Friday, December 07 2012 | Vol. 31, No. 49
Indo American erican News
www.indoamerican-news.com Published weekly from Houston, TX
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Chamber Pursues Indian Trade
Pg 5
Indian Couple Convicted in Norway for Child Abuse
More than 8000 people attended the first ever Dusshera Mela held at Constellation Field in Sugar Land on November 4.
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Talaash: A Must Watch
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IOS Suspends Indian Olympic Body
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Pg 3 From left: Deepa Thakur, Nandita Harish, Mayor Annise Parker, Consul General P. Harish and Ajit Thakur at the IACCGH luncheon on Wednesday, November 27 at the Westin Galleria.
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COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
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Cheerfulness on Display at Chamber’s Luncheon, Amid Trade Delegation Talk
BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: The mood was definitely in keeping with the cheerful Holiday season at the Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston’s luncheon on Wednesday, November 27 at the Westin Galleria Hotel when it featured Houston Mayor Annise Parker as the keynote speaker in front of a mixed crowd of members and guests. It was as much an appreciation of the city’s multi-culturalism as it was an introduction to Houston’s efforts to promote international trade. And on that front, Chamber President Ajit Thakur suggested that the Mayor lead a trade delegation to India, with possibly the Indian Consul General P. Harish accompanying her and certainly many from Houston business community, including Indo Americans. Towards the tail end of the luncheon, after the Mayor had spoken, Harish encouraged the Mayor to lead the delegation next year “to showcase opportunities for trade with India.” Thakur opened up the afternoon program by sharing, in his unimitable, folksy, humorous style why he loved living in the Bayou City. “I have waited all year long to welcome Mayor Parker,” he quipped to chuckles. “I won’t give details of what the Chamber has done through the year but will try something different,” he added as he delved into the virtues of living in Houston. He tied this to his recent vacation on the French Riviera where he spent $1,000 a night at a hotel only to learn, to his shock and dismay that it came with no coffee service. “I then realized the value of what we have here in Houston,” he quipped, adding that the city offered two qualities – livability and affordability, both very important for the middle class. Thakur went onto enumerate the many great attractions that Houston offered in the Metroplex, including the Zoo, Galveston beaches, senior fares on Metro and closed by exclaiming, “this is the Houston that we love!” Sanjay Ram, who is slated to become the Chamber President in two years, in-
Houston Mayor Annise Parker addressing the audience at the Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston’s luncheon on Wednesday, November 27 at the Westin Galleria. Photos: Bijay Dixit
Safa George VP, Shell proposed vote of thanks
troduced the Mayor as the candidate who won city elections eight times (as Council member, Comptroller and now Mayor) and handles the tough issues head on.
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Parker, who had arrived late to the event due to a prior commitment, declared that she loved her job and was excited to go to work every day. “I don’t know what to say
Ajit,” she jested, “you gave the speech that I would have given!” She then described her recent trip with a trade delegation to Qatar and how she had met with the previous Indian Consul General Sanjeev Arora who moved to Doha as Indian Ambassador. “He send his regards to all and says he misses everyone here,” said Parker. Keeping the mood light and cheerful, Parker recognized in the audience the Mayor Pro Tem Ed Gonzalez; her Chief of Staff Waynette Chan; the Director of the Office of Business Opportunity Carlecia Wright and Matthew Shailer from her Office of International Affairs who greets visiting trade delegations and coordinates their activities here. “But even with thirty international Chambers of Commerce in Houston, my office only learns of a few delegations - maybe 10 a month,” Parker mentioned, hoping that this might improve through the involvement of her staff. “As Mayor, I have come to know much more of the international community in the city than before,” she commented, adding that India is the city’s 15th largest trading partner and that she wants to expand that by working with Harish. “India doesn’t have enough trade delegations coming to our city,” lamented Parker. In response, Harish said that bilateral trade between South Texas and India was about 11% of the total. With many families of Indian origin settled in the area, he saw a bright future for promoting business with India. With over 4,000 Indian students in Texas and 1,500 in and around Houston as well as a vibrant Indian, contributing community, he saw positive signs for expanding trade with India and urged the Mayor to lead a trade delegation to India in 2013. In concluding the program, Deepa Thakur and Nandita Harish presented Parker with an embroidered Indian Kashmiri shawl, draping it across her shoulders. When Shell Oil’s Vice President Safa George stepped up to conclude the program by asking for the plaque to present to the Mayor, Ahluwalia called out, “It changed into a shawl!” much to everyone’s amusement.
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
JVB Welcomes Five Jain Organizations for Chaitya Paripati
BY SHASHANK JAIN HOUSTON: The feelings of unity and togetherness & spirituality were overwhelming when 5 different Jain organizations visited the JVB Preksha Meditation Center in Houston (JVB) on Sunday December 2. The visit was the first stop for a group of about 150 people, who were on a pilgrimage to visit and pay obeisance at 5 local Jain temples in Houston in one day. This pilgrimage also called Chaitya Paripati is conducted after the Chaturmas for worship, prayers and meditation by Jains by visiting 5 religious places. This event was a first for the Houston Jain community and possibly also in all of North America with the coming together of representatives from Six Jain organizations under one roof for the Chaitya Paripati/Patna Darshan. Jain Society of Houston (JSH) took the lead role in organizing this event and the other four participating Jain organizations were from Waco, Austin, Dallas and Wisconsin. All the members arrived in 2 chartered buses and were received with a grand welcome at JVB that began with playing of the dhol, chanting of mantras, bhajans & with the unfurling of the Jain flag by JVB Chairman Swatantra Jain and Director Alok Jain. Thereafter all the visitors upon entering the premises were adorned with tilaks; & all Sanghpatis (leaders) from the various organizations were honored individually. Jain Society of Houston was represented by Kirti Bhai Shah and Arvinda Ben; Kirit Bhai Daftary represented the Waco Jain Sangh. The Austin and Dallas Jai Sanghs
Five visiting Jain Sangh’s led by representatives of Jain Society of Houston
were represented by Rajiv Gandhi and Dewang Kaveri respectively, Devendra Bhai Modi was representing the Wisconsin Jain sangh. JVB Houston’s resident Jain nuns - Samani Parimal Pragya ji and Samani Amit Pragya ji presided over the welcome proceedings and Samani Parimal Pragya gave a thoughtful message to all attendees by talking about brotherhood and amity among all. JVB Chairman Swatantra Jain welcomed everyone to the JVB center and its temple to pay their obeisance as part of the Chaitya Paripati. JSH President Jayesh
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JVB team welcomes the guests with chanting mantras, led by Samani Parimal Pragya & Samani Amit Pragya.
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Chaitya Paripati prayers being offered inside JVB temple.
Sanghvi presented a token of appreciation and memento to the JVB team on the occasion of their Chaitya Paripati visit. He also extended an open invitation to JVB patrons and Samanijis to visit JSH soon. This was followed by a delicious lunch for all the visitors sponsored by Hasmukh Bhai and Chandrika Ben Doshi. Thereafter the Chaitya Paripati/Patna Darshan continued with departure from JVB to the next temple destination.
The JVB Preksha Meditation Center envisions a blissful and peaceful society through Yoga, Preksha Meditation and Education of Non-violence. It is open for all mankind. The JVB Preksha Meditation center organizes free half day workshops on second Saturday of every month. For more information, visit www.jvbhouston.org or call 281-596-9642.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
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Indian Couple Convicted in Norway for Child Abuse
OSLO, Norway (Deccan Herald): The Oslo District Court has found V Chandrasekhar, an employee of Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) on deputation to Oslo, and his wife, Anupama, guilty on several counts of child abuse. The court sentenced Chandrasekhar to 18 months and his wife to 15 months in jail. “In the view of the court, the couple deliberately burnt their son’s leg with a hot
A court in Norway on Tuesday sent to jail an Indian couple on a charge of child abuse shocking members of their families, who termed the judgment one-sided. spoon or similar object with the result that the child had burn marks measuring approximately 3x5 centimetres,” said a statement on Norway’s official website. “The court also found that it had been proven that the parents had on several occasions hit the child (Sai Sriram) with a belt or similar object and that they had on one occasion threatened to burn their son on his tongue with a hot spoon. “The proven abuse took place over a pe-
can be appealed to the Borgarting Court of Appeal,” the statement added. Calling the judgment one-sided, the families of the convicted couple said in Hyderbad they would appeal to a higher court in Norway seeking justice. “My Uncle Chandrasekhar spoke to me after the sentencing and he is planning to appeal to a higher court and is consulting lawyers. We have not revealed to Sai Sriram about the jail sentence as we are worried that his condition could worsen,” Chandrasekhar Vallabhaneni and his wife Anupama have been convicted for gross Chandrasekhar’s nephew Shailendra told or repeated maltreatment of their child/ the media. The Norway court ignored the medical riod of six to seven months and, therefore, reports prepared by specialist Dr Kalyan falls under Section 219, first paragraph, of Chakravarthy about the condition of the the Penal Code on repeated maltreatment. boy. “How can a hyper active kid recover One of the parents received an uncondition- without parental guidance for more than a al prison sentence of 18 months. The other year,” he pointed out. got an unconditional prison sentence of 15 Expressing anguish over the future of months. This is in line with the sentences Sai Sriram, his doctor Chakravarthy said proposed by the prosecution. The verdict in Vijayawada that the court failed to take
into consideration the pressure under which boy’s parents have discharged their responsibilities even in Norway. “While Sriram was hyper and often violent, the little one Abhiram is asthmatic and needed constant nebulisation,” he pointed out. While Chandrasekhar’s mother fainted after hearing about the sentence and was inconsolable, the condition of Anupama’s parents who live in Dilssukhnagar here is no different. At the Mrudula Apartments where the two children are living, many of the close relatives vented their anger on the indifferent attitude of the Indian government. “How can External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid say that the couple are two private persons? Are they not Indian citizens,” questioned Anupama’s brother Bhushan. He demanded urgent action from the Indian Embassy and also the External Affairs Ministry in providing legal aid to the couple. “We were told by the lawyers that the school’s orange book in which the child’s prognosis was recorded was missing. The Oslo police are hell bent on setting an example by targeting an Asian couple,” Bhushan alleged. The family members of Chandrasekhar are planning to meet the chief minister to impress upon him the need to seek help from the Centre. However they ruled out taking the children, particularly Abhiram, to Norway.
Aakash Tablet Unveiled at UN NEW YORK (PTI): UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised India as a “super-power” in the field of information technology as he unveiled the country’s first indigenously created low-cost Aakash 2 tablet. On November 28, the tablet was showcased at the UN headquarters on the occasion of India’s current presidency of the UN Security Council. The CEO of Datawind, maker of the Aakash tablet, Suneet Singh Tuli, presented the device to the UN chief who voiced appreciation for the tablet for being “small and handy.” The CEO said he is targeting to bring down the price of the tablet from $40 to $25 in the next 18 months.
“Nobody thought it was possible to build a tablet PC in this price range. This requires a form of frugal innovation that is unique to India and developing countries. Frugal innovation does not mean creating an iPad killer. It is about creating an iPad for the ‘rickshaw-wala’ and for the mass of the market,” Tuli added. In his remarks, Ban said, “India is a critical player on security issues, but you are also a leader on development and technology. Indeed, India is a super-power on the information superhighway. There is a reason places like Hyderabad are called ‘Cyberabad’.” The UN chief said he is aware that ‘Aakash’ means ‘sky’ in Hindi and called
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on nations to work with the UN to help young people “reach for the sky and meet their dreams.” He said technology is not an end in itself but is the key to empower people to make the most of their own potential. He said one of the major features that need to be incorporated in the device
The Aakash-2 tablet computer is unveiled by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (left); Hardeep Singh Puri (center), India’s Ambassador to the UN; and Suneet Singh Tuli (right), CEO of Datawind, Nov. 28 at UN headquarters in New York. Photo: AFP
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COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
WRITERS ... TAKE NOTICE Writers are requested to limit their words to 500. The deadline for advertising and articles is 5 pm on Tuesday of each week. For more information, Call 713-789- NEWS (6397) or email us at: indoamericannews@yahoo. com
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Infiniti to Debut All-New Model at 2013 North American International Auto Show
Press Conference Will Feature ‘Inspired’ Performance by Cirque Du Soleil® Simulcast Online LOS ANGELES: On November 28, Infiniti announced that it will unveil an all-new luxury sports sedan on January 14, at the brand’s North American International Auto Show press conference, following a special performance by Cirque du Soleil. For those not able to attend the press conference in Detroit, Infiniti will host a live stream of the event at InfinitiUSA. com and on the brand’s Facebook page, Facebook.com/ Infiniti. Today’s announcement comes as the luxury brand undergoes a new era of inspiration, growing its market share with the strategic expansion of its business worldwide
under the helm of new leadership, said Infiniti’s president Johan de Nysschen. In addition to the January 14 unveiling, de Nysschen will present his vision for the brand in a speech
that outlines a new direction for Infiniti in the years to come. Infiniti made a number of strategic changes in 2012, including relocating its global headquarters to a new state-of-the-art facility in Hong Kong. The move in May
was followed by the appointment in July of de Nysschen as the brand’s new president. Since then, Infiniti has recorded U.S. sales increases year-over-year of 20.6 percent through October, pointing to a strong finish for 2012 and an even stronger start to 2013. About Infiniti Infiniti offers a full-line of luxury performance automobiles that inspire at every turn, including the G Coupe, Sedan and Convertible, Infiniti M sedan, EX and FX crossovers, the QX full-size luxury SUV, and the all-new JX 7-passenger luxury crossover. For more information about Infiniti and its Total Ownership Experience, visit www.infinitiusa. com.
