Parliament.

Calling the India-US relationship "a defining partner-

SPECIAL

17

Canada's new envoy to India Nadir Patel speaks Gujarati at home

Canada's new high commissioner to India Nadir Patel is an IndiaCanadian, one who was born in Gujarat and speaks Gujarati at home.

His parents migrated from Gujarat to Canada when he was rather young. The 44-year-old Patel is the first Canadian of Indianorigin to occupy the high post. He presented his credentials to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on January 17.

Patel has considerable diplomatic and administrative experience.

Speaking about his new role, Patel said: "I look forward to working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to further expand ties between Canada and India. "There are several areas where collaboration is already strong, and there is scope for even greater cooperation to enhance our mutual prosperity, security and people-to-people ties."

Prior to his arrival in India, Patel served as Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Before that, he held a series of highlevel government positions, including Chief of Staff to the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Senior Policy Advisor to the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, and Canada’s Chief Air Negotiator.

From 2009 to 2011, Patel was Canada’s Consul General in Shanghai, China. Patel served on the Board of Governors of the I n t e r n a t i o n a l

Nadir Patel presenting his credentials to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee policy, an honour he Development Research received again in 2014 Centre, a Canadian from the Power and Crown Corporation that Influence magazine (top supports research and 100). In January 2011, he innovation in developing was profiled by Canada’s countries to promote susGlobe and Mail newspatained growth and develper as one of “45 opment.

Canadians Changing the He also served on the World”. He was also Ottawa Advisory Board of selected by India Abroad Wilfrid Laurier in its inaugural 2008 list University’s School of of the top 40 most influenBusiness and Economics, tial Canadians of Indian and is a Founding Board descent. member of Suits his Style, Patel holds a Bachelor an Ottawa based not-forof Arts (BA) from the profit organization supWilfrid Laurier University porting employment in Waterloo, Canada, and opportunities by provida Master of Business ing professional attire for Administration (MBA) men in need. from New York Among other distincUniversity’s Stern School tions, Patel was selected of Business, the London in 2012 by Canada’s School of Economics and Embassy newspaper as Political Science, and the one of the top 80 most HEC Paris School of influential Canadians Management. shaping Canada’s foreign

India and US are keen to strike nuclear deal before the arrival of US President Barack Obama in India.

The nuclear contact group of both the countries are meeting on January 21 to resolve the contentious liability issue. This will be the third meeting in the past 45 days of the contact group established last year, after Obama's meeting with PM Narendra Modi in the US, to expedite implementation of civil nuclear cooperation between the two nations.

This will also be the last opportunity for the contact group to provide a leg-up to the nuclear agreement ahead of the Modi-Obama summit by addressing the liability issue which has bedeviled the deal despite India having offered sites for two nuclear reactors each to American nuclear power giants GE Hitachi and Westinghouse in Andhra

Pradesh and Gujarat respectively.

The Centre is keen to ensure a breakthrough in the contact group meeting as a means to convince the US about its commitment to the civil nuclear deal.

This could also be the big takeaway from the Obama visit which was seen as a diplomatic coup by Modi when he himself announced it on Twitter.

India is awaiting a response from the Americans over its proposal to set up a nuclear insurance “pool” to compensate suppliers in case of a nuclear accident. This was necessitated by US reservations over India's controversial nuclear liability law which makes suppliers liable for damages in the event of any nuclear mishap.

Indian officials have already said that since the liability law cannot be tampered with, the insur-

India, US bid to strike N-deal before Obama's arrival

ship of the 21st century," he also backed India's quest for permanent membership of UN Security Council. Now Obama is set to notch two more firsts. He will be the first US president to be the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebration as also the first to visit India twice while in office.

The American team has put together the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) of the US. While India is putting together the Delhi Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Intelligence Bureau and Air traffic controllers to strengthen the security plan.

ance pool is the best option available. The government has roped in state-owned General Insurance Corporation of India to build the pool which will be used to provide insurance cover to suppliers. While section 17(b) of the law guarantees right of recourse against suppliers, another section (46) is seen by the US as exposing suppliers to unlimited liability through tort claims. US officials have said the companies are worried about being exposed to unlimited liability. The meeting will seek to address these concerns.

The contact group has discussed a range of issues related to implementation apart from liability like administrative issues, technical issues and licensing to facilitate the establishment of USdesigned nuclear power plants in India.

18

Dear Financial Voice Reader, Entrepreneurship has brought me many privileges. But the daily grind of entrepreneurship means you both have to love what you do, and get your perks (like meeting Royalty) when you can.

But I always keep an eye out for initiatives which can help turbo charge my business. These are always around and many people are too busy at their desks to know of them.

Two caught my eye this past week of special interest to readers of Asian Voice.

Mentoring Organisations We relaunched thanks to Dinesh Dhamija, the founder of ebookers, TIE-UK. TiE (the Indus Entrepreneurs) is a global organisation of entrepreneurs with some of the biggest names as its Charter Members. I co-founded the UK Chapter in 1999.

This past week we had the relaunch with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.

I've always found these organisations hugely under-used by entrepreneurs who are too busy in their offices.

Mentoring is the cheapest way to succeed. My own mentor Hon Apurv Bagri helped my access Aranca, an outsourcing company of which I became Chairman and the company grew from 0 to 300 staff in Mumbai and a global company servicing all the major banks. He taught me how he picked up his second home, which sold recently for over £100m – things you just can’t learn from the internet!

Government Initiatives Again, time and again entrepreneurs miss the chance to take advantage of these. You will see Richard Branson taking advantage, but smaller companies miss it every time. One to catch my eye this week: Great Tech Rocketships Initiative 2015 The Great Tech Rocketships initiative launched with a global call for ideas and submissions from entrepreneurs who want to change the world.

The initiative is a collaboration between TechHub and UKTI with support from iSPIRT. This is an ambitious programme to seek out impressive emerging companies and ideas in India, the UK and around the world that have the potential to be fast growing “Rocketships”.

The programme begins with a global call for ideas and submissions in the form of a 60-second video tweeted @TechHubBlr using the hashtag #IfNotNowThenWhen.

Entrants will be evaluated through the following filters: •Retail technology •Finance technology •Data analysis and visualisation •Emerging ideas - anything goes!

Through the TechHub Demo Night experience a number of companies will be selected to visit the UK and India as part of a UKTI delegation. Their visits will enable them to immerse themselves into the local technology ecosystems; meeting other entrepreneurs, identifying funding options and building product propositions to fit those markets. Over the course of this process we will continue, as a catalyst to shine a light into all corners of the global tech ecosystem. It will strive to find the Rocketship founders no matter their, background or current stage of investment.

Kumar Iyer, British Deputy High Commissioner, Mumbai & Director General, UKTI India: “The UK is an increasingly preferred choice for fast growing Indian technology companies. iSPIRT Foundation connects and guides software product entrepreneurs and catalyzes business growth. www.ispirt.in TechHub is a unique environment where technology startups can start up and grow faster. www.techhub.com No excuses. Great resources.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Modi promises reforms to make India a 20 trillion dollar economy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his government would change rules and initiate reforms at top speed to make India a 20 trillion dollar economy from its present two trillion dollars.

Addressing a business summit in New Delhi, the Prime Minister said reforms would take place in key areas such as infrastructure, taxes and subsidies, and an effort would be made to cut down multiple clearances that choke investment.

He said transparency and efficiency in governance, and institutional reforms are essential for rapid growth and the new government was moving fast in designing policies and laws to promote it. He said the setting up of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, is a step in the direction of major institu-

tional reform in the country which would create trust and partnership between the Centre and States.

Prime Minister Modi said infrastructure was being given a boost and new approaches and instruments were being put in place to attract greater investment in sectors like railways and roads.

He said the schemes like 'Jan Dhan Yojana' would pursue to get the poor included in the financial system.

The Prime Minister

also talked about a massive national programme for computerisation of public distribution system.

He said the poor needed subsidies and there was a need to cut leakages in the process. He said the government would introduce direct cash transfers in different schemes apart from cooking gas subsidy while stating that the cash subsidy transfer to users of cooking gas was the world's largest cash transfer programme.

He also stressed need for nurturing an atmosphere where the economy

is primed for growth and in turn all-round development. Reforms, he said, must have a concrete objective to ensure the welfare of the people and added that development should be employment generating and the employment enabled by skills. Prime Minister also reiterated Centre's commitment to achieve the fiscal deficit target announced in the budget.

Prabhu backs PM Modi's vision Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu said that India could be a 20 trillion dollar economy if it continues to grow at nine per cent. Addressing Summit, Prabhu said, "states also need to do their bit for India's economic growth".

He also said investments needed to be made in the railways if a deterioration of services was to be avoided.

Markets, the bank's investment banking arm; and Executive Secretary to the Chairman.

Chadha said: “This is an important time in SBI’s 90 year history of operating in the UK as we look to reaffirm our commitment to the UK market and continue to strengthen our position in the retail and wholesale banking arenas. We intend to strengthen our lending portfolio in the buy-to-let and commercial mortgages sector. My focus will also be to enhance customer experience across various touch points, while benchmarking our products and

services to ensure we remain best in class.”

SBI in the UK offers a consistently attractive range of simple and transparent savings products, NRI services and buy-tolet mortgages for retail customers. It has recently entered the SME lending market with its Commercial Mortgages proposition.

Along with its flagship branch in the heart of the City of London, State Bank of India has nine further branches across the UK with expansion plans including the introduction of more customer touch points in the near future.

SBI appoints new regional head for UK

State Bank of India (SBI) has appointed Sanjiv Chadha as Regional Head for the UK, taking over from Mrutyunjay Mahapatra in overseeing all activities of the bank in the UK. Mahapatra returns to India to take up a new role. Chadha takes up the role with immediate effect, having most recently held the position of General Manager, Retail Banking, with SBI in India where he headed a network of 400 branches in Tamil Nadu. Chadha has over 25 years’ experience in banking and started his career with SBI in 1987. His specialist experience includes corporate finance, investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, structured finance and private equity.

His other recent assignments include holding a leadership position at SBI in Los Angeles

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until 2007; Mergers & and Private SBI Capital

Samsung launches smartphones in India with Z1 device

The group hopes In a move to break away the Z1 handset, which from Google and build its offers localised enterown revenue generating tainment apps, will platform, Samsung appeal to young conElectronics has launched sumers in India its first smartphone powalready the world’s ered by its Tizen operatthird-largest smarting system. The South phone market but still Korean company is targeting first-time smart- Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi at in the early stages of the launch of the Samsung Z1 smartphone adoption. phone users with the Z1 “The smartphone device, which went on phone, initially set for market in India is rapidly sale in India for Rs 5,700 2012, have been repeatedevolving with many con($92). It will be one of ly pushed back, mainly sumers using their device Samsung’s cheapest due to slow progress in as their screen of choice smartphones, allowing the getting developers interfor content including company to better comested in creating the array videos, television propete with low-price offerof apps that consumers grammes and video ings by Indian rivals such would demand. games,” said Hong Hyunas Micromax.

Samsung is trying to chil, president of The launch marks a revive profit growth after Samsung’s Indian operastep in Samsung’s efforts suffering its first full-year tions. “We have custo reduce its overwhelmprofit fall since 2011, tomised the Samsung Z1 ing reliance on Google’s squeezed by fast-growing to meet these unique, Android operating platChinese rivals and the entertainment-focused form. Plans to launch the success of Apple’s latest needs.” first Tizen-based smartdevice, the iPhone 6.

REAL ESTATE VOICE

Taxing the golden goose

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

19

In the first week of starting back at the office this year, I have been to see five properties. All good deals, and this is without even going out fishing for them. They come from the momentum already generated on the back of last year.

One particular property which struck me is a freehold house in a strong road in W1, of over 2,400 sq. ft. We can get this for £1,100 per sq. ft. It’s a freehold which is rare and this means you do not have to pay ridiculous service charges to some freeholders who have owned the block for three generations and don’t do any decent work for the upkeep of the property.

Prices here should be at least £1,500 per sq. ft., the property needs no modernisation, the ceilings are high and it has some beautiful features, and it is a great example what you should expect of a town house in Central London. It has been well maintained and looked after by the present owner occupiers. The reason for sale is they have simply out grown the property and it simply doesn’t suit their purpose.

So wh y the reduc tion? On e reason which comes to mind is the dre ade d mansion tax; f irst introdu ced by Vince Cable in 2009 at a propose d 0. 5% for propert ies which are pric ed in exce ss o f £1m. David Miliband f ro m The L abou r Party then too k this baton and revised it t o 1% on ho me s abo ve £2m.

Currently Labour has promised to implement this tax if they come to power in 2015, apparently this has been done to help raise £1.2bn for the NHS. It seems they have attached such a lofty reasoning for the tax no doubt to make it not such a bitter pill to swallow. However I’m sure if they stopped war mongering in other countries the same if not more could be raised.

In the interim the Liberals have dropped the idea in favour of council tax bands designed to hit the top end of the market.

It is u nclear ho w this tax wou ld be imple me nted , the d etails have not bee n clear, will it be applied on t he excess amoun t above £2m or wil l it be on the whole property?

Applying it on the who le value wou ld be an u nfair way of imple me ntation an d create k inks in the market which buyers and sellers would se ek to avo id. For example it woul d be difficult to sel l a property for £2.15m even tho ugh t his may be the natural pric e of this pro perty. It being unfair d oes not me an it will no t be imple me nted , the l ast stamp dut y prio r t o De cember 2014 was base d o n this same princ ipal and was aroun d fo r decades. Un der this system it was diff ic ult t o sell a property near the le ve ls wh ere t he stamp du ty jumpe d.

a direct con se quen ce of mode rn societ y and spec if ic ally the med ia. When the popu lat ion watch te levision the y are be in g programmed , visually and orally, mostly fe ar based ne ws is spewe d out of this picture frame.

