India Abroad - Powerlist

August 2009

THE

POWER LIST

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THE POWER LIST

From the Editor W hen India A b r o a d brought out its first Power List in 2008, we little knew that in the course of just weeks of its publication, it would snowball into a brand; one that found acceptance not merely within the community, but from the mainstream.

Even less did we anticipate that we would, from the start of this year, be inundated with widespread demands JIT for a second in the series.

We have learnt much from this: from the inaugural Power List itself, we learnt the sheer depth, the size and scope of the community’s achievements across the spectrum of activity. We learnt that we had grown from a community that came to Canada out of a desperate drive to better its individual prospects, to one that had insinuated itself into the weft and warp of mainstream society.

And from the demand for a follow up to the successful first edition, we measured the thirst of a community that seeks to have its considerable accomplishments catalogued in a way that could serve as exemplars for others.

So here it is, the second in the exercise – the India Abroad Power List 2009.

Straightaway, you will notice many missing names, from fields as diverse as politics and business and information technology and engineering and the world of the arts and sciences. That is by design – the second Power List seeks to pick up where the first one left off.

Thus, if in our inaugural edition we sought to introduce you to a rich cross section of movers and shakers, in this second edition we hope to

A

introduce you to as many more.

In that sense, this second edition links arms with the first; together, they provide a snapshot of community achievements across the spectrum.

As with the first edition, it is important to keep one central tenet in mind: While the 35 people profiled in the first edition and the thirty people profiled in the one you now hold in your hands represent the cream of community achievement, the list is by no means exhaustive.

For every person we included, AIN we had reluctantly to exclude a half dozen.

And therein lies a story: we, as a community, can take just pride in what we have accomplished and what we continue to accomplish within the larger framework. A decade ago, 15 years ago, we would have probably struggled to put together a list of 30 achievers whose deeds deserved widespread attention. Today, we have across two editions profiled twice that many achievers – and are left impressed, and bewildered, by the many more that demand inclusion.

Within these pages you will find prominent personalities in the field of health and medicine; businessmen who excel at what they do and entrepreneurs who have gone beyond the limits of their field and into the realm of philanthropy; prominent lawyers who have helped reshape the laws that govern us all; academics who tend to the minds of the next generation; artistes of the highest calibre…

In short, you will find achievement that spans every field of activity known to us. And in the story of twelve-year-old Bilaal Rajan you will find reassurance that if this generation

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3 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST has excelled, the next one is poised to scale even greater heights.

Welcome to the second Power List, through which India Abroad celebrates not just the

individuals profiled but the community as a whole – a community that continues to raise the bar of achievement to heights previously undreamt of.

From left: Steve Gupta, Rashmi Gupta, Ajit Jain, Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the first India Abroad Power List, Conservative lawmaker Deepak Obhrai and Surjit Babra

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, center, at his Queen’s Park office after being presented with a copy of the first India Abroad Power List. The group includes some of those profiled in the first Power List and some of their family members

4 India Abroad August 2009

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THE POWER LIST

Serial entrepreneur From being an entrepreneur to creating them is a logical step up for ADITYA JHA

Entrepreneurship

at a higher level is also about empowerment, which goes beyond the pride of ownership and the financial freedom and elevates self-esteem to newer heights, says Aditya Jha, 52.

Jha, who co-founded the technology venture Isopia Inc in 1999 and sold it to Sun Microsystems for US$ 100 Million in June 2001, fits the image of a quintessential technology entrepreneur, but with a difference.

In the Silicon Valley model, after one has made millions, one moves on to making more millions.

Jha broke the model at this point by opting instead to nurture entrepreneurship amongst Canadian aboriginals and serve as agent of change for what he calls ‘third-world people in first-world Canada.’

It all began at a function when Grand Chief Beardy of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation spoke of the plight of his people who have for long been neglected by mainstream Canada. Jha was well-versed with the typical immigrant’s challenges and struggles to gain a foothold in a new land, but to see Native Canadians go through such indignities moved him.

His response was Project Beyshick, Business Plan grants and several endowments at Canadian universities that he now runs through his private foundation, POA Educational Foundation.

“There is no dearth of talent and opportunities in any group of people” says Jha. “What they often lack is the exposure to the culture of success.”

To address that need, he launched the job-shadowing program Project Beyshick with the participation of top executives and entrepreneurs.

As the youth interact with their role models, they acquire the skills they need to transform their own lives. Their first-hand exposure to success and leadership makes them hungry to replicate it when they go back to their communities. This success, Jha hopes, will in turn inspire others, creating a benevolent vicious cycle. In this fashion, Project Beyshick is revolutionizing the lives of First Nations and leaving a deep, transformational impact on Canadian society.

“A lot of my young people have the education and training but they don’t have the confidence in themselves,” explains Grand Chief Beardy. “This mentoring program that Aditya (Jha) has initiated is for confidence building, as all young people need is a little push. After spending a few weeks job shadowing in Toronto, these young people are totally different.”

While Jha is busy nurturing entrepreneurs, he doesn’t lose sight of his own professional life. His latest venture takes him away from technology, and has him involved with the Hamilton-based Karma Candy, a chocolate company. Jha says it is a “brick & mortar industry”; Karma Candy is a contract manufacturer of branded and premium label chocolate and candy products.

It is just another milestone in a career that, over 15 years, has seen him play a plethora of roles: General Manager at Bell Canada; co-founder of two technology ventures; a turn-around venture executive/entrepreneur; campaign chair for UNICEF Canada and campaign committee member for Ryerson University, a government appointee to the First Nations Financial Management Board and to the Ontario Investment Promotion Advisory Council, and so on.

Such a diverse portfolio suits Jha, who thrives on diversity in professional life. He believes the honorary doctorate that he recently will receive from the Ryerson University in October reflects his “visionary and intellectual side.”

He believes that thanks to his accomplishments, he has now reached the stage where those he calls in the corridors of power respond to him. From that vantage point, he believes in the value of institutionalizing change, and firmly believes that influencing public policy, which he does as national convener of the Canada-India Foundation, is the right way to go.

6 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Shipping success When opportunity knocked, AJAY VIRMANI was awake — and went from window washer to Canada’s cargo magnate

In

the freezing cold of November 1975, Ajay Virmani was suspended outside the 52nd floor of the TD Center in Toronto, washing windows to earn his daily bread.

Today, Virmani is President and CEO of Cargojet, the company he founded in 2002, took public, and has built into the third-largest Canadian airline. The company has a fleet of 34 cargo aircraft including 12 B727-200 Advance Freighters; two state-of-the-art wide-bodied B767-200 Extended Range aircraft, the first of their kind in Canada; one Boeing 757-200 Extended Range aircraft. And it has acquired Georgian Express and Prince Edward Air, and rebranded these companies into Cargojet Regional, offering the services of 28 small craft.

Virmani employs 500 people including 100 engineers and mechanics besides 150 pilots, and pulls in revenue in excess of $200 million even as Cargojet continues to win industry awards. “We have won the Air Cargo Excellence Award, we were selected as the Outstanding Large Business in Hamilton and year over year for six years, Canadian Shippers have selected Cargojet as the ‘Cargo Airline of the Year’, and I was selected Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.”

From his vantage point at the pinnacle of success, Virmani laughs as he recalls landing in Toronto without winter clothing and getting a job as a window cleaner. That lasted for just one day; when the company mailed him a check for his work he was startled. “I thought nobody would pay me,” he recalls.

He moved to assembling speakers and selling life insurance before landing a junior position at transportation company Cottrell. Shipping and moving cargo efficiently and on time became his passion — and is responsible, he says, for his success. Hard work, he believes, helps him stay ahead of his employees, many of whom are on paper far more qualified than he is.

Why not an MBA, Virmani recalls asking himself back in 1983, when he first realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

“My wife was working. I had one baby girl and the second one was on the way. I had to take a loan from the bank to help me while I studied two years for my MBA in New York.” He was already in debt to the tune of $20,000; another $20,000 won’t hurt, he told himself. Cottrell kept him on in a part-time capacity. In his rickety car, he commuted weekly between Toronto and Buffalo and, each week, took the $19 flight from Buffalo to New York. His MBA changed his position at Cottrell. The company made him head of their air cargo arm, and offered him a partnership which he accepted for a brief period before he left Cottrell and acquired a small company. Ironically, Cottrell — which had been bought over by five of its own managers, all former colleagues — found itself in financial difficulties and came knocking at his door, to ask if he would buy it up.

Around that time, Canada 3000’s cargo side was going bank-

rupt. Virmani acquired 50 percent of that company as a start and, when the terrorist attack of 9/11 created an atmosphere of uncertainty, bought the remaining 50 percent, rebranded the company and re-launched it as Cargojet, the only airline in Canada fully dedicated to cargo.

9/11 created challenges but also opportunities, Virmani says. “We were able to get good people who were laid off by aviation companies,” he recalls. Equally importantly, he was able to buy planes with book values of $40 million for around $4 million. “Buying those planes was a big risk – but for me, it was a calculated, educated risk.”

Cargojet now dominates the Canadian cargo market, and has gradually begun branching out into various US destinations.

Virmani’s ambitions have only been further fuelled – the goal, he says, is to make his company an international success.

Work consumes him, but he still finds time for other pursuits.

Thus, he invested money in Deepa Mehta’s films Water and Bollywood/Hollywood, for which he was executive producer.

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar calls him ‘dad’, and invariably stays in his luxurious home on the lake front whenever he’s in Toronto. “I have been involved in Broadway musicals also, and have made investments in these in London, New York and Toronto,” says Virmani, who was a major backer of the Toronto International Film Festival’s initiative a few years ago to showcase Bollywood films.

Over the years, he has seen much change in the land he has made his home. Today, he says, Canada is more friendly, and provides a better environment for immigrants, than when he first arrived. “I think people shouldn’t be afraid to venture into business , to take some calculated risks in life,’ he says, pointing out that his own example indicates the vast opportunities Canada offers. “It is a great place to build a strong and promising life.”

7 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Life, between covers ANITA RAU BADAMI channels the tragedies of life into books that explode off the shelves

Anita

Rau Badami was living with her parents in her native Chennai when, June 23, 1985, Air India’s Kanishka was blown out of the sky by terrorists. One of the 329 victims of the atrocity was her next door neighbor; his widow subsequently committed suicide.

Badami happened to be in Delhi October 31, 1984 when then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated — and in the riots that followed, she saw a Sikh man being burnt alive on the streets of the national capital.

“I had never imagined India descending into that type of chaos,” says the author of three outstanding novels Tamarind Mem, The Hero’s Walk and Can you Hear the Nightbird Call?

“Those events stayed in my memory, the horrors haunted me,” Badami recalls. “I couldn’t write about those incidents till many years later, when I had in the early part of 1990s moved to Vancouver.”

She began writing fiction through coincidence. Her first novel Tamarind Mem started out as her Master’s thesis in English Literature at the University of Calgary. “I sent the manuscript to Penguin Canada the day I handed it in to my thesis committee, and to my utter delight and astonishment, it was accepted for publication.”

Tamarind Mem, the story of a mother and daughter separated by time and geography, was an instant critical and public success, rare for a first novel. And with her second novel The Hero’s Walk, a tale of a family attempting to rebuild itself in the wake of terrible tragedy, she won the 2001 Commonwealth Prize for the Caribbean-Canada region and was short listed for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

In 1999, Badami finally began channeling her memories of those earlier tragedies, and found that writing “on such a tragedy, sort of contemporary his-

torical fiction, became a very difficult job”. It took her seven years to complete Can you Hear the Nightbird Call?

It is the story of three women and their families, and how they became linked in a bond that, spanning decades and continents, begins with hope and ends with tragedy on board that fateful Air India flight. Her knowledge of the trauma of Partition, the Sikh demand for an independent state, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the destruction of Kanishka fused into a narrative that exploded on bookshelves with stunning impact.

Each of her books, Badami says, “is a labor of love and therefore has equal weight in my affections. Each has its strengths – Tamarind Mem is fun and experimental and the language took flight in unexpected ways. The Hero’s Walk was a more considered novel; it had some of the elements that I liked in Tamarind Mem, such as the lyrical language and the humour, but was more

8 India Abroad August 2009

mature in its realization. Can you Hear the Nightbird Call? is more of a conventional novel with very simple language.