Your Social Security Statement is A Gift to Yourself It’s very likely that during the holiday season you’ve been spending a bit of time and money getting gifts for everyone on your shopping list. Why not take a moment and give yourself a holiday gift? We have a suggestion, and while it won’t cost you a penny, it could be one of the best (and easiest) financial steps you ever take for your future. Give yourself the gift of your own Social Security Statement. You can get yours online at www.socialsecurity. gov/mystatement. The online Social Security Statement is simple, easy to use, and provides estimates you can use to plan for your retirement. It also provides estimates for disability and survivors benefits, making the Statement an important financial planning tool. Your Statement also allows you to determine whether your earnings are accurately posted to your Social Security records. This fea-
ture is important because Social Security benefits are based on average earnings over your lifetime. To get a personalized online Statement, you must be age 18 or older and must be able to provide information about yourself that
matches information already on file with Social Security. In addition, Social Security uses Experian, an external authentication service provider, for further verification. You must provide identifying information and answer
security questions in order to pass this verification. Social Security will not share your Social Security number with Experian, but the identity check is an important part of this new, thorough verification process. When your identity is verified, you can create a “My Social Security” account with a unique user name and password to access your online Statement. In addition, your online Statement includes links to information about other online Social Security services, such as applications for retirement, disability, and Medicare. This holiday season, it’s likely you’ll be hearing some of your friends and family saying “you shouldn’t have” as they receive their gifts from you. That’s something to look forward to. But be sure that you don’t find yourself saying “I should have” when it comes to planning your own financial future. Get your online Social Security Statement and look it over. Do it again next year. It may be the best gift you can give to yourself in the long run. Your free gift is waiting at www. socialsecurity.gov/mystatement.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
Corporate Diversity Conference 2012: A Huge Success in Chicago
CHICAGO: Corporate Diversity Conference 2012, held in Chicago by Chicago United was a huge success. Changing Color of Corporate Leadership in America was the theme of this year’s conference. Many giants of the corporate industry gathered to discuss how to develop ways for more minorities to participate in corporate America. Among From Left: Gregory Wasson (Walgreen), Gloria Castillo this highly distin- (Chicago United), Patricia Hemingway Hall (Blue Cross guished gathering Blue Shield), William C. Weldon (Johnson & Johnson), were Chicago business Nand Kapoor, Sher Rajput (Indo-American Center), leaders, Gregory D. and Frederick H. Waddell (Northern Trust Bank). Wasson, President and CEO of Walgreen Company; William C. Towers. The conference was hosted unWeldon, Chairman of Johnson & John- der the capable leadership of Gloria Casson; Frederick H. Waddell, Chairman tillo, CEO of Chicago United, a highly and CEO Northern Trust Corporation; respected business leader. Following the banquet, there was an Patricia Hemmingway Hall, President and CEO of Health Care Service Corpo- award ceremony. Those honored were: ration; Jan Fields, President of McDon- William C. Weldon, Chairman of Johnalds USA; James H. Skogsbergh, Presi- son & Johnson and Gregory D. Wasson, dent and CEO of Advocate Health Care President and CEO of Walgreen Company. and governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn. Two Asian Indians, Nand Kapoor, forChicago United is the largest minority mer president of Associations of Indians advocacy group promoting the concept in America and Sher Rajput, trustee of of changing the color of business leadership in America. There were over 1,000 Indo-American Center, also participated attendees at the Chicago Hilton and in the 2012 Chicago United Conference.
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BY SONAL BHUCHAR As the world frantically tweets and chirps and blogs and uploads and posts to create instant notifications, instant gratification and instant news, it allows for the basic human need to be heard and be seen. From this melee of information overload, emerges a cacophony of voices that clamor for attention and action. At some point in this game or continuous exchange of thoughts and ideas, each one of us makes decisions on what from this confusing smorgasbord , requires an immediate response, reactive offense, proactive defense, or just a “let’s sit back and watch this”, non- interference mode. Gleaning through this mountain of information, good, bad, ugly, detailed, trivial, significant, or non-essential, requires us as adults, to have the basic knowledge and skills to sift and process, that which is critical for our wellbeing. More importantly, however, it requires us to honor our own moral or value system compass, to assess and empower our ability to live and learn. What then do our children need to succeed? Their ability to manipulate clouds, digital content and cyberspace, far exceeds ours. The concept of classrooms, chalkboards, books and binders has transformed magically into laptops , tablets, kindles and iPads, or better still, iPhones. But what has not changed are the basic Rs…..Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic” are still as relevant today as they were a century ago. They are what brought us to this age of “the cloud” and they are what will take us, as a nation at the cutting edge, to the next frontier. The ability to read and write good literature, albeit on a Kindle, is the only way to move a society forward with ideas and ideology. The ability to master “rithmetic will take us to Mars and beyond. Unquestionably, the basic skill set remains as relevant, even if its teaching methodology has shifted paradigms. To those of us as the Indian diaspora, the value of a basic education is unquestionable and sacred. But in today’s rapidly changing world, beyond the basic skills, how relevant is our education, how rigorous and eventually, how reflective? In the image of the world which is now a flat, level playing field, is the education we are imparting culturally relevant? Do we provide our children with historical perspectives and teach them to analyze continuously unfolding and evolving issues in the world? If we have advanced at astronomical speed past the space age into “clouds,” does our basic education continue to provide the rigor and inspiration to forge ahead and
“The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” - Alvin Toffler conquer barriers to science, technology and medicine? The US lags abysmally behind the world in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and immediate intervention into current curricula begs attention. With the tremendous storehouse of knowledge that Indo Americans bring in these fields, it is critical that we step forward to contribute in any way we can. And finally, is Education really reflective? Is it reflective of the moral compass and ideological value system that we hold dear in a democracy? Does it engage our children to focus on a common cause and find solutions that work in productive ways, rather than create destructive forces that will continue to implode? Education that will continue to inspire the love of freedom, courage, empowerment, rather than appeasement of the weak, and a forward thinking vision that is strong enough to shine the light on the “greater good.” As a community that must hold education as the first key to success, it can only follow that we must remain involved every step of the way to ensure that the sanctity of that which we hold so dear, stays intact.
Sonal Bhuchar currently serves as FBISD Board President. she is also actively engaged in the community serving on various boards, including the Texas Association of School Boards, the Child Advocates Council, the Sugar Land Exchange Club, the Parks Youth Ranch and the Fort Bend Education Foundation, where she chaired the district wide International Festival for three years.
Announcement INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
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December 07, 2012
Ex-Mountain Winery Owner Killed at Home
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hit-and-run case that had caused injury to another party, the local paper said. Kumra was a native of Kartharpur, India. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1970. The victim had a lucrative career as a venture capitalist with Tesla Capital and had also served as President of Western Cellular Management, according to the Mercury News. He had purchased the Mountain Winery in Saratoga in 1995 and sold it in 1999. He is survived by his two daughters, Raina and Anisha. His daughter Raina is a former documentary filmmaker who had previously served as a senior media adviser to the State Department. The 34-year-old is now a Codirector of Innovation for the Broadcasting Board of Governors and was profiled as the next big thing in digital media in Fast Company this January. Meanwhile, the quiet community where the Kumra family lived is in shock that such a horrific crime could occur in the picturesque area - at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. ‘It’s a neighborhood of very large homes, and several have expansive estates,’ police Sgt. Kerry Harris said. ‘Monte Sereno is an extremely safe community. We consider this to be an isolated incident. There’s no indication that this is the beginning of a violent crime wave in
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Raveesh ‘Ravi’ Kumra, 66, (second from left pictured with his daughters Anisha, far left, and Raina, second from right, with her fiance Jamie Gardiner in October) was found dead at his home after an apparent home invasion on Friday. His wife Harinder Kumra, far right, suffered non life-threatening injuries
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MONTE SERENO, CA (Dailymail): A multimillionaire venture capitalist was murdered in his home during an apparent home invasion at his sprawling mansion in an affluent suburb. The victim, Raveesh ‘Ravi’ Kumra was with his wife Harinder at their 7,000 square foot home in Monte Sereno, California this past Friday morning when she told police that four intruders entered the home and killed her husband. Police discovered the body of the 66-year-old man on the floor and are investigating the cause of death. Harinder Kumra, 63, called police at 1:30am on Friday, saying that intruders had entered their massive home and killed her husband. She claimed they attacked her and ransacked the home. She described the murder suspect as a skinny Latino or white adult male, 23 to 24 years old and about six feet tall, with black hair and dark eyes. She said there may have been as many as four intruders in total who entered the home. Harinder Kumra was admitted to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Though police have said Harinder was the victim’s wife, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the pair had filed for divorce in 2006, which was finalized in 2010. The local newspaper, Saratoga News, reported that the man had been arrested in 1998, accused of assault and battery, making annoying or threatening phone calls and making terrorist threats. A woman who had worked at the Mountain Winery, which he owned at the time, accused him of leaving her threatening voicemail messages. In a deal, he pleaded no contest to two counts of disturbing the peace and was given three years of probation. As part of the terms of his probation he was ordered to avoid drugs and alcohol in addition to taking his psychiatric medications. At the time, the proprietor was on probation for numerous traffic violations, including a DUI
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
10 December 07, 2012
OPINION
The Joy of Giving during Christmas and Diwali Seasons
BY KRISHAN GUPTA The Joy of Giving Week is a festival of philanthropy and becoming a part of the Indian ethos, and celebrated every year in the month of October during Gan- d h i Jayanti by engagi n g
people through “acts of giving”. During Joy of Giving Week, scores of Indians
give to their communities in big and small ways. Volunteers are overwhelmed with the avalanche of inquiries and participative pledges from around the country. Indeed each passing year, the event gathers momentum and volunteer strength to proliferate into a nationwide festival of philanthropy. From the top echelons of business to children in distant villages, everybody wants to make a difference, and this year was no dif-
ferent. Bhagavad Gita says in Shaloka 17.20-22 that a gift which is given without thought of return, at a proper time, in proper circumstances, and to a worthy person, is called Sattvika. Giving
with regrets or in the expectation of receiving some favor or of getting something in return, is called Rajasika. A gift which is made without good grace and to undeserving person is called Tamasika. During the holidays, giving donations is a wonderful way to share the spirit of giving with your children. By prioritizing spending, researching charities and involving the whole family is the best way to carve out donations. If you ask people why they give, the readiest answers offer clues to the mystery: God wants me to. I feel great about myself. I want to share. It’s only right. Plan ahead what you can afford to spend overall on holidays. Then break down how much goes to gifts, travel, parties and philanthropy. If you are really squeezed and can only spare $21 for charity, write the check and be proud. That money still makes a difference, whether the organization is big or small. If you have no cash to spare then you may donate time for the good cause. Once you decide how much you want to give, ear mark a bit for your children’s charity choices. Or just give them
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scan charitynavigation.org for organization having a good part of funds goes to programs rather than overhead. If you want a tax deduction for your gift, be sure the organization is “qualified tax-ex-
empt” by the IRS. Be sure, donate the money or something useful for the needy people by December 31, save your receipt or canceled checks, and remember you need to itemize tax deductions if you want to write off donations. Bottom line: you can feel good that, your hard earned cash is working for you. By giving away charity, you open a conduit for the kind of happiness that no one can ever steal from you. Permanent happiness results when you no longer have a personal stake in the world. When you see through the constant needs of I, me, and mine, no more needs will remain. There is only being, and then every breath is bliss giving itself to bliss. That’s the rhythm of life. Happy Holidays to All
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December 07, 2012
Informative Lecture on Ayurveda and Positive Health
BY NALINAKSHI RANGALA HOUSTON: SVYASA-Houston offered a free lecture on Ayurveda and positive health on Saturday, December 1 at Keshav Smruti by Vaidhya Praphulla B. Mundada and his wife Vaidhya Harsha Mundada, from Mundada Ayurvedic Hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra, India. Ayurveda, ‘Science of Life’, is the ancient Indian medical system prevalent for thousands of years. Siddha philosophy and Siddha medicine are also ancient works written in poetry that may predate the Vedas, the most ancient literature in the world. These works are in ancient Tamil and Sanskrit languages. During colonial period, Ayurveda and Siddha traditions were discouraged even though many modern medical and surgical practices were borrowed from those works. Susruta, the revered Ayurvedic surgeon described plastic and urologic surgical procedures and instruments almost 5000 years ago. Those contributed to the development of some western/modern surgical instruments and procedures. Many modern drugs have
Vaidhya Praphulla B. Mundada and his wife Vaidhya Harsha Mundada, from Mundada Ayurvedic Hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra, India.
been developed from Ayurvedic knowledge and herbal formulary, including recent enthusiasm with Turmeric. At India’s Independence, Ayurveda was brought back to the mainstream of Indian life, and is now being studied and practiced globally. Ayurvedic teachings, treatment methods and herbs are
being researched increasingly, using modern techniques. Many Ayurvedic schools, spas and distance learning opportunities are available today throughout the world. With the practice of Yoga, attention has naturally fallen on Ayurveda, being related sciences of body-mind health. With modern technological advances and ever increasing modern scientific knowledge in biological sciences, does Ayurveda seem relevant ? Perhaps it is in its role of teaching lifestyle principles for health maintenance, and treatment methods that seem to help maintain overall health and control over certain chronic diseases. Ancient practices like Agnikarma and Rakta moksha are useful for chronic conditions like arthritis, fistulae, keloids, chronic dermatitis etc. that may not be life threatening but distressing never the less. Vaidhya Mundada elaborated on ‘Dinacharya’, the daily hygiene practices that anyone can incorporate in their daily life for maintaining good health. He also described his experiences with Agni Karma, the Ayurvedic minor surgical therapy.