This oddity in behaviour can be translated into hard cash for the brave investor. Deals are surfacing which one would be hard pressed to see even in the last few years. Many fear mongers suggested the previous stamp duty rise would stifle the property market, it did initially but soon after property prices rose to record levels.

It is interesting to see the effect similar mansion taxes have had on other countries around the world. Hong Kong, for example, levied a tax on foreign investors in 2012 and increased a transfer tax on expensive homes in 2013. Since then, transaction volume has fallen to about 8,000 home sales a month from more than 12,000 in 2011, according to research firm Colliers International. But home prices have proven resilient. While they initially fell about 5%, they have bounced back to record levels.

If the Hong Kong market has proved to be resilient, clearly the London property market has even more resilience. This will be a temporary blip on a market destined to rise long term.

It is worth buying with some intelligence of course. Properties around the £2m-3m mark will be at the bottom end of this tax. Seeking out freehold properties will mean there will be no service charges to pay, therefore the proposed mansion tax will be slightly more digestible. Or in the case of flats pay particular attention to the service charges levied currently and proposed. There is no harm in paying service charges if you’re getting the service but not to fund the freeholder’s coffers. So distinctions must be made between blocks of flats according to the management and freeholders.

It is clear property is one of the few lucrative and stable ways of making money in the UK. It is given the government need to raise funds, and so therefore property will be in the line of fire in some shape or form either this year or in coming years. But the government have to be careful not to kill the golden goose, property investment brings in a lot of money from all over the world into London. Off the back of this a whole raft of employment is driven, not to mention the spending power these investors have which can been seen by the exclusive designer shops in New Bond Street.

There are means and ways to exploit this short window of opportunity, even if your budget isn’t huge give us a call you will be surprised with what we can do.

The £2m threshold suggested is a base figure, this level would rise with the average property prices, how this would work also has not been revealed. The tax will also be based on bands where in the amount will increase after certain steps. Recently Ed Balls suggested those who own properties between £2m-£3m will only pay £250 per month. This seems a very moderate rise compared to the 1% banded around.

Given the huge uncertainty regarding this proposed policy and the lack of information regarding its implementation, no one is able to take an informed judgement on how to react to this possible proposal.

Th is is cau sin g ne rvou sn ess and fear in t he market plac e; two very necessar y thin gs req uired to bring de als t o t he surf ace. Pe ople fe ar more than they are joyf ul, this is

The Real Deal

Bryanston Square, London, W1H Purchase Price: £1.3m l A large two bedroom upper ground floor flat l In excess of 850 sq. ft. l Highly sought after location l Probate sale l Share of freehold l Needs modernisation l Moderate service charges l Well kept communal area facing the prestigious Bryanston Square l Below the Mansion tax threshold Call us now to secure this deal!

0207 993 0103

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

Specialists in

Central London Property Sourcing

info@sowandreap.co.uk

www.sowandreap.co.uk

55 Bryanston Street, Marble Arch Tower, London, W1H 7AA

Follow us online:

Sowandreapuk

SowandReapProperties

Tips of the Week

l Three points should be considered when investing: Firstly, is the investment safe?

Secondly, is it going to go upwards? And thirdly, what time period can you exit - if required.

l When purchasing in auction always check the seller has held the property for longer than six months, otherwise you will have difficulty obtaining a mortgage with most high street lenders. Many properties held for less than 6 months are dumped in the auction.

20

LEGAL VOICE

Centre planning global financial hub in Gujarat

India’s plans to set up an international financial centre on the lines of London, Shanghai and Hong Kong could soon become a reality with the government of India working on guidelines that would allow for these facilities at the Gujarat International Finance TecCity (GIFT).

The finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India are understood to be finalising norms for international financial services centre that would allow for facilities such as offshore banking, currency convertibility, reinsurance hub and an international exchange to be set up at GIFT City.

“The discussions are on and the norms are expected to be finalised soon,” said a person familiar with the development, adding that a formal

Customers Bank launches BankMobile

BankMobile, a division of Customers Bank, located at 99 Park Avenue, New York is the first and only bank offering a no fee, purely mobile and tablet banking platform, announced its official phase one launch.

Through crowdsourcing, Customers Bank recognized a need to disrupt the current banking experience to make it more effortless, enjoyable and financially empowering and created BankMobile.

BankMobile will offer checking, savings, lines of credit and joint accounts.

Because of its no fee structure, it is set to financially empower customers, especially Millennials, middle class Americans, the underbanked, Gen X and techsavvy Baby Boomers.

BankMobile will also provide customers access to over 55,000 surchargefree ATMs, a higher savings rate than any of the top four banks in the US, a personal banker and access to a free financial advisor.

"We are thrilled to officially launch BankMobile," stated Luvleen Sidhu, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer of BankMobile.

"We are here to revolutionize banking, to help those who have often been victimized by the industry through excessive fees and we will always be a bank built by, and for, the people.”

Narendra Modi

announcement could be made in the Union Budget 2015-16 next month.

Financial services secretary Hasmukh Adhia, too, had announced that the norms are being finalised by the RBI and the finance ministry and would be announced soon.

These norms, that have been pending for long, would also give a big boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project of the GIFT City that he had proposed in

2007 as chief minister of Gujarat. To be built at an estimated cost of Rs 780 billion, the smart city that is spread over 886 acre was conceived as a global financial and IT services hub that would create business and employment in the state.

However, the absence of these guidelines have come in the way of development of the proposed city even though lenders such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

HDFC Bank have taken space in GIFT City.

Bombay Stock Exchange has also signed a memorandum of understanding with GIFT City SEZ Ltd to invest Rs 15 million for setting up an international stock exchange in the planned city. The new exchange will provide electronic platform for facilitating trading, clearing and settlement of securities, commodities, currencies, other classes of assets and derivatives by international investors. Located about 12 km from the Ahmedabad International Airport and 8 km from Gandhinagar, GIFT City is a 50:50 joint venture between Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS) Limited.

RBI makes surprise early rate cut, hints at more

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surprised markets with a 25 basis point reduction in interest rates and signalled it could cut further, amid signs of cooling inflation and what it said was a government commitment to contain the fiscal deficit.

While the early move was unexpected, aggressive reductions in rates have been seen as likely over the course of the coming year to help India's economy out of a rut, with growth rates struggling to recover from their weakest levels since the 1980s.

Tumbling oil prices and lower food costs have hardened speculation that more reductions in rates will follow, as recent data showed subdued consumer and wholesale price increases.

Acting ahead of a scheduled RBI policy meeting on

Feb 3 and the government's annual budget statement in late February, the RBI cut the repo rate - its key lending rate - to 7.75 per cent from 8 per cent, where it had been for the past year.

As a result, the reverse repo rate, the rate at which the central bank drains excess liquidity from the banking system, also moved down by 25 basis points to 6.75 per cent.

"This demonstrates RBI’s confidence in the evolving inflation outlook and it

shows that they are putting faith in government's fiscal consolidation plan," said Radhika Rao, economist at DBS Bank Ltd. Investors saw RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan putting India on a new easing cycle, as the former International Monetary Fund chief economist ordered his first rate cut since being appointed in August 2013. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who earlier this week had said the time was right for lower rates, welcomed the cut and said it would help revive capital investments.

The early rate reduction now puts the onus on the government to make credible efforts to contain the fiscal deficit while pursuing policies aimed at boosting investment and improving infrastructure to fire up the economy.

India is expected to grow at 6.3 per cent this year and 6.5 per cent in 2016 by when it is likely to cross China's projected growth rate, the IMF said while terming the new government's reforms as "promising" but insisted that their implementation is key.

In 2014, India's growth rate was 5.8 per cent against China's 7.4 per cent, said the World Economic Report update released by the International Monetary Fund. India's growth rate in 2013 was five per cent as against China's 7.8 per cent. India is projected to grow at 6.3 per cent in 2015 and 6.5 per cent in 2016, when it is likely to cross China's projected growth rate of 6.3 per cent,

the IMF said. "I think the reform plans of the new Prime Minister are promising. We are going to have to see the speed of the implementation," said Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, deputy director in IMF's Research Department.

Responding to a question, the IMF official said the effect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's economic reform would be difficult to predict as these are structural reforms and are growing gradually over the medium term. "Key is going to be implementation," MilesiFerretti said. According to the latest IMF report, in India, the growth forecast is broadly unchanged, however, the weaker external demand is offset by the

boost to the terms of trade from lower oil prices and a pickup in industrial and investment activity after policy reforms. The report said global growth will receive a boost from lower oil prices, which reflect to an important extent higher supply. But this boost is projected to be more than offset by negative factors, including investment weakness as adjustment to diminished expectations about medium-term growth continues in many advanced and emerging market economies.

Global growth in 201516 is projected at 3.5 and 3.7 per cent, a downward revision of 0.3 per cent relative to the October 2014 World Economic Outlook (WEO).

Raghuram Rajan

India's growth rate to surpass China's in 2016: IMF

Maria Fernandes

Illegal work and the consequences

Many to the people who do not have sponsor licences assume that they are protected from being fined if they do not knowingly employ those who do not have permission to work. The fact is that new regulations which came into force in May 2014 (and apply to those employed on or after this date) have strengthened the hand of the UKVI and it is possible to incur a fine in circumstances in which information was withheld from you by the employee.

There have been some minimal changes made to the regulations to ease the burden of employers. One of the measures introduced is the removal of the automatic requirement to conduct checks every 12 months. Instead, once the initial documents are checked, there is no longer a requirement to re-check these documents again during the currency of the visa.

Where students are employed it is now necessary to take further steps to obtain, check and copy evidence of the students education sponsor which must contain the term and vacation dates and must show the duration of the period of study.

If challenged or visited, you must be able to demonstrate that you carried out the appropriate checks and as a result have a ‘statutory excuse’.

If you know that that a person is illegal this will not provide a statutory excuse.

For a continuous statutory excuse for British Citizens or those settled here you will need to check original documents from a specific list of documents. The best form of evidence is a passport showing that the person is a British Citizen or settled or at least 2 documents such as a birth certificate plus a National insurance number.

For a limited statutory excuse (for non British / Settled persons) you need to check a current passport and biometric card or

obtain a Positive Verification from the UKVI. For EU nationals, a Certification of Application is acceptable.

For asylum seekers an Application Registration Card plus a Positive Verification from the Home Office Checking service is necessary.

In the first scenario you will not need to recheck the documents again. In the second case, it covers the period of the visa and for 28 days afterwards by which time you are required to carry out checks with the Home Office Checking Service or have seen a valid visa on a biometric card. A Positive Verification protects you for up to 6 months by which time you should have obtained copies of the person’s passport. If not the check has to be repeated. You should satisfy yourself that any application for an extension was made before the expiry of leave.

In terms of determining the level of the fine where the starting point is £20000 there are 2 processes: 1. Have you been found employing illegal workers in the 3 years before this? If you have more than one site and recruitment takes place on each site, it will be treated as a separate site.

2. Are there any mitigating factors which should reduce your fine for example active cooperation with the authorities or good recruitment practices generally. This has a whole host of scenarios as to what is active co-operation justifying a reduction by £5000.

The first stage is a form of potential liability where further information is sought and the second stage is the liability notice itself.

It is possible to object to the penalty within 28 days and if the decision is maintained appeal to the county court again within a further 28 days.

There is a reduction in the fine if it is paid within a particular period.

To contact Maria Fernandes, please email at: info@fernandesvaz.com

India invites Australian firms

Petroleum and natural gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Government of India has invited Australian companies to invest in the hydrocarbon sector. He was addressing the IndiaAustralia Business Summit organized by the

Confederation of Indian Industry and the Australian Trade Commission in the presence of Australia's Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb, who has been accompanied by a 450-member-strong business delegation from Australia for the summit.

CURRENCY VOICE

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

21

Foreign Exchange

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX,

Inflation in UK remains weak Currency Specialists.

The big topic this week is the supermarket wars. Britain’s big four supermarkets are all cutting the price of their fuel, meaning motorists will feel some benefit from the tumbling oil price. A garage in the Midlands city has become the first to charge less than £1 for a litre of petrol since around 2009. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have also been forced into dropping a further 2p off their petrol and diesel.

UK inflation halved in December to the lowest level on record as the sharp drop in global oil prices fed through to petrol pumps and the supermarket price war cut consumers shopping bills.

Inflation fell to 0.5% in December from 1% in November taking consumer prices index (CPI) to the joint lowest level since equivalent records began in 1989.

Governor Carney said inflation could slow further in the coming months, backing his argument to keep interest rates at a record low. Plunging oil costs and supermarket price wars have eaten into inflation, and the outturn represents “good news” for British consumers, Carney said.

The outlook for inflation in the U.K. remains weak. Oil slipped below $45 a barrel yesterday and a global supply glut has pushed prices down to the lowest in more than 5 1/2 years. Separate data

showed factory-gate prices, a leading indicator of inflation, fell the most since 2009. Carney said inflation may continue to drift down in the coming months.

The pound climbed against the euro and touched its strongest level in six years after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney highlighted the diverging monetary policies endorsed in the U.K. and euro area. While the European Central Bank looks set to extend asset purchases, even into quantitative easing by buying the region’s sovereign bonds.

Carney says we are in an environment where you can expect that interest rates will increase, likely at a gradual and limited pace, so we are in a different spot to the Eurozone. He also said that he expects the European Central Bank will likely take measures to meet its inflation target of close to 2 percent, stating that it is in our interest that the Eurozone has stable and predictable inflation consistent with the ECB’s mandate.

The main talking point in Europe was geared towards Greece, with Greek bonds rallying after the country’s prime minister promised to ease the country’s austerity burden to try and win votes.

Antonis Samaras has promised to cut taxes, and minimise any wage and pension cuts, should he

return to power after 25 January’s general election. This is having an impact on the Euro as investors are uncertain on the outcome, and the speculation of Greece detaching itself from the Euro zone is also causing uncertainty.