The heart of this book is the immense tragedy of lives destroyed by hate and violence.”

Her books have been translated into 15 languages, and won her dozens of awards and recognitions. She is now hard at work on her next project, but is reluctant to share details. “This is not going to be historical at all, as there are always ups and downs with such a historical project,” is all she will say.

Badami has moved from Vancouver, where she first settled on coming to Canada, to Montreal where her husband teaches in the School of Planning and Environmental Science at McGill University.

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THE POWER LIST

Dr

Arvind Joshi recalls the day a colleague referred an expecting mother to him, telling him she was expecting quadruplets.

“When I did the ultrasound, I discovered she had quintuplets, and I delivered those five healthy babies in April 1992,” said Joshi, the Montreal-based, cutting edge practitioner in the field of high risk obstetrics.

Such unusual deliveries rank among the highest rewards for those in his practice, Joshi says. There are, of course, different kinds of rewards that have come his way ever since 1997, when he became Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of St Mary’s Hospital in Montreal, which has the largest family medicine training program in Canada.

Joshi says he has loved the dozen years he has spent as the hospital’s CEO. “I have a great team that comprises 200 physicians and 1500 hospital staff such as nurses, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, etc.” He operates a $120 million annual budget, and is currently overseeing $50 million worth of capital projects.

“There used to be a building at our campus that used to be a nurses residence. I converted it into a state-of-theart academic family medicine unit. We have a brand new state-of the-art birthing center, and they have a new cancer care day center which we are in the process of rebuilding into a brand new dialysis unit.”

As a result of his intense lobbying St Mary’s, the 316-bed hospital affiliated to McGill University, has been designated as a teaching hospital. “We will now be getting so many students, residents, and we will be doing so much more research,” he says. St Mary’s has also been designated a regional center for cataract surgery, and they now do over 5,000 surger-

— I am regularly in the cafeteria and in the wards. I practice participative leadership style with our staff and professionals, and that brings me so much closer to our staff. I know many of them by name.”

Though a highly skilled obstetrician actively involved in practice and teaching at various levels, Joshi was impelled to do an MBA – seemingly, an abrupt career shift. “To be a CEO in such a big hospital you need solid clinical background, but you also need leadership and management skills,” Joshi says of his decision to do management (1988-1990) from the Universite de Montreal.

As one of the leading South Asian doctors in the country, he appeals to his peers to give back to the community – “not only the South Asian community but the community we live in, the community we have grown up with. They should consider their duty to help the less fortunate people of the world, because almost all the South Asians came here either as first generation or second generation immigrants, except the Sikhs in British Columbia who have been here for a long time.

Joshi wants the community to “tell the next generations that it is our obligation and duty to help others in the world that are less fortunate than we are – whether it is in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan or even Canada. I think we owe it to ourselves.”

Joshi lives by that precept, sitting on the board of Concordia University and various other boards and being a regular and inspirational presence at South Asian functions. A hard core family man, Joshi lives in an extended family environment that includes not just wife Doreen and his two sons, but also his 82year-old mother Savitri and Sheetal, his handicapped brother, aged 53.

Father figure

ARVIND JOSHI practices high risk obstetrics, when he is not creating a hospital system for the ages ies a month. As one of the largest birth centers in Montreal, the hospital also does the same number of births, often more.

Of his job as CEO, Joshi says “My goal is to make a difference in the lives of many patients, offering them high-level care. The important part is the satisfaction of patients as well as medical and hospital staff. We have a strong culture of caring and compassionate bedside care.”

Under his direction, St Mary’s has grown into one of the most multicultural hospitals in Canada. “We have translation capabilities in about 40 languages, and we use all these languages,” he explains. “Lots of immigrants use our services. Historically, the hospital has a reputation of being open and welcoming to everybody.”

He attributes all of this to his leadership style. “I don’t sit in my corner office

10 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

The open heart Cardiac surgeon ARVIND KOSHAL insures the future, one bypass at a time

“One

of the most outstanding things in my memory is the first artificial heart transplant in Canada,” recalls cardiovascular surgeon Dr Arvind Koshal of the time, a quarter century ago, when he trained at the Ottawa Heart Institute with Dr Wilbert Keon.

“We had just received our training for the Jarvis heart transplant. A young woman was in the operating room. In any other circumstances, she would have been declared dead, because she had a massive heart attack. I was part of the team of cardiovascular surgeons who translated that historymaking Jarvis artificial heart and saved her life.”

It was, he recalls, a time of considerable anxiety. They had to wait seven days before replacing the human heart with an artificial one. But such patience was rewarded when the surgery progressed smoothly.

“The patient survived, and lived for some 18, 20 years,” says Koshal, listing it as one of those experiences no one who was part of it can ever forget. The first ever artificial heart transplant in Canada naturally generated considerable media buzz, and “That made a huge impact on us on the use of an artificial device, particularly their useful role as a bridge to transplantation,” says Koshal.

That experience proved seminal. Thus, when he became Director of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and surgeon-in-chief, cardiovascular surgery at the University of Alberta Hospital in 1991, he envisioned and promoted the development of “an outstanding cardiac institute in Edmonton.”

Thanks to his belief and drive, Alberta now has the Heart Institute, a 600,000 sq. ft building that has 132 beds, all for cardiac patients, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper had inaugurated and which opened its doors to patients in July this year.

The Institute became possible when in 2001 the Government of Alberta recognized the Cardiac Sciences Program in Edmonton to be a Center of Excellence, for which an initial sum of $125 million was allocated. Interestingly, the community raised $37 million for the project and buoyed by this, the Alberta government added an extra $22 million to complete the project.

“This is paying for the future,” he says about the Institute. “It brings me a tremendous sense of fulfillment; I feel so humbled when I look at this building.” That sense of achievement was further heightened when his former boss and mentor Dr Keon visited him in Edmonton, and told him ‘’’There won’t be another heart institute in Canada like this one.’

For all his developmental work, Koshal is at heart a surgeon, who estimates that during his 32 years in practice he has performed at least 8,000 bypass surgeries. He uses the conventional method, where the heart is stopped after the patient is hooked to the heart-lung machine – a method he believes is

safer than the more modern beating heart surgery.

Safe does not however mean fool-proof, says Koshal, admitting that he has lost the odd patient during his career. “Our mortality rate is 1 to 2 percent, which is acceptable. Some people are in very desperate straits – no matter what you do, you cannot save them. But by and large, it is very unusual now to lose a patient on the table. We have so many things that we can do now, but medical science is still not perfect.”

He has published extensively, and been widely honored. In 1994, he received the Wilbert J Keon Award for outstanding contributions in the field of cardiovascular medicine, and in 1999 he was elected president of the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons.

He recalls how he was attending a wedding in Goa last November, when the call came in to inform him that he had been named for the Order of Canada award for 2008. The citation that came with the award said he was being named for his ‘contributions to the field of cardiac surgery in Canada, notably in performing several innovative techniques, and for his leadership in developing one of the leading cardiac care programs in the country.’

“With all these recognitions and a sense of fulfillment that the Alberta Heart Institute has finally opened its doors, it is nice to keep my head down and keep working,” Koshal says. “There’s lot of work yet to be done. I have to make sure that the Heart Institute really runs well, and it really becomes world class center that I wanted it to be.”

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THE POWER LIST

The ABC of bilateral relations BALBIR SAHNI believes that education is the most enduring bridge between two nations

Educational

linkages are most influential in fostering better understanding between any two countries, says Professor Balbir Sahni, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Concordia University.

“Education,” he says, “serves as the linchpin connecting trade and technology” – an axiom he illustrates through the prism of Canada-India relations with particular reference to the signing of the bilateral Science and Technology agreement in 2005.

Though the Colombo Plan signalled the shift into higher gear of relations between the two nations, academics suggest the relationship actually began with the establishment of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute over four decades ago.

Initially, the Institute focussed on promoting Indian studies in Canada, without any reciprocity. In 1991, Sahni was asked by India’s University Grants Commission to co-chair an expert group for the development of Canadian Studies in India, and that “set the ball rolling.”

The latest momentum, Sahni says, came when he became a member of the committee to restructure India-Canada academic linkages. At this point, the Institute was restructured to allow Indian academic institutions to become members of the Shastri Institute. The membership has now swelled to over 80 where, before Shastri came along, membership was the sole preserve of Canadian Universities.

“We have provoked enough interest to the extent that every institution is now interested to see how to promote education linkages — institutions like the ACCC (Association of Community Colleges of Canada), CBIE (Canadian Bureau for International Education), Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and the Canada-India Business Council have begun to see merits in education linkages,” Sahni says.

Sahni is co-chair of the education committee of the Focus India group of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He has successfully persuaded the CIBC to organize two Synergy education conferences, that saw the participation of dozens of Canadian educational institu-

tions and major organizations, besides evoking interest among the business community.

Sahni recalls a time when French institutions from Quebec used to believe they cannot have linkages with India, until he persuaded them about the need for such ties. That’s how Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s made his first official visit to India in January 2006, including in his delegation a large number of representatives from area universities.

“Quebec hasn’t looked back since then,” says Sahni.”And once Quebec did it, I told Ontario to talk to Quebec.” In classic knock-on style, this led to presidents and vice-presidents of dozens of Ontario Universities and Colleges forming part of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s first official delegation to India in January 2007 [McGuinty will be taking his second delegation to India in December this year].

Such visits have been fruitful. Thus, McGuinty’s first delegation saw an agreement between 17 Ontario universities and 10 Maharashtra and Goa universities for the exchange of 25 students from either side, called the Ontario-Maharashtra-Goa Agreement.

Besides these activities, Sahni has for ten years now served as Director of the International Academic Cooperation of Concordia University. “I always used to say, as far as academics is concerned there are no borders,” he insists, and to prove the point discusses increasing academic links between US and Cuban universities, between Chinese and Taiwanese universities and between Palestinian and Israeli universities. To him, “academic links are the best links to promote understanding between countries and peoples.”

When Infosys founder Narayana Murthy arrived in Montreal earlier this year to receive an honorary degree from Concordia University, “I told him that it has taken India long to recognize that the Canadian Universities are world class institutions and at par with the Americans, but the unfortunate reality is that 60,000 Indian students go to US universities but sadly, only 5,000 come to Canada.”

Besides his role in pushing academic ties between Canada and India, Sahni in his role as economist and professor covers Canada and India in his classes; a similar mindset illuminates the dozens of publications that bear his name, including books such as Industrial Efficiency: An Indian Perspective, Issues in Public Sector Analysis and Savings and Economic Development.

Sahni remembers with pride that his work in promoting educational linkages between Canada and India earned him the ‘Bhai Vir Singh International Award’ at the hands of then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 1993. The Shastri Institute nominated Sahni to the Honor Roll for building knowledge and understanding between Canada and India, and the CIBC gave him a special award – “literally, a brick” – for founding the ‘education corridor’.

“Academic links are sustainable,” Sahni argues. “Academic links thrive where there’s two-way flow of students, and result in further linkages in trade and technology areas. This has sunk into the psyche of the two countries,” says Sahni, who believes that such links between Canada and India have reached the tipping point.

12 India Abroad August 2009

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THE POWER LIST

The Little Big Man At 12, wunderkind BILAAL RAJAN raises millions for charity, and has hardened professionals hanging on his motivational speeches

It

is not often that a 12-year-old finds himself on a ‘Power List’ — but Bilaal Rajan is no ordinary 12-year-old.

He has already raised $5 million for various charitable activities; UNICEF named him its child ambassador and in that capacity, sent him on tours of Malawi, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Tanzania, Ecuador and several other countries.

On his own initiative, he travelled this June to South Africa to meet “the most celebrated man in the world today — Nelson Mandela”. He had no appointment, but that did not matter — Bilaal’s name has already become one familiar to world leaders. He not only met Mandela June 17 but, a week later, got a chance to meet Desmond Tutu.

He is small in stature, but his dreams are gigantic. His goal, he says, is to “have one million young people get involved in their communities over the next three years.”