MAMA’S Punjabi Recipes
11
In the loving memory of my dear husband, Mr. Kanwal P. Sulhan (Jan. 21, 1928 - Dec.10, 1984) who left us for heavenly abode on this day. You were a great human being, a loving husband, dedicated father and grandfather, and an inspiration to all of us.We will always cherish the good memories and the time spent together as long as we live.
Seven Spices Garam Masala
Garam masala (literally “hot mixture”) is an essential ingredient in all Indian dishes. It adds aroma to the food, especially if it is freshly made. You can store the mixture in a tight glass bottle to ensure that the scent does not escape. Garam masala ingredients: 150gm kali mirch (black pepper); 150gm jira (cumin seeds); 50gm moti illachi (large cardoman) seeds; 50gm dal chini (cinnamon); 50gm saunth (ginger powder); 20gm jaiphal (nutmeg); 20gm loung (cloves) Methond: • Combine the ingredients and crush them into a powder in a mixee or blender. • Use a small amount per dish,
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but add it to the end by sprinkling it on top, especially on dals (lentils) and other curries. • When making the masala, make sure you do not add too many cloves as it will make the food appear black. If you do not want the
additional aroma, you need not add nutmeg. Also, you can go easy on the cumin if you like. This is my own tried and true recipe and once you use it, you’ll discover you can save a lot of money over retail garam masalas.
Nimbu Achaar (Lemon Pickle) Without Salt for People with Heart Disease Ingredients: 500gm lemons, preferably the small round yellow ones; one cup sirka (white vinegar); one teaspoon chini (sugar) Methond: • Wash the lemons; wipe and dry them well. Make sure there is no water at all on them otherwise the achaar will spoil quickly. Usually you can keep the achaar unrefrigerated for many weeks as long as the lid on the bottle is tightly closed. • Cut the lemons in half, if you want and have the patience, try to pick the seeds out. Place the halves in a glass jar. • Pour the vinegar into the jar,
with any other dish. It is tasty to eat the achaar with crusty white bread too. Enjoy!!!
close the lid and shake the contents vigorously. • Place the jar in the sunlight for a week but make sure to shake the contents vigorously everyday. • After a week, pour in the sugar and shake the contents again, leave again in the sun for a day. • The pickle is now ready to eat. The more it stays in the vinegar, the softer and tastier it will become. Eat the achaar with paranthas or
Shakuntla Malhotra is a skilled cook of Punjabi dishes made in the old-fashioned style that she learnt as a young woman in her ancestral home in Lyallpur, India before it became part of Pakistan after the Partition. People have often admired her cooking for its simplicity and taste that comes with each mouthful. Even in her mid-eighties, she continues to cook daily and agreed to share some of her delectable recipies.
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INDIA
Giving New Life to Vultures to Restore a Human Ritual of Death
BY GARDINER HARRIS MUMBAI (NYT): Fifteen years after vultures disappeared from Mumbai’s skies, the Parsi community here intends to build two aviaries at one of its most sacred sites so that the giant scavengers can once again devour human corpses. Construction is scheduled to begin as soon as April, said Dinshaw Rus Mehta, chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. If all goes as planned, he said, vultures may again consume the Parsi dead by January 2014. “Without the vultures, more and more Parsis are choosing to be cremated,” Mehta said. “I have to bring back the vultures so the system is working again, especially during the monsoon.” The plan is the result of six years of negotiations between Parsi leaders and the Indian government to revive a centuries-old practice that seeks to protect the ancient elements — air, earth, fire and water — from being polluted by either burial or cremation. And along the way, both sides hope the effort will contribute to the revival of two species of vulture that are nearing extinction. The government would provide the initial population of birds. The cost of building the aviaries and maintaining the vultures is estimated at $5 million spread over 15 years, much less expensive than it would have been without the ready supply of food. “Most vulture aviaries have to spend huge sums to buy meat, but for us that’s free because the vultures will be feeding on human bodies — on us,” Mehta said. Like the vultures on which they once relied, Parsis are disappearing. Their religion, Zoroastrianism, once dominated Iran but was largely displaced by Islam. In the 10th century, a large group of Zoroastrians fled persecution in Iran and settled in India. Fewer than 70,000 remain, most of them concentrated in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, where they collectively own prime real estate that was purchased centuries ago. Among the most valuable of these holdings are 54 acres of trees and winding pathways on Malabar Hill, one of Mumbai’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Tucked into these acres are three Towers of Silence where Parsis have for centuries disposed of their dead. The stone towers are open-air auditoriums containing three concentric rings of marble slabs — an outer ring for dead men, middle ring for deceased women and inner ring for dead children. For centuries, bodies left on the slabs were consumed within hours by neighborhood vultures, with the bones left in a central catchment to leach into the soil. Modernity has impinged on this ancient practice in many
A model of one of the Towers of Silence, top, where in Parsi tradition, dead bodies are placed for disposal by vultures. Photo: Kuni Takahashi
A funeral hall floor marks a place for a body.
ways. That includes the construction of nearby skyscrapers where non-Parsis could watch the grisly scenes unfold. But by far the greatest threat has been the ecological disaster visited in recent years on vultures. India once had as many as 400 million vultures, a vast population that thrived because the nation has one of the largest livestock populations in the world but forbids cattle slaughter. When cows died, they were immediately set upon by flocks of vultures that left behind skin for leather merchants and bones for bone collectors. As recently as the 1980s, even the smallest villages often had thousands of vulture residents. But then came diclofenac, a common painkiller widely used in hospitals to lessen the pain of the dying. Marketed under names like Voltaren, it is similar to the medicines found in Advil and Aleve; in 1993 its use in India was approved in cattle. Soon after, vultures began dying in huge numbers because the drug causes them to suffer irreversible kidney failure. Diclofenac’s veterinarian use has since been banned, which may finally be having an effect. A recent study found that for the first time since the drug’s introduction, India’s vulture population did not decline over the past year. Still, the numbers for three species have shrunk to only a few thousand, a tiny fraction of their former levels. With so few vultures left, the Parsi community set up mirrors around the Towers of Silence to create something akin to solar ovens to accelerate decomposition. But the mirrors are ineffective during monsoon months. So an increasing number of Parsis are opting for cremation, a practice many Parsi priests believe is an abomination since fire is sacred
and corpses unclean. Desperate to maintain one of their most important rituals, Parsi leaders have created detailed plans to build the aviaries near the Towers of Silence, each housing 76 vultures. Parsi leaders say they are waiting for formal approval from community members, doctors and priests before beginning construction, approvals they expect to receive over the next several weeks. But Homi B. Dhalla, president of the World Zarathushti Cultural Foundation, has promised to fight the plans. He helped to develop the tower solar collectors and said they were working well. And he is worried that once the government provides vultures for Parsi aviaries, bureaucrats will try to seize the land. “Why endanger our property?” Dr. Dhalla asked. “Who is going to fight the government?” Another concern is whether Parsis can be persuaded to stop using diclofenac. Nearly all of the roughly 800 bodies brought annually to the towers come from two Parsi hospitals, and doctors and family would have to certify that the deceased had not been given diclofenac in the three days before death. There is no simple test to detect the drug, and if vultures in the aviaries die from diclofenac poisoning after eating Parsi corpses the government has promised to end the effort. Parsi medical leaders were cautious in their comments about the vulture program. “As a hospital,” said Dr. S. K. Dhingra, superintendent of B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital, “we cannot tell our patients, ‘You can do this, or you can do that.’ ” Khurshed Dastoor, one of five Parsi high priests, said that he was not sure members would adhere to a diclofenac ban. “For 10 years, I have been trying to educate the community to turn off their cellphones before they go inside our most sacred fire temples, and I have failed,” he said. “And now we think the community will give up diclofenac in a couple of months?” Other Parsi leaders, however, said they were pushing ahead because of the importance of restoring the tradition. “We must hope for the best,” Mehta said.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
First Sikh to Guard Buckingham Palace Will Do So without a Bearskin
LONDON: An Indian-origin Sikh is all set to be the first person guarding the Buckingham Palace in his turban after being given the privilege not to wear the mandatory bearskin on ceremonial duties. Guardsman Jatinderpal Singh Bhullar, 25, who joined the Scots Guards this year, has been given permission to wear a turban when on guard duty outside Buckingham Palace, breaking hundreds of years of tradition, Daily Mail reported Sunday. The regiment traces its origin Guardsman Bhullar, pictured here in a video taken back to 1642 and its soldiers during his airborne training, will be the first Sikh have worn bearskins on parade soldier to guard the Palace without a bearskin. since 1832. Bhullar is based at Wellington Barracks who served in World War II. The step, however, has irked some serving in Birdcage Walk. The base is used by soldiers from the Scots Guards’ F Company, non-commissioned officers based at Welwho are responsible for public duties and lington Barracks, who are furious that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) compromised guarding the Queen. According to military sources, Bhullar, centuries of history for one soldier. Traditionalists in the Scots Guards say the from BirminghamBSE 0.00 %, is expected to parade for the first time next week. When allowances made for Bhullar will make the he marches with his colleagues he will be- whole company look ridiculous to tourists come the first guardsman not to wear a and onlookers. Bhullar is one of only 20 to 25 Britishbearskin headgear. As a devout Sikh, it is mandatory for born Sikhs in the British Army. An MoD spokeswoman said: “The Army Bhullar to wear a turban. It is intended to protect his hair, which he never cuts, and to takes great pride in its diversity. Discussions are underway between this unit, the keep them clean. For centuries, Sikhs have worn turbans Sikh community and the MoD. The individin battle and fought as part of the British ual will have the full support of the Army Army - including Bhullar’s grandfather, and his colleagues.”
December 07, 2012
13
Obama Appoints Blind Indian-American to Key Post
WASHINGTON (TOI): The Obama administration has announced it is appointing appoint a blind Indian-American to a key administrative post in an independent US agency devoted for people with disabilities. Sachin Dev Pavithran has been appointed as Member, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the White House said, as it announced several other key administration appointments. “These dedicated individuals bring a wealth of experience and talent to their new roles and I am proud to have them serve in this administration. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” Obama said in a statement. Pavithran is Program Director of the Utah Assistive Technology Program at Utah State University’s Center for Persons with Disabilities, a position he has held since 2011.
Before serving as Program Director, he served in a variety of other roles at the Center, including Program Coordinator and Disability Policy Analyst, since joining in 2002. Pavithran has more than 12 years of experience as a consultant on disability police and developing and training users of assistive technology and accessible websites. He serves on the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs National Board, the Utah State Rehabilitation Council, the Research and Development Committee of the National Federation of the Blind, and the National Multicultural Council of the Association of University Centers for Disabilities. In 2007, the National Federation of the Blind awarded him the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. He received a B.A, B.S, and an M.S from Utah State University.