There are rumours that Greece will get another debt structuring deal, and avoid quitting the euro, but until something official is state , it will continue to cause unease.

The euro fell after ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said during a panel discussion in Vienna that policy makers must treat the threat of deflation seriously and shouldn’t delay a response.

Executive Board member Benoit Coeure was quoted in an interview saying the ECB is “in a position to take a decision on Jan. 22.” Also Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis said the nation could exit the euro zone by accident if a new government fails to reach an agreement with international creditors soon after this month’s election.

The World Bank slashed its forecast for eurozone growth in 2015 to just 1.1%, and called for a new money-printing program to stimulate the economy. They state that weak consumption, low investment and low inflation could drag the eurozone into a

deflationary spiral.The European Court of Justice (ECJ) have stated that the European Central Bank’s Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme appear to be legal, as long as certain conditions are met. Those conditions identified by the court’s advocate general include The ECB avoiding any direct involvement in the financial assistance programme that applies to any particular country. The OMT programme is meant to help a struggling Euro zone member state, by reducing a countries borrowing costs by buying a governments bonds if a members borrowing costs rise sharply.

The euro fell to a new nineyear low, below the level it launched at in 1999. Traders are concluding that the ECJ’s interim ruling clears the way for a quantitative easing programme to be launched soon. Political instability continues to plague the Eurozone. In Italy, president Napolitano has resigned, setting up a tricky challenge for prime minister Matteo Renzi. The resignation was expected and speculation over his successor has been swirling for months. Napolitano helped hold Italy together during the 2011 debt crisis, and stayed on after his term expired in 2013 when a general election resulted in deadlock.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 20th January 2015 @ 3pm

GBP - INR = 93.73

USD - INR = 61.69 EUR - INR = 71.42 GBP - USD = 1.51 GBP - EUR = 1.31

EUR - USD = 1.16 GBP - AED = 5.58

GBP - CAD = 1.83

GBP - NZD = 1.97

GBP - AUD = 1.85

GBP - ZAR = 17.66

GBP - HUF = 416.95

www.rationalfx.com

Information provided by RationalFX. None of the information on this page constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. The exchange rates used are the commercial foreign exchange rates provided by RationalFX. For a live quote or to find out more about how RationalFX can help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

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22

WORLD

Pak bans JuD, Haqqani network

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has banned 12 terror organisations, including the Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), a front for the banned Lashkar-eTaiba, as well as the Haqqani network a few days after US secrretary of state John Kerry concluded his visit to that country.

India blames JuD chief Hafiz Saeed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, for which, the UN had banned the group in December 2008.

The move is seen as part of its renewed antiterror efforts in the wake of last month’s Peshawar school attack. The decision also comes a day after the US state department declared Tehreeke-Taliban Pakistan chief Mullah Fazlullah, sheltered in Afghanistan, a “specially designated global terrorist” on Islamabad’s insistence.

Last year the US had named JuD as a “foreign terrorist organization”.

Fazlullah had claimed responsibility for the

Peshawar attack. Amir Rana, executive director, Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, Islamabad, said the banning of an organization means freezing of its assets, blocking of its funding sources and proper monitoring of its activities. “In the next move, the offices, infrastructures and networks of the proscribed groups will be banned,” he said.

Pakistan was said to have taken over JuD's institultions and properties after the UN ban. “It's our first step towards execution of the National Action Plan,” said an intelligence official. “The nation will see more positive steps towards dismantling mili-

Dhaka: The virtual house arrest of Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was on Monday lifted unexpectedly by authorities here, amid renewed violence over last year's disputed polls that left at least 28 people dead. The additional police and barricade around the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief's upmarket Gulshan district office was removed. "They (police) first removed their vans and afterwards they left the scene along with water cannons," a BNP official told reporters adding that few policemen were left behind for routine duty.

The withdrawal of security coincided with the 79th birth anniversary of Zia's husband and BNP's founder Ziaur Rahman.

State minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Zia, 69, would not be barred from visiting Rahman's grave and she could move anywhere after offering wreaths there.

Zia, a former two-time premier, was "confined" to her office since January 3.

Khaleda Zia's confinement lifted

tant groups. Both civilian and military leadership decided to ban the Haqqani network and JuD.” The Haqqani network has been blamed for carrying out deadly attacks on Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the embassy in Kabul and consulate in Herat in western Afghanistan. It emerged as one of many Mujahideen groups that the CIA and ISI patronized against the Soviets in the 1980s.

Pakistan had banned 12 organizations and executed several terrorists besides amending its constitution to form military courts to counter terrorism in days leading up to Kerry’s visit. With this latest addition of 12 more outfits, the number of banned organizations in Pakistan has reached 72.

US declares Pak Taliban chief a global terrorist The US designated

Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanctions against him.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the December 16, 2014 attack on an army school in Peshawar that resulted in the deaths of at least 150 people, mostly children. The announcement came hours after Kerry asked Pakistan to target all terror outfits like LeT, Taliban and the Haqqani network that pose a threat to itself, neighbours like India and to America.

As a result of this designation, US nationals are prohibited against engaging in transactions with Fazlullah.

The move freezes all the property and interests of Fazlullah that are in the US, or come within the US or the possession or control of US persons. Fazlullah was elected TTP commander in November 2013, following the death of former TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

Washington: A US judge has given to clean chit to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and threw out a lawsuit that accused him of “attempted genocide” during the Gujarat riots in 2002, after the Obama administration submitted that he was entitled to immunity as a sitting head of government.

In a three-page order, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York said “in light of the determination by the Executive Branch that Prime Minister Modi is entitled to immunity as the sitting head of a foreign government, he is immune from the jurisdiction of this court in this suit”.

The American Justice Centre, a human rights group, had filed the civil suit against Modi in September just ahead of his visit to the US last year, accusing him of initiating and condoning the communal riots in Gujarat and holding him responsible for the multiple deaths.

Judge Torres said the court considered arguments made by plaintiffs

Narendra Modi and “finds them to be without merit” and “unpersuasive.” Directing that the case be closed, she cited a US Supreme Court ruling that says courts cannot deny an immunity that the US government has “seen fit to allow” - something the State Department did not do as readily in the case involving diplomat Devyani Khobragade.

The State Department had submitted to the court that “under common law principles of immunity articulated by the Executive Branch in the exercise of its constitutional authority over foreign affairs and informed by customary international law, Prime Minister Modi, as the sitting head

of government of a foreign state, is immune from the jurisdiction of the US District Court in this suit while in office.”

“A court must accept the United States suggestion that a foreign head of state is immune from suit – even for acts committed prior to assuming office – ‘as a conclusive determination by the political arm of the Government that the continued [exercise of jurisdiction] interferes with the proper conduct of our foreign relations’,” Torres said in the order.

The court order comes just ahead of President Obama’s visit to India, whose own judiciary (and executive) is less enthusiastic about entertaining complaints against US entities in cases ranging from the Bhopal gas tragedy to the Pan-Am bombing in which Indian nationals who were killed were shortchanged on compensation. In a similar case, a US court last year dismissed a lawsuit against Congress president Sonia Gandhi accusing her shielding party leaders involved in antiSikh riots in 1984.

Imran Khan dren and several teachers were killed when Taliban gunmen opened fire at the school.

Family members of the dead, holding banners and placards, tried to

blockade his convoy and denounced him for “forgetting the ordeal of the martyred families” by opting to marry Reham Khan, the TV presenter, at a lavish ceremony on January 8, three weeks after the country’s worst terrorist attack.

Some parents also criticised Khan, 62, for not visiting the school earlier and only eventually doing so “with reporters to show his fake

prayers and condolences.” One mother said: “For one whole day, the media showed Imran Khan’s wedding and valima (wedding banquet.)

They were not showing anything about the children anymore. Nobody cares and he came to visit after a month.”

Khan’s PTI party controls the government of K h y b e r - Pa k h t u n k h w a province, of which Peshawar is the capital.

Hafiz Saeed

US court gives clean chit to Modi

Imran Khan, wife booed at terror attack school

Peshawar: Pakistan's cricketer-turned politician and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief Imran Khan's bid to show solidarity with family members of children killed in the Peshawar army school shoot out turned out to be damp quib. He and his wife were heckled and booed and greeted with cries of “Go Imran Go” from parents of the victims. At least 132 chil-

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

In Brief

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to undergo sweeping changes

London: The operations of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ would undergo sweeping changes, Parliament’s secret intelligence watchdog said. The blueprint, to be published by the Intelligence and Security Committee, will set out "very radical" reforms to the law to help security services keep pace with the "tremendous changes in technology" that are allowing terrorists to evade detection online. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the committee’s chairman, said that intelligence agencies should be given updated powers to access suspects’ mobile phone records, emails and internet messages, when authorised by a senior Cabinet minister. "The biggest threat has to be a potential terrorist attack," he said. The developments will widen the Coalition split between David Cameron and Nick Clegg over the need for new laws to fight terrorism.

Duke to speak about sex charges

London: The Duke of York will speak publicly for the first time since claims about his sex life were made public. Prince Andrew is to address 300 business leaders and international politicians at his annual reception at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The party - which is being paid for by the drinks company Diageo and KPMG, will be the first occasion on which he has been seen in public since the sex allegations were published. The funding will be seen as a show of support from the City for the government’s former businesses ambassador, following lurid claims about his links to the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein during a Florida legal case.

British Jews no longer feel safe after the Paris attacks

London: British home secretary Theresa May said that Jews in the country no longer feel safe living here and she sounded the alarm against a new wave of antisemitism. She said that many members of the country’s 260,000-strong Jewish community now felt vulnerable going about their daily lives, after a poll last week found that 43 per cent said they felt life in Britain was getting worse. Tensions have been building since gunmen attacked a kosher bakery in Paris ten days ago, while a terror cell uncovered in Belgium last week is feared to have been targeting Jewish schools.

Police said that they had stepped up patrols in Jewish communities across the UK.

Cameron asks British firms to give pay rise to workers

London: Prime Minister David Cameron has asked British companies which are making huge profits following the fall in oil prices to give pay rise to workers. He said that he wanted companies in Britain which have seen profits hit a 16-year high in recent months, to pass on the success to their employees.

Obama backs his 'great friend' Cameron

Washington: US president Barack Obama backed his “great friend” David Cameron as the leaders agreed on joint action on the world economy, Iran, Russia and countering violent Islamism. Obama was speaking at the end of two days of talks at the White House during which the US president went out of his way to help his ally before the election.

11-year-old responsible for his town’s one fifth crimes

London: The police have accused an 11-year-old boy responsible for one fifth of all crimes committed in Shepton Mallet in Somerset in November. Of the 50 offences committed there, the boy was accused by police of ten and charged with nine, including assault, arson, criminal damage, theft, handling stolen goods and threatening behaviour.

Factions trying to seize power in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh: Factions in Saudi Arabia vie for control of the world's largest oil exporter amid crises at home and abroad following the declining health of King Abdullah.

The future of the monarchy is at stake as it approaches a historic and potentially unsettling transition, with power passing to a younger generation. The 90-year-old king, hospitalised two weeks ago, has tried to secure his dynasty, placing his sons in key positions of power. However, rival clans have designs on the throne and all sides are scrambling to secure their share of the staggering oil wealth. “Everyone is waiting. The immediate succession is secure but beyond that, things are unclear. Behind the scenes, people are fighting like crazy to position themselves,” one government adviser said.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

In Brief

Kamala Harris to run for US Senate

Washington: The Indian-American community is on track to make its debut in the US Senate with California's attorney general Kamala Harris, a “good friend“ of President Barack Obama, deciding to run for a seat vacated by party veteran Barbara Boxer. Various California papers reported that Harris is going to announce on her decision to run. “She's not testing the waters. She's charting the course. She's in with both feet,” one of her advisors was quoted as saying.

Although she won a second term as California's attorney general only last November, speculation that she has set her sights higher has coursed through the political grapevine after both Boxer and her fellow senator from California, Diane Feinstein, indicated in recent weeks that they are finished with the Senate.

30 militants killed in Afghan operations

Kabul: At least 30 militants have been killed after the Afghan security forces waged offensives in two provinces, police said. Afghan army and border police, backed by army helicopter gun-ships, pounded several hideouts of militants in eastern Kunar province's Dangam district, Xinhua quoted provincial police chief Abdul Habib Sayyedkhel as saying. Twenty one militants have been killed so far," he added. The operation will continue before the militants in the area are cleared, he said. The district has been the scene of fierce fighting after Taliban militants launched frequent attacks in apparent efforts to take control of the district center in the mountainous province over the past couple of months.

NRI sets record for Chicago home buy

Washington: Mumbai-born, Chicago-based technology entrepreneur Sanjay Shah has purchased the 15,000 square feet, 89th floor penthouse in Trump Tower for $ 17 million - the priciest residential real estate transaction in Chicago's history. Shah currently lives in Chicago's South Barrington with wife and two daughters, is itself a sprawling 10,000 square feet. Shah had only a foggy idea, befitting an apartment that provides a panoramic, but often-misty 360-degree vista of the Windy City. He's sure he is not going to move from his current residence, which is two minutes from his work place, compared to the 45minute drive through Chicago rush hour to the penthouse. He may use it as second home - or a guest house to host his friends and clients. And as a hotspot for fundraisers and philanthropic activities.

2014 was Earth's hottest year in recorded history

Washington: According to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists 2014 was Earth's warmest year in modern record since 1880.

The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000.

This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Since 1880, Earth's average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that was largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet's atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades. While 2014 temperatures continue the planet's long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Nino or La Nina.