Bilaal was barely four years old when he Bilaal Rajan, left, with Nelson Mandela saw on the TV the devastation that the Surat earthquake of January 28, 2001 wrought on Gujarat. “I said to myself, I must do something to When the younger members in the audience suggest that help the kids there who are suffering,” says Bilaal, recalling how they cannot do much because what can a little kid do, alone, he he went door-to-door selling oranges to collect money for the responds with an African proverb. ‘Have you ever been in a victims. closed room with a mosquito?, he asks them. ‘If you have, you His next project was the sale of acrylic plates, through which will realize how the smallest person can make a difference.’ he raised $1,200 for HIV/AIDS orphans; he also raised It is not only the young he speaks to. At a recent black-tie din$500,000 of goods for kids affected by the hurricane that dev- ner of Scarborough General Hospital where Dr Dhun Noria astated Haiti earlier this decade. and her husband Farooq were being honored, it was Bilaal who And then came the tsunami that devastated large parts of introduced them to an audience of over 500 invited guests. At South East Asia – and Bilaal went into overdrive, raising thou- an event of developers in Toronto recently, Bilaal delivered the sands of dollars towards the relief effort. His activities at the keynote extempore – a speech interrupted multiple times with time resulted in a face to face meeting with then Prime standing ovations.

Minister Paul Martin.

On one occasion, he thought of walking without shoes and Bilaal was on a roll. He had discovered the magic of helping, socks for one week, during National Volunteer Week (April 19and began looking for cause worth his time. “To help kids in 25, 2009), and asked kids and adults to do likewise. ‘You never Myanmar, I challenged every child in Canada to raise $105, know someone till you walk a mile in their shoes,’ he pointed because that is enough to provide water, with detergent, wash out, challenging the nation to try walking without shoes for a basin, towels, soap, and a bucket and water purification while to really understand the plight of those who have no tablets,” Bilaal explained. “These simple supplies can help pre- shoes on their feet. Published reports say the movement went vent deadly diseases which are caused because of a lack of clean international, that thousands of young people from over 25 water.” countries responded to his call.

He has helped build a school in Tanzania and another in His activities have made Bilaal an international celebrity who Ecuador; he has personally conducted an HIV/AIDS workshop travels incessantly, speaking to audiences of all kinds. He has for young people in Tanzania who had lost their parents to the been named to the ‘Top 20 under 20’ list for his outstanding epidemic. efforts in philanthropy; TV Ontario has recognized him as an He is already known as a published author — of Making ‘Agent of Change’; and Bilaal has also received the Junior Change: Tips from an Underage Overachiever — and motiva- Citizen of the Year Award.

“If we work together as one, change is inevitable, it’s unavoidtional speaker. In his writing and speeches, he makes numerous suggestions on how almost anyone, of any age, can help able,” Bilaal says, with the confidence of one who lives by that precept. alleviate the world’s pains.

14 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Feather touch CHANDRAKANT SHAH has devoted his life to a section of people few have time for — the native Indian

“Ahimsa

is not just refraining from killing animals, but it is harmony with the whole eco-system,” says Dr Chandrakant P Shah, Professor Emeritus of Public Health, University of Toronto and an expert on the health of aboriginal people.

He has been helping the First Nation’s people for years, and believes that his beliefs as a practicing Jain coincide nicely with those of the native people. “Our native people may not be vegetarians because the situation in which they were living meant they couldn’t survive that way. But if you look at the Jain precept of aparigraha, that possessions mean obstacles to liberation, you see that in native culture there is word for concepts like saving, hoarding etc.”

For over 33 years, Shah has had an unwavering commitment to serve the native people who are on the margins of Canada’s society – and it is because of this work that he was presented with the ‘Eagle Feather’ by leaders of First Nations as far back as in October 1999.

The Eagle Feather is one of the most sacred objects for the Indians, and the highest recognition they could give anyone.

Shah received the Feather for his work in the field of native health, said Lady McGregor, elder of the Cree nation of the First Nations people.

Ovide Mercredi, former Chief of Assembly of the First Nations, calls Shah a role model in professionalism. ”When some people reach the pinnacle in their lives and careers, they forget the people — but not Shah. He’s always there for our people, as a member of the medical profession and as a teacher/professor,” says Mercredi.

The Eagle Feather represents the spirit of courage, sacrifice, friendship and respect for other people – tenets that, Shah says, he had pledged to abide by. It is as part of this commitment to the native people that, at the University of Toronto, Shah was the driving force behind the establishment of the Annual Visiting Lectureship Program on Native Health in 1990. He later secured $2 million to establish an Endowed Chair in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing at the University of Toronto in 2000, the first of its kind in Canada.

At Toronto’s Anishnawbe Health Center, Shah has been providing health care for the First Nations since 1996, and continues to work there for three days each week. “Diabetes amongst aboriginal people is almost an epidemic, and it is attributed to change in their life style due to acculturation, unemployment – plus these people suffer from hypertension, high cholesterol, drug addiction, respiratory problems, etc,” Shah says.

‘Broken Promises in Promised Land’ was the title of a forum he organized in November 2007 where the keynote speaker was former Prime Minister Paul Martin. Shah says he organized the forum “to highlight the deplorable health and social conditions of our First Nations people” who, he believes, need the support of non-aboriginal people.

To this end, he began lobbying with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to provide some information about First Nation peoples to new immigrants, who have little knowledge of such tribes. As a result of this initiative, the

Canadian government started providing some material to new immigrants – material that has become part of the exam for citizenship.

In 2008, Shah carried out an environment scan to determine the extent to which health sciences programs in Ontario universities prepare their students in aboriginal cultural competency. On finding that there was no such competency curriculum, Shah began work to develop one, and hopes to complete it this year.

His textbook ‘Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada’ is now in its 5th edition – a unique resource widely used by Canadian undergraduate and graduate students from a range of health disciplines.

Given his accomplishments, it is no surprise that honors have flowed his way in an unremitting stream. In 2007, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, established the CP Shah Alumni Award of Excellence in Public Health. He has received the Order of Ontario for his contribution to the public health of native people, and was recognized in 2007 as an Outstanding Physician of Ontario by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which said Shah came close to their vision of the ‘Ideal Physician.’

Shah however takes the greatest pride in this, that he has been able to bear witness to a gradual improvement in the lot of the native people he has spent a lifetime helping. “More and more of them are now going to the universities, and you will find amongst them doctors, PhDs — even though there are not many of them as it is happening slowly, but it is still wonderful,” Shah says, with undisguised pleasure.

15 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Hand of God Sometimes, all that stands between life and death is the skilled hand and strong faith of GOPAL BHATNAGAR

Way

back in 1976 when he joined Parkside Collegiate near London, Ontario, Gopal Bhatnagar was the only brownskinned student on a 1,100-strong campus. Racial pressure was enormous, he now recalls; his classmates used to throw food at him.

Even then, he had a deep sense that “I was not just a little brown kid; I was part of the culture that had dominated the world for 5,000 years,” explains Dr Bhatnagar.

Many factors shaped and toughened him, most notably a stint in the Canadian armed reserved forces (1978-‘82) and one year in the regular standing forces, as part of the medical corps.

“Military service makes you tougher,” he says, simply.

When he went into the army, Bhatnagar decided he would train just as hard as everyone else. “I am not a very big person but I said I am going to carry the infantry package of 50 kilos, just like everybody else,” he recalls. His hard work and determination saw Bhatnagar earn a series of citations, including one for ‘duty that gave honor and prestige to the regiment’.

Today that brown boy, now 47, is Chief of Staff at the Trillium Health Center in Mississauga, Ontario, having earlier established a record of sorts when he became Chief of Cardiac Surgery at age 39. Bhatnagar’s name ranks among Canada’s top cardiovascular surgeons, and is immediately identified with unparalleled expertise in beating heart surgery.

As Chief of Staff, Bhatnagar oversees 450 physicians, taking responsibility for their performance and the quality of care they provide, as also all matters relating to appointments, internal discipline and “all those other nasty things.” He’s also responsible for giving “strategic direction to the hospital”, and sits on the board of governors.

The sea change in his status, he says, is because of the kind of change time has brought about in Canada’s mindset, that allows the country to welcome an “immigrant boy from St. Thomas, a farming community”, as chief of staff in one of the largest community hospitals in the nation.

Bhatnagar started a cardiac program, with a focus on beating heart surgery, at the THC in November 2000, and since then he has personally carried out 3,600 bypass operations. Based on that experience, he says beating heart surgery is considerably safer than the more conventional method.

He recalls how some years ago, a European-Canadian, with two young kids aged 9 and 10 years came to the hospital following a massive heart attack: “He was in a very bad shape,”

Bhatnagar recalls. “He had ruptured his valve and needed an emergency operation – bypass and valve replacement, a high risk operation.

“If this man didn’t survive, I was going to create two orphans,” Bhatnagar said, making the point that though doctors attempt to cultivate detachment, it is impossible not to become emotionally attached.

Bhatnagar worked on the patient while the two boys waited outside the surgery. “The patient arrested 20 times in one day,” he recalls. “We normally wouldn’t shock a patient 20 times; after 5 to 10 times we say to ourselves there’s nothing more we can do. But in this case we didn’t give up.”

Perseverance paid; the patient survived.

On another occasion, an American experienced severe pain while giving a speech, and was rushed to hospital. He was diagnosed with a major tear in the aorta; to complicate matters, he already had an artificial valve, the result of a previous cardiac surgery.

The situation was “exceptionally high risk,” and Bhatnagar opted to operate without even waiting for the patient’s wife to arrive in Toronto. “We ended up replacing his valve again, his whole aorta, and the arteries to his brain. He was completely well, and ready to go home within 10 days.”

Such interventions that save lives, Bhatnagar says, give a surgeon a tremendous sense of satisfaction, and also instills “‘a tremendous sense of humility”. In the course of nine years, he recalls having lost only a patient or two, but such a success rate rather than making him arrogant has deepened his humility. “I will say I was given the privilege of being there and helping the patient – you do the best you can every time, and the rest is in God’s hands.”

The belief in a divinity that guides his hand stems from parental influence. Bhatnagar’s parents were deeply religious.

He lost his father Jagdish Prakash Bhatnagar 15 years ago, while mother Aruna, who is active in the Hindi drama scene, remains a cardinal influence.

He is not, he says, overly religious “in the fundamental Hindu sense of the word – but the nature of my work makes me appreciate that God is the Supreme Being, above all science.”

“I have the perfect job,” Bhatnagar says. “Not only do I enjoy it in terms of fulfillment, but every day I know I am going to help someone – and that knowledge is a tremendous privilege for anyone who engages in health care.”

16 India Abroad August 2009

Dr. Gopal Bhatnagar is a recognized pioneer of world-leading cardiac surgery.

Honour your parents by helping him advance Seniors Health and Wellness.

Every day, our patients trust Dr. Bhatnagar to save their lives and restore quality of life.

As the dedicated Chief of Staff at Trillium Health Centre, he knows a new level of care is needed for our beloved seniors.

Dr. Bhatnagar is the 2009 Diwali Co-Chair. He needs your support to raise desperately needed funds for Trillium to

advance excellence in Seniors Health and Wellness that is sensitive to the specialized and often complex care needs of our aging population.

Attend Diwali and help Dr. Bhatnagar and Trillium Health Centre Foundation realize a new standard of care for seniors.

Trillium Health Centre and Trillium Health Centre Foundation congratulate Dr. Bhatnagar as he is recognized as one of The 30 most influential Indo-Canadians by India Abroad.

Diwali Fundraiser 2009 South Asian Festival of Lights Set to sparkle for Seniors Health and Wellness Friday, October 2, 2009, 6:30 pm, Pearson Convention Center Visit www.trilliumhealthcentrefoundation.org or call (905) 848-7580 ext. 2930.

THE POWER LIST

The electric cure Chronic pain is mind-altering; it can change who you are.

KRISHNA KUMAR has the solution

A

Canadian newspaper once described Dr Krishna Kumar as a neurosurgeon who has dedicated his career to easing chronic pain.