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
14 December 07, 2012
COMMUNITY The Extraordinary Life and Times of Mahatma Gandhi
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Anti-Rowlatt Stir and Jalianwala Bagh Carnage
The Story thus far…A separate institution named Satyagraha Sabha was formed with headquarters in Bombay. There were agitations everywhere against the Rowlatt Committee’s report. But the government was determined to implement the Rowlatt recommendations and in 1919, the Rowlatt Bill was introduced. When the bill was debated in India’s Legislative Chamber, Gandhi attended as a visitor. In spite of the diehard opposition from nationalists, the Rowlatt bill became law. At this time, Gandhi got an invitation from activists in Madras to visit the city. He went there, though still weak, along with Mahadev Desai. That was Gandhi’s first meeting with another stalwart of India’s freedom struggle, C. Rajagopalachari, a man of towering intellect and firm convictions. A small conference of leaders was held and Gandhi explained to them the implications of the Rowalatt act. While these talks were being held news was received that the Rowlatt Bill had been published as an act. It was also in Madras that Gandhi first conceived the idea of an all-India hartaal (strike) as the beginning of the satyagraha movement. The leaders at once took up the suggestion and gave much publicity to the forthcoming action. The date was first fixed for March 30, 1919, but was later changed to April 6. The masses had received only short notice for the hartaal, but it turned out to be most successful. That was the first great awakening of India in her struggle towards independence. Gandhi left Madras and went to Bombay to join in the hartaal there on April 6. Meanwhile in Delhi, Lahore, and Amritsar, the hartaal had been observed on March 30. In Delhi the police did not allow free movement to the demonstrators and firing by police caused a number of casualties. Gandhi was requested to go to Delhi and he replied that he would do so after the hartaal in Bombay on April 6. In Bombay the hartaal was a great success. All over India the hartaal was observed. Gandhi had asked the people again and again to be peaceful and not to be provoked to violence by the Government’s actions. In spite of this, violence broke out in many places. There were disturbances in Ahmedabad and also in the Punjab and he decided to go to these places to propagate nonviolence. On the way to the Punjab he was arrested at a wayside station called Palwal and sent back to Bombay. The news of his arrest inflamed the entire population of Bombay. There was an enormous crowd awaiting his arrival there. When he reached Bombay he was set free. The crowd was getting impatient. “Only you can control the
crowds,” said a friend to Gandhi. “Come, I shall take you to the spot.” The crowd greeted Gandhi with frenzied joy. A huge procession started but the police barred its progress. A company of mounted police was ordered to charge the crowds. Piercing screams and cries from women and children filled the air as the horsemen plunged forward with lowered lances. People ran to escape the fury of the The Extraordinary Life and Times of Mahatma Gandhi is brought to you courtesy Mahatma Gandhi Library. www.gandhilibrary.org police. Gandhi was shocked by the police brutality. He went and met the Commissioner. The official was boiling with rage. “We, the police, know better than you the effect of your preaching on the people. If we had not taken drastic measures the situation would have gone out of our hands. I have no doubt about your intentions, but the people do not understand them. They only follow their natural instincts.” “The people are not violent by nature; they are peaceful,” countered Gandhi. “You wanted to go to the Punjab,” said the Commissioner. “Do you know what is happening in Ahmedabad, the Punjab, and Delhi? You are responsible for all these disturbances.” Gandhi was pained to hear of the disturbances and said that he would certainly take the responsibility upon himself if he was convinced that it was his. Gandhi went to Ahmedabad. On the way he learned in detail about the happenings there. Ahmedabad was under martial law. A police officer was waiting for him at the railway station to escort him to the Commissioner. This commissioner too was in a rage. Gandhi expressed his re-
gret for the disturbances and promised complete cooperation in restoring peace. Gandhi then asked for permission to hold a public meeting on the grounds of the Sabarmati Ashram. The officer liked the idea. At the meeting Gandhi announced with great sorrow the suspension of civil disobedience. He said he would fast for three days as a penance and he appealed to all the people to fast for one day. He asked those who were guilty of violence to confess their guilt. He expressed his regret at having started civil disobedience too early without giving sufficient training to the people. “I have made a Himalayan miscalculation,” he said. Many people jeered at Gandhi for saying that. Many of his friends and followers were furious at his stopping satyagraha. Gandhi then started teaching people the true meaning of satyagraha and how it should be conducted. Through writing and speeches he wanted to drive home to the people the essence of his new creed. In the Punjab the situation was very critical. It was true that there were disturbances on the part of the people, but the measures adopted by the Government to check the disturbances were too severe. The leaders were trying to keep the people peaceful, but the measures of repression taken by the authorities had few parallels in history. In Amritsar the people were not allowed to move about freely. A proclamation was issued forbidding all gatherings and meetings. Only a few had the chance to know about the proclamation, however, because it was not announced widely, and it was made only in English. It was announced that a meeting was to be held in a garden called Jallianwala Bagh, to protest against the Government’s actions. General Dyer took no measures to prevent the meeting. He reached the place soon after the meeting began and he took with him armored cars and troops. Without giving any warning he ordered, “Fire till the bullets are finished.” The garden was surrounded by walls and buildings and had only one exit. At the first shot the exit was jammed and there was no hope of escape for the crowd. There were between eight and ten thousand people attending the meeting. The soldiers fired 1600 rounds into that unarmed mass of people. Once a park, Jallianwala Bagh was now a scene of the most brutal massacre of hundreds. — To be Continued
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
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Despite Setbacks, Investor is Bullish on Clean Technology
BY RANDALL SMITH (NYT): Vinod Khosla crowed about the clean energy industry last year. Three of the biofuel start-ups in his venture capital portfolio had just gone public, and the stocks had risen considerably after their debuts. “I challenge anybody to claim that clean tech done right is a disaster,” Khosla said at a conference, rebuffing recent criticism. “We’ve generated more profits there than anybody has.” Since then, Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures, has watched much of those paper gains evaporate. As the clean energy industry broadly has taken a hit, shares of the biofuel companies — Amyris, Gevo and KiOR — have slumped 70 percent to 90 percent from their peaks. His stakes, once worth as much as $1.3 billion, are now valued at roughly $378 million. The billionaire investor has been caught in the cyclical downdraft. The public stocks of solar, wind and biofuel companies are suffering amid industrywide pressures. The price of natural gas remains low. Europe has pulled back on incentives. American subsidies are in question after the bankruptcy of the solar panel maker Solyndra. And China is providing formidable low-cost competition. “The whole clean tech sector has been out of favor,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates, a brokerage firm. “I’d be hard pressed to name one trading above its I.P.O. price.” Despite the crosscurrents, Khosla seems unwavering in his commitment. He is pouring money into start-ups. Khosla Ventures recently invested more in LightSail Energy, a three-year-old start-up working to develop low-cost energy storage. He is also sticking with his public companies. His firm, for example, still owns 54 percent of KiOR. “He’s a visionary who likes to make big bets on ideas that can really change the world,” said Andy Bechtolsheim, who cofounded Sun Microsystems with Khosla 30 years ago and shares a house with him at Big Sur on the California coast. “I would think he’s made a larger personal bet on green tech than anybody else.” While the public markets are raising short-term doubts, the long-term investment thinking remains unchanged. Governments around the globe are pushing to find alternative sources of energy in an effort to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels that may hurt the environment. In a television interview in 2007, Khosla said “mainstream solutions” could replace up to 80 percent of oil-based power. Without them, he said, “this planet is history the way we know it today.” After Hurricane Sandy, the subject of global warming — and changing climate conditions — has again come to the forefront. In a recent blog post on the Forbes Web site, Khosla acknowledged the shift in market sentiment. “Clean tech went through a time when it was in vogue and now it is not,” he wrote. “The financing environment for clean tech companies is tough today,” he added. But he said he still expected “to do better than industry averages by keeping our losing companies to a minority.” Since founding his venture capital firm in 2004, Khosla has become one of the most vocal advocates for clean tech innovation, buying stakes in about 60 industry startups. Ausra, a solar thermal start-up that had drawn $130 million in venture backing, was sold in 2010 to the French nuclear
Ken Childress for KIORKiOR’s commercial biofuel plant in Columbus, Miss. Vinod Khosla has amassed a 54 percent stake in the company.
plant builder Areva for about $250 million, according to one industry estimate. And SeaMicro, a low-power server maker, was bought this year by Advanced Micro Devices for $334 million, more than five times the amount invested by its venture backers, according to a SeaMicro co-founder, Andrew Feldman. It’s unclear how the broader clean tech portfolio has performed at Khosla Ventures. Khosla declined to disclose the firm’s returns or to comment for the article. But one of his funds, which raised $1 billion to invest in clean tech and other startups, shows gain of 30 percent since its inception in 2009, according to filings by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest state pension fund. In his Forbes blog post, Khosla said a recent fund, which raised $1.05 billion in October 2011, was oversubscribed, and his firm’s broader performance since 2006 had “well exceeded typical venture funds.” In that period, venture funds over all have returned 7.25 percent annually after fees, according to industry data. Khosla’s commitment is an outgrowth of his three decades at the cutting edge of technology. A native of India, Khosla, 57, earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon and an M.B.A. from Stanford in 1980. After starting the design automation company Daisy Systems in 1982, he co-founded Sun Microsystems, then a growing technology company. At Sun, he supplied drive and vision. But Khosla, who is known for his blunt talk and intense manner, was replaced as chief executive two years later and left the company shortly thereafter. In 1986, he joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Over the next two decades, Khosla scored sizable returns betting on the growth of fiber optic networks. Two companies, Cerent and Siara Systems, were sold for a combined $15 billion-plus at the height of the late-1990s dot-com bubble. Khosla was looking into alternative fuel technologies at Kleiner Perkins when a business plan for an ethanol start-up crossed his desk in 2003. The plan “sat on a corner of my desk for nearly 18 months while I read everything I could about petroleum and its alternatives,” he wrote in an article for Wired magazine in 2006. When he branched out on his own in 2004, Khosla invested millions in the ethanol start-up, Celunol. He soon established himself as a top venture capitalist in clean tech, attracting prominent outside investors like Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain joined the firm as a senior adviser. Over the years, Khosla has experienced his share of blowups. In September 2011, Khosla-backed Range
Fuels, a wood-chips-to-ethanol company, went bankrupt after receiving a $44 million grant from the Department of Energy and $33 million under a Department of Agriculture loan guarantee. When The Wall Street Journal editorial page criticized Range Fuels as an “exercise in corporate welfare,” Khosla lashed back, saying the authors inhabited an “ivory tower” that was “full of people who don’t understand technology.” Sometimes, Khosla’s companies had to pivot from their original plans and focus on new markets. For example, Calera was founded in 2007 with plans to use power plant exhaust to make cement. Khosla called its technology “game changing” in 2008. But the company encountered some setbacks. It postponed plans for commercialscale production in 2010 pending further research and later cut its 145-employee work force by two-thirds. Since then, Calera has broadened its focus, developing other products like fillers for paper and plastics.
Like many venture capital investors, Khosla will risk a few strikeouts for the chance to hit home runs. “My willingness to fail is what gives me the ability to succeed,” the investor has said frequently. The odds can be especially brutal in clean technology. The projects are often capitalintensive — like $200 million or more for a biofuels plant — and they can take years to pay out, said Sam Shelton, a research engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology. By comparison, social media start-ups often require little upfront money and few employees. “The economics are totally different,” Shelton said. In part, Khosla aims to take stakes when the companies are still getting off the ground, rather than waiting until they’re more mature and more expensive. He first bought a stake in KiOR, which aims to convert wood chips to gas and diesel fuel, in 2007. The company is now completing the first of five planned plants in Mississippi with the help of a $75 million interest-free loan from the state. Khosla is “always thinking at a very high level about the potential of an idea,” KiOR’s chief executive, Fred Cannon, said. “He has a very good feel for when to step on the gas.” After jumping in early, Khosla appears willing to ride out the swings, in both directions. Over the years, public filings indicate he has plowed roughly $80 million into KiOR, amassing a 54 percent stake in the company. Although the stock is off its peak levels and I.P.O. investors are still underwater, his holdings are worth $356 million — a threefold gain.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
16 December 07, 2012
DIASPORA
New Incredible India Campaign Looks to Woo Foreigners
NEW DELHI (PIT): Making a paradigm shift in the strategy to promote Indian destinations abroad and within, the Indian Tourism Ministry has launched two new campaigns. While the international campaign is called “Find what you seek”, the domestic campaign is titled as “Go Beyond”. India’s Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi said that both the campaigns were launched at the World Tourism Mart (WTM) in London. The WTM is an annual international tourism event, which was held November 5-8. Chiranjeevi also said that with the new campaign, they have tried to take the Incredible India campaign to the next level with shifting focus from products to consumers. The Incredible India campaign was launched in 2002. The actorturned-politician also stated that till then they had been promoting India from the destinations and products point of view internationally and that the campaign had been very successful so far. “But the time has come to take it to the
next level and now our focus is on consumers,” he said. Underlining his ministry’s priority, he also stated that their aim was to increase foreign tourist ar-
India attracted about 6.3 million foreigners in a year at present and the ministry’s target was to double up the arrival in the next five years.” “The increase in foreign
rivals in the country. “At present we are attracting only 0.65 per cent of total world tourists and we want to increase it to one per cent,” he said. Chiranjeevi also said that
tourists will help in generating 2.5 crore jobs in the country,” he said, adding, “there are so much to see here, let it be heritage sites, forts, beaches,lakes, mountains, wild-
life, festivals.” Chiranjeevi also quipped that India offered something for everyone. In the 12th Five-Year Plan document, the Planning Commission has recognised tourism as a pro-poor and nation building activity. On domestic tourism Chiranjeevi said, “We want to promote lesser-known destinations and we have launched ‘Go Beyond’ campaign for this which focuses on promoting lesser-known destinations to the domestic tourists and also the world.” He said that concerted efforts would be made to make tourism India’s main economic and political agenda taking all state governments, Union territory administrations and stakeholders on board and establishing India as a round the year destination. When asked about the travel advisory issued by various countries Chiranjeevi said that he was happy that the UK had withdrawn the advisory travel to
Jammu and Kashmir and that they are going to initiate a fresh dialogue for entering into a MoU with the UK on tourism cooperation.” India was conferred three awards by the World Travel Awards organization at the WTM 2012. The three awards were “Asia’s leading destination”, “Asia’s leading tourist attraction - Taj Mahal” and “Asia’s leading Tourist Board.” Referring to WTM, Chiranjeevi said that India’s participation was increasing every year. “We had taken space that was about 15 per cent higher than last year’s space. Private stakeholders from India had taken space of a similar size. This year, there were over 110 Indian participants from the trade, state governments and Union Territory Administrations in WTM for doing business,” he said. Coinciding with the WTM 2012, the minister also attended UNWTO Ministers’ Summit held to discuss the subject “Open Borders and Open Skies: Breaking Barriers to Travel”. He held discussions with the other officials from UNWTO, The United Kingdom and South Africa. India would be hosting the next meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for South Asia and Far East and Pacific April– May 2013 in Hyderabad. India is currently the chairperson of the UNWTO Regional Commission for South Asia.