Bobby Jindal wants to be known as American

Washington: Asserting that he didn't believe in hyphenated identities, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has said that his parents came to the US from India four decades ago to become Americans and not IndianAmericans. He invoked his ethnic heritage to make a call for immigrant assimilation and called people who talked about skin pigmentation as the "most dim-witted lot" around. "My parents came in search of the American Dream, and they caught it. To them, America was not so much a place, it was an idea. My dad and mom told my brother and me that we came to America to be Americans. Not Indian-Americans, simply Americans," Jindal said in a prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver. "If we wanted to be Indians, we would have stayed in India. It's not that they are embarrassed to be from India, they love India. But they came to America because they were looking for greater opportunity and freedom," Jindal said, explaining the reason why he does not like to be called or described as an Indian-American. "I do not believe in hyphenated Americans. This view gets me into some trouble with the media back home.”

WORLD

23

Coup bid charge against Rajapaksa

Colombo: Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat in the Presidential elections was followed by the news that he had attempted a coup as the results poured in, predicting his defeat. Now, even more explosive revelations have emerged about the attempted coup. In an interview, former army chief General Sarath Fonseka, said that Rajapaksa had moved 2,000 troops into Colombo three days before the results in an attempt to stage a coup. Rajapaksa has denied the charges.

According to Fonseka, troops brought in from the Northern Command were deployed in and around Colombo in two circles one in the metropolitan area around Temple Trees, Rajapaksa's official residence; and an outer circle that covered the Election Commission office.

Fonseka, who was arrested by Rajapaksa for sedition in 2010, says the new government has proof of this and that they ordered the troops back into their garrisons after the results came out.

Mangala Samaraweera, the Foreign Minister and a close aide to the new President said that Rajapaksa held a meeting

Gotobhaya and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa maintained that the at Temple Trees in the late inquiry will be fair and hours of January 9, as action would be taken after votes were being counted, the inquiry. attended by his brother Rajapaksa's brother Gotabhaya, the Foreign ran 'death squad' Minister and the Chief Gotobhaya Rajapaksa, Justice among others. a brother of former presi"At around 4 am, the dent, ran a “death squad” Attorney General was sumand ordered the murder of moned along with the army a journalist, according to a chief and IG of Police," said police complaint filed by a Samaraweera. But, the former minister. It comes Attorney General refused, amid growing allegations stating that this amounted that India played a key role to treason. The security in engineering the downfall chiefs were also reluctant of Rajapaksa in the electo go ahead with the plan. tion upset on January 8.

"It was because of their Mervyn Silva, once a courage, that Sri Lanka's minister in Rajapaksa’s Sri democracy survived," said Lanka Freedom Party, has Samaraveera. alleged that Gotobhaya The governement has who previously served as ordered the CID to condefence minister; one of duct an inquiry into the several key jobs given to incident. Both Fonseka Rajapaksa family members and Samaraweera have

- was behind the killing of a newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga, in 2009.

Wickrematunga, founder of the Sunday Leader newspaper, and a prominent regime critic, was shot dead by four armed men on motorcycles while driving to work in Colombo a few days before he was due to testify in a legal case filed against him.

Nobody was arrested, despite intense media pressure and calls from human rights groups.

There were claims in Sri Lankan newspapers that Sirisena’s election victory received crucial support from India. India’s chief spy in Sri Lanka was expelled from the country in December, weeks before the election, after apparently offering support to Sirisena’s campaign to unseat Rajapaksa.

The unidentified station chief from the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence agency, also allegedly helped to organise meetings of minority parties to build a viable coalition against the president. He was recalled to Delhi in December after a formal request from the Rajapaksa government.

Indian-American doctor invited for Obama's State of the Union address

Washington: US First Lady Michelle Obama has invited a prominent IndianAmerican doctor, who is playing a key role in fighting the dreaded Ebola disease in West Africa, for Obama's State of the Union Address.

Dr Pranav Shetty from the International Medical Corps is the only IndianAmerican to be invited by the First Lady to her box in the US Congress when US President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union Address here.

Shetty is the Global Emergency Health Coordinator for International Medical

Michelle Obama

Corps, a critical partner in the US-supported effort to bring the Ebola epidemic under control in West Africa. In August 2014, Shetty deployed to Liberia to establish and oversee two Ebola treatment units, teams of rapid responders that deploy to Ebola hot spots across the country,

and a training center for local and international health care workers now working on the frontlines of the Ebola response effort, the White House said.

Shetty arrived back in the US in late December and will return to West Africa later this week to help establish International Medical Corps' first Ebola treatment center in Guinea.

Prior to the Ebola crisis, he has responded to emergencies in Haiti, Libya, South Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, and the Philippines.

Shetty is a US-trained emergency medicine physi-

cian with a Masters of Public Health and has worked for International Medical Corps since 2011.

He is based in Washington, DC, and serves as the initial health technical lead for International Medical Corps' major emergency response operations worldwide.

In all nearly two dozen people from different walks of life have been invited to the First Lady's box.

Prominent among them include USIAD Contractor Alan Gross and his wife Judy. Alan Gross was recently released by Cuba.

Others include astronaut Scott Kelly.

US, UK ask Pak to hand over Lakhvi to India

Islamabad: The US and the UK have asked Pakistan to hand over Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, to India to improve bilateral ties or to them for his “independent trial.”

During 54-year-old Lakhvi's bail case at the Islamabad high court (IHC) on Monday, the prosecution informed that the “two countries had demanded handing over of Lakhvi to India.” The prosecution lawyer did not name the countries in the court. However, an interior ministry source said that the US and the UK had asked PM Nawaz Sharif government to hand over Lakhvi either to India in order to “improve ties” with the neighbour-

Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ing country or to them for his “independent trial” as several nationals of different countries were killed in the the 2008 Mumbai attack.

The prosecution also requested the division bench of IHC headed by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui to expedite the case. On this, Saddiqui remarked, “Shift the case to the military court if the government is in such a

hurry.” The judge also said handing Lakhvi over to any country was a “diplomatic issue” concerning the government and the court had nothing to do with it.

Prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar said that Lakhvi's lawyer did not attend Monday's hearing.

“The court in last hearing had issued summons for Lakhvi but his counsel did not appear. On this, the court adjourned the hearing,” he said. The court office will fix the next date for hearing. In the last hearing, the prosecution told the IHC the trial court had ignored testimony in the 2611 case while granting bail to Lakhvi on December 18, 2014.

Lakhvi and six others have been charged with

planning and executing the Mumbai attacks in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead. Lakhvi was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the other accused on November 25, 2009.

Stay in jail extended by another month Lakhvi will remain in jail for another month after the Pakistan government extended his detention on Monday. Islamabad deputy commissioner Mujahid Sher Dil told the high court that the government had extended the detention for another 30 days under the Maintenance of Public Order. Lakhvi's counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi protested the government's decision.

24

INDIA

Writers, academicians come out in support of Tamil author

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Chennai: Describing it as “shocking and serious blow’’ to the freedom of expression, eminent writers and academicians have condemned alleged blackmail and harassment of Perumal Murugan, an influential Tamil writer.’

In a statement, under the banner of Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, they alleged that harassment and bullying of Perumal Murugan, at the peak of his creative powers, was done in collusion with the police and the state administration of Tamil Nadu and it pained the Tamil writer so much that he announced giving up of his

writing altogether.

“Perumal Murugan’s sensitive and distinctive novel, “Madhorubagan,” was published as far back as 2010 in Tamil and has run into many editions. An English translation of the

book was published in 2013 under the title “One Part Woman” and also went into more than one edition. As if on cue to an orchestrated campaign, the work has, over the last few weeks, suddenly come under attack for allegedly being offensive to the local dominant caste of Tiruchengode (near Erode in Tamil Nadu), where the story is set some time in the early part of the 20th century,’’ the statement said.

They alleged that the “motivated retrospective and retroactive literary witch hunt and inquisition of the novelist’’ has been abetted by the police and the

Hyderabad: A 32-year-old US returned engineer was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here while he was allegedly on his way to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) along with his girlfriend, who lives in Dubai. The youth, Salman Moinuddin, was also an active recruiter for ISIS, police said. Sleuths of Telangana state intelligence said they had been tracking Moinuddin through his online activities following a tip-off from Central agencies.

Moinuddin reportedly planned to join his girlfriend, Ayesha, in Dubai from where they were to proceed to Syria and establish links with ISIS militants. Ayesha is a British national. She was formerly known as Nicky Joseph alias Nicole before she converted to Islam, police said. The

accused, Moinuddin, had lived in the US for about four years, including a stint in Houston, Texas, and is said to have an MS degree in electronics from Texas Southern University.

“As per our information, after his studies, Moinuddin was doing odd jobs during which time he got indoctrinated in ISIS ideology online and decided to join them.

Moinuddin and Ayesha created various Facebook groups under fictitious names and spread the ISIS ideology with the intention of attracting followers,” a source said. “After he was denied a visa extension, Moinuddin returned to Hyderabad in October last year and during the last two months, lured several youths across the country to join ISIS and wanted to take them to Syria.”

Chennai: Amid protests in some parts of Tamil Nadu against a ban on traditional bull taming sport, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said that Jallikattu is a western concept that leads to killings of humans and animals.

"Jallikattu tradition is western culture and BJP is against it. Supreme Court's decision to ban it is a welcome step," said Maneka.

She said that in this tradition cows and bulls, who are very useful for the farmers, are killed. "Not only the animals, but humans are also killed in this tradition," she said.

Tension prevailed in Tamil Nadu's Palamedu and Alanganallur, two of the famous venues for the traditional sport, with shops remaining closed and buildings sporting black flags as

Perumal Murugan

Hyderabadi techie who plans to join ISIS arrested

Khattar govt cancels new projects cleared by Hooda

Gurgaon: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has scrapped all new projects cleared by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government. The government has sent the order to cancel the projects to all additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and deputy commissioners in the state. They have been asked to drop all such projects and freeze funds for them.

The order refers to all announcements made prior to September 12, 2014 by former chief minister Hooda.

Khattar had announced in October, during his first interaction with the media after taking oath as CM, that his cabinet would review the previous government's decisions and scrap projects that it felt were not in public interest.

According to the order, any new project on which work has yet to begin will be scrapped irrespective of whether funds have been released for them or not.

However, projects which have got off the ground and for which funds have been

Manohar Lal Khattar

released in full will be allowed to be completed. In case of ongoing projects which are to be completed in a phased manner, a decision will be taken on the remaining work on a caseby-case basis.

Additional chief secretary, town and country planning department, P Raghavendra Rao, said, “We received this order a week back and I have asked for a list of all unfinished projects and ongoing works from both HUDA and DTCP. Many projects announced prior to September 14 may be stopped. However, we will review each project first and if it is in public interest, it will definitely be allowed to be completed.”

district administration in the form of a so-called ‘peace meeting’ to which Perumal Murugan was summoned on January 12.

“All that the police could or would do to protect Perumal Murugan was to advise him to stay away from Tiruchengode for his own safety. The author is now in effective exile from his home, where he and his wife lived and worked, and has been reduced to pleading with his publishers not to sell or reprint any of his books and promising to compensate the loss they incurred on account of this,’’ a statement said.

Jallikattu a western concept: Maneka Gandhi

Maneka Gandhi residents were upset Jallikattu could not be held this year. The Union Minister of Women and Child Development said that Makar Sankranti should be celebrated by worshipping plants and trees, but in Tamil Nadu it start with atrocities which is wrong.

Jallikattu is a bull taming sport played in Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal celebrations on Mattu Pongal day.

Dera chief's film postponed, alert in Punjab, Haryana

New Delhi: Police and security agencies in Punjab and Haryana were put on alert after protests against Dera Sacha Sauda sect leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim's debut movie "MSG - The Messenger of God". The movie's high profile premiere, scheduled to be held in Gurgaon was postponed even as the sect authorities claimed they had received the formal letter of approval for release of the film.

Protests against the film were witnessed at some places in Haryana and Punjab. Police officials in both states said security agencies were put on alert.

In Punjab, additional security forces were stationed in Amritsar, Bathinda and other places. Sikh organisations and leaders, including the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, are opposed to the sect and its leader.

Authorities in Haryana put security forces on alert in Sirsa district, where the sect has its headquarters near Sirsa town, Gurgaon and some other places.

Police detained scores of Indian National Students' Organisation activists in Gurgaon as they were protesting against the film.

The producers of the film claimed that they have got the required permission from the censor board for the movie's release. Dera Sacha Sauda's spokesman Pawan Insan said they received the formal letter of approval from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). MSG was earlier scheduled to be released on Jan 16 but did not get the CBFC approval in time.

The film had run into trouble this week with the CBFC refusing to give it clearance for release and referring the case to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). The FCAT approved the release of the film.

South Brief

Jaya Prada wants to join BJP

Hyderabad: Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada said she wanted to join the BJP as she was impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. “Everyone is impressed by Modiji’s leadership. Many big leaders want to work with him. Similarly, as an activist, I want to join the party,” the former MP told mediapersons here.

Her colleague and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was talking to BJP leadership (in this regard), she said. “I would like Amar Singh to take the big decisions....he is talking to the BJP leaders,” she said. Jaya Prada, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, acted in about 70 films in Telugu, Hindi, and other Indian languages before entering into politics in the 1990s. She has been with TDP, Samajwadi Party and RLD in her political career so far.

Karnataka politician honours donkeys

Bengaluru: A seasoned Karnataka politician, who heads a regional political party, honoured two donkeys in Bengaluru in recognition of their hard work, loyalty, honesty, discipline and obedience."I have decided to honour all domestic animals like donkeys, dogs, buffaloes, cows and oxen, as they are more loyal than human beings, hard-working, disciplined and obedient," Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha president Vatal Nagaraj said. Nagaraj presented the Rajyotsava awards to the two donkeys at the inter-state bus terminus in the city centre, much to the amusement of the people who gathered there.

Foundation stone laid for IIMVisakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani laid the foundation stone for IIMVisakhapatnam at Gambheeram village in the presence of Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and others. A bill on IIM would be introduced in Parliament in the Winter session, the Union Minister promised, speaking at a public meeting organised after the stone laying ceremony. Admissions to IIMVisakhapatnam are open from the academic year 2015-16. The IIM-Bangalore is the mentor institution for the IIM-V.