Acclaimed as among the top half a dozen in his field of speciality, the Regina-based Kumar has over the course of a medical practice 48 years old and counting, pioneered a deep brain stimulation technique in which an electrode he implants in the brain, using his own innovative technique, delivers low voltage stimulation to reduce chronic pain.

Pain is universal, Kumar explains, but “the sad part is we don’t recognize it.

There’s suffering everywhere. Many people don’t attend to it, and so brain gets affected. No matter what pain it is, it changes the functioning of the brain – and over time, it gets worse. You ignore back pain for five years, there is a 50 percent chance of a cure. If you leave it unattended for 10 years or more, there is only a 10 percent chance of successful cure.”

Pain is not genetic, and it has no bearing on ethnicity, Kumar points out. In fact, people from Asian nations have less brain-related problems because of the family support system they can count on, says Kumar, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine.

“That helps Indians and other Asian people to be able to cope with this (pain).”

Kumar’s achievements include developing a programmable and implantable pump for patients with back pain, as part of a treatment that enables them to cope without consuming pain killers. His work in the field was the subject of a documentary, Living with Pain.

An estimated six per cent of all Canadians live with chronic pain, and contributing factors are numerous. Kumar says his researches show that “chronic pain is real and it alters a person”; his work, he says, consists of “tickling the brain and observing the results.”

The enormous amount of research Kumar has done in brainrelated fields is reflected in the 200-plus papers he has written, that have helped create global awareness of the need to treat chronic pain at the earliest possible. Thanks to his work, he ranks alongside other Canadian neurosurgeons like Dr Lin Jacques from the Montreal Neurological Institute; Dr Chris Honey of Vancouver General Hospital; Dr Ivar Mendezs from Halifax, Nova Scotia and Drs Mark Bernstein and Andres Lazano from Toronto Western Hospital.

His interest in neurological diseases prompted Kumar to take the lead in establishing the Canadian Neuromodulation

Society, which now boasts about 70 members who are all expert in the planting of electrodes in the brain to facilitate treatment. The society had its first major conference in June this year in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The society’s mission statement is that of dedication to the propagation of neuromodulation therapy ‘through education, training, dissemination and support of research and encouragement of best practices, as well as professional development and leadership in health policy on chronic pain management and other neurological disorders.’

For his work both as clinical professor and as a leading researcher in neurosurgery, and for the development of innovative brain and spinal implants used for the treatment of chronic pain, Kumar was honored earlier this year with the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian award. Last year, he was named Saskatchewan Physician of the Year and earlier, in October 2000, Kumar received the prestigious Saskatchewan Order of Merit, thus entering a very elite club of super achievers who have won both honors.

18 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Performer, par excellence LATA PADA takes personal tragedy and converts it into a muse that keeps Indian dance traditions alive in Canada

Last

year, Lata Pada received the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian award, ‘For her contributions to the development of South Asian dance as a choreographer, teacher, dancer and artistic director as well as for her commitment and support of the Indian community in Canada’.

Pada comes of distinguished artistic pedigree: she was trained in Bharat Natyam by two notables, the Mumbai-based Guru Kalyan Sundaram and the Chennai-based Guru Kalanidhi Narayan. They imbued in her “the most authentic and most beautiful legacies of the tradition of Bharat Natyam,” says Pada, who now runs the Sampradaya Dance Academy out of Toronto.

Pada is prompted to teach, she says, by her fervent desire “to create an awareness of the beauty, richness and the depth of Indian dance as art forms and not just some cultural artifacts.

“What I realized from the beginning is that we have to break down a lot of stereotypes, break down a lot of myths that existed about Indian dance — that it is ‘so exotic, so sensuous’,” says Pada, who has been living, dancing and teaching in Canada for 40 years now. “And so my desire was to really create an awareness of the beauty, richness and the depth of the Indian dance forms – Bharat Natyam, Odissi and Kathak – that now stand shoulder to shoulder with the best dance companies in Canada.”

She has choreographed dozens of dance pieces, and her personal favorite, her “seminal moment as an artist, as a creator of new choreography, was my production ‘Revealed by Fire’, which was an autobiographical work.”

The piece dealt with her own personal journey through loss and grief, and the subsequent transformation through dance. And its power stems from a life lived in the shadow of loss and grief: Pada lost her husband and two daughters in the June 23, 1985 terrorist bombing of the Air India Boeing Kanishka.

The loss turned her into an activist on public policy issues, appearing constantly on TV and in the columns of newspapers with a persistence that was partly instrumental in pushing the Canadian government into instituting a public inquiry into the tragedy, chaired by Justice John Major.

Another highlight in her artistic career, she says, is the twoweek ‘DanceIntense Toronto 2009’ she organized at York University in Toronto, with participation of 17 young dancers from several countries. The intention, she says, was “for dancers on the threshold of a professional career to have an opportunity to further their training with Canadian and international master teachers and choreographers, to experience new forms such as butoh, contemporary Aboriginal dance, flamenco and contact improvisation, to attend seminars on allied subjects”, all of which is central to the dancer’s development.

The successful show that her academy co-sponsored saw the

active participation of acclaimed teachers, choreographers and artists — and left her committed to further editions over the next three years.

Over the years, she has been much sought after on the global stage. She has performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for then Indian President R Venkataraman, toured with her troupe to the dance theatres of Indonesia, Malaysia, Colombia, Mexico, China, Singapore, Ireland, the United States...

Another of Pada’s innovative productions, called ‘Cricket’, was conceived, because as a choreographer she saw this as a bridge between dance and this popular sport. “If you watch the movement of a bowler or you see the physical movement of a batsman and you watch it in slow motion then you see how akin cricket is to dance.”

That explains why her choreography on cricket was so popular that her dance company toured December last year in India, and then she took her group to England “where it was so highly appreciated.”

19 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Fund-raiser extraordinaire He made history by becoming the first non-white to head the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, but PRADEEP SOOD's heart lies in worthy causes

Pradeep

Sood made history May 1, when he became the first non-white person to be elected chair, Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

“I am very privileged and humbled,” he says.

“It is a privilege to be the first Indo-Canadian to be elected to this position.”

The nonprofit, nonpartisan OCC was established in 1911. It has 60,000 members and its primary role is to provide a voice to businesses in Ontario. Former US President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Ontario Economic Summit that the OCC had convened in 2007 at the Niagara-onthe-Lake.

From 2003 to 2005, Sood was president, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. From 2007 to 2009, he was a member of the Board of Trade, a position from which he resigned after being elected the OCC chair.

“One thing I have always done in my various positions is to help growth of businesses through official policies and encourage and lead trade missions,” says Sood. He says it is part of “my efforts to keep the community right on the top and in the mainstream situation.”

Sood says his heart lies in raising funds for worthy causes — he has helped the Royal Ontario Museum, the Harborfront Center, even the Textile Museum with his wide-ranging contacts and friends. During the last few years, he has averaged about $30,000 from every fundraiser.

May 2, he helped raise a whopping $440,000 for Bridgepoint Health, a longterm rehabilitation and recovery center in Toronto. The event, called Fandango Bhangra, was extraordinary in that many of the who’s who of corporate Canada was seen bedecked in Indian attire and accessories.

More recently, he led two dozen family members and friends — including his wife Annu and son Abhimanyu — under the banner of The Spicy Speedsters to participate in a Father’s Day walk at Toronto’s Distillery District meant to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research and treatment.

Ask him about his fundraising efforts and Sood says, “I have been doing quietly whatever I can. Each one of us has to play our role.

We can only grow, gain strength and gain appropriate clout if we participate in causes beyond our own community.”

Pradeep Sood, left, with former US President Bill Clinton

20 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Young honcho He is on Canada’s 40 under 40 list, and PRASHANT SHANKAR PATHAK is not just a corporate whiz

When

he was just 28, Prashant Shankar Pathak became leader of McKinsey & Company’s telecom and technology, Canadian financial and the corporate finance and strategy practices.

At McKinsey, he worked with Korea’s ministry of information and communications and helped them in the “launch implementation of the world’s first Ubiquitous City, which is a big platform for seamless communication in the City of Bussan,” he says.

Pathak, an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of TechnologyKanpur, has an MBA from INSEAD. He worked for seven years in a range of management and field operations roles in companies in Singapore and France before he joined McKinsey.

After six years of working for McKinsey (1999 to 2005), Pathak reached out to the Reichmann brothers with a proposal to launch a private equity firm.

That’s how the Reichmann Hauer Capital Partners private fund was launched in Toronto in 2006.

Pathak was key in persuading Kumar Mangalam Birla in India to join them to acquire Minacs. And Minacs became Aditya Birla Minacs in partnership with Reichmann Hauer.

Those in the know in Toronto’s corporate power circles say lots of people in Canada have more money and resources but it was Pathak’s vision, access and influence that enabled them to convince Birla to join them in acquiring Minacs as a partner.

They recently acquired Black’s, Canada’s largest photography company with 1200 employees. And they have also acquired Alan Candy, the candies giant.

And this year, Pathak was on Canada’s ‘Top 40 under 40,’ the

annual list of young corporate achievers.

He also devotes a lot of his time to children’s and family issues. He’s on the board of North York General Hospital, known as the largest family practice hospital in Canada.

“Through our expertise we can bring on efficiency and effectiveness in social services, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction,” says Pathak.

He also sits on the Business Development Bank of Canada’s board.

“And as a board member I really have to spend time to ensure we are driving at a dual mandate — growing Canadian champions, entrepreneurship and ensuring that the Bank is creating opportunities for Canadians to succeed in the long run.”

Pathak says capital raising in North America is going to be difficult in the foreseeable future, and so private equity and fund investing is going to be around.

China and India today, he says, are net consumers, but “for investing there are still significant opportunities in North America. And I think the notion of ‘decline in the United States’ is far too hasty.”

There are several regions in the US and Canada which will continue to see strong growth going into the future, Pathak tells businessmen from other countries, including India, and that food and agriculture, fertilizer, industrial technology, industrial chemicals, medical and health related sciences are sectors which will continue to be strong.

22 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Mr Magnanimous From establishing Canada’s first university chair on ancient India to reviving art galleries, billionaire developer PREM SINGHMAR is a man of altruistic action

The

Singhmar family initially wanted to create a chair for Sanskrit studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. But Prem Singhmar, 62, had bigger plans.

Instead, the Edmonton-based billionaire developer decided to establish a chair of ancient Indian history at the university — a first for Canada.

The chair will focus on the history of ancient India from 500 BC to 500 AD, characterized by two great empires, the Mauryas and the Guptas.

“Our glorious period,” Singhmar says.

In 2007, the Singhmars donated $1.5 million, which was matched by the government of Alberta, to establish a $3 million endowment that gives a minimum annual revenue of $100,000 for the Saroj and Prem Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Polity and Society in perpetuity.

“At this time,” explains Singhmar, “there’s a lot of interest in India. We have informed University President Indira Samarasekera that if this experiment is successful we will take the initiative of going to the community and raising further funds for additional chairs on India.”

“We’ll go from zero positions in the area of India to four,” says Dr Daniel Woolf, dean, department of history and classics, “none of which would have happened without the generous donation of the donor.”

Singhmar’s generosity was evident once more when Edmonton’s 40-year-old Art Gallery was being refurbished for $80 million. After Singhmar donated $1.2 million for an endowment, a section in the gallery is being designated the Singhmar Center for Art Education, where students will receive vocational art training. But Singhmar didn’t just want his name on the gallery, his second condition for donating the money was that the gallery would pledge to organize Indian festivals.

“As immigrants we shouldn’t only give but we should be seen to be giving,” says Singhmar. “That will help our acceptance level in this country.”

An alumnus of the Srinagar Medical College and the

“As immigrants we shouldn’t only give but we should be seen to be giving,” says Singhmar. “That will help our acceptance level in this country.”

Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Rohtak, Haryana, Singhmar was also an ophthalmology consultant for the Libyan government’s department of health before he arrived in Canada in 1984. In Canada, he shifted focus and his primary business activities include land development, hotel construction and management, commercial, residential and industrial construction, and agriculture farms.