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December 07, 2012
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EDITORIAL
December 07, 2012
Done in by Our Own
After Indian immigrants Chandrasekhar and Anupama Vallabhaneni found themselves in Norwegian custody for allegedly maltreating their child, the drumbeat for “justice” has started again. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, however, has put paid to any suggestion that India might officially meddle: “This is an issue that relates not to the government. It relates to a private citizen and to the local law of that country,” he said. This may only be stating the obvious, but Khurshid deserves praise for steering the ministry away from his predecessor’s follies. In fact, this statement alone might suggest that the belated cabinet reshuffle was worth some of its hype. Under S.M. Krishna, the external affairs ministry appeared content to bob along with the headlines. Last year, when Norway’s Child Protection Services wanted to place the two young Bhattacharya children in foster care, Indian television channels, activists and political leaders made it a prime-time national drama — of the Norwegian state imposing its alien standards on our warm, imperfect parenting methods. Suddenly, the question of whether the Bhattacharyas abided by the law in the country of their choosing became an occasion for India to deplore cultural belittling abroad. And in response, the external affairs ministry sent a special envoy to Norway, warning them that these children were “neither orphaned nor stateless”, spent months negotiating their return, only to be embarrassed when the private life of the Bhattacharyas turned out to be more complicated than they had bargained for. The Indian government ended up looking like an awkward participant in a family saga with shifting testimonies and volleys of recrimination. What’s worse, at the time that the foreign ministry was passionately arguing that Norwegian norms were secondary to ours, it was busy presenting the opposing argument to Italy, over whether its marines could be tried for the killing of Indian fishermen in international waters. That bluster with Norway looked silly then. In retrospect, it looks even sillier. The point is not that the state should not look out for its overseas citizens. But when should the affairs of an individual become a matter between sovereign nations? By electing to live in a certain country, they are subject to the rules that govern it. The MEA can argue the case of those who are systematically exploited, and wrest concessions for them — but that argument has to be guided by principle, not impulse. It cannot pick and choose the objects of its benevolence, or worse, let the media choose them. Indian Express
Quotable Quotes Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made Bill Cosby
Stoking Silly Fears BY TAVLEEN SINGH In one of her recent television tantrums, the Chief Minister of West Bengal pronounced dramatically that ‘the Government of India will have to choose between Bhawlmart and the Indian peepul’ and I listened in stunned wonder. Did Mamata Banerjee notice how she demeaned our dear Bharat Mata by putting her on the same level as Walmart? Did she understand at all that India was a country the size of a continent and Walmart only a shop? Did she not notice how very, very poor the ‘peepul’ used to be in the days when foreign investors (including Coca Cola and IBM) were thrown out of India if they dared bring their money here? Did she not notice how few were drawn by our socialist allure? Then I found myself answering my own questions. I remembered that Mamata-di formed her economic ideas in a time when the ‘foreign hand’ was India’s most feared bogeyman. A time when foreign investment was viewed as a new East India Company. On top of this, she has spent her whole life in a state that was ruled by communists for more than thirty years. She could not possibly have learned to question standard wisdom or search for new political and economic answers. So if foreign investors do decide to take their chances and start investing in the Indian retail business, they should stay away from West Bengal and other states that are ruled by chief ministers of leftist disposition. But, that is not India’s real problem. Our real problem is that the economic ideas that Mamata-di articulated so pithily are widely believed. Not just by an older generation of Indians but by younger, middle-class Indians who in the past two years have rallied around the movement against corruption. And, it is not just new, young political leaders who believe that India is such a pathetic country that it can be destroyed by Walmart but NGOs, social workers and even (believe it or not) socialites. Together they constitute a mindset that is slowly but certainly eating into the economic gains made in the past two decades. So confident is neo-leftism these
Mamata-di formed her economic ideas in a time when the ‘foreign hand’ was India’s most feared bogeyman. A time when foreign investment was viewed as a new East India Company. Our real problem is that the economic ideas that Mamata-di articulated so pithily are widely believed. days that its proponents have no compunction about articulating their bizarre views on television and online. Last week, I accidently came upon a BBC interview with our most bellicose ‘environmentalist’, Vandana Shiva, and nearly fainted with shock when she said that before 1997, Indian farmers lived in blissful harmony with nature. It was the advent of multinational seed companies like Monsanto, she added, that had shattered this rural idyll. Clearly Ms Shiva never travelled in rural parts in those times or she would have seen that the average Indian farmer lived off subsistence farming. If his meagre crops failed, his family starved. She seems
also to have forgotten those shameful days when we imported shiploads of PL 480 grain. She believes that the green revolution was a fraud on Indian farmers. Then in my mailbox arrived a press release from my least favourite NGO lady, Medha Patkar. It said that her ‘people’s movement’ now believes that ‘development’is the enemy of the people. The word development encompasses schools, healthcare, roads, electricity so what her coalition of NGOs recommend is a return to those days when 80 per cent of our population lived without these things. Why has the loony left suddenly returned from the graveyard of dead ideologies? Why are no political leaders speaking out against economic ideas that spell ruin for India? Well, because the current political landscape is painted in so many shades of pink that our only saffron party has been frightened into spouting economic ideas that even the communists abandoned towards the end of their rule in West Bengal. An even more important question that we should all be asking is why our political leaders are so sure that foreign investors are queuing up to invest in Indian retail? Why should they not go further east, as they did before, and invest in countries like Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia that have a more salubrious investment climate? It is India that needs investment in these difficult economic times and not the other way around but this is not something our opposition MPs noticed when they stalled Parliament over FDI in retail last week. As for Mamata-di and her fear of ‘Bhawlmart’, she should get over it as soon as she can. The FDI policy that the Finance Minister has devised allows every state to choose its own way. So when the lives of farmers in other Indian states are transformed by better opportunities and better markets, Bengali farmers will start demanding FDI in retail and then perhaps their chief minister will acknowledge that her definition of the ‘peepul’ is narrow. It could by then be too late for a Bengali renaissance, so bad luck once again for West Bengal. IE
Indo American News FOUNDER: DR. K.L. SINDWANI PUBLISHER: JAWAHAR MALHOTRA EDITOR: PRAMOD KULKARNI MANAGING EDITOR: MANASI GOKHALE ADVERTISING & ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER: VANSHIKA VIPIN CORRESPONDENTS HOUSTON: MANU SHAH, CHETNA SAMAL CHICAGO: NAND KAPOOR, INDIA: RAJ KANWAR ®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. The deadline for advertising and articles is 5 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 7457 Harwin Drive, Suite 262, Houston, Texas 77036. Tel: 713-789-NEWS or 6397 Fax: 713-789-6399, email: indoamericannews@yahoo.com, website: indoamerican-news.com
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
INDIA
December 07, 2012
World’s Oldest Father Becomes PETA Posterboy
NEW DELHI: Holding his new baby boy, 96-year-old Ramajit Raghav—who, on October 5, broke his own record as Guinness World Records’ “World’s Oldest New Dad”—stars in a brand-new ad campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. Shot by photographer Gaurav Sharma, the new ad shows Raghav and his son Ranjit next to the words “Vegetarians Still Got It at Age 96.” PETA India plans to post the new campaign near fertility clinics around the world. Broadcast-quality video footage of Raghav’s interview is available upon request. “I have been a vegetarian all my life, and I credit my stamina and virility to my diet of vegetables and grains,” says Raghav. “Being a vegetarian is the secret to my strength and good health.” What makes vegetarians so healthy? For starters, meat clogs arteries and slows blood flow to all the major organs—not just the heart. Vegetarians are, on average, fitter and trimmer than meat-eaters are. They’re also less likely to be afflicted with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer—all of which are major health problems in the U.S. as well as in India. And since each vegetarian saves the lives of more than 100 animals a year, their consciences are lighter, too. Raghav joins a growing list of athletes, actors, and other notable figures—including Shahid Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sonu Sood, Lara Dutta, Pankaj Advani, Anil Kumble, and many others—who have teamed up with PETA India to promote healthy, humane vegetarian meals. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com.
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Ramjeet Raghav poses for a picture with his wife Shankuntala, 54, and sons Bikramjeet, 4, and baby Ranjeet at Kharkhoda in Sonipat, India Photo: Sagar Kaul / Barcroft
World’s oldest father, a 96-year-old from India, has been appointed the latest posterboy for PETA’s newest global campaign, following in the footsteps of Pamela Anderson and Sir Paul McCartney.
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ONGC Videsh Makes a Foay into Azerbaijan BY SUJAY MEHDUDIA NEW DELHI (The Hindu): State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited (OVL) on Saturday announced that it had bought US energy company Hess Corp’s stake in in Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (AGC) group of oil fields for $1 billion making its debut in Azerbaijan. “OVL has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of Hess Corp’s 2.7213 per cent participating interest in the Azeri, Chirag and the deepwater portion of Guneshli fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea and 2.36 per cent interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for $1 billion,” OVL said in a statement here terming the acquisition as strategic and tune with India’s energy security quest. The acquisition is subject to relevant government and regulatory approvals. The buyout marks OVL’s entry into oil rich Azerbaijan. ACG, which is located in the South Caspian
Sea, about 95 Km off the coast of Azerbaijan, is the largest oil and gas field complex in Azerbaijan and one of the largest producing oil fields in the world. UK’s BP Plc operated field produces around 700,000 barrels a day of crude oil. This is more than India’s annual oil production.
OVL’s share of output would be over 19,000 bpd. The statement further said the acquisition would bring 9 per cent additional proven reserves to OVL portfolio. While the AGC
field has total reserves of over 6.5 billion barrels, the 1,768-Km BTC pipeline is one of the main export routes for Caspian crude oil production to the Ceyhan terminal in the Mediterranean Sea in south east Turkey, with a capacity of around 1.0 million bpd. UK’s BP plc is the operator of the ACG fields with 34.1 per cent stake. Other partners include Chevron (10.2 per cent), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR 10 per cent), Inpex (10 per cent), Norway’s Statoil (8.6 per cent), ExxonMobil (8 per cent), Turkish national oil company TPAO (6.8 per cent), Chevron (5.6 per cent) and Japanese Itochu (3.9 per cent). ONGC and OVL chairman and managing director, Sudhir Vasudeva said the transaction is the first step towards achieving this goal. “The production from this asset during 2011-12 was about 15 per cent of OVL’s crude oil production during the same period,” he added. As part of the deal, the company will also buy Hess’ 2.36 per cent stake in BTC export pipeline.
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COMMUNITY 20
December 07, 2012
BUSINESS INDIA
We Don’t Want to Sell Parle: Chauhan
BY SAPNA AGARWAL MUMBAI (Mint): He may be 76 years old, but Vijay Chauhan, the reclusive chairman of Parle Products Pvt. Ltd, exudes energy and enthusiasm even as he forecasts that the revenue of his company will be approximately Rs.10,000 crore in 2012-13. This would mean a 28% increase over last year in the revenue of the company that makes the world’s single largest selling biscuit, Parle G. The privately held company has been growing at around 20% a year for the last five years, and its revenue was around Rs.50 lakh when Chauhan joined it as a 23-year-old. The engineering graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology points out that 15 billion Parle G biscuits stacked sideto-side (each biscuit measures 53mm), would be enough to cover the distance from the earth to the moon and back. That’s equivalent to the monthly sales of Parle G. Chauhan, the son of one of the company’s founders Kantilal Chauhan, has completed 50 years on the payroll of the family-run enterprise that is known for some of India’s most recognized brands such as Thums Up, Gold Spot (now owned by Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd), Frooti and Appy (owned by Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd, run by cousin Prakash Chauhan and family), and confectionary Melody and Poppins, besides biscuits Monaco and Hide & Seek. In a rare interview, Chauhan speaks of his long journey, the competition and his future plans. Your company was set up to make confectionary. What made you launch biscuits a decade later? When we started in 1929, there were no Indian biscuit companies except for Britannia (now Britannia Industries Ltd), which was owned by a British company. Everything had to be imported. There used to be a biscuit brand called Glaxo that was being imported then, and we saw an opportunity to make glucose biscuits. Ever since, glucose (Parle G) biscuits have been selling in India. Today, it’s the world’s largest selling single brand. We introduced the biscuit just to fill the gap as the market evolved. What was it like to manufacture biscuits in those days? When we started manufacturing biscuits during World War II, all ingredients were in short supply and the government was giving us a specific amount of wheat flour to make biscuits for the military. We were not allowed to supply those in the open market. We made biscuits out of barley for public consumption. The packaging also was ingenious as we wrapped these in newspapers which were dipped in wax. The biscuit tasted horrible. I still remember the taste. But it was wartime. You also made your own machines then... At the time, we were not allowed to import machines. Licences were only given to industries that were deemed essential. Food companies did not fall in that category. Hence, we started making our machines to bake biscuits, for packaging and moulding. We still have a small workshop as we still design our machines. But we do not manufacture machines now. Right from its inception, Coca-Cola had a problem with your cola brand...