North Brief

Sikh activist Gurbaksh Singh ends his fast

Ambala: Sikh activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa, who had been on fast for the last two months demanding release of Sikh prisoners across the country who had completed their jail terms, ended his fast after a meeting with district administration officials and members of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee.

Khalsa remained hospitalised for five days after his health deteriorated. Khalsa was persuaded to end his fast by officials.

Yoga guru Ramdev made Haryana’s brand ambassador

Haridwar: The BJP government in Haryana has appointed yoga guru Ramdev as the state's brand ambassador. Haryana has ambitious plans to promote yoga and ayurveda in a big way. Announcing this at a news conference at the Divya Yog Mandir here, Haryana's minister of sports and health Anil Vij said a herbal forest would be developed over thousands of acres of land in the state where plants of 25 thousand species of ayurvedic herbs would be grown under the supervision of the yoga guru and his close aide Balkrishna.

Officer investigating Punjab minister transferred

Jalandhar: Enforcement Directorate Assistant Director Niranjan Singh, who was investigating synthetic drug racket case and also summoned Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia has been transferred to Kolkata. In the last couple of days local ED officials had reported that they were being bugged and Punjab CID sleuths. Interestingly some phone numbers from which the calls were made by the CID sleuths to the ED officials were also brought into the public domain by the latter, which created embarrassing situation for the Punjab government and its intelligence wing.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Free radicals: The landscape of fundamentalism

Sunetra Senior

Last week, PM David Cameron endorsed a letter sent out by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and cosigned by Muslim Tory Lord Ahmed, imploring more than 1000 Islamic leaders in the UK to “explain and demonstrate how faith in Islam can be part of British identity” as “reasonable and moderate.” However, this was met with objection from their recipients and Deputy SecretaryGeneral of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Harun Khan, who retorted: “Is Mr Pickles seriously suggesting, as do members of the far right, that Muslims and Islam are inherently apart from British society?”

In the wake of the extremist attacks on ‘Charlie Hebdo’ and kosher supermarket in Paris, there can be no denying that there is an issue with Islamist extremism. As well as alarming the public as a whole, the threat levels being raised to the 2nd highest by security officials, the Jewish minority were shaken too. Theresa May said in her statement at a Sunday service commemorating those killed in France that she "never thought” she would “see the day when members of the Jewish community" would be "fearful" for their lives in the UK. The Jewish charity the Community Security Trust reported an "unprecedented" number of calls following the recent international developments, and the term ‘international’ is key in an equitable multicultural society.

Cameron said this week that Muslim leaders “really have a problem” if they could not accept their role in controlling fundamentalist violence.

Though such a comment could be interpreted as

Courtesy: The Economist • Sources: Pew Research; Ipsos Mori

Eric Pickles glib, Pickles’ letter was incisive: “show them these men of hate have no place in our mosques or any place of worship, and that they do not speak for Muslims in Britain or anywhere in the world (… ) the Government will do all we can to defeat the voices of division, but ultimately the challenges of integration and radicalisation cannot be solved from Whitehall alone.

Strong community-based leadership at a local level is needed.”

Accountability is not attributed solely to the Muslim community, but acknowledged as a shared cultural issue. This concedes Lord Sacks, former chief Rabbi’s, quite rightful observation that Muslims might feel “you’re asking of us something that is not under our control”.

There is substance in the nuance of Pickles’ internationally extended address: a major issue is losing Muslim youth who travel abroad and train with the IS, drifting from the nation and their religion. National border control has had to tighten

Theresa May security checks as many return from Syria and Iraq; a teenager (an eighteen year-old woman) has already been detained from Stansted Airport. As important as it is for western governments to take a multi-faith stance, it is also vital that multifaith leaders ally with their country; making clear a significant relationship is key in keeping stray young radicals, the children of both Britain and Islam, protected and fulfilled. Solidarity is more important than ever as statistics show that the world-wide web is the most integral conduit in youth radicalism and xenophobia is paramount: ‘The Economist’ printed alarming figures showing how terrorist activity creates an exaggerated projection of Muslims in general. The British believe the group to make up 21% of the population when in reality it is 5, while the French believe there to be 31% when the reality is 8. In both cases, this is roughly four times the actual amount.

Gujarat minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama visiting UK

B h u p e n d r a s i n h Chudasama, Gujarat minister for Education, Law and Justice, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Panchayats, Rural Housing and Rural D e v e l o p m e n t Department, will be visiting UK from January 18 to 24th. On January 18th he arrived in UK. Monday January 19th – BriefingsBritish Council London; UK Trade International (UKTI); Department for Business, Innovation& Skills (BIS) Tuesday 20th January-

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama

UK-India English Partnerships Forum, Amba Charing Cross Hotel Wednesday 21st

January- CWT Chamber Training, Coventry; AoC College, Coventry Thursday 22nd January- National Skills Academy, London; Trinity College, London; City& Guilds, London. He will also attend a dinner hosted by Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice at Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market (Off Coronet Street), London.

Friday 23rd JanuaryDebriefing session BETT Show, British Council, London office Saturday 24th January- Depart UK

WORLD - INDIA

25

India pays homage to Gandhiji on Martyrs' Day

Since Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom on January 30, 1948 this day was declared as the Martyrs’ Day in India. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated a little before the sunset when he was going to attend his evening prayers on January 30, 1948. On Martyrs' Day, the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the three service Chiefs gather at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and lay wreaths on the Samadhi decorated with multicoloured flowers. The armed forces personnel blow the bugles sounding the Last Post. The interservices contingent reverse arms as a mark of respect to the martyrs.

A two-minutes silence in memory of the Father of the Nation and other martyrs is observed throughout India at 11 am. At Rajghat, in front of the Samadhi of Gandhiji, allreligion prayers are held and bhajans dear to him sung. January 30, 1948 is the saddest and most poignant day in India's history. For on this day, 78-year old Mahatma Gandhi was killed in Birla House (now known as Gandhi Smriti) when he was going to join his evening prayers.

This was the biggest tragedy that India faced after we achieved our hard-won Independence under the leadership of Gandhiji. While Gandhiji was walking towards the prayer ground, a young man suddenly fired three shots from close range at Gandhiji. The Mahatma fell on the ground, his white khadi dress soaked in blood. A man of prayer, Gandhiji remembered God and said, "Hey Ram : Hey Ram." It was 5.17 pm.

Men, women and children, who came to join the prayers, were shocked and wept aloud to see the Father of the Nation being

killed in front of their eyes. A bleeding Gandhiji was rushed to the room where he was staying. The news of his assassination spread like a fire. Despite one of the coldest nights in India’s capital, thousands of people crowded in front of Birla House and wanted to have Gandhiji’s darshan. Inside the room there were tragic

people to have darshan of the Mahatma, his body was placed on the high table in the adjacent room.

A powerful lamp was lit so that the people could have an easy darshan. As the doors of the room were opened, there was a huge rush. Everybody wanted to touch Gandhiji’s feet.

In bitter cold, Gandhiji was given a bath at 1 am.

The blood-soaked clothes were then removed from his body. Two bullets had pierced through his body.

The third bullet remained in his body. The wounds were still bleeding.

After the bath, Gandhiji was dressed in khaddar loin cloth presented to him on his last birthday. He was garlanded with a hank of handspun thread. He was decorated with flowers and garlands.

Gandhiji’s favourite Ram Dhun and bhajans were recited.

scenes. Pandit Nehru, our first Prime Minister, wept like a child. Sardar Patel was seen consoling him.

Doctors rushed into the room. They examined Gandhiji. They remained dumb. Slowly, they signified that the Mahatma was dead.

While Gandhiji's body lie inside the the room, outside there was a huge waiting and weeping crowd. The people were shouting in choked voice "Allow us to have last darshan of our beloved Bapuji". The entire area rent with repeated cries of "Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai".

In order to allow the

Gandhiji’s watch then struck 3.30 a.m. Everyday, he was used to hold his morning prayers at that time. All-religion prayers were held that day as well.

His grand daughters, Ava and Manu, sang a Hindi bhajan befitting the occasion.

Preparations for Gandhiji’s last journey to Rajghat were being made.

A mass of humanity had crowded in Delhi on that occasion. The cremation at Rajghat was attended by world dignitaries.

Gandhiji, alongwith millions of men and women who sacrified for India's cause, became a martyr.

months, the defence ministry will go to the cabinet committee on security for approval. It will require Rs 40-50 billion for the initial design and development phase," said a source. The aim is to fly the first twin-engine AMCA prototype by 2023-2024, which will be around the time deliveries of Tejas Mark-II fighters will be underway. IAF is slated to get its first Tejas Mark-I in March this year, over 30 years after the LCA project was first approved in August 1983.

But the Tejas Mark-II jets, with more powerful engines, will start to come

only by 2021-2022.

"After Tejas-II, we have to move ahead to a fifth-generation-plus AMCA. Basic design work of AMCA as well as presentations by five to six global aero-engine manufacturers is over.

Simulation modelling is also in the works," said the source.

India, of course, is also trying to sort out its differences with Russia over their proposed joint development of the Indian "perspective multi-role fighter" based on the latter's under-development FGFA called Sukhoi T-50 or PAK-FA.

India plans to develop 5thgeneration fighter aircraft

India plans to kick-off its own fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) development project this year to build on the expertise gained in the long developmental saga of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.

Top defence sources said the preliminary design stage of the futuristic fighter called the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), with collaboration among IAF, DRDO and Aeronautical Development Agency, is now "virtually" over.

"Once the project definition and feasibility is completed in the next few

26

INDIA

Kiran Bedi is BJP's Chief Minister candidate in Delhi

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, who joined the BJP less than a week ago, will be the party's chief ministerial candidate in the Feb 7 Delhi assembly polls, taking on her former anti-corruption stir colleague Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

She will contest from Krishna Nagar seat in east Delhi. It was earlier held by Harsh Vardhan, the chief ministerial candidate in the December 2013 elections and now a union minister.

Making the announcement after a meeting of the party parliamentary board, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah expressed confidence that the decision will result in the party getting full majority.

"The BJP parliamentary board has decided that the party will fight the forthcoming polls under leadership of Kiran Bedi. Kiranji will also be the chief ministerial candidate," Shah said. "I feel the name that the BJP has decided will meet the peoples' expectations and our decision will definitely lead to victory," he added.

Shah said that workers were feeling enthused since Bedi took membership of the party. "It has raised their morale," he said. Shah dismissed suggestions that there were differences among party leaders over Bedi's projection as the chief ministerial candidate.

"Every worker is one on this," he said. Hours after the announcement, however, a hoarding of Bedi outside the BJP office was vandalised.

Some vandals had cut out the faces of Bedi and party president Satish Upadhyay from a hoarding that was put up outside the office of BJP's state unit at 14, Pandit Pant Marg following the announcement.

The banner showed Upadhyay and Bedi on one side and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on the other with the lines "Kiran Bedi ji ka Bhajapa me hardik swagat hain" (A hearty welcome to Kiran Bedi in BJP) written in the centre.

The incident appears to be giving credibility to some media reports that the decision to opt for Bedi - considered to be an "outsider" - over other senior leaders has divided the party, with one section overjoyed and the

other left sulking. The BJP's decision on naming Bedi, 65, as chief ministerial candidate came after the party leadership felt that they needed a credible local face to take on Kejriwal, who has strong anti-corruption credentials. AAP finished close to the BJP in the 2013 assembly poll.

The party's decision came just two days before the end of nomination process for the Feb 7 polls to the 70-member assembly. Bedi has been an anticorruption activist, a former tennis player and her innings in Delhi Police is still widely remembered in the city. She initiated prison reforms in the Tihar Central Jail when she was heading it.

She has won the Ramon Magsaysay award, an honour she shares with Kejriwal. Both were part of the anti-corruption agitation led by Gandhian Anna Hazare. Since her induction in the BJP, Bedi has

talked about her priorities.

Asked about the change in BJP's stance of not projecting a chief ministerial candidate, Shah said the party had also projected chief ministerial candidates in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

"There is an atmosphere. A decision is taken after taking into account all factors... the political factors," he said.

Before it took decision to induct Bedi and project a local face, the BJP in Delhi appeared to bank mainly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Answering a query about Bedi being an "outsider", Shah said that the party had provided platform to people from various fields and they had delivered successfully. "The decision was taken with consensus. It has support of all," he said. Shah said the party would continue to have a tie-up with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Delhi.

Continued from page 1 Kutch is a remote region in the arid borderlands of India. For centuries life was brutally tough - rains often failed, there were few jobs and the enterprising would emigrate.

Then in January 2001 a magnitude seven earthquake struck, devastating a huge area, flattening cities including the district capital, Bhuj, and wrecking over 8,000 villages.

Twenty thousand people were killed and more than a million others made homeless. Those who witnessed the devastation at the time must have thought this would set back development by decades.

There was an outpouring of sympathy from around the world, much of it from Gujaratis living abroad. Some $130m (£80m) of aid poured in.

The Indian government was spurred into focusing on this much-ignored region in a way it had never done before. The army was sent in to help with the emergency and $2 billion of reconstruction money was allocated to the region.

Contrary to what many feared, aid and govern-

ment grants were put to good use. In the first two years after the quake, nearly all the damaged villages were rebuilt.

Mithapashvaria, near Bhuj, is a small village that was completely destroyed.

It was re-built with donations from the UK. The new houses were light and airy with running water and toilet. The village also had a medical centre, a temple and communal areas it hadn't enjoyed before.

Navin Prasad, of Sewa International, a non-governmental organisation, said that in village after village the reconstruction had produced a leap forward in development. "We have taken people out of the Middle Ages and into the modern world," he said. This progress was repeated all over Kutch, and it is most noticeable in Bhuj.