“Though I come from a farming family in Punjab, I don’t manage farms here as it is a full-time job,” says Singhmar. “I develop farms and lease them.”

Among his community causes, Singhmar was a member of the Judicial Council of Alberta from 2000 to 2004. He has raised funds for India, including for victims of the super-cyclone in Orissa and the Guajarat earthquake. He has also donated a Volunteer Wall of Fame in the Alberta legislature.

“Our efforts should be to preserve this country the way we found it when we arrived here,” says Singhmar. “We should bring the positive part of our culture here and not try to change the local culture in a negative way.”

24 India Abroad August 2009

Congratulations, Prem Singhmar!

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP RESEARCHINTENSIVE, INTERNATIONALLY FOCUSED UNIVERSITIES.

The University of Alberta congratulates Prem Singhmar on his selection to India Abroad’s Power List. We couldn’t agree more with his selection.

The University of Alberta and Edmonton have benefited enormously from the vision and generosity of the Singhmar family, including the Saroj and Prem Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Polity and Society held by historian Aloka Parasher Sen. At the U of A students from 100 nations study in 200 undergraduate and 170 graduate programs, especially our outstanding science, health sciences and engineering programs.

The world’s best graduate students come here to study with leading researchers.

What sets the University of Alberta apart? t .FBOJOHGVM QBSUOFSTIJQT JO *OEJB JODMVEJOH BHSFFNFOUT XJUI 5BUB $POTVMUBODZ Services for student and research opportunities and Petrotech for executive training t 3FTFBSDI QBSUOFSTIJQT XJUI *OEJBO *OTUJUVUF PG 4DJFODF BOE *OEJBO *OTUJUVUF of Technology-Bombay t )PNF PG UIF /BUJPOBM *OTUJUVUF GPS /BOPUFDIOPMPHZ t 'PVOEJOH NFNCFS PG UIF $BOBEB 4DIPPM PG &OFSHZ BOE &OWJSPONFOU t $VUUJOH FEHF GBDJMJUJFT UIBU BSF SFWPMVUJPOJ[JOH UFBDIJOH BOE SFTFBSDI JO UIF TDJFODFT t -PDBUJPO JO &ENPOUPO IPNF UP B UISJWJOH WJCSBOU *OEJBO DPNNVOJUZ

Why Canada?

A national commitment to be at the leading edge of scientific and technological breakthroughs, including: t NJMMJPO UP BUUSBDU UIF CFTU EPDUPSBM TUVEFOUT UP $BOBEJBO VOJWFSTJUJFT XJUI UIF Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program t $BOBEB (MPCBM &YDFMMFODF 3FTFBSDI $IBJST VQ UP NJMMJPO GPS FBDI DIBJS GPS UFBNT undertaking cutting-edge research in areas of strategic importance

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The province funds endowments to foster the development of world-class talent and ideas.

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Prem and Saroj Singhmar

THE POWER LIST

The prescription for giving back From the earthquake-hit in Gujarat and Pakistan to Indo-Canadian community fundraisers, pharmacy pharaoh RAMESH CHOTAI is ever ready to help

Ramesh

Chotai knows what it’s like to be a refugee.

His family fled the persecution of Asians in Uganda by Dictator Idi Amin in 1973.

“So, my heart bleeds for refugees around the globe,” says Chotai, who now owns the very successful Bromed Pharmaceuticals.

And India, the country of his forefathers, turned him away. But, he adds, if you have faith, things do change for the good: “Now, the Indian government has given me an Overseas Citizen of India card.”

This refugee from Uganda now owns a chain of pharmacies in eastern and northern Ontario, imports pharmaceutical raw materials from many countries, manufactures orthopedic and medical supplies and has diversified into real estate.

Ask Chotai, a pharmacist who trained in England and Switzerland, about just how big his Bromed Pharmaceuticals is, and he quips: “I am comfortable enough to share my fortunes with needy people around the world.”

To be fair, he has done that. He took the lead in fundraising efforts in Canada to help victims of the Gujarat earthquake.

The efforts raised $3.6 million in three weeks, with Chotai pitching in a generous sum himself.

He didn’t stop there. He and some of his supporters from Toronto traveled to Gujarat to help rebuild villages, houses, community centers, schools, to set up mobile medical facilities.

And he set up a little bit of Canada as well in the hearts of the Gujaratis. The first school he helped rebuild was named the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Secondary School, after the former prime minister who gave asylum in Canada to a large number of refugees from Uganda. Similarly, Chotai set up the Lester B Pearson Primary School, a secondary school in the memory of Terry Fox. Some of the rebuilt villages were named after Toronto and Canada and some of the streets were named Yonge Street, Bloor Street, Dundas Sreet — after Chotai’s downtown Toronto haunts. And last year, as co-chair of the advocacy group Canada-India Foundation, he raised funds for the Gujarat chief minister’s fund for the education of women.

Chotai’s charity is not limited to India alone. He’s helping Dr

Bhudendra Doobay, president of the Vishnu Hindu Temple, run a free medical clinic in Guyana. And when the earthquake struck parts of Pakistan, Chotai was busy raising money. He did the same for the Tamil orphans. Nearer home, as co-chair of the Trillium Hospital’s famed Diwali dinner in 2007, he raised $500,000 for the Toronto hospital’s Om Fracture Clinic, named after the Sanskrit sound.

“Lots of people call me and I try to help,” he laughs. “To me it doesn’t matter whether one is a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or Sikh. We are all humans. Our community has come a long way and continues to excel in all spheres of business, academic and political life of the country. We should encourage our youth to take part in these endeavors.”

26 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Interpreter of India RAMESH THAKUR is one of Canada’s best known political commentators

One

of the foremost speakers the Ottawa-based International Development Research Center invited as part of its India Lectures series this year was Professor Ramesh Thakur, distinguished fellow, Center for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario.

Thakur, an incisive commentator on India’s current affairs and foreign relations, spoke on ‘India Rising and Shinning: Will it prove a False Dawn?’

From 1998 to 2007, he was vice rector, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan. Before that, he spent a couple of years teaching at Fiji, then for 15 years in New Zealand and at the Australian University in Canberra.

“Fiji became a political problem but New Zealand and Australia are lovely countries — like Canada,” Thakur explains. “I was always a foreigner in Japan as it was a different world, interacting in the diplomatic community.”

“My work reflects the changes in the world,” Thakur says modestly. He has published over a dozen books, including Keeping Proliferation at Bay, Past Imperfect, Future uncertain: The United Nations at Fifty and Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones.

Nowadays, his focus is more on Canada-India relations. He wrote a series of articles on the recent Indian general elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party, he says, faced serious reverses this time “as they lost the youth votes. Secondly, they lost the urban votes.

Both of these are growing voters cohorts. They lost both these votes for a number of reasons, one of which is the divisiveness of the Hindutva agenda.”

Another factor for the BJP’s downfall, he says, was its opposition to the India-United States nuclear deal: “The deal was supported overwhelmingly and in every public opinion polls it was supported in India. That annoyed the urban voters and young people in particular, both of them were known to be the supporters of the BJP,” he says.

About the India-US deal, which ended the decadesold India’s nuclear isolation in the world, Thakur says the Non Proliferation Treaty has issues.

“The NPT defined the nuclear weapon system as the country that exploded the nuclear device and tested it before January 1, 1967 [India tested in 1974 and 1998]. It is a chronological definition rather than any objective, factual and critical definition.

Then you have this basic problem of India and Pakistan. They cannot be accepted as nuclear weapon states by this artificial NPT definition but the fact is both India and Pakistan are nuclear weapon States. To accept them you have to change the treaty and it means it has to be once again ratified by every country that has signed the treaty excepting India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.”

The nuclear deal, he believes, is good for India and the world.

At present, nuclear power contributes just 2 percent of India’s power generation.

“Once all the proposed nuclear plans come on phase,” Thakur

explains, “India will match the global profile of 15 to 20 percent of electricity being generated by nuclear energy.” That means, he points out, environmental advantages — as nuclear energy is cleaner — and also helps India have a “diversified energy portfolio.”

Does he believe India is shining? Despite rapid growth during the last 15 years, he replies, India still has “the most poor people than any part of the world and the country also has the highest rate of illiteracy, around 40 percent.” Add to that, he says, in the last five years about 17,000 Indian farmers “are committing suicide each year.”

What about Indo-Canadians? Are they a force to reckon with in Canada now? He says unlike the Indian Diaspora in the United States, “we haven’t been as active and therefore we haven’t been as influential in shaping Canadian policies as Indians in America have succeeded in doing.”

27 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

The differentiator RATNA GHOSH is a champion for multiculturalism in Canada

‘Ratna

Ghosh is Canada’s most passionate and influential architect of an inclusive yet workable conception of multicultural education,’ wrote Time magazine in October 2003, in a full-page profile ranking her among ‘Canada’s Best’, and calling her a ‘differentiator’.

Ghosh is James McGill Professor and William C Macdonald Professor of Education at McGill University in Montreal, where she has been teaching since 1977. She was also the first woman dean at McGill in the faculty of education.

“I had broken with establishment tradition in two ways,” says Ghosh. “I was a woman and a visible minority. I decided not to seek a second term [as dean] as I wanted to go back to my research more intensely. This also allows me to make contributions to multiculturalism on a very broad canvas through publications, including books, many of which have been adopted in courses in many parts of the world, including India.”

Multiculturalism remains her first love. She points out that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau pioneered the Multicultural Policy in 1971, but it was not enacted till 1988.

“This was the first time that Canada recognized the diversity of this country going beyond the idea of two founding nations — English and French,” Ghosh says.

The Multicultural Act added the concepts of racism and discrimination to the policy, she explains, but the resistance to policy continues.

“The dominant society of English and French origin finds it irrelevant for themselves because they misconstrue the policy as being for the ‘other’ — as if it is a sop thrown to new Canadians, who they deem as ethnically different people.”

In doing so, she laments, they “fail to appreciate, against all evidence, that diversity enriches, enhances and augments a society in multiple ways.”

Even the new Canadians themselves offer resistance to multiculturalism, she adds. They believe “that multiculturalism as practiced is tokenism and caricatures their contributions without recognizing their basic rights and access to opportunity.”

Ghosh believes “that perceived differences among people is the cause of discrimination, not necessarily race or gender.”

Multiculturalism, argues the scholar, “gives us the right to be different, to be who we are.”

Assimilation, as practiced in the US, “has been rejected and creative integration has been encouraged.”

Her most influential publications include Redefining Multicultural Education (2002) and Education and the Politics of Difference: Canadian Perspectives (2004).

Her other research area “is on gender issues in education in

Ratna Ghosh, left, accepts the Order of Canada from then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson general, and in women and development in particular.”

But the theoretical foundations, she says, “are the same, that is seeking equal treatment of all members of society and eradicating prejudice based on ethnicity — color —, gender, social class and religion among others.”

Ghosh is among the handful of Canadians to have been bestowed both the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, and the Order of Quebec, the province’s highest award. In March this year, she became president-elect of the Comparative and International Education Society of the United States and her photograph appeared on the first day cover of the commemorative stamp of the BC Philatelic Society celebrating the 1947 Citizenship Repeal Act for Asian immigrants.

Her list of achievements and honors includes being fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, full member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities. And her alma mater the University of Calgary named her among its top 40 Alumni in April 2006.

And she believes “Canada has tried very hard to end institutionalized racism in the laws dealing with immigration, employment, education and other rights. It is one of the best examples in the world.”

Time called her a role model.

“I suppose what they mean,” she says modestly, “is that based on one’s merit and drive one can overcome any perceived or real obstacles associated with gender, or ethnicity.”

But she does believe her “work, publication and teaching have inspirited some students and teachers to aim high, and try to make a difference to their world.”

28 India Abroad August 2009

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THE POWER LIST

Helping hand RATNA OMIDVAR has helped change the way Canada treats immigrants

Ratna

Omidvar arrived in Canada from Iran in 1981. Like scores of new immigrants, she had no job despite a bagful of qualifications and it took her six years to find her feet in her new adopted country. That made her wonder: “How much longer does it take for other people to settle down in Canada?”