In a rare interview, the company’s chairman speaks of his long journey, the competition and his future plans We added a beverage in 1949 under the name Gluco Cola. It was the first Indian cola drink. Coca-Cola wasn’t present in the country then, but had registered its name here. It objected that Gluco Cola and Coca-Cola would be confusing for the uneducated, illiterate people of India. So we had to change the name after some time to Parle Cola. But then Parle Cola didn’t do so well. Gold Spot was the more popular drink at that time. In 1960, one of my uncles separated from us. He took the beverages business while we retained the biscuits and confectionary. Can you tell us how many Chauhans are on the board of Parle Products? At Parle Products, Sharad, Raj (his brothers) and myself are all second-generation owners. My son and two nephews are executive directors in the company. My other brother, Jeetendra, and a nephew, Amol, passed away in an air crash. What about succession planning? At the moment, we are all getting along fine. So we haven’t thought about succession planning. Me and my two brothers are managing directors and the third-generation (members) are all executive directors. M o s t familyowned companies now have
Vijay Chauhan says local competition will always be a bigger threat because of cost advantage. Photo: S Kumar/Mint
but not so strong in the South and East—we are a little bit (strong) in the North. The competition comes from smaller players. Like in the East, smaller companies sell their biscuits at a cheaper price than us. I don’t know how they manage their pricing, but we can’t beat that. Local competition will always be a bigger threat due to the cost advantage. Besides, multinationals like Kraft are not interested in making low-cost biscuits. It is a price-conscious market and there needs to be reach to sell volumes at low cost. But low cost does not mean inferior. Have you planned to make any fresh investments in the business? We own eight factories. These were set up to
give us tax advantages. Additional capacities will be added by contract manufacturing. So we have not planned any new investments. What about global expansion? We have factories in Cameroon, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Nepal, and will expand further into Turkey and Brazil. We have taken on local partners in some of these markets for distribution. What next for Parle? We are a mass-consumption company and will remain so. We are studying opportunities that will address this audience. It could be anything in the foods space. I don’t want to reveal more.
professionals who head them. What about you? If we take a professional CEO (chief executive officer), what will we do? We like being hands-on. What was it like during the strike in the 1980s, when there was almost a complete shutdown? It was one of the toughest times. We had no production for eight months. We only had one factory then. But when we resumed work, the demand for our product remained and we got back our market share. Your uncle Jayantilal Chauhan’s descendants exited by selling to Coca-Cola. Did you never consider the option? Kraft Foods Inc. was in talks with us for the last five years. It wanted a controlling interest in our company, which we declined. We have had many suitors, but are not interested. As long as the boys want to run this business, we will be here. What about acquisitions? We have got more than what we can chew. I don’t want to get into something which we can’t handle. What about a public listing? There are no such plans at the moment. We don’t want to go public. But the market is getting competitive, with multinationals, domestic and regional companies all looking to grow. There is competition. We are the strongest here in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh,
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
ADVICE
December 07, 2012
Life Lessons in a Tea Bag
BY PRAKASH IYER Did you know how the tea bag was born? The story goes that Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant in New York created the tea bag – almost by accident. He put some samples of his tea into exquisite silk bags and sent them to friends. One friend didn’t bother to pull out the tea from the bag and just dunked it into hot water. He loved the tea. And an idea was born! It’s probably true of a lot of great ideas around us. They were created by accident, not design. They came to life because someone dared to do something different. As you sip your next cup of tea, here are some lessons to take away from the humble tea bag. Lessons to help make your life the perfect brew! 1. What counts is what’s inside the tea bag. You will notice that some tea bags have very nice-looking labels, while others have very ordinary looking ones. Some have delicate silk tassels while others have ordinary strings. But here’s the thing to remember: The quality of the beverage is determined by the tea inside the bag – not by the label or the string. What’s true for tea bags is true for all of us too. The titles, the clothes we wear and the cars we drive are like the label and the string. They may make you look nice. But what really matters is the kind of person you are, deep down within. Your beliefs and your attitude – that’s what defines the person you are. The tea masters know that to make a great drink, they need to focus on the tea. Not on the label and the string. Focus on being a good human being. Fix your attitude. Get your values right. And don’t fret about the small stuff. 2. A tea bag must be porous. Imagine you have the best tea leaves in the world. And you put it into a bag that’s impermeable. It won’t work. You just won’t be able to make a cup of tea. For the tea bag to work, it needs to be porous. You need the tea leaves and the water to come in contact.
The tea masters know that to make a great drink, they need to focus on the tea. Not on the label and the string. In our lives too, we cannot survive and thrive in isolation. Be careful not to build a wall around yourself that prevents people from reaching out to you. You need to be able to touch other people too. Else, all that’s inside of you will remain wasted – untouched by all the good around you, and unable to impact all that’s around you. The tea was meant to mingle with the water. Just as all of us were designed to work with other people, with teams, with society at large. 3. The real flavour comes through only when the tea bag gets into hot water. If you take a cup of lukewarm water and put a tea bag in it – you won’t know how strong the tea is. To get the best flavour, you need to put the tea bag into hot water. And then the real strength will show! Likewise, the true character of a person actually shines through in adversity. How does a person behave under pressure, when he is in ‘hot water’? The hot water test is a good one – to
judge the quality of the tea. And the true character of human beings. 4. Good tea bags look forward to hot water. They know it will give them a chance to show their true worth. So next time you see a challenge, a tough situation, think like a tea bag and dive headlong into it. It may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to show what you are capable of. Some of us are so scared of the hot water that we stay away from it. Too scared of getting scalded. Afraid of failure. Don’t let that happen to you! Give yourself a chance to show the world what you are really all about! Next time you pick up a cup of tea, enjoy the moment. And think of the lessons too!
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Is it Important to Feed Kids Organic Food? The nutritional choices you make for your children are crucial, setting the stage for good health and good habits for years to come. So if you’ve heard about the benefits of organic food, you may be wondering if it’s worth the extra expense, especially if you’re on a budget. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently weighed in on the subject of organic food for the first time, what’s most important is that children eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains and low-fat or fat-free dairy products, whether those are conventionally or organically grown. Organic foods do have lower levels of pesticides and drug-resistant bacteria, says Dr. Thomas K. McInerny, president of the AAP. “That may be important for kids because young children are more vulnerable to chemicals, but we simply don’t have the scientific evidence to know if the difference will affect a person’s health over a lifetime,” says McInerny. Both organic and conventionally grown foods have the same vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, lipids and other nutrients that are important for children’s health. “If you’re on a budget, don’t buy the more expensive organic option if it’s
going to reduce your family’s overall intake of healthy foods like fresh produce,” advises McInerny. “It’s better for kids to eat five servings of conventionally grown produce a day than for them to eat one serving of organic vegetables.” Families can also be selective in choosing particular organic foods to stretch their budget. The Environmental Working Group has created a Shopper’s Guide that rates the level of pesticides in produce. Their guide indicates that conventionally grown onions, sweet corn and pineapples have relatively low pesticide rates, making them safer to purchase. If you can budget a few extra dollars to spend on groceries, opt for organic apples and celery, which are among the most pesticide-laden crops. According to the AAP, organic milk is not healthier for kids than conventional milk, but parents should make sure all milk they purchase is pasteurized. The jury is still out on the longterm health benefits of organic produce, but in the meantime keep your eyes and ears open for new information as it becomes available -- so you can make the best possible choices in the future. You can find nutrition tips for kids on the AAP website for parents, www.healthychildren.org.
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Protect Yourself from Identity Theft BY KRISHAN GUPTA Identity theft happens, when someone steals your personal information without your permission and it could be very costly, serious, and also is a growing problem in USA and other countires. Affected person can spend months and months cleaning up the mess created by thieves. Victim may lose job, loan may not be approved to buy cars, homes, or other goods and could be in the watch eyes of authorities for the crime he did not commit. Read carefully the following steps to lower your risk in future. These tips are derived from “Federal Trade Commission (FTC)” and there is a lot of information available online by FTC. Contact the Office of Privacy Protection Department of Consumer Affairs for help. • Protect your Social Security number vigilantly and keep in a safe place. Buy a shredder and shred any documents containing personal information, pre-approval applications, convenience checks, credit card receipts, outdated financial papers. Avoid filling out customer surveys, marketers use them to mass data about you, which can be stolen. • Federal law limits your losses normally up to $50 if a credit card is stolen or lost. Report any unauthorized transactions or irregularity to the authorities. Notify your bank within two business days after learning of the loss or theft of your credit card. If you notify your bank after those first two days, under the law you could lose much more. Also check your bank activities online for any suspicious transactions on regular basis. • Check and monitor your credit reports for free either online or calling on phone. You can get your free credit report every year from each of the three National Credit Bureaus. Log on at www.annualcreditreport. com or call 1-877 322 8228. There are three credit bureaus (Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax) and you may
want to check with all the three bureaus one at a time, so you can in effect run your credit every four months at no cost. Call toll free 1888-567-8688 to remove your names from credit bureau marketing lists. • Check your bills and bank statements as soon as you receive them. First, check any unauthorized charges and withdrawals and report them immediately. Also
inform the three credit bu-
reaus not to grant new credit in your name without your express consent. File a report with the local police department. Call the fraud department of any accounts, that have been tampered or you did not open, and close the accounts immediately. You may be asked to fill out a fraud affida-
vit and submit a copy of your police report. This will build your case that the chargers are not yours. In addition, file an online complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at ftccomplaintassistant.gov. Experts will refer you to various resources and can assist you in fully freezing your credit. If you did not get the bills on time, call the authorities, it may be that someone has changed contact information to hide fraudulent charges. Check out a website before entering your credit card number or other personal information for shopping online. Enter information only on secure Web pages with “https” in the address bar. Use passwords with at least eight characters or more, including a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Expert recommends to use twelve characters and this could be impossible to steal your password. Update your firewall and virus protection software regularly. Scam artist may pose as representative of banks, stores, government agencies or other authorities, generally either over the phone, through regular mail, or especially via e-mail. Fraud artists may ask recipients to click on a link that could take you to an unauthorized site. Never respond to any request to verify your account number or password. In addition, never provide out your personal information unless you are sure about the company.
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
ENTERTAINMENT
December 07, 2012
Talaash: An Outstanding Film
BY TARAN ADARSH (Bollywoodhungama) Before analyzing the movie, I just wish to state one thing. You haven’t watched a suspense thriller like Talaash on the Hindi screen. Ever. Also, all those sms-es prior to the release pertaining to the ‘killer’ are humbug, bogus and phony. Another clarification. Talaash is not remotely similar to Kahaani. A lot of space was devoted to the imaginary tale that Talaash and Kahaani were similar in nature. But you realize it’s an illfounded rumor as the reels of Talaash unfold. It’s also alleged that Talaash borrows from a novella called ‘Act Of Providence’. Then there’s an assumption that Talaash borrows from Shutter Island... Similarities apart, Talaash stands on its feet for the reason that it merges conspiracy, tension and tragedy with dexterousness. Add to it the turn of events, the razor sharp dialogue and of course, the suspense... Talaash takes the suspense angle to a new altitude altogether, emerging into an exceptionally constructed mystery. Aamir Khan plays an investigation officer, Inspector Shekhawat, who is informed about the accident and subsequent death of a superstar. The case turns into a life altering chase for Inspector Shekhawat when he is forced to reel under the repercussions of a disturbed married life (Rani Mukherji) and come face to face with his suppressed grief. Being on his investigative quest, Inspector Shekhawat meets a sex worker [Kareena Kapoor], who further adds shades of mystery to the puzzle. What looks like a simple car accident investigation turns into a haunting mystery as further investigations show many anomalies were stringed to the death of the victim. Talaash is dramatic and absorbing, both. Director Reema Kagti takes up an attentiongrabbing premise and along with co-writer Zoya Akhtar spins a tale that makes the viewer a participant of sorts. While the cop tries hard to solve the jigsaw puzzle, the spectator, with his mind wide alert by now, gets intrigued by what he observes and perceives and is keen to get to the bottom of the mystery himself/ herself. That, in my opinion, is why this suspense drama works. Frankly, it’s the sort of film that’s extremely tough to pull off, but Reema has a strong control of the material and together with her efficient team pulls off the trick with aplomb and composure. In addition, Reema creates the right ambiance essential for a suspense drama. The tale is stylishly told and the authentic mood keeps you on the edge of the seat for most part of those two hours. Talaash is not one of those movies that relies on the been-there-seen-that kind of situations. I’d like to add that though there’s a remote possibility that you may solve the mystery before the protagonist gets to it in the finale, you can’t help but stay hooked and wrapped to the twisted characters and disturbing situations that Talaash offers.
The finale, sure enough, is all important in a film of this genre. In this case, it’s astonishing, powerful and also heartrending. It ends up as an emotional film that tugs at your heartstrings. The film delves into deep, dark secrets and that makes the conclusion one of the most satisfying wrap ups one has witnessed in a movie of this variety. I could just go on and on about the merits of the film, but I shall not reveal any further and spoil the fun for you. I suggest, experience it yourself! The production design and the detailing attached to the movie couldn’t be more authentic and adds incredible value to the project. Visually too, the frames capture the nervousness and uneasiness of the characters and also the setting with aplomb (DoP: Mohanan). The music (Ram Sampath) is situational. The songs may not feature on your fav list, but a couple of numbers are fascinating nonetheless. In fact, the songs are well integrated in the narrative, driving the story forward every time they appear. The dialogue [Fahan Akhtar; additional dialogue: Anurag Kashyap] are taut and transfixing. Though Aamir has portrayed the role of a cop earlier, he brings something new to the table with his spellbinding performance in Talaash. The earnestness and authenticity with which he enacts his character cannot be expressed in a few sentences. That would be doing gross injustice to the actor’s abilities, frankly. He holds the camera in every frame and charges assertively through the film, making you believe in Inspector Shekhawat’s journey in entirety. It’s a standout piece of acting, unquestionably. That Aamir is the best actor of his generation comes to the fore yet again! Both Rani and Kareena are given a moment in the sun, despite Aamir dominating the film with a power-packed performance. Rani is superb as the troubled wife, while Kareena is terrific as the hooker. Together the two actresses deliver admirable performances that would definitely merit a mention in award ceremonies next year. The sequences between Aamir and Kareena in particular are simply fantastic! Nawazuddin Siddiqui sparkles in a significant role, enacting his part with remarkable ease. Raj Kumar Yadav is efficient enough. Shernaz Patel leaves a stunning impact. Every actor in the film -- in a brief role or otherwise -- stays fresh in your memory after the screening has concluded. On the whole, Talaash is an outstanding film. A taut psychological thriller that keeps you guessing till the end, it leaves you spellbound, leaves you mesmerized, leaves you with an exclamation, ‘Wow!’. An absolute must watch for all movie buffs. You just can’t afford to miss this one!
