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This week’s question

Obama visit will boostIndo-US ties?

Last week’s result

YES 23% NO 77%

Top Stories

CONTENTS

S. ASIA TO BE OBAMAFOCUS THIS MONTH

Details on page 5

Bollywood ---------------------- 28-29

Classifieds ------------------------- 48

Community Post -------------- 16-24

Date Book -------------------------- 47

Edit Page --------------------------- 54

HealthScience Post --------- 32-35

Horoscope ------------------------- 49

Immigration Post ------------- 44-46

Life Style ----------------------- 50-52

Philosophy ------------------------- 53

Publisher’s Diary ------------------ 4

Real Estate -------------------- 30-31TechBiz Post ------------------- 36-39

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 40-43

Details on page 6

Details on page 32

Details on page 16

Details on page 8

Details on page 36

Details on page 36

WASHINGTON: As US President Barack Obama ar-rived at the White House after vacationing in picturesqueHawaii; it is South Asia - India, Pakistan and Afghanistan- that would be focus during the month in January on theforeign policy front.

In fact, both Obama and his top diplomat - Secretary ofState John Kerry - would kick-off their foreign trips of theyear with India, which officials said is reflective of theserious efforts made by the administration to not onlystrengthen India-US relationship but also to send a mes-

sage to the countries of the region and other major inter-national players too.

Preparations have begun in full swing for Obama's In-dia visit to attend the January 26 Republic Day Parade aschief guest.

His visit would be preceded by Kerry's Ahmedabadvisit to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit.

Thereafter Kerry is likely to travel to Pakistan for US-Pak Strategic Dialogue.

ACTOR, ACTIVIST & BUDDHIST: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Hollywood Actor Richard Gere at ameeting in New Delhi on Monday January 5. Gere is Chairman, Gere Foundation and Global Envoy of

International Buddhist Confederation.

Details on page 5

Kathak iconPt Chitresh Daspasses away

‘Honored to beappointed by PMto NITI Aayog’

Arvind Panagariya

Details on page 9

44 Indians inForbes list