After the earthquake it was a sea of rubble. It took several years to implement plans for a completely new city. Houses had to be destroyed to make way for wider roads. Ten years on Bhuj has been reborn. It has two new ring-roads, an airport, parks and thriving shops. The success of the

reconstruction effort could never have been sustained without economic recovery. This was triggered by the Indian government creating new tax-free zones, which sparked a boom in private investment.

Business boom Some 300 companies have established their businesses in Kutch and many more are queuing up to follow suit. Mundra is a microcosm of the scale of development. It was a small fishing port in the middle of a salt marsh before the earthquake.

Now it's an industrial hub, handling hundreds of tonnes of goods every day.

Once a tiny fishing outpost, Mundra's port is expected soon to be bigger than the one at Mumbai.

The Adani group which owns the port is now worth $ 7 billion.

Now there are thousands of new jobs and Adani is taking over the work of aid agencies.

Jobs revolution "Our own budget for social development in this region is $ 6 million a year, so you can imagine how we are trying to change the lives of people to live in better way," an Adani offi-

cial said. Near Anjar, a city that was devastated by the earthquake, the biggest towel factory in the world was set up by Welspun in just nine months. Its vast mechanised looms weave 250,000 towels a day. The chairman of Welspun, Balkrishan Goenka, says good local governance was key in choosing Kutch.

"There were no local taxes for the first five years and no excise duties. Nor were there indirect taxes to government - they were exempted for five years," he says.

"Those were the primary benefits. More than that there was huge support from the local government so industry can come faster." Since the earthquake, over 110,000 new jobs have been created in Kutch, and there are thought to be hundred of thousands more on the way.

With two years of good rainfall and with the 400km (250-mile) water pipeline from the Narmada River, the population is now increasing as the job opportunities increase.

The region is now a cornerstone of the Indian economy, a fact almost unthinkable 10 years ago.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Rishi Annamalai Madhangopal

DOB: 24 January 2013 Dearest Rishi, You are the naughtiest two year old anyone has ever seen. But all is forgiven because you are also the cutest there has ever been.

Congratulations for turning old enough to eat your birthday cake all by yourself. Happy birthday.

With lots of love, Paati, Taata, Amma, Appa, Akka, Chithappa and Chithi

Astonishing rise of Kutch from rubble of 2001 quake

Sri Lanka warms up to India

Continued from page 1 anger," the Indian security official said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

India moves quickly India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Y K Sinha met Sirisena to greet him after the results were announced on 9th January, indicating signs of shifting allegiances. It is worth highlighting that the China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later. Sirisena has already said that India is the first, main concern "of his foreign policy and that his first foreign visit next month will be to his country's largest neighbour in South Asia.”

New govt to restore friendly ties with India Stressing that the ports being developed by Chinese firms will be “reviewed”, visiting Sri Lankan Foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera said the Indo-Lanka relations got “reversed” in recent years and the new government under Sirisena is making “immediate efforts” to bring it back on track.

Samaraweera, who met with select group of journalists in New Delhi said, “It was often said in the past that Sri LankaIndia ties were ‘excellent and irreversible’. But they got reversed in recent years… hence the immediate effort now.” His visit, he said, demonstrated the importance the new government attaches to “restoring” friendly ties with India.

Describing his talks with India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “very warm” and “cordial”, he confirmed the calendar of visits. While Swaraj is expected to visit Colombo shortly and chair the joint commission meeting, Sirisena is likely to visit India next month. He said Modi has accepted the invitation to visit Lanka and will be the first bilateral State visit since 1987 when Rajiv

Gandhi came to Colombo.

“It is likely (to take place) in March.”

Discussing the Sri Lanka elections, he said, “They were like the Arab Spring; but political transformation without violence; and discarded an emerging dictatorship.

This is the Burma moment for Lanka’s democracy.

After many years, we have a government today that does not belong to any one community or religion.

The transition was not entirely smooth, thanks to the army, the police and the attorney general, danger was averted.”

Describing the 100-day agenda, he said “process has begun to end the executive presidency. The world needs to rally around the new government with support,” he said. Responding to a question on coup, he said, “Yes, there was fear of a coup.” On human rights violations, he said, “We will investigate; our focus is to initiate a domestic investigation; not against an international one; the international investigation was brought upon by the previous govt by refusing to take the necessary steps at home.”

“We are not doing this to please any one, we owe it to the people who suffered to establish the truth…not for vengeance, but healing.” He said the new government is eager to begin rehabilitation in the north and restore lands to the original owners. On the issue of 13th amendment, he said the government would take up all related issues after the general elections. “There is no need to invent the wheel… many proposals have been debated before… what we need is the will to find a political settlement”.

He said “India is not pressing us to anything that is not in our interest”.

He met with Modi, who expressed hope that the poll victory of Sirisena will advance peace, reconciliation and development in Sri Lanka as well as the region and pledged India’s continued support to the close neighbour and “friend”.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

HEALTH WATCH

Ravi Bhanot’s Health Blog

Indian comfort food that can cure all blues T

he dictionary defines comfort food as one which is prepared in a traditional way. Here are some Indian comfort foods that will make you go happy.

Maggi: This twominute fix obviously tops the list. Whether in hostel, or at your new, rented apartment, a bowl full of maggi will continue to be our happy food forever.

With vegetables, without vegetables, the slightly dry kind or the soupy maggi, these instant noodles are everyone's favourite.

Stuffed paranthas:

idlies drowned in a bowl of hot sambar is all you need to feel protected and warm. Also, idlies and sambar works wonders if you're nursing a hangover.

Pakoras and chai:

Paneer, potato or even onion paranthas with some pickle and curd go a long way in reminding us of that homely warmth when we need it most.

Those living away from home totally understand the value of this meal, especially in this biting cold.

Khichdi: A perfect mix

to-stuffed crisps with spicy green chutney are the best things ever. They can quench one's craving something Indian and delicious in just one bite, or actually two-three samosas. NRIs know the true value of this triangular snack.

Rajma chawal: After a

of dal-chawal, khichdi is something we all miss the most when we're down in the dumps. The best thing about khichdi is that it's easy to make, healthy and yes, it's a warm reminder of home sweet home.

Idly sambar: Rice

Nothing can lift one's mood on a rainy, gloomy day, the way pakoras/ bhajjis and a cup of hot tea can.

Samosas: These pota-

long day's work, when you come home to your rented apartment, eating a rajma chawal meal feels like the greatest thing since cable TV. The comforting meal is perfect reminder of food from your mum's kitchen.

Dhokla: Breakfast,

ation is the best thing to snack on with friends.

For Gujaratis living in other states, it's obviously a sweet reminder of mum's food.

Gulab jamun:

Something hot for your sweet craving. The little brown gulab jamuns dipped in sugar syrup have still not found a parallel as good, especially in the winter months.

Jalebi: If you need

something quick, crisp and melt-in-the-mouth kind to satiate your sweet craving today, run to that jalebi guy down the road.

You won't regret it.

Gol-gappas: Just plain

Bhel puri: Puffed rice

with finely-cut vegetables, mixed in a tangy sauce you need nothing more.

Pav bhaji: Finely-

chopped vegetables, cooked in heaps of butter and masala is the greatest gift to mankind. Whoever decided to make pav bhaji with leftover vegetables must have been a real foodie.

Bread pakora: Another

fried snack, the bread pakora is a great reminder of an Indian mother's endless pampering.

Rumali roti: The thin

yum!

Aloo bhujiya: Put it on

bread, mix it with rice and dal, in khichdi...a fist full of aloo bhujiya is enough to give that extra zing to your food.

Banana chips: If

lunch or dinner, this light and tasty Gujarati cre-

there's one thing that tastes great despite being fried in coconut oil, it's banana chips. This snack, which is a Kerala special, is enjoyed by all.

dence shows that drinking three to four cups of coffee per day is associated with an approximate 25% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to consuming none to less than two cups per day.

The study has also suggested an inverse association, with each

additional cup of coffee reducing the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 7-8 per cent.

Research indicated that caffeine was unlikely to be responsible for this effect. A recent metaanalysis suggested that consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee is associated

white flour roti, easily available at every street corner, is a favourite among everyone living away from home.

Suji ka halwa: Suji ka

halwa is probably one of the easiest sweet dishes to prepare. All you need is suji, sugar and ghee.

These three ingredients that our mothers have blended together beautifully for years is a guaranteed fix if you've had a long day or are just missing home.

Moderate coffee consumption can help reduce diabetes risk

A

new study has revealed that people who moderately consume coffee have 25% less risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The research concludes that regular, moderate consumption of coffee may decrease an individual's risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Epidemiological evi-

with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

To Our Readers

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

27

Yoga Your Hair!

Hair falling and don’t know what to do? Can yoga help? Yoga has been long recognized to improve digestion and help reduce stress.

Indirectly this can help healthier growing hair.

Research is also showing that yoga can help prevent in early stages of hair loss and hair thinning as it Ravi Bhanot improves blood circulation JP MRPharmS Dip(Nutr) Dip(Hom) Dip(Ayurv) Dip(Stress to the scalp.

Hair loss can be due to a Manag) Dip (Massage) Pharmacist, Ayurvedic, number of reasons.

Complementary Health and Ayurvedically speaking it is Nutrition Consultant, Lecturer, believed that controlling Researcher and Author. He is a celebrity columnist for many hair fall is linked to the magazines and is Director of body type and also the stability of the mind-body The Ayurveda Institute of Europe and Coolherbals Ltd. structure.

Hair is considered a by product of bone formation. The tissues that help form bones are also responsible for hair growth. Hair loss is thought to due to an imbalance of pitta energy or dosha.

Do not reduce the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter. Statistics show that 90 per cent of people losing hair eat less than one fruit a day, little or no salads, do not drink the minimum of 1.5 litres of water daily and skip breakfast or a meal a day.

For a nutritional diet sheet to reduce hair loss email us at info@coolherbals.com.

Try these asanas and pranayama for healthier hair.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward dog pose): Increases blood and oxygen circulation to the head and face. Stimulate the scalp’s nerves.

Uttanasana (Forward bend): Stretches the hamstrings and the abdomen muscles; Helps you relax.

Ustrasana (Camel pose): Increases the blood circulation to the head and heart.

Sarvangasana (Shoulder stand): Regulates the functioning of thyroid gland and promotes hair growth.

Vajra Asana (Diamond pose): Reduces stress levels.

Kapalbhati Pranayama: Helps to oxygenate the head and strengthens the abdominal muscles.

Bhastrika Pranayam: Helps remove wind, bile and phlegm Naadi Shodhan Pranayam: Helps the heart, asthma and arthritis.

If yoga can help in some ailments and is inexpensive would it not help the NHS and the world in general if it were introduced into the NHS or general health system?

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi initiated the United Nations to declare June 21st as International Yoga Day. He said “Yoga embodies the mind and soul; thought and action…harmony between man and nature, a holistic approach to health and well being” He is right - yoga is more than just exercise. 21st June is more than an ordinary day – it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and it has special significance – just like International Yoga Day. Yoga organizations will be doing special yoga sessions on 21st June around UK. With the invite of Lee Scott MP a number of Yoga Organizations are launching International Yoga Day on Monday 26th January afternoon at one of the House of Parliament Associated Buildings- in Portcullis House Bridge Street London SW1. For those who are into yoga or who are running yoga classes and want to be part of International Yoga Day please email us at info@coolherbals.com or ring 020 85979039.

The Nutrigro Scalp Roller Kit For Thinning Hair

Coolherbals Ltd. 386 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex, IG3 9JU

www.coolherbals.com

Tel: 020 8597 9039 Email: ravi@coolherbals.com

28

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Vijay in Hollywood film?

A

European firm has reportedly expressed interest to cast Vijay in the lead role of an English film it intends to make. The 'Ilaya Thalapathi' is, however, yet to give his consent, it is said. The grapevine has it that the company has acquired the English and German remake rights of an upcoming Tamil movie 'Onnumay Puriyala', directed by Apsara Ramkumar. It is learnt that the firm has approached Vijay to be the protagonist of the movie's English version, which would be later dubbed in German. Will Vijay say okay? His fans are waiting.

What Impressed Nayanthara?

A

high profile actress, currently working with Jeyam Ravi on “Thani Oruvan,” Udhayanidhi on “Nanbenda” and a project, each with Suriya and Simbu, Nayanthara has a tightly packed calendar. However, when approached by Ashwin Saravanan, she readily nodded. Surprisingly, it's a small budget movie! So what is it that impressed Nayan? Ashwin is gearing up for his launch with the project tentatively titled 'Night Show'. It is about a woman and her relationship with a little girl. And as the title suggests, the film belongs in the horror genre, and it is the story, that is said to have impressed Nayan for a nod. The film, Ashwin promises, will be a very different horror subject.

Aari of “Nendunchalai” fame plays the lead actor in the film.

'Baby'

“Baby” is an espionage action thriller film directed by Neeraj Pandey. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa Taapsee Pannu, Mikaal Zulfiqar and Madhurima Tuli.

H

Akshara as Sridevi's daughter

er father and Sridevi are one of the successful on-screen pairs of Tamil cinema. And now, it seems Akshara Haasan, the younger daughter of Kamal Haasan, will play Sridevi's daughter in an upcoming Hindi film. Akshara, who is making her acting debut with Balki's “Shamitabh”, has signed a new movie to be produced by Boney Kapoor, says a Bollywood source. It will have his son Arjun Kapoor in the lead. In the film, Akshara will play the foster daughter of Sridevi. Shooting for the movie is expected to begin soon. Meanwhile, Akshara is eagerly waiting for the release of “Shamitabh.”