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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Digitization Can’t Be An Evolutionary Change: Pearson Chief Technology Officer Max Gabriel BY GOPAL SATHE NEW DELHI (Mint): Pearson Plc’s India operations include schools, coaching institutions, publishing and test assessments. Technology, particularly the Internet and mobile devices are the biggest disruptors for businesses like Pearson’s, and Max Gabriel, chief technology officer (CTO) of Pearson India, is the man responsible for keeping the company up to date. While earlier innovations such as smartboards met with a lukewarm response in India, Gabriel says the company’s new tablet, the MX Touch platform, will help bring digitization to India’s schools, and help change the nature of the education system. In an interview, Gabriel spoke about how technology is disrupting the industry and how Pearson can use it to stay relevant in changing times. Edited excerpts: Education is one of the biggest opportunities for technology to bring change, and aside from Aakash (the low-cost tablet developed by Datawind Ltd for India), we’ve also got companies such as Micromax Informatics and HCL Infosystems making tablets focused on education. What’s different about the MX Touch? The MX Touch is a step forward for us in bringing personalized learning. This is because the devices are going to be connected to the cloud, and so all the content becomes available in one place, and can be made available and updated very easily. What makes it different from other platforms is that those have all been made by hardware companies, and they’ve put content on the tablet and called it a day. I’m not saying that they haven’t made good hardware, but we have a depth of content, and we’ve also re-imagined it in a way that is fully suited to digital. The user experience can’t be a gimmick. You can’t just put a book on a tablet—the content has to be redesigned to make sense in the new environment, and designed in a way that includes tracking, assessment and usage data, so that we can actually help the students in a way that a printed book can’t. Can you explain how digital should be different? For example, when you say tracking and usage data, what does that mean? You have to come up with new solutions—to add something more than what print already offers. Otherwise, you’re not creating something that justifies the spend involved. Children are much more at home with technology than our generation, and these digital natives already know about Wikipedia and Google. So you need to give them something more than that. One example is a game called Poptropica that we developed. They need much more interactivity before they’re convinced that you’re offering value on digital, and as a publisher too, the interactivity offered by something
Max Gabriel, CTO Pearson India, says assessments are the key advantage of digitization. Photo: Pradeep Gaur
The firm’s CTO on how technology is disrupting Pearson’s operations and how they can use it to stay relevant like this gives you a chance to get a lot of really valuable feedback, which you normally don’t get. Digitization can’t be an evolutionary change—it has to be fully transformative, built around new solutions from the ground up. And assessments are the key advantage of digitization—you can track, analyse and identify trends for early intervention, forming a baseline. So in a school itself, you can quickly track what sections of the text are resonating well—you can see which parts the students are having difficulty with and form a baseline around that, and since all this data gets tracked through a cloud-based solution, you can do this not just within the school, but around the country you can see, students in this region aren’t doing as well as students from that region. So why is that? What parts are giving these particular students difficulty and how are those students handling the difficult parts? By connecting all this data today, the opportunity is to bring about large-scale transformation in India. So you’re not planning on selling directly to students? Is it going to be through schools? All of our content is made in partnership with schools and parents to understand what their expectations are, and also with children, to get a good sense of how they’re going to use the hardware and make the most of it. We’ve already started to work with partner schools to deploy, and while we will be selling our hardware directly as well, our main focus is to work with institutions because if only a few students in the class have access to something like this, then the full experience doesn’t come. It’s only when there is sharing and synergy that you get better tracking, better assessments and better data, and that’s something that works best when the institutions are on board and incorporate the technology into
the student’s education. We’ve already started to deploy in some parts of the North-East, where the school year starts in January, and we’ll roll out more in the rest of the country with the school year as well. Smartboards was another technology Pearson was involved in at the school level. Do you think that had much impact in India? Yes and no. There are around 100,000 installations in India, and around 20% of that was Pearson. Where the institution has a clear plan, and an understanding of how the technology can help, there are significant gains, and much greater engagement. Where it’s done to meet a bullet point on a list, obviously, it does not work. Unfortunately, a lot of the work in the segment has been the latter type and that’s why technology gets a little bit of a bad name at times. I think that with MX Touch, because it’s a lot simpler to understand, and because a lot of the features are there in the students’ hands, and kids are more likely to experiment and learn how technology works, we’ll see a better response. You mentioned Wikipedia and Google. Web content is easy to find and mostly free. How is this affecting publishers like Pearson? Free isn’t going to replace paid but it’s going to grow in parallel. The two can’t be in competition, because then neither will flourish. Instead, the publishers need to recognize that free is here to stay, and need to start offering up a portion of their own content for free as well. Freemium (when a digital offering such as software, media, games or web services is provided free of charge, but a premium is charged for advanced features and functionality) is going to be a big part of everyone’s future, where a part of the content is free, and if there is enough value in that for the user, then there’s the paid version which adds more—more information, more features, more access. Open and paid will co-exist, and some of the high quality free stuff is going to become paid because they have costs to meet as well, and what we are seeing is that there is a real demand from customers for quality paid content. But quality is the key word.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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Here Comes Walmart: Government Wins Vote on FDI in Retail
BY RAJ KANWAR IAN INDIA CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: The UPA government has won the vote on Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in multibrand retail in Lok Sabha; in division, 471 votes were cast, 253 MPs voted against the BJP motion challenging the government’s policy decision and 218 voted for it. The issue of FDI in retail has become a major bone of contention between the ruling alliance on one hand and the main opposition party BJP on the other supported by some sundry allies or even its erstwhile adversaries. The Manmohan Singh government strongly believes that the foreign direct investment in multibrand retail would bring huge benefits not only to the farmers but also to the people at large and would further generate over 10 million new jobs over a period of time. The opposition parties spearheaded by BJP and other sundry groups, however, assert that the advent of large multi-product stores would not only kill the smaller neighborhood shops, rendering a couple of million people unemployed but would also exploit the farmers by virtue of their monopoly hold. But the Federal Commerce ministry is unconvinced of the opposition’s argument and firmly believes that FDI in retail is “another revolutionary leap” for the Indian economy. However, an ardent supporter of FDI pooh-poohed this false assumption that the large retailers with deep pockets would exploit the farmers by their predatory pricing policy. He further argued that the entry of the large retailers with direct access to farmers through their cooperatives, a la AMUL, at village and Block levels would lead to the elimination of host of “middle men” who have been traditionally exploiting the growers. This would also lead to minimizing
the existing supply chain. Another votary of FDI in retail says that small retailers and even roadside vendors have been known to be exploiting the customers by charging as much as 30 to 40 per cent higher price than what is initially paid to the farmer or the grower by the wholesalers. Thus every single link in this long supply chain makes exorbitant profit amongst them and the poor consumer ultimately has to bear this burden. Looking at the experience of other countries where such large retail stores are operating, it is obvious that there is intense competition among these mega stores with the result that the consumer ultimately gets the lowest prices. In fact, Walmart proudly announce as its policy that it would match any lower price at a rival store. Placards to this effect are prominently displayed at all their outlets. Similar is the position in many major metropolitans in India where already several indigenous large retailers promoted by Reliance, Goenkas and supermarkets such as Big Bazaar are already operating;
here too, the competition ensures that prices remain low. Despite, these large stores, there have not been any significant impact on most of the neighborhood retailers. Thanks to such rigid and contrary postures, the first four days of the much awaited winter session of the Lok Sabha had been wasted in unseemly and somewhat ugly skirmishes between the ruling UPA-II and the sundry opposition parties and groups over this controversial issue. Though both the adversaries agreed to a discussion on this contentious matter, yet there were sharp differences of opinion whether the discussion is held under Rule 184 which entailed voting or under another Rule that did not require voting. Government and its managers led by minister of parliamentary affairs Kamal Nath and his deputy Rajiv Shukla had tried hard enough to convince the opposition in general and BJP in particular to agree to leave it to the Speaker to decide under which Rule, whether with or without voting, the debate be held, but their ef-
forts were futile. Even the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh for the three top BJP leaders failed to end the stalemate. Though officially, the government spokesmen asserted that it opposed voting after the debate since the FDI on retail was an executive decision that did not require any parliamentary vote, but the fact was that it was then not sure of its numbers in the House. In the interim, the government emissaries were successful in bringing around its wavering allies such as DMK and outside supporters like Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP. Thus with the numbers assured, the government put up a brave front and agreed to a voting. The irony of all these four wasted days is stark. While the BJP and other opposition parties cried hoarse, belligerently demanding voting, strongly believing that the government
would lose on this very contentious issue of FDI in retail. However, now it is a major slap on the face of the opposition particularly BJP and CPI (M) as they have lost this all important vote in the Lok Sabha. For Mamata’s Trinamool Congress, the victory of the government on the issue of FDI is a matter of great embarrassment and shame since it had brazenly walked out of the UPA government on this very issue. All the opposition parties including BJP, Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) and its fellow-travelers had been shouting from house top that the decision to allow FDI in retail was ‘anti-people’, and they had dared the Congress to put this issue to vote. It is a matter of great humiliation for all the opposition parties who had put everything on stake on this one single issue. When the winter session began on November 22, the opposition parties spearheaded by Bhartiya Janata Party vociferously demanded that a debate on this important issue be immediately held under Rule 184 so that the country could know where there have been continuous
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SPORTS
December 07, 2012
Sachin Scores 76, but England Thwarts Indian Bats Third Test, 1st Day: India 273 for 7 (Tendulkar 76, Gambhir 60) v England BY SIDDARTH RAVINDRAN KOLKOTA (ESPNCricinfo): The feverish speculation over the nature of the Eden Gardens track finally came to an end as 83-yearold curator Prabhir Mukherjee unveiled a seemingly benign surface, the sort India’s batsmen have feasted on at home in recent years. MS Dhoni may not have got the square turner he wanted, but for the third Test in a row he won an important toss, and chose to bat, aware that India had amassed 600-plus scores in the first innings in each of their three previous Kolkata Tests. Though Sachin Tendulkar shrugged off one of the worst slumps of his career with a resolute 76, it was the visitors’ day as a high-quality England attack nipped out seven wickets on a track that gave them little encouragement. Monty Panesar again showed how improved a bowler he is, barely bowling a bad ball all day, James Anderson produced a reverseswing masterclass, and they were backed up by the large-hearted efforts of a fit-again Steven Finn, who took the place of the ineffectual Stuart Broad. The England bowling was relentless, and were helped by the wastefulness of the Indian batsmen. At least three wickets were gifted away on a pitch that didn’t provide any alarming turn or bounce. Virender Sehwag was run-out after a schoolboy error, Gautam Gambhir played a loose cut after being set and Yuvraj Singh gifted a catch to cover. In contrast, Sachin Tendulkar looked determined to break his run of low scores. Walking in 15 minutes before lunch, he was extremely watchful to begin with, happy to play out the unyielding Panesar, who dismissed him both times in the Mumbai Test. Panesar was in the middle of a marathon 21-over spell, in which varied his flight and pace, and bowled the odd ball with the scrambled seam, all without bowling any hit-me deliveries. The runs dried up, and at the other end Finn and Anderson were
Sachin survives critics with a 76, but there is much to criticize about India’s batting performance.
getting the ball to swerve just a bit to worry Tendulkar outside off. Even when the ball was little more than 40 overs old, Anderson was getting the ball to reverse, highlighted by a dramatically indipping yorker to Tendulkar. The sustained pressure from both ends got the wicket of Virat Kohli, who nicked to second slip on 6 to extend his poor run this series. There could have been further reward if Yuvraj had been given lbw when he was caught in front by an inducker from Anderson on nought An increasingly fluent Tendulkar and a positive Yuvraj brought some stability to the innings. Though there were a few trademark Tendulkar strokes, including an effortless backfoot punch down the ground for four, he was at his best in the final session. The first ball after the break was glanced to fine leg for four to bring up his first Test half-century since the New Year’s Test in Sydney, a milestone which would have had his legions of fans dancing for joy, just like Harbhajan Singh was in the dressing room. Over the next hour there were paddle-sweeps, a punch over point and a cover drive reminiscent of his pomp. Thoughts
of a first Test century in nearly two years were brushed aside by the nagging Anderson, who induced an edge to keeper on 76. Before Tendulkar, it was Gambhir who held the innings together with his second successive halfcentury. It wasn’t his most fluent performance, getting beaten several times early on and edging a few, but he was far more assured once Panesar came on in as early as the eighth over. The footwork was more certain, and the tendency to be fidgety that he has repeatedly shown against the quicks reduced. Panesar was greeted with a slap past cover in the first over, and was launched over mid-on in his next. Early on, Sehwag was looking comfortable, untroubled by the defensive fields England set for him and India rattled along at more than 4.5 an over. Then came a moment of madness. Sehwag played what looked like the shot of the session, a fluid whip towards midwicket; Samit Patel, often the butt of jokes about his weight, sprinted across from deep square leg to make a tumbling stop and Finn was on hand to rifle the ball back. That immediately brought down the scoring, only seven coming off the next six overs. With the ball not doing much, Gambhir and Pujara calmly set about building the innings. With lunch approaching, though, Pujara misjudged the length of a Panesar arm ball and stayed back, only to miss the ball which hit the middle of the stumps. Panesar was whistling and dancing in celebration, knowing well the importance of the wicket of India’s form batsman this series. With the old ball reverse-swinging prodigiously, the new ball was delayed till the 87th over, and it produced dividends. MS Dhoni and R Ashwin had been looking to safely take India through to stumps but Anderson cleaned up Ashwin for 21. India would have been mighty pleased when they ended the first day on the square turner in Mumbai on 266 for 6. On a far less testing surface in Kolkata, the firstday total of 273 for 7 will be far less satisfying.