Unlike most other immigrants, she decided to do something about it.

She started working for Skills for Change, a non-governmental organization that helped new immigrants. She joined Maytree in 1998 “partly because I realized that in order to achieve my objective I needed to work with different tools. Maytree, a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity through leadership building, gave me access to those tools.”

She is now president of Maytree. Under her leadership, Maytree founded the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council to create opportunities for skilled immigrants to connect to the local labor market. It works with all levels of government, enhancing coordination and effecting more responsive policy and programs for skilled employment.

The TRIEC’s main emphasis is on bridge-building programs for international graduates so that they can gain some Canadian experience — that is so crucial for new immigrants to find jobs in their own profession in Canada. The TRIEC has mentored more than 3,000 international graduates and more than 1,000 have gone through internship programs. Most importantly, says Omidvar, many employers are now changing their hiring policies and procedures.

She’s too modest to take credit for the positive changes in the Canadian labor market. “There’s a much deeper and mature understanding of my key message that Canada will not succeed unless immigrants succeed,” she says. “Therefore, integration of immigrants is not the responsibility of immigrants or of the government — but the whole society,” Omidvar says she’s happy that the mindset is changing “in the government at all levels, also amongst professional regulatory bodies and amongst Canada’s leading employers.”

She firmly believes that “success of new immigrants is part of the mainstream success.”

To underline that, she points out that according to a

Conference Board of Canada, Canada loses $4 billion every year because international graduates are under-employed. The study was conducted in the year 2000. By now, the cost Canada is paying because of not properly utilizing the talent pool of new immigrants is likely to have doubled.

“I started to become aware of the scope and depth of the problem because of its complexity: One level of government brings an immigrant into the country, another level of government is responsible for their education and training.

And a third level of government is responsible for regulating and issuing credentials — and the employers hire whom they like,” Omidvar explains.

An alumnus of the Kumaun University in Nainital, Uttarakhand and Delhi University, she learnt German in Pune and went on a scholarship to Munich, Germany, where she met her Iranian husband.

Amongst the dozens of government task forces she has been appointed to, she was member of the Transition Advisory Board to the Premier of Ontario in 2003, when Dalton McGuinty was elected the head of Canada’s most popu-

lated province.

“I am very glad that I will never be the Premier of Ontario,” Omidvar quips. “It is a very difficult task as once you are in power you have to bounce the priorities because of fiscal problems.”

Liberal prime minister Paul Martin also named her a member of his External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities. Among other honors, Omidvar received the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest civilian award, in 2006. She was named Woman of Distinction by the Young Women’s Christian Association in 2005 and she won the President’s Award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce in 2006 in recognition of her work with the TRIEC. She also serves as a board member of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, holds an honorary title of fellow of Centennial College and was awarded an honorary diploma in community work from George Brown College in 2006.

That immigrants come to Canada, she says, is “in fact a testament to their entrepreneurial zeal. It works out in the long term, but we have to keep working [to make it easier for new immigrants].”

30 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Immigrant success RAYUDU KOKA has blazed a rare trail of achievement in the medical field

“In

1986, I made a decision that changed my life,” says Dr Rayudu Koka. “I left the United Kingdom, where I had trained and practiced medicine for 12 years, to set up my psychiatry practice in Sudbury, Ontario.”

He came to Canada “under a special academic license that allowed me to work here under restricted conditions until I completed my Royal College exams.”

Last year, he made history by being elected as president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the province’s apex medical regulatory body with 30,000 licensed physicians and surgeons that is also responsible for giving licenses to international medical graduates to practice medicine in Ontario.

He was first elected to the CPSO’s council nine years ago. In a country where it’s common to read stories of international medical graduates driving cabs because their qualifications are not recognized soon enough, he has been striving to change the rules to make it easier for international medical graduates to practice medicine in Canada faster. “My main aim has been to try and change the registration requirements without bringing the standards down,” he says. And he says he is happy that the CPSO “has managed to change lot of things to help IMGs to get license at the same time not to bring down the standards.”

Last year, under his leadership, the CPSO issued 393 licenses to IMGs to practice in Ontario, of which 114 were physicians from India. Physicians who have been teaching medicine in other countries can now get license to teach in one of the six Ontario medical schools. If they have practiced in England, they can quickly get their medical license in Ontario. Ditto for licensed physicians from the United States.

And April 2, Koka signed a historical agreement with his Quebec counterpart, Dr Yves Lamontagne, that will allow a licensed physician from Quebec to practice in Ontario and vice versa.

On Koka’s initiative, presidents of provincial and territorial colleges met in Halifax recently to create national standards that would allow mobility of physicians and surgeons within various jurisdictions in the country.

“There are certain provinces where standards are sadly low, because of shortage of physicians in some of these provinces,” Koka says.

One issue that bothers him and the medical profession regulators is the controversy surrounding cosmetic surgeons.

“We have been very focused on a number of initiatives relat-

ed to the provision of cosmetic surgery and have finalized our recommendations regarding the use of the title for physicians,” he says. If a physician is not a qualified cosmetic surgeon, s/he can write ‘cosmetic procedures only’.

“Only surgeons who are trained in cosmetic surgery can do surgeries and others will no more be allowed to call themselves surgeons” he explains. The government is bringing changes to the regulations to this effect.

Koka hopes within the next few years, every physician in Ontario will be assessed each year.

Another delicate subject that the CPSO deals with is disciplinary action against physicians for malpractice.

“Our disciplinary committee has to investigate all complaints of serious nature,” he points out.

About general standards of IMGs, Koka, a medical graduate from India, says, “We get excellent physicians from India and other international graduates in every field. We don’t discriminate against anybody simply because he or she comes from A or B country. I am proud to have been able to advocate changes for medical licenses and I continue to work to further improve our procedures to get the barriers down for IMGs.” He also provides community outreach services to rural clinics in his district, chairs the Greater Sudbury Police Service Board, and sits on the boards of the Sudbury Regional Hospital, Laurentian University and the Multicultural Association of Sudbury.

31 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Stock market superstar Investment strategist ROHIT SEHGAL is synonymous with success

Rohit

Sehgal, 62, vice president and chief investment strategist, Dundee Wealth Management, claims he once raised $40 million in 2 minutes. And that claim is completely believable because his track record is the stuff stock market mythologies are made of.

In early 2007, some bankers called Sehgal to consider investing in the Calgary-based Athabasca Oil Corporation. Sehgal okayed $10 million. Then, the company found out it was sitting on about 7 billion barrels of oil, which made his investment worth $200 million.

‘Rohit has been raising the bar for growth margins in Canada for more than 35 years,’ said David Goodman, president and CEO, Dundee Wealth Management, last year. ‘Under his leadership we are setting up new standards for investment excellence in Canada and around the world.’

It’s not just his boss that’s been showering kudos on Sehgal.

‘In early 2008, his [Sehgal’s] fund was rated

by Barron’s magazine as the number two hedge fund in the world over the three preceding years, with a market-crushing 60 percent annualized return,’ writes Bob Thompson, who has interviewed a dozen stock market superstars of Canada, including Sehgal.

What is the secret of his success? “You have to be passionate about what you are doing. You have to be dedicated. You have to have a certain drive, certain personality, and certain ambition. Sometimes, you get a break, an opportunity that comes at the right point. That’s all part of it.”

More important for him as a money manager is “an environment which allows you to do your best. For me that means un-bureaucratic. I would never be able to survive in a bureaucratic environment!”

Those in the know in the stock market world say research is Sehgal’s secret weapon.

“You have to be ahead of the herd,” he laughs.

“I am informed by the amount of research I do but at the same time, I know what I am looking for, which sharpens the analysis. I try to look at the right places and look at the right indicators.

Much of my attention is focused on the big picture, because I believe the big picture offers a lot of signals to the investor.”

And he certainly can look at the big picture; he is credited to have started looking to India and China before investors on Bay Street could probably even pronounce ‘Mumbai’.

But the world of global finance has seen seismic changes in the last year.

“Right now we are all feeling a little bit humbled,” Sehgal concedes. “It is very difficult to hold up past achievements and the

recognition that sometimes accompanies that success as anything other than what they are — past achievements. We are facing something today that we have never faced before in terms of the market’s performance. Patience and calm are watchwords at a time like this.”

He has recently bought a home in Goa, India and he reportedly wants to raise money to build a school for underprivileged children. Goodman, however, reportedly said he ‘can’t envision Sehgal’ quitting the business.

32 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Mapping success SANJAY MAVINKURVE is one of Google’s best brains

You

might have seen Sanjay Mavinkurve — he was on The New York Times front page recently. The prestigious newspaper called the 28year-old Indo-Canadian ‘A Google Whiz.’

Mavinkurve is leader of the Google team that’s building easy-to-use maps for mobile phones. “I was one of the original people on the team that started this project,” he says. “I figure out what the product should look like, what its features should be, the interaction model, how will people use it, what user needs exist in the market. I interpret what millions of people want and need and translate that into a product design.”

Sanjay, who shuttles between Google’s office in Toronto and the Internet giant’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, completed his master’s in computer engineering from Harvard University when he was just 22. Google quickly lapped him up.

He and his older brother Gaurav grew up in Saudi Arabia, where his parents — who are originally from Mumbai — worked.

“We always dreamed of living in America,” Mavinkurve explains, “and so together we started searching for a boarding school that will give us scholarship and we finally found Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where we were able to go almost for free.”

After high school, Sanjay headed for

“When we started mobile maps, we didn’t know the direction in which phones will go.

We still don’t know what will happen. My feeling is that eventually all phones will be touch screens” 34 India Abroad August 2009

Harvard and Gaurav went to Dartmouth and then on to Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Mavinkurve lives in Toronto with his wife Samvita Padukone, who is also from Mumbai and who went to school and university in Singapore.

“After I lost both my grandparents, my parents have come here and four of us now live together in Toronto,” Mavinkurve says.

The mobile phone is often predicted as the new tech frontier. “On the mobile phone, Web browsers are not good, not that powerful,” explains Mavinkurve. “There are few things more constrained than a mobile phone.

They have small screens, only a few buttons, and very slow Internet connections.”

He is credited with customizing Google Maps for mobile phones, especially touch-screen ones.

“When we started mobile maps, we didn’t know the direction in which phones will go. We still don’t know what will happen. My feeling is that eventually all phones will be touch screens, no keyboards,” he says.

But then, the world of technology keeps changing all the time.

Now, Mavinkurve says, he can locate his wife and friends “on the map in real time.

I can see them moving.”

His team of four product designers and 30 engineers are spread across the globe — Seattle, Mountain View, London and Beijing.

“65 to 70 percent of Nokia phone users are in China,” he explains. “The iPhone is number one in North America.”

“Making changes, impacting lives of lots of people” inspire him. “Sometimes I can see a person sitting next to me in a plane with a Blackberry using Google Maps. That’s what motivates me most — knowing that the product of my work is being used improving lives of millions of people.”

His is a classic immigrant story: He was 14 when he and his brother landed in Hudson. “I came here in between — not quite a child, not as an adult,” he says. “I came with one purpose alone and that was to work as hard as I could and to achieve as much as I could to make something of myself someday.”

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THE POWER LIST

The business of a better world SANJAY SHARMA uses private sector resources to address global issues

Dr

Sanjay Sharma is dean, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Canada’s largest business school with 9,000 students. The school has over 1,000 students of Indian origin between 200 and 250 students from India.

But where Sharma’s interest really lies is harnessing the private sector resources to address environmental and social problems that the world faces today.

More development is possible through the private sector, he believes. “For the first time in history there’s much more money flowing between private corporations in the developed world to private corporations in the developing world than there is between governments and aid agencies,” he points out.

He believes these investments should have sustainable outcomes.

To harness private investments, Sharma has focused on helping organizations “to build multi-stakeholders partnerships to develop sustainable business models in developing countries.”

Sharma cites a few examples of how he advises companies to structure their projects, for which he also sends his MBA students to work with companies to develop and implement those projects.

The S C Johnson Company is co-creating a model in the huge slum of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya to develop hygiene and health while involving thousands of micro-entrepreneurs.