U

Dhanush's next moving in fast pace

p in Bollywood, 'Shamitab' is close to its release, and here in Kolly, 'Anegan' is up next for the National Award winning actor, Dhanush. It is well known that he is currently working on a project for director Balaji Mohan, titled 'Maari'. This film is also pacing fast towards completion, say the sources. Three schedules down, the

Ajay Singh Rajput (played by Akshay Kumar) is one army officer who is part of an elite team chosen from amongst the best in the Forces to form a covert Counter Intelligence Unit. In the course of foiling one terrorist attack bid, Ajay discovers a major threat to the nation – a plan to cause damage and strike fear at the heart of very existence of the people.

The plot is masterminded by a maniacal leader whose organization has its tentacles spread across the world. As days progress, the unit goes through escalating challenges with time ticking against them and risks escalating. At all points, the members of the unit give it all they've got and stand tall to guard us with all their strength so that the people may sleep safe in their homes. Covert and courageous operations are performed across Kathmandu, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Delhi and Mumbai as the protectors will not rest till evil is defeated.

'Dolly Ki Doli'

“Dolly Ki Doli” is a romantic comedy film, directed by debutant Abhishek Dogra and produced by actor Arbaaz Khan under his production house Arbaaz Khan Productions. The film stars Sonam

fourth schedule of shooting for 'Maari' will commence soon. 'Maari' stars Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead. Produced

by Sarath Kumar, Radhika Sarath Kumar and Listin Stephen, together, 'Maari' is rom-com by Balaji Mohan, expected to be a summer 2015 entertainer. Music for this project is composed by Anirudh.

Priyanka to star opposite Fawad Khan?

Kapoor in the title role and also features Pulkit Samrat, Rajkummar Rao and Varun Sharma. “Dolly Ki Doli” is the story of a con woman who robs men by faking her marriage. She "meets, clandestinely pursues and traps young men to marry and on the first night of their wedded life, she makes away with all the money and jewellery. Pulkit Samrat is a cop who is assigned to ferret out the conteam that works and succeeds in these heists." The movie centres around different weddings where the bride, Dolly (Kapoor's character), a young con marries men from different religions and runs away with their wealth.

G

rapevine suggests that Priyanka Chopra might be considering “Khoobsurat” actor Fawad Khan to star opposite her in her debut production venture, “Madamji!” The film is being directed by Madhur Bhandarkar whose movie, “Fashion,” is said to be the turning point in PC’s career. “Madamji” revolves around an item girl who turns into a politician. Some reports even suggest that the film is inspired by Sanjay Dutt’s wife Manyata Dutt. PC is playing the item girl but details about the role Fawad has been offered are yet to come.

29

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Madhurima Tuli jumps from TV to film in 'Baby' Sunny Leone seduces Ram Kapoor A

M

adhurima Tuli has been a favourite on TV commercials and she has also been a part of the “Khatron Ke Khiladi” series on the small screen.

Now that she's taken a jump into films with Neeraj Pandey’s “Baby,” Madhurima has every reason to be delighted. She says, "I am excited as well as nervous. There are butterflies in my stomach. It is the film I have been waiting for the longest time. I have been a familiar face on television and I was called for an audition which the makers liked and I was on board.”

She explains, "I play Akshay Kumar's wife in the film. I do not have any scene where the plot required my character to do any action. For me, it

was a film with Akshay Kumar. Who would not like to do a film with him?

In terms of role, obviously “Baby” is about the mission, but definitely my role will also be integral to the film."

Actor Rana Daggubati will be seen starring alongside Akshay Kumar in the film and he is all praise for the action star.

He says, "Akshay is very disciplined and it's great to work with such actors.

He is certainly an action hero who has experimented with all the roles.”

Akshay Kumar says, "I don't want to be typecast in any particular genre. I think no one can ask me this question that why do I only do the same kind of films because I have never done that in my career. I

'Hawaizaada' not a biopic: Ayushmann

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ctor Ayushmann Khurrana, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film “Hawaizaada,” says his film is based on the real life story of scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade but it is not a biopic. In the film Ayushmann is playing the role of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who is supposed to have constructed and flown India's first unnamed airplane in 1895. "I can not term this (Hawaizaada) film as a biopic because nothing is known about this person (Shivkar Talpade). You know about Milkha Singh, about Mary Kom (MC Mary Kom), about Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), but you don't know about Shivkar Talpade. So, technically this is not a biopic," Ayushmann said.

would like to be known as an actor and not a superstar. I don't like the tag of superstar."

Akshay says “Baby” deals with the serious issue of counter terrorism. He has once again teamed up with director Neeraj Pandey after the critically lauded and commercially successful “Special 26,” this time playing an undercover agent. "In today's time, terrorism is a big issue.

Every nation is facing this problem and we should all take this seriously and try to fight with it. The story of 'Baby' is about that.

There is a group of 27-28 people and their only mission is to finish terrorism from everywhere. And this group is still immature so the code name of their mission is Baby,” Akshay says. The film will be distributed in UK by Filmonix.

The actor adds that the subject is very close to his heart. "Every film I do is special for me. My father was in the army. So I know many things about the services and I find myself quite close to the army men. I feel very proud whenever I do an army based film," he adds.

Aamir sends notice to Pak websites

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ctor Aamir Khan has sent a legal notice to some Pakistani websites for carrying his 'fabricated' interview on religion with reference to his latest release “PK.” Anand Desai who sent the notice on Aamir's behalf said the actor was wrongly attributed for the interview. "Aamir Khan was shocked to find an interview attributed to him on several Pakistani websites in relation to his latest film PK. He has never given such an interview. It is clearly a fabrication by someone trying to impersonate him, done with the intent of drawing visitors to their website, and is defamatory to our client," Desai said. "... Today we sent legal notices on behalf of Khan to the websites... The impersonation is a very serious infringement of our client's rights, and we will take legal recourse. Khan will be filing a criminal complaint with the Cybercrime Cell, Mumbai Police after he returns to Mumbai," Desai said.

fter a triple role in last year's biggest dud “Humshakals,” Ram Kapoor who made XXL sexy in Ekta Kapoor's longrunning soap, “Bade Acche Lagte Hai,” will now be seen as a rich Gujrati businessman in the sex-comedy, “Kuch Kuch Locha Hai.” Sunny Leone plays a successful actress in the film. The film's first look revealed Leone in a pink bikini and a shellshocked Ram Kapoor. Now, the director has turned up the heat with a sizzling dance number. The recently shot song shows the former adult star crawling up to Ram Kapoor on all fours and RD Burman's romantic number 'Jaane Do Na' from Ramesh Sippy's 1984 love triangle 'Saagar' plays in the background.

However, unlike the original, which had Rishi Kapoor getting frisky with a red saree-clad with Dimple Kapadia, the present-day adaptation has Ram seated on a couch

with Sunny trying to seduce him.

Composer Arko Pravo Mukherjee whose reworked version of Feroz Khan's 1988 hit Aaj phir tum pe, went viral after Hate Story 2, has come up with this track which he

categorically states, "is not a remix". Arko, who had been told to tailor it with Sunny in mind says, "With a little of the original, a little hip-hop and a little of Sunny, it's even more sensual and groovy than the original," he asserts.

Inspiration is the keyword for Shahid Kapoor

L

ate last year gave Shahid Kapoor what is being considered “the best performance of his career.”

Critics and industry folk showered him with praise for his performance in Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Haider.”

Yet, asked about his success, the 33-year-old actor credits his contemporaries for inspiring him.

“Barfi! ( 2 0 1 2 ) , 'Kahaani' (2012) and 'Bhaag Milkha B h a a g '

(2013), among others, inspired me to go out there and make a film like that.

I’m sure somebody else felt inspired when I did 'Kaminey' (2008), and that’s how the fraternity works. It’s important for all of us to inspire each other,” says Shahid, who has come a long way since his candyfloss debut, “Ishq Vishk” (2003).

Today, however, he feels that young actors are far luckier. “When I made my debut, there were no new directors, no new heroines, and new-

Ajay Devgn, Milan Luthria join hands again

T

-Series brings back the actor director Jodi of “Once Upon A Time In Mumbai” Ajay Devgn and Milan Luthria in an emotional drama with action “Baadshaho.” Milan who has done three films with Ajay earlier says, "Ajay has always ended up deciding on doing all my earlier films within just half an hour. Ajay is a very impatient man. For 'Baadshaho' too, I called him and said how I was very excited about the film and wanted to come and narrate it to him. He was shooting and as soon as I entered his van, he said, `Bol, bol, bol kya hai' I told him the idea and he said done again within just half an hour. My big excitement is to have cast Ajay again."

comers didn’t get opportunities. Actors today have no idea how lucky they are,” he says, adding that unlike 10 years ago, the opportunities for “everyone to be seen” are “limitless”.

The other advantage that Shahid feels that young actors have nowadays is that they’re yet to confine themselves to a particular genre or role.

“The new generation of actors still needs to find themselves.” Meanwhile, there was strong buzz that the actor was in Delhi to get engaged to a girl from the Capital. However, when contacted, his spokesperson rubbished the rumour.

Kareena not in biopic on Azharuddin's life

K

areena Kapoor is no longer associated with the biopic being made on former Indian s k i p p e r Azharuddin's life. A source has been quoted as saying in the report that "Kareena had intended to do the film and even had a few meetings with Ekta Kapoor (the film's producer). But the talks were at a preliminary stage. No paperwork had been done. Bebo is more keen on Abhishek Chaubey's drugs drama, “Udta Punjab,” which goes on floors around the same time. She has started preparatory work on it." The source further adds that the makers are now looking for another, younger actress who will be able to commit a good chunk of dates to the film. The name should be finalised by January end.

30

UK

Charity ball to help young heart patients

A charity ball is being held to help raise money to send medical teams to India and Kashmir to help save children’s lives.

The Leicestershire charity Healing Little Hearts sends volunteer medical teams to India every four to six weeks.

Each team comprises between six and eight doctors and nurses who operate on babies and young children born with heart defects.

It was founded by Dr Sanjiv Nichani, pictured, a consultant paediatrician at Leicester’s hospitals seven years ago. “We have

gone from strength to strength over the years.

We now operate in six hospitals in India and by the end of last year we had completed 525 life saving operations.”

Dr Nichani set up the charity to help some of the

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

60,000 children born in India with heart problems and who do not have access to medical care.

Children’s heart specialists from across Britain volunteer to join the regular trips.

Healing Little Hearts pays for flights and accommodation is usually provided by the hospitals volunteers visit.

Each trip costs about £5,000 and lasts about two weeks in which time the visiting team operates on between 10 and 15 children.

Dr Nichani said: “We are now looking to send

intensive care unit specialists to centres where there is a surgeon but not the intensive care unit expertise. We are also considering going to other parts of the world, one possibility is Africa where we can particularly help in teaching in intensive care.”

Healing Little Hearts is hosting the Give with Love back tie ball on Saturday, February 14. It will be held at the Platinum Suite, Cobden Street and will include a three course meal, provided by Sanjay Foods, and complimentary wine on each table.

who really don’t understand the business because it’s really difficult for someone to appreciate what the business is about.

The people are out there.

It’s about finding them and turning their heads.”

The company makes robots which assemble parts such as car doors, and then thoroughly checks them to ensure all the wiring and components are in exactly the right place. The firm’s

robots also carry out the incredibly fiddly task of making many contact lenses very quickly and very precisely. It is this level of detail and efficiency which has led to a flurry of orders from parts suppliers working for the likes of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Toyota, Nissan and Honda. It is also set to benefit from a range of new models at Crewe-based luxury car brand Bentley.

The company is currently looking for 10 new staff to add to its workforce of 60, who are based at its main factory unit in Winchester Avenue, Blaby Industrial Park, and another in Lutterworth Road, Cosby.

ATM’s turnover in the year to May 30, 2015, will be about £7 million. This is expected to increase to £10 million the following year.

ATM Automation, maker of industrial robots, struggles to find skilled staff

ATM Automation, the only producer of industrial robots in the UK, is desperately looking for designers and engineers to create cutting-edge equipment to manufacture new cars and medical products.

The Blaby company, which makes the robots which assemble car parts for Jaguar and Toyota, is aiming to lure skilled staff from big names such as Derby-based Rolls-Royce, which recently announced it was shedding 190 jobs in the city.

Director of robotics

Sabir Hirji said: “We are growing faster than we expected, to be honest. We have been working with recruitment companies

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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 You should enjoy a very popular phase in your life where everyone wants to invite you to parties. This will give you a chance to meet people and pursue any romantic liaisons that might present themselves. Your communications are extremely high making it easy to close those lucrative deals.

You know you’ve got no choice but to streamline and reassess your priorities before haphazardly saying yes to everything that smells like a potential opportunity. Try to create a balance between expansion and conservation. Jupiter in Leo makes you feel invincible, base your decisions on facts.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

Developments during this week are likely to make you feel rather restless, perhaps because you have allowed yourself to fall into a routine that is now becoming jaded. If so, then the hint of change will be extremely welcome, even if it might entail an element of disruption. Adaptable and versatile, as you are, it is unlikely that even a major change will faze you.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

At work sometimes a little upheaval and chaos is exactly what you need to set things right again. There’s no need to be complacent: the time is now. Unpredictable energies continue to influence your health sector, bringing erratic highs and lows.

The key for you as always is to remain calm and collected.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

Anything or anyone that drains your time and energy should be re-evaluated. It’s time to use that creative imagination of yours to create grandeur in your life. Don't get too carried away and lose sight of little things that mean a lot to you. There are a lot of opportunities around you.

If your ambitions have been undefined, don't worry as from now on, you understand exactly what kind of impact you need to make on the world.

All those little details should run perfectly, without you constantly worrying. That means you can focus on matters that are important to you. Health-wise you will be feeling fit.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

You have everything to gain by following creative inclinations. If you have new ideas, now is the time to put them into practice. Whatever your present interests you are likely to find that new doors open and the way ahead offers increased scope for expressing your real self. A great time to meet and interact with people.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

Responsibility is your key word, especially at work. Set your own goals, rather than trying to meet those set by someone else. Your ability to manage what you have on your plate earns respect from others around you. You will benefit in every way if you learn to self-discipline and pace yourself wisely.