IOC Suspends Indian Olympic Body LUSANNE, Switzerland: India’s moment of glory — with a record six medals in the London Olympics in July-August 2012 — turned out to be short-lived, as the International Olympic Committee suspended India on Tuesday to stop tainted officials from coming back to the top of the Indian Olympic Association. The decision came on the eve of the Indian body formalising a messy election process that would see Lalit Bhanot, secretary-general of the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee who was jailed on corruption charges, making a grand come-back. Bhanot is set to be elected unopposed with the main contenders from the rival camp, headed by incumbent secretary general Randhir Singh, withdrawing from the elections. The suspension means the IOC will no longer fund India and its officials will not be able to attend its meetings. Indian athletes will not be eligible for IOC scholarships and cannot take part in international meets under the Indian tri-colour. But they can participate under the IOC flag. The IOC executive board to meet in Lausanne, had warned that the elections were not in keeping with the Olympic charter and the report of its ethics panel that barred tainted officials from holding senior positions. Sports minister Jitendra Singh, however, said, “We’re willing to take the first step to resolve the issue. It’s not the time for a blame game. The sports ministry is open
to sitting together with representatives from government, the IOC and the IOA.” The build-up to the elections itself had projected the mess that India’s sports administration has become with accusations flying thick and fast between two groups. The Delhi high court had directed that the IOA should follow the sports code of the government that barred officials above 70 years of age from contesting. It also barred anyone from seeking a fourth term. IOA officials, who have maintained that following the sports code would lead to sanctions from the global governing body, now blame each other. Abhey Singh Chautala, set to be elected unopposed as IOA president, blamed Randhir Singh, India’s representative in IOC. Chautala said, “From the start, Randhir is responsible for the entire mess. To save his chair he can do anything. He should resign as IOC member. In tomorrow’s AGM, we will pass a resolution to withdraw Randhir from the IOC as he is no longer a member of the IOA executive board.” Randhir, on the other hand, said the IOA needs cleansing. “The mess that is happening today in the IOA needs to be cleaned up. What we are heading for now with this suspension is that it gives an opportunity to clean up the mess. Let me tell you that the IOC is not anti-India. It is against the system,” he added.
Indian atheletes are concerned that they may not be able to participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
COMMUNITY
December 07, 2012
India’s Hidden Health Care Labor Force BY JYOTI PANDE LAVAKARE As India grapples with the daunting challenge of providing health care to the millions who can’t afford or access it, a growing number of “affordable health care” entrepreneurs are focused on developing new solutions for the rural and remote parts of the country. One such initiative is gaining steam in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, where IKP Center for Technologies in Public Health has partnered with a local nonprofit, Sughavazhvu Healthcare, to set up a network of well-equipped health centers that provide a broad range of health care services. “In India, money is not the problem,” said Nachiket Mor, a public health expert who is an IKP Center director and chairman of Sughavazhvu Healthcare. ”Manpower is not the problem. We just need to create and demonstrate on the ground how a primary health care system can work,” he said. The pilot, not-for-profit project is currently running seven facilities, which, Mor said, “could act as model primary health subcenters.” Each center has protocols for the treatment of a wide range of ailments, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, anemia, oral health, women’s health and reproductive care, ophthalmic care and even mental health counseling and treatment. Across India, access to health care remains a pressing problem, exacerbated by the country’s large population and shortage of doctors. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than in rural India, which is experiencing a severe shortage of qualified health care practitioners. According to Health Ministry statistics, the doctor-to-patient ratio for rural India is one to 30,000; the World Health Organization recommends a ratio of one to 1,000. This leaves the health of rural populations largely in the hands of people who aren’t always fully qualified, including family elders, midwives and doulas, untrained community health workers and accredited social health activists (known as ASHA workers) who merely refer patients up the chain to specialists and bigger-city hospitals, Mor said. The Indian government has tried to fill this gap by providing lowcost care through rural health cen-
A clinic in Kavarapattu, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, run by Sughavazhvu, an organization which provides health care in rural areas. Photo: Zeena Johar/Sughavazhvu
ters, called “subcenters,” in villages, tasked with offering primary care. But often they are empty rooms, Mor said, with little or no qualified staff or facilities. The Tamil Nadu pilot program is intended to show that it is possible to provide continuous, quality health care for rural communities by using village-based “health extension workers” to assist doctors. What Mor calls his “game changer” is India’s large talent pool of what are known as “Ayush” doctors, practitioners of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha medicine, who are trained in indigenous medical education. (Unani medicine originated in the Arab world, while Siddha is from Tamil Nadu.) There are 750,000 qualified and registered Ayush practitioners who are currently severely underutilized, he said. “In our view this talent pool is already large,” he said. “Their services can much more easily be expanded and utilized than the pool of physicians trained in allopathic care,” that is, conventional modern medicine. These doctors already have much of the training they need, Mor said, as there is an 80 percent overlap between the curricula they follow to become Ayush doctors and the international M.D. curriculum. The project trains and certifies these indigenous doctors to serve as “independent care providers” in a rural setting. A Supreme Court judgment made it legal for Ayush doctors to practice conventional medicine, provided they follow certain regula-
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tions. The training program has been developed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. Mor said he hopes to find private sector players or state governments to partner with to set up similar facilities across the country. He is in talks with private and state partners in Odisha and Uttaranchal, he said. He brings to the project his experience as a part of the government committee on universal health coverage instituted by the Planning Commission, which has recommended the establishment of a National Healthcare Reform Commission. It has also recommended the introduction of a new three-year Bachelor of Rural Health Care (BRHC) university program to train rural health care practitioners, double the number of community health workers in rural areas and recruit adequate numbers of dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and technicians. Other countries are also trying to create a cadre of rural health care professionals, and the nongovernment sector has often stepped in when the state has shown reluctance or complacence. In Bangladesh, for instance, BRAC, the world’s largest development organization, is in the process of training 80,000 community health care providers who, like paramedics, will be taught essential services such as maternal and child health care. They will be able to go door to door to provide services in the poorest parts of the country, Asif Saleh, BRAC’s senior director, said from Dhaka.
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U.S. Ambassador Powell Rues Quality of Education in India NEW DELHI (TOI): US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell said that the quality of education in India remains a “concern and major challenge” while underlining the need to address the gap in reading levels to prepare children for the future in a better way. Quoting reports that have pointed out that basic reading levels have shown a marked decline, she observed that it was critical to provide children with the right kind of environment to make them learn. Addressing a gathering after handing over All Children Reading Grand Challenge Awards to five innovators, Powell heaped praises on the Government of India for taking “several positive steps” for providing basic education to every child through the Right to Education Act. “According to the latest reports, today over 96.6 per cent of children in India ages 6 to 14 years old are enrolled in school. However, quality of education remains a concern and a major challenge across the entire education system,” she said. Citing recent international assess-
ments and national surveys that have concluded that learning levels in India are very low at the primary level, the Ambassador said if the gap in reading ability is not addressed they would continue to lag behind in all subjects as they move through the system. “The future economic potential of millions of children depends on their ability to learn to read, and read effectively, during their primary school years,” she said. The 2011 Annual Status of Education Report in India revealed that basic reading skills have shown a
US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell today said that the quality of education in India remains a “concern and major challenge” while underlining the need to address the gap in reading levels to prepare children for the future in a better way.
marked decline in many states across North India. Powell said USAID fundamentally transformed its approach to education to help address this crisis in quality and that it was not going to measure its success bythe number of children in school but by the effectiveness they demonstrate in the classroom as measuredbychild outcomes. As part of the new education strategy, she said, USAID has developed early grade reading assessments designed to help teachers understand the specific needs of their students and their classrooms. These tools are already making a difference on the ground, changing the way entire nations approach education. By focusing on literacy and measuring impact, USAID’s new strategy will help improve the reading skills of 100 million children by 2015, she said. Five of the 32 awardees of this competition are implementing activities in India.
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INDIA
December 07, 2012
Srirangam Radhu : YouTube Maami for NRI Tamils
BY OLYMPIA SHILPA GERALD TIRUCHI (The Hindu): The cashew sputters and the warm smells of melting ghee hover in the air. The maami in green madisar tosses the pan in her tiny kitchen fitted with traditional brass and copper pans, microwave, stereo and laptop. Her husband flits around her, sometimes helping, sometimes getting in way.As she stirs and stokes amidst peals of bicycle bells and squawking crows in a quiet neighbourhood in Srirangam, there are thousands replicating her moves in compact kitchens at Minnesotta, Canberra, Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam. A YouTube search for Srirangam prompts up ‘Srirangam Radhu’ even before the iconic Srirangam Temple. Geetha and Radhakrishnan are relatively unknown in their own neighbourhood, but their combined internet avatar as ‘geetradhu’ on YouTube commands a huge fan base among NRI Tamils all over the world. What originally started as a cooking demonstration of South Indian favourites for their son settled in Canada morphed into a life-saver with 400 videos and counting for students, newly married couples and longtime residents who crave for a taste of home in alien lands. In the process ‘geet radhu’ have created a digital archive of aviyal, karunai kizhangu masiyal, mor kolmabu, ellu chutney and many more in a format that allows for step-by-step learning.
Geetha and Radhakrishnan known in cyberspace as ‘Srirangam Radhu’ are popular with NRIs for their YouTube videos on traditional recipes. Photo : M. Srinath
“My son, a mechanical engineer, married a Canadian girl and settled down there,” Geeta recounts. “He was fond of my cooking and said he missed it. We decided to make a video with instructions on preparing aviyal in 2008.” The video was uploaded on YouTube and Jyothika Sri, someone who stumbled across it, requested for vatha kuzhambu that set the flood of enquiries and subsequent posts. “We made the first few videos with only our son in mind. We never expected them to become so popular. It was like a director’s first film turning into a hit.” There are umpteen cooking videos to be found on the internet but ‘Srirangam Radhu’ as they are popularly known have a distinctive appeal. Imagine you’re in foreign shores, longing for a taste of home food but know next to nothing about cooking. You chance upon a grandmother
figure who can guide you through all your favourite recipes step-bystep and is savvy enough to wield a laptop and camera. And there’s a father figure standing by asking all the questions which you’re afraid are too foolish to ask. All this in a setting that is nostalgic of mom’s kitchen. Now would you prefer Nigella Lawson with gleaming glass bowls and designer kitchens or grandmom standing by your elbow telling you in Tamil what to do and most importantly what not to do? Inside mom’s kitchen “One compliment we often get is Amma Nyabagam Varudhu’ (I remember my mom),” says Radhakrishnan who records his wife’s cooking in a pocket recorder while simultaneously playing the part of an amateur cook troubled by culinary doubts. “All the trouble we take is worth the effort when people
tell us ‘my child is a poor eater but loved what I cooked today’ and ‘my husband and I no longer fight over cooking,” says Geeta, who believes it is never too late to learn how to ladle up something edible. “I knew nothing about cooking till I got married. Whatever I learnt was from my mother-in-law, an expert cook.” Though retired, it is perhaps her profession as a school teacher that makes her an ace at giving methodical instructions while speaking to the camera. The videos are real time and offer a close up of all the ingredients, how they look after they are crushed or ground and each stage of preparation. There are no rehearsals or multiple takes which only enhances the output. “Only once we messed up, it has worked out right every other time,” smiles Geeta. While most people in their age bracket may show reluctance in taking towards technology, Radhakrishnan’s curiosity and love for experimentation has made it possible. “We learnt by trial and error. There are instructions to operate everything from uploading a video to editing,” he shares. “Without his assistance I could have done nothing,” Geeta smiles fondly at her husband. “I hang around asking all the questions. Some viewers say I’m helpful, others feel I talk too much,” he guffaws. The channel has crossed a million views, reached the top ten rankings in YouTube once and later approached by advertisers, brings in
around 100 dollars a month. “I think it is the native touch,” Radhakrishnan tries why their YouTube channel has struck a chord. “Two people talking in a kitchen with the sound of a pooja bell, an autorickshaw hoot or a conversation next door quarrel, all bring home closer to them (NRIs).” Geet Radhu have taken a sabbatical of more than six months to visit their children abroad. Thanks to their YouTube channel they have an extended family all over the globe and advice is solicited on various matters including nose piercing and real estate. On popular demand, the couple also uploaded videos of homam, varalaskshmi nombu and vishu kani rituals for NRIs who tuned in to catch them live. Though a self-confessed orthodox maami, the family’s cosmopolitan nature (her son married Canadian and daughter married a Christian) are reflected in her contemporary take on food like curd rice with cheese. But the maami who has managed to play foster grandmom to thousands of young people, has her biggest culinary challenge closer home. “Cooking for my British Indian grandson on his holiday here,” she sighs. Videos: 440 Views: 1.73 million Subscribers: 1,519 Radhu’s top five: 1. Vatha Kuzhambu 2. Ven Pongal 3. Paruppu Urundai Kuzhlambu 4. Keerai Kootu 5. Mysore Rasam.
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December 07, 2012
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