Kibera —a shantytown akin to the slums of Dharavi in Mumbai — has no functioning toilets or sewage systems. The business model that Sharma has helped develop fosters local entrepreneurship within Kibera by providing toilet cleaning and fumigation services using S C Johnson products. This, he says, has improved health and hygiene and generated income stability and reduced crime. His students have gone there to help the company and the local people. Another such project was to help the poor acquire and use solar cookers, which reduces environmental damage. And in Hyderabad, DuPont’s Indian subsidiary Solae is co-creating a business model with non-governmental organizations, local communities, microfinance organizations and thousands of small farmers.

Solae, Sharma explains, “provides technology and management expertise to farmers to grow high yield soybean using environmentally friendly techniques. They guarantee a price which is higher than the farmers would negotiate in open mar-

kets. Solae also helps these farmers become entrepreneurs by adding value via processing of soybeans.”

The positive impacts of such projects are poverty reduction, social equity, grassroots entrepreneurship, and environmental protection.

Before being the John Molson School, Sharma was the Canada research chair in organizational sustainability at the Wilfrid Laurier school of Business in Waterloo, Ontario, where he established the Center for Responsible Organizations.

“Mine is a service profession not intended to generate personal wealth, but rather to serve society,” says Sharma. “I have worked on research, teaching and consulting to help build more sustainable economies. I bring the money and bring together the people and the students to achieve our goals of global sustainability.”

He has published six books and over 100 articles on corporate sustainability. He co-founded the Organization and the Natural Environment Division at the Academy of Management and also founded Gronen, an international academic think tank on corporate sustainability that brings together top North American and European scholars to define the academic field of research in sustainability. He is a consultant for international organizations like the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in the domain of sustainability.

Last year, he introduced community service initiative in the John Molson School’s MBA program. The initiative is popular, he says, “as students see this as an alternative to conventional jobs in an investment bank. Students see lot of opportunities to work for development agencies, global NGOs or start their own sustainable ventures.”

More development is possible through the private sector, he believes

36 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Investor, innovator SATISH RAI is more than just one of Canada’s top market gurus

The

Toronto Dominion Bank’s bond fund was worth $100 million 20 years ago, when Satish Rai took over. Under his leadership, the fund has grown to $8 billion.

That, says Rai, vice chairman, portfolio management and research, TD Asset Management, “is an amazing growth rate.”

Rai, 46, works with amazing figures. He looks after close to $100 billion of clients’ money and their investments vary in liquidities to bonds to equity, to hedge funds, commodity funds. His team is based in Toronto, New York and Boston and he is forever “crisscrossing back and forth, traveling all the time, talking to investors. I do a lot of public speaking about investments, what the world’s economy looks like, about major trends, strategies, etc,” explains Rai. So what does he tell investors in this gloomy economic weather? He says a balanced investment portfolio is the key.

“If you have all your money in equities you have lost 50 percent of your investment [in the current climate] but if you have 50 percent in equities and 50 percent in fixed incomes, you probably are down about 15 percent,” he explains.

“Real investing is very long term,” he says. “Poor quality companies, companies that have broken business models, have gone bankrupt. And the companies that are highly cyclical have lost lots of money.”

So, his advice to his clients is that they should “stick to high quality companies, companies with strong brands, companies that have dominating market shares. Despite the economic downturn, such companies have actually survived domestically and globally in a very profound way.”

He believes in getting his hands dirty. He does a lot of on the ground research, visiting places like steel mills and oil-sands fields, as these to him “are key elements in selecting corporate bonds.”

“I am absolutely focused and I do hard research,” says Rai, who has a double degree in business and computer science from Waterloo University. He sits on the board of governors of his alma mater and chairs its finance committee. His weekly commentaries on the market trends are circulated widely and he is often on television, analyzing the market.

Interestingly, he is one of the two male executives on a 12member board of Women in Capital Market.

“As member of the board of directors, I promote women’s issues. The idea is to help females make a greater impact in the finance community,” he explains.

Rai is used to success. He was in the ‘40 under 40’ list seven years ago.

‘I have a passion about investing but I also have a passion about helping others’

“It happened because at a very young age I was looking after such a large sum of money and I am showing such a remarkable performance numbers on the charts. I was also recognized for some of the community work that I was doing, including helping charities,” he says.

At TDB, Rai runs a diversity program promoting leadership amongst visible minorities across Canada. Of the bank’s 45,000 employees, 26 percent are visible minorities.

“If people have banking experience, we are very open to employing these new immigrants,” Rai says. “I do focus groups for new immigrants who tell us that new immigrants have a hard time finding a job but once they are employed at TD, they are treated very well.”

Over 100 bank executives mentor new immigrants for 12 months. Rai, who is part of the executive committee, has done other mentoring programs for visible minorities.

“I tell them, find a mentor who will guide you and you will see the doors open,” he says. “I have a passion about investing but I also have a passion about helping others, helping new immigrants.”

37 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Legal eagle SOMA RAY-Ellis is one of the country’s best known lawyers

Soma

Ray-Ellis, 44, was the lead counsel for Air India, representing the airline at the public inquiry into the June 23, 1985 bombing of Flight 182, Kanishka. As the only woman lead counsel at the national inquiry, she says she saw it “as an incredible opportunity to understand the connection between law, politics, the media and international relations. It involved the relationship between public law, aviation law, contract law, human rights law, personal injury law and the interrelationship was quite complicated because it was played out in such a public way.”

She is co-chair of the employment group at Himelfarb Proszanski LLP, a premiere downtown Toronto law firm.

Her Air India experience makes her one of the few Canadian lawyers with knowledge of the legal and geopolitical issues involving terrorism.

“Terrorism is not about national borders as it can strike anyone anywhere,”

she says, pointing out the November 2008 attack on Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists. “To stop terrorism at its roots, we all have to play a role. Being wealthy or educated will not protect anyone from terrorism. It is the new form of warfare,” she says.

Despite being a lawyer dealing with cold facts, the way the 329 Air India victims’ families’ plight has moved her.

“I have a great deal of respect and awe for the family members who have lobbied for over two decades so that the whole picture could be revealed,” she says.

She says she is aware of the enormity of the task before the Inquiry Commissioner John Major and the Commission. “The commission has worked tirelessly to piece together the

whole story from every possible angle which is reflected in the voluminous materials presented at the inquiry,” she says.

The Air India tragedy, Canadians learnt during the inquiry, could have been averted.

The bomb-laden suitcase was put on the flight despite no passenger boarding with that piece of luggage checked-in — a clear violation of international airline safety rules.

Other than her work with the Air India inquiry, Ray-Ellis is a prominent employment lawyer.

She’s the author of Halsbury’s Laws of Canada, and the volume on Discrimination and Human Rights (April 2008) — which took her two years to write — now as the Bible on human rights law. She was widely quoted in the national media on recent changes to Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

As an expert in employment and human rights, she has been involved in numerous cases of wrongful dismissal, human rights, pay equity, occupational health and safety, workers compensation, and employment standards.

Her profile extends beyond Canada’s borders. She was recently invited by the Vienna, Austria-based Center for International Legal Studies to speak in Johannesburg, South Africa, at an international conference of lawyers. This was followed by an invitation from the American Bar Association to speak on human rights law in Rome, Italy.

Honors and awards keep coming her way. Last year, she was awarded Lawyer of the Year (Female) by the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto at its inaugural awards ceremony; in 2004, the Women Entrepreneurs of Canada conferred her the Champion Award for Business Leadership in celebration of Women Entrepreneurs Day. She is also the winner of several academic awards including the Osgoode Hall Prize in Municipal Law and was the first South Asian woman lawyer to hold a clerkship at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice with former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry.

Ray-Ellis believes that her experience at the Air India inquiry has made her “a far better lawyer today.”

‘Terrorism is not about national borders’

38 India Abroad August 2009

“ Success

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ROHIT SEHGAL

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THE POWER LIST

Unlocking the heart’s mysteries SUBODH VERMA is a global leader in the war against cardiovascular diseases.

And he’s not even 40

including from the American College of Cardiology, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the International Society of Heart Research. Recently, he was appointed the Canada research chair in atherosclerosis. He has published over 150 papers and won over 40 research awards and prizes.

He and his scientific research team have linked the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 to heart disease, which many scientists have called a truly remarkable and novel discovery.

While he operates three days a week, two bypasses each day, Verma’s heart lies equally in the laboratory with his scientific team. Through his research work, he says, he has helped understand how the endothelium, the inner most lining of all blood vessels, can be a central orchestrator of health and disease. These insights are leading to new ways to identify healthy patients at risk of developing heart disease, so that treatments can be initiated early. His research work has also identified that inflammation plays a key role in the development of heart disease.

This has set the stage for the use of anti-inflammatory treatments to prevent heart disease.

“I am extremely fortunate,” he says, “to be in a profession that enables me to do cutting-edge research at the bench while also being involved in a very dynamic and precise profession as cardiac surgery. To be able to bridge the bench to the bedside or the cell to the clinic, as I say, working at molecular and genetic levels, and trying to evaluate new ways of preventing and treating heart disease from a cellular and biochemical level while at the same time having the privilege of operating on patients where they entrust their lives in our hands is a beautiful marriage of science and clinical care.”

He says he’s committed to find answers for tomorrow.

“The only way to make things better for tomorrow is to ask most important and pertinent questions about how disease develops and how molecular signals could be harnessed towards improving care,” he says. “I have been able to look beyond regular boundaries and engage in cross-disciplinary investigations to help solve the mysteries of the human heart in health and disease.”

How are breast cancer and heart disease linked? Some people who carry the breast cancer susceptibility gene, he explains, may not develop the disease but may develop heart problems. Therefore, healthy people who have the breast cancer gene may also need to watch their risk factors, not put on weight, avoid smoking, etc.

“I also travel as a visiting professor to universities throughout the world, in addition to serving as a consultant for various pharmaceutical companies,” he says.

What does he tell trainees? His reply: “Don’t be fearful of embracing people who are smarter than you. Don’t feel fearful of embracing the unknown because you will only grow taller walking with the trees.” He says he is committed to “to create a healthier world for tomorrow.”

His work has identified that inflammation plays a key role in heart disease

Dr

Subodh Verma, cardiac surgeon at Toronto’s St Michael Hospital and associate professor of surgery and pharmacology at the University of Toronto, is a true renaissance man.

A gold medalist in pharmacy, PhD in cardiovascular pharmacology and MD in cardiac surgery, his groundbreaking work has expanded the frontier of research into heart diseases, the number one killer of mankind.

Verma, 39, has won national and international accolades —

40 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Global student SURAJ GUPTA is the epitome of a young achiever

In

the Bayview Glen High School yearbook, his classmates voted Suraj Gupta as ‘most likely to be prime minister of Canada.’

“Who knows a few years down the road what would happen,” chuckles Suraj, 18, now a third year undergraduate student at the Schulich School of Business, York University.

He has started rubbing shoulders with world leaders for sure. He has already met Prime Minister Stephen Harper twice and dozens of other national and local politicians at various occasions, including King Constantine of Rome.

This year, Suraj received the Young Achievers Award from Federal Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day at a glittering Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce gala.

Suraj was recently named a regional and provincial competition judge for the Distributive Education Clubs of America, an international association of students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service. This year, he ranked fifth in the DECA University Nationals, and was in the top 10 at the international leg of the DECA competition, held in Anaheim, California.

“When you go for national you are representing yourself,” he says. “When you go for international, you are representing Canada and your school. He competed as a second year undergraduate student “having not completed a single marketing course and I was competing against people in their 30s and 40s, and graduates specializing in marketing.”

He has been featured in The Globe and Mail column Me and My Money, which highlights successful, innovative investors.

He has already raised $10,000 for medical supplies in Sierra Leone as part of Free the Children, a charity that helps more than 1 million children through education. He raised $4,000 by selling jerseys to his friends at the Schulich School of Business. It is his initiative that York University now has a chapter Free the Children.

“They saw my hard work last year and they appointed me president of Free the Children,” Suraj says. With his team members, he has raised $28,000 in total for the charity.

As a DECA provincial champion, he was given a spot at the international Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida, where he presented a case study about environmentally friendly airplane engines.