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SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 This is a good time to appreciate what you have already created in your life. Of course, there are still challenging issues on both a personal and practical level. To get here you may have overcome obstacles by making important decision and choices that set the direction of your life.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20 The fiery planet Mars is the moving force in regard to amorous experience, giving more than just a hint that links between lovers will be rather intense and passionate. Your attitude to material interests is likely to undergo some deep change. On a material level the trend greatly favours anything geared towards establishing greater financial stability.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 An exchange of opinions ought to prove very enlivening at this time. An influence that should help to enjoy the 'nicer' side of others as bring out the best in friends, colleagues and partners alike. A wind of change may be in the air; attention should turn to the wider world and benefits come from broadening of horizons and mental stimuli.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

You will continue to be in a restless mood for some time to come. This makes you impatient with restrictions and even more determined to cut your own path. Do not get over-anxious if everything seems to be in slow motion - it is time to pull a few strings. You are likely to experience some tension in close relationships.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

India can win World Cup: Fletcher

Duncan Fletcher, India's coach, believes the team can defend their ICC World Cup title in Australia and New Zealand because of the feeling of continuity between the Test and ODIs squads as well as their ability to chase big totals.

Ahead of his third World Cup as a coach, and first with India, Fletcher referred to India's unbeaten run during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England as signs of the team's capability overseas.

"I am very excited, especially given the side we have. I think we are a good chance to win after the way the team has been building over the last three-four years," he said. "A big reason for my belief is our Champions Trophy (2013) victory in England. We played in very foreign conditions that didn't suit the side and yet we played so well that we didn't lose a single match. That shows that the side is used to winning and that's really exciting." India's squad for the tournament features only four members of the 2011 side - captain MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina

and R Ashwin - but Fletcher, 66, did not feel that a relatively young side would be overawed. "We do want experience. You cannot beat experience," he said. "We have played three ICC tournaments in the last three years the ICC World Twenty20 2012-13 and 2014, and the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.

And people will be surprised to see that we have only lost two games in all of which one was the final.

That is quite a record to be proud of. And the team in all those tournaments was more or less the same. So, these boys do have the experience when it comes to the big tournaments and they do know how to win

them. "What makes this team special is that over the last few years they have faced all kinds of situations in the limited-overs cricket and have shown they are capable of coming out successfully from all of them.

That's why I say that we have a good chance to win this World Cup." The former England coach also stressed on the importance of continuity, and why similar Test and ODIs squads would aid India's World Cup bid. "It's very important. I truly believe that in these times if your squads are very similar in all three formats, it's a huge advantage," he said.

"The players are together all the time, they know

each other's games and the roles they have to play within the team. I've always believed that to play cricket, you need to have certain technical aspects not for the format you're playing but for the game on the whole.

"Since most of these boys have played in the Test series, they know the conditions well and how each player approaches his game in these conditions.

When too many new players come in, it takes time for everyone to get used to their little idiosyncrasies and how they cope in certain situations. But when you know each other's strengths and weaknesses, you are doing away with the learning curve and that gives you a chance to hit the ground running."

Several members of the World Cup squad have been in Australia since late November, playing two warm-up matches and four Tests. Next is the tri-series featuring Australia and England, and Fletcher felt spending a couple months in Australia before the World Cup was a "huge advantage".

Former India captain Rahul Dravid is expecting next month’s cricket World Cup to be an aggressive affair as he feels the revamped ODI rules will push teams into selecting attacking bowlers over part-timers.

Dravid said new rules, which mandate five fielders inside the 30-yard circle at all times in an innings, will have a huge impact on how the teams work out their strategies at the showpiece event starting on February 14.

“With the two new balls, the fast bowlers will get that level of assistance up front. The grounds are bigger too so it won’t be that easy to clear the ropes. I think it will be a

Rahul Dravid challenge for the captains.

For example, when you have five fielders in the ring, it’s very hard to play a part-time bowler,” Dravid said.

“You are almost being forced to play five specialist bowlers. That is a real positive. You are going to be forced to attack and look for wickets rather than see part-timers bowl for a large period of play,”

he said. Only two fielders are allowed outside the circle for the first 10 overs.

Just three fielders are mandated to be outside the circle during the five Powerplay overs to be taken by the batting team before the 40th over.

Former South African captain Graeme Smith said the new rules will make proceedings very exciting. “If teams get partnerships in these conditions with the five in the ring, the Powerplay at the back-end, that’s when they are really going to get the opportunity to score big runs,” Smith said.

“You are always looking at your attack and saying we can’t afford to carry two part-timers, we need

an extra wicket-taker here.

If you don’t pick up wickets through your bowling session, you will be chasing a big total,” he explained.

Dravid said spinners will have a huge role to play in the tournament despite Australia and New Zealand’s reputation of having seamer-friendly tracks. “Those are the grounds we are going to be playing the World Cup in.

They have been really slow and the spinners have come into play. You are just going to have to balance it out. There might be places where you go and say, the spinner might not have such a big impact on that particular day,” Dravid said.

The convictions of three Pakistan cricketers jailed for spot-fixing in 2011 are being reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) following doubts over the credibility of ‘Fake Sheik’ reporter Mazher Mahmood.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were handed fiveyear bans by the International Cricket Council, on the basis of evidence from a sting operation by Mahmood in the News of the World.

However, after concerns over Mahmood’s evidence led to the collapse of a recent trial involving former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos, the case is one of 25 being reviewed by the CPS.

Englishman Stephen Constantine was appointed head coach of Indian men's football team, paving the way for his return at the helm of affairs for the second time. The 52-year-old Constantine, who is also be the coach of the India Under-23 national team, is expected to take charge from the first week of next month.

"All India Football Federation confirms the appointment of Constantine as the Head Coach of the Senior Men's National Team of India.

Constantine will also be in charge of the India U-23 National Team," the AIFF said in a release.

Constantine was India coach from 2002 till 2005, during which the national

Stephen Constantine team won the LG Cup in Vietnam and finished runners-up in the Afro Asian Games. He was the head coach of the Rwanda national team before he was offered the India job.

According to sources, Constantine will get significantly lower salary than what his predecessor Wim Koevermans was getting.

Dutchman Koevermans reportedly got around $20,000 per month before

he left the job recently after a just over two-year stint.

The name of Constantine, who has coached the national teams of Nepal, Malawi and Sudan, besides Rwanda, was recently cleared by the AIFF Technical Committee headed by former captain Bhaichung Bhutia.

He got the nod ahead of former New Zealand coach and India Super League franchise side NorthEast United FC coach Ricki Herbert mainly due to his earlier Indian experience.

The Englishman guided the Africans to their highestever world ranking of 68 in last month's FIFA Rankings.

Duncan Fletcher

New rules will make World Cup exciting: Dravid

Convictions of Pak cricketers being reviewed

Constantine appointed India's football coach

SPORT WORLD

Smith to lead Australia against England

31

Steven Smith will lead Australia in Friday's tri-series match against England in absence of suspended George Bailey, Cricket Australia said. Opening batsman David Warner has also been rested from the one-day international at Hobart to recover from a sore hamstring.ent.

Shaun Marsh and Cameron White will replace Bailey and Warner in the squad for Friday's match, when Australia will target their third consecutive victory in the tri-series. The International Cricket Council banned Bailey, who was leading the side in place of injured regular skipper Michael Clarke, after Sunday's match against India for a second over-rate offence in 12 months. "Steven's appointment was a straightforward decision given the excellent impression he made in charge of the side during the ... test series when he stepped in for the injured Michael Clarke," national selector Rodney Marsh said. "It is unfortunate for George Bailey that he will miss the match in his home state but in Steven we have a dynamic player who leads from the front, by example, and we look forward to him doing so again on Friday."

Sangakkara joins Surrey for 2015 season

English cricket county side Surrey confirmed the signing of Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara. "He is a five-star player and that is important because he will be working with our homegrown players," Alec Stewart, director of the county club was quoted as saying. Sangakkara previously played county cricket for Warwickshire and Durham.

"He is the number one Test batsman in the world but it's the special character that he has which is as important to us," Stewart added. Sangakkara is currently the top-ranked Test batsman and fifth alltime highest run scorer in the longest form of the game. The left-handed batsman is also the fourth highest One-Day Internationals (ODI) run-scorer with 13,414. The 37-year-old is to retire from ODIs after the impending World Cup.

Paes-Klaasen win Heineken Open title

India's Leander Paes and his South African partner Raven Klaasen, seeded fourth, beat Dominic Inglot and Florin Mergea to win the Heineken Open men's doubles title in Auckland.

They beat the BritishRomanian pairing 7-6 (1), 6-4 at the $ 519,395 hard court event for their first title this year. It was the second consecutive final for Paes and Klassen, after finishing runners-up at the Chennai Open. Stronger service helped the fourth seeds edge their opponents in the first set. Both teams were poor with their breakpoints conversion and failed to grasp their chances and in the end it had to be decided in the tie-break. The second set was again a close affair but Paes and Klaasen managed to convert two breakpoint opportunities out of five to take home the title.

Younis Khan has no plans to quit after World Cup

Pakistan's experienced middle-order batsman Younis Khan has no plans to quit limited-overs cricket after the World Cup and said that as long as he stays fit he would continue to be available to play both oneday internationals and test matches. The 37-year-old Khan is one of Pakistan's fittest players and forced his way back into the World Cup squad after his scintillating batting form in the test series against Australia and New Zealand late last year. He made three centuries in four innings against Australia and another against New Zealand to make the selectors rethink his exclusion from the limited-overs team. "How come you know that it's my last World Cup?" asked Khan when queried about whether this will be his last major ODI tournament.

"Whenever I feel my body is not allowing me to play, only then I will retire." Pakistan captain Misbah-ulHaq and flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi have already announced plans to retire from ODIs after the tournament in Australia and New Zealand ends in March.

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SPORT

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 24th January 2015

Finn, Anderson run through India

A year after he had gone back home from Brisbane, midway during the Ashes tour, Steven Finn announced his comeback to top-flight cricket with a maiden five-for that ripped apart India's batting order after they had recovered from a shaky start. Finn's charge turned 1 for 57 into 5 for 67, and 5 for 137 into 153, their lowest all-out score against England.

That after India had decided to bat on a hard Gabba surface only to be undone by the extra bounce on the pitch. Ian Bell helped England chase the target down in 27.3 overs, claiming the crucial bonus point and a big net run rate boost.

India had to contend with inauspicious news just before the match.

Their centurion from the MCG ODI, Rohit Sharma, had to pull out with a sore hamstring, which meant Ajnikya Rahane was required to fill in as opener again. It is, however, the other opener that has been India's problem on this tour. Against a rejuvenated and accurate James

Anderson, who is returning from injury himself, Shikhar Dhawan stood no chance. It only seemed a matter of time that Anderson would get one right and Dhawan would nick off. It happened the first time Anderson bowled to Dhawan. By the time Anderson finished the over in which Dhawan got out, his figures read 22-0-1. Rahane and Ambati Rayudu - the replacement for Rohit - batted edgily but stayed together for 12 overs, adding 56 runs.

They had seen off the threat of Anderson and scored well against Stuart

Broad, who didn't seem to be at his most intense.

There were no easy runs on offer, though. The two had to repeatedly leave their crease to try to put the England bowlers off their lengths, but they succeeded too infrequently.

When Rahane tried to do the same to Finn, the ball got too big, and the inevitable top edge appeared.

Virat Kohli, who for some reason has given up the No. 3 slot despite having been the best ODI No. 3 in the world at that moment, soon edged to the keeper, playing a nothing

dab despite the presence of a slip. Finn's extra bounce again did the trick. Kohli's movement deep into the crease just before Finn had delivered hinted at desperation at how difficult scoring runs had been. Suresh Raina, who scored a halfcentury in Melbourne to rescue India, provided a reminder of how difficult India had found Moeen Ali in the English summer, walking past an offbreak.

The movement out of the crease again came too early. Soon Rayudu too failed to handle Finn's bounce as he looked to run one down to third man.

India had lost four wickets in the space of 27 deliveries, but MS Dhoni and Stuart Binny - playing in the place of R Ashwin stalled the momentum with a 70-run partnership.

Binny ended up with the top score of 44.

Australia clinch the tie Despite putting up a much improved performance, India were still left looking for their first win on the tour of Australia after losing to the hosts in their first game of the tris-

eries. They came pretty close to achieving it, but their effort fell short as the home team sneaked home with an over and four wickets to spare in a match that could have gone either way at the MCG on Sunday.

The result may not have been the ideal start the Indians would have hoped for, but in the context of the upcoming World Cup, it surely was a step forward. The most notable takeaway was the return to form of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina and the late fightback by the bowlers.

Sharma, the holder of the highest ODI score, produced another topnotch innings (138) that helped India post a total of 268 which seemed a decent one. Australia should have won the game hands down as at one stage Aaron Finch and skipper Steve Smith were going great guns. But they allowed India to crawl back by recklessly giving away wickets. But James Faulkner, who is building a reputation of being a fine

finisher, got a couple of boundaries in the penultimate over to clinch the issue for his team.

Australia trump England with bonus point Australian opener David Warner led his team to an emphatic three-wicket win over England in the opening one-day international of the triangular series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

The powerful left-hander's commanding century cancelled out a long overdue ton by new England skipper Eoin Morgan to help the Australians earn a bonus point for reaching the target inside 40 overs.

Morgan's lone hand of 121 off 136 balls with 11 fours and three sixes enabled England to recover from a disastrous start to make 234 in 47.5 overs.

Warner then made 127, breaking his own drought with his first one-day international ton since back-toback hundreds against Sri Lanka in 2012, as Australia cruised to the victory target with 61 balls to spare, finishing on 235 for seven from 39.5 overs.