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FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017
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COMMUNITY NEWS / EAST COAST 2
FRIDAY, 10 MARCH, 2017
Good response to ‘GITPRO World 2017’
BY A STAFF WRITER ALO ALTO, CA -- More than 500 technologists and aspiring entrepreneurs--many of them Indian Americans--convened at the Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, Calif., on February 18 for Global Indian Technology Professionals Organization’s (GITPRO) sixth annual event, the ‘GITPRO World 2017’. The attendees were provided with a platform that featured lectures and interactions with accomplished leaders, including chief executive officers, chief technology officers, vice presidents, professional and startup coaches, and venture capitalists. The leaders came from well-known companies such as VMWare, Oracle, General Electric and Salesforce, as well as Uber, Aerospike and Viptela, among others. Additionally, the daylong event featured breakout sessions in four tracks-artificial intelligence and big data, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, and professional development--bookended by keynote speeches. VMWare chief operating officer Rajiv Ramaswami was among the keynote speakers. He stressed the importance of innovation and illustrated how his company is currently focusing on a common platform across
Philanthropist is duped of $18 m
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Shelley Rubin
different multiple clouds. Another keynote speaker, Ganesan Ramu of GE, discussed the growth of Industrial Internet of Things and how GE’s Predix platform is enabling developers to rapidly create applications leveraging IIOT. Raju Reddy of Sierra Atlantic talked about the benefits of social entrepreneurship while Dr. Prasad Kaipa shared his thoughts on the seven principles of becoming a wise leader. GITPRO is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to providing Indian technology professionals across the globe with a platform for personal and professional development, and a platform to give back to the community in terms of skills, knowledge and leadership to make a difference. GITPRO conducts conferences, seminars and other programs to educate members on the latest developments and trends in the industry and opportunities to give back to the community.
Doctor couple donates $1 million to hospital BY A STAFF WRITER IMI VALLEY, CA -- Thanks to a donation of $1 million by the family of Dr. Ushakant Thakkar, the Simi Valley Hospital was able to expand its campus. The hospital on March 2 celebrated the opening of the Thakkar Family Emergency Pavilion. The expansion project was a $41-million endeavor with the Thakkar family making the most sizeable donation. The pavilion is named after the Indian American nephrologist and his wife Dr. Irma Harriman whose donation was the springboard to the fundraising effort for the project. The pavilion, the largest element of the project, adds roughly 5,500 square feet to the existing emergency department and increases the number of patient rooms by 12, from 10 to 22. Thakkar is the founder, CEO and president of the Kidney Center, Inc., and focuses his practice in Simi Valley; he is the medical director of the Kidney Center of
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BY A STAFF WRITER EW YORK, NY-- An Indian American couple in New York, Nisha and Mohit Sabharwal, have been accused by Shelley Rubin, a prominent Manhattan philanthropist, of swindling her out of $18 million. In a recently-filed lawsuit, Rubin alleges that the Sabharwals duped her into buying supposedly “museum quality” diamond- and emerald-encrusted jewels that were actually cheap knockoffs commonly found in tourist bazaars. The suit filed by the philanthropist, who spent $100 million to co-found the Rubin Museum of Art in 2004, calls the case one that is “grounded in fraud,”says the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. The Chelsea museum specializes in art from the Indian subcontinent. The Sabharwals allegedly masqueraded as members of their country’s political elite with connections to its royalty, according to court papers. According to the suit, Sabharwal allegedly claimed to have access to a princess descended from a historically prominent family in India. Rubin believed she was getting deals on jewelry, such as spending $470,000 on a piece believed to be $1 million only to find out it was worth a mere $14,000. After going on a five-year multi-million dollar spending spree, the philanthropist uncovered the alleged scam in 2015 when having the pieces appraised for insurance purposes. The couple sheltered their “ill-gotten gains” in a Florida company and then used the proceeds to invest in real estate, the suit says.
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Indian woman racially abused on subway Dr. Ushakant Thakkar & Dr Irma Harriman
Simi Valley. The state-of-the-art Thakkar Family Emergency Pavilion is double the size of the
previous emergency department, allowing the hospital to serve more patients in a comfortable environment.
Another Indian shot in South Carolina BY A STAFF WRITER ancaster County, SC : A 43-yearold Indian-origin store owner in the US has been shot dead outside his home, just days after an Indian engineer was killed in Kansas in a hate crime shooting that had sent shockwaves across the country. Harnish Patel, 43, the owner of a convenience store in Lancaster County, South Carolina, was found dead of gunshot wounds in the front yard of his home on March 2, coroner and police officers said. Patel closed his store and drove in his silver minivan to his nearby home where authorities believe he was confronted by his killer. The store is about 6 km from his house. He had locked up his nearby store less than 10 minutes before he was found dead.
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Harnish Patel
Patel was found in the yard a few
minutes before midnight, according to a statement from the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office. The Lancaster County police received calls at 11:33 pm after people called 911 to say that they heard screaming and gunshots. Dilipkumar Gajjar, a close friend of Patel and the owner the ABC store next to the Speedee Mart, said Patel came over to this country to better his family’s life, and did that. Patel is survived by his wife and a child in elementary school, who were at home when he was killed. Harnish Patel who originally hails from Avakhal village in Sinor taluka of Vadodara district had been living in the US with his family for over 14 years.
BY A STAFF WRITER EW YORK, NY-- Indian American Ekta Desai used her Facebook page to post a video of an African American man racially abusing her while she was riding on a New York subway train. The video as well as Desai’s Facebook page have since been removed after the video went viral. In the video, an unidentified man hurled racial slurs at both Desai and another Asian woman. Desai, who works as a physiotherapist in New York, shared a video of her traveling on the New York subway on her way to work.
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