“I argued the airlines should buy those environmentally

friendly engines as that would save some money in gas consumption, but more importantly it will help in terms of the global warming perspective.”

In high school, Suraj traveled to Scotland in 2006 to attend the Round Square conference, an organization of high schools around the world established by Nelson Mandela and King Constantine. It raises money for charity, builds leadership skills in students and gives them opportunities to go on exchange programs. The discussion in Scotland centered largely around the issue of the Kyoto accord and whether the world will be in a position to limit greenhouse gas emission. He says he saw how many countries, including India and China, “reacted to this environmental problem.”

The tall, handsome and well-spoken Suraj is president of York University’s Investment Club and the Business Law Association. He’s also investment consultant for Stockgroup Media Inc.

41 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Waste not SUSHEEL ARORA harnesses technology for the betterment of society at large

He

is amongst the youngest to head waste water services for metro Halifax (Nova Scotia), which for Susheel Arora, 42, means the responsibility for collection and treatment of waste/storm water generated in and by a town of approximately 400,000 people, at the head of 300 people.

“Waste water comes from sewage and it is purified and treated before it can be released to the harbor,” says Arora, who came to Canada in 1994 and has progressed considerably in the course of the next 15 years. “We treat the water, separate the solid waste and then we disinfect it and release it into the harbor. Solid waste is concentrated; it then goes to the composting plant after which it is sold as soil amending fertilizer.

“We have to be very careful what goes into the harbor. I am in a profession that is highly regulated profession through Environment Canada and local regulatory bodies and in my current position as Director of Waste Water, I am also a director incharge for the Harbor Solutions Project for the Halifax Harbor cleanup, for which the budget is $330 million.”

The native of Ganganagar, Rajasthan, had come to Canada with a Masters in Environmental Engineering; on arrival, he took another Master’s in Applied Sciences from Dalhousie University.

Though his current brief keeps him extremely busy, he says he has not given up the research aspect of his specialization in managing waste water.

At his initiative, two major research projects are ongoing in Halifax: the one at Dalhousie University for testing and optimizing water treatment technology is worth a million dollars annually, and the one at Agricultural College is about the beneficial utilization of bio-solids. “I lead these research efforts and fund these projects through my department,” Arora says.

In his position as member of the US-based Water and Environment Federation, Arora sits on various committees including the American Water Waste Association. In his capacity of expert in the field, he is regularly invited to speak at professional fora, and to write guides, manuals and research papers on the cutting edge of water management.

Arora is equally active in the area Sikh and Hindu societies, where he has held high positions. He is also active with the Vedanta Ashram. “We do a lot of fund raising,” he says. “Most recently we raised funds for the Guru Govind Singh Foundation which will donate the money to children’s hospitals in all 10 provinces of the country.

We organize walkathons, support local food banks and through the gurdwara we send money to several charities in India.”

In his native Ganganagar, he donates money to the Bal Vivek Ashram which has 80 orphan children. He visits the ashram without fail on his periodic trips to India. “I talk to the children and ask them what they need. Sometimes it is books, sometimes it is a matter of improving bathroom facilities. I go

around the facilities, we make a list of what is needed – in summer for example it gets very hot, so I bought coolers for them.” He also supports a school for blind and deaf children in his hometown.

His work has resulted in various honors coming his way, including the Young Engineer Award from Engineers Nova Scotia (2003). His philosophy, he says, is simple: “I try to find ways to apply complex technology to come up with simple solutions for the betterment of society at large.”

42 India Abroad August 2009

Will an Indo-Canadian make it to the Parliament?

As the largest selling newspaper for the Indo-Canadian community, we regularly bring you in-depth stories you won’t find elsewhere. Whether it’s the rise of Indo-Canadian in politics and business, or Bollywood and cultural affairs, we’ll keep you in the know.

THE POWER LIST

Dollars and sense VASDEV CHANCHLANI has a heart as wide as all outdoors, and a check book to match when the cause is right

Orthopedic

surgeon Dr Vir Sennik once approached businessman Vasdev Chanchlani for a donation towards the fracture unit at the Trillium Health Center. Chanchlani promptly wrote out a check for $100,000.

Ajit Someswar, one of the founders of the advocacy group Canada-India Foundation, needed funding for an endowment that would give an annual award recognizing the exemplary achievements of leaders who have done the Diaspora proud. Chanchlani agreed to create a million dollar endowment, and handed over a check for $100,000 for the first year.

Thanks to his commitment, the CIF at its inaugural gala dinner in 2008 saw the participation of, among others, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam, at what came to be known as the ‘Night of the Stars’.

Chanchlani says he wants to make it a $10-million endowment and award a million dollar each year instead of $50,000 currently which, he says, is too little to “attract credible people, people of international repute.” He hopes to rope in friends, outside institutions and even the federal government to reach that target.

“In any case, I am personally committed to achieve the $10 million target. I realize the endowment fits with my philanthropic goal to nurture and celebrate the quest of excellence and global leadership,” says the man who, when the cause is right, is quickest off the mark with his checkbook – as happened for instance when he created a $900,000 endowment to save a Toronto area Hindu temple from bankruptcy.

What is remarkable about Chanchlani is not his personal philanthropy, but the influence he exerts in the field – an influence that means that where he leads, others are prepared to follow.

His donation to AIM for Seva to start a hostel for tribal people in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, in the name of his mother induced 18 other people to pledge to donate a hostel each, at costs that range from $37,500 back when Chanchlani started things off, to $60,000 now.

Chanchlani is co-founder of the software company Sigma Systems, with over 400 employees at one location in Toronto alone. He is also the co-founder of six other technology ventures “having acquired venture funding from the best of the best venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkings, and strategic investments from the likes of Cisco and then successfully exiting from all of them,” he says.

Chanchlani buys up companies in danger of going under, turns them round, and when they are back on sound footing, sells them away, moving on to the next project. It is all about ‘Team, Timing and Talent’, says the man who characterizes

Vasdev Chanchlani, right, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself as a ‘network entrepreneur’.

It is little wonder then that the MBA from Rothman School of Management, University of Toronto was named an ‘Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ finalist, while the IndoCanada Chamber of Commerce gave him the ‘Technology Achievement Award ‘ for contributions in the field.

Making money is not a dirty word in Chanchlani’s lexicon, but he insists that the community comes first, and has gained a wide reputation as among the most open hearted of philanthropists. His pet project is the CIF Chanchlani Global Award, with which he has been involved for the last two years as chief benefactor.

“I realized that it would very well fit with the philanthropic goal of the Chanchlani family to nurture and celebrate the quest of excellence and global leadership, which will create a global platform to promote and protect the global leadership of the Indian Diaspora,” explains Chanchlani. His vision is to build the award up into something that in scope resembles the Ramon Magsaysay award, and to use it to showcase the emergence of India in the global arena.

44 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

And justice for all VERN KRISHNA has spent a lifetime breaking down legal barriers — and there are yet miles to go

When

he walked into the law school of the University of Alberta in Edmonton for the first time in 1971 Vern Krishna, now 66, was the only South Asian student there.

“I was conspicuous,” he says in masterly understatement. Ask him whether he faced prejudice, and he tells you simply that his aims were high – too high for him to concern himself with the trivial; he had to finish his law degree, then earn two more from Cambridge and Harvard.

Interestingly, he points out, when he went on to teach law at Dalhousie University in 1975, he was again the only South Asian professor of law on campus and in fact, in the whole country.

South Asian parents typically pushed their children into medicine or engineering; it took some time, he says, for them to realize that “law is a pathway to influence, and it plays a role in the society,” Krishna explains.

“The University is somewhat sheltered from the rest of the community, the rest of society, so I was well received, but I was the odd man out literally.”

Fast forward to 2001 when Krishna became the first non-white to be elected Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada (2001-03), a position equivalent to that of a university president. In 2004, he received the country’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada; he had already in 2002 been recognized by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce as Professional Man of Year, and in 2008 the South Asian Bar Association conferred the Distinguished Career Award on him.

As Treasurer of the Law Society, Krishna took on the job of removing a grave obstruction in the legal profession. Till then, you could practice law only in the province from where you were licensed. “It was certainly an aberration,” he says.

He began talking with legal bodies, and finally succeeded in breaking down the artificial barrier.

“I chaired National Committee on mobility and we, all 9 provinces and 3 territories, signed a historic agreement that has now permitted a licensed lawyer to go and practice anywhere in the country except Quebec which has a different legal regime, a different legal system.”

Amidst all of this, he has found the time to write 12 books, besides a regular law column for the Globe and Mail.

He has seen the profession change in two significant ways.

About 65 percent of those entering law school now are women, he points out. “That’s a very significant change from when I entered law school – then, we had 15 women out of 180 students. And secondly, law school is now much more multicultural than it ever was.”

As Treasurer of the Law Society, he is the one who does the honors, admits students into the profession. “When I stood on

stage and shook every person’s hand (at that seminal moment when they went from student to professional), I could see the demography has changed very quickly. South Asians and people of color, Orientals, etc are much more significant in number now than they were a generation ago.

“It is not going to be an easy road, as full integration doesn’t come overnight,” Krishna says. “It has to be earned, and there is resistance to it. You have to work literally twice as hard and be twice as good to be considered equal to the mainstream, and that requires sacrifices. There are compromises and tradeoffs.”

To survive takes enormous commitment, Krishna says. “I believe that many times on the professional curve, we will be kicked out or slighted or victimized. And you have to pick yourself up and no matter how badly you are treated, dust yourself and carry on. You cannot let it defeat you.”

45 India Abroad August 2009

THE POWER LIST

Torchbearer for others VIM KOCHHAR is a successful engineer and store owner, but it’s his volunteer work for the physically disabled that makes him an icon

Toronto-based

Vim Kochhar, a professional engineer and furniture store owner, proves that making a living isn’t all that matters in life. In the end, it’s what you do for others that counts.

Kochhar, founder of the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons, spends just 10 percent of his time at ‘work,’ and dedicates the other 90 percent of his time to volunteering.

But for him, it is the volunteer work that pays huge dividends. His foundation has raised over $22 million for the disabled since it was founded in 1985, and today he is nothing less than an icon to Canada’s physically challenged.

“This money has been utilized to help people with disabilities and to bring about awareness that there’s no limit to what people with disabilities can do. What the rest of us need to do is to make sure we are not standing in their way,” Kocchar says.

His proudest moment was in 1996 when he organized a country-wide marathon to create awareness and raise funds. Though the initiative took him two exhausting years to prepare, he raised $2 million for the foundation.

He’s also heavily involved with the Paralympics Games, having given $4 million to the cause, and becomes emotional when talking about his experiences.

“We have participated in every Paralympics Games. I went to Atlanta and China for these games and each year my wife Dorothy has gone…We took the message of Paralympics to the prime minister of Canada, every provincial and territorial premier, every Lieutenant Governor and every politician in 700 communities.”

“Our work is still not done,” he adds. “My ambition is to bring Paralympics gold to the level of Olympics gold medals. When we started there was only 1 percent recognition for Paralympics in Canada. Now it is close to 30 percent. If we cross 50 percent, I will be very happy.”

Kochhar’s annual signature event is the Valentine Gala, which some people call the second-most important social event in Toronto’s calendar, next only to the Brazilian Ball. At this year’s gala, he invited all the Canadian Paralympics athletes who won medals at the Beijing games to Toronto to honor them.

Kochhar follows a simple dictum: You have to spend good money to raise good money. Over the years he has invited the likes of Bob Hope and George Burns to Toronto to perform.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has now named Kochhar the director-trustee on the Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a $300-million project created by Parliament Act. He’s the only one representing Ontario on the museum’s advisory board.

For his work for the physically disabled, Kochhar is a recipient of the Order of Ontario (1995), a Humanitarian Award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and special recognition from the Ontario Lieutenant Governor for 25 years of Valentine galas.

Kochhar is also something of a philosopher.At his Valentine Galas, he’s fond of reciting a favorite aphorism: ‘A wheelchair is not a symbol of disability. It is a symbol of freedom for people who can’t walk.’

46 India Abroad August 2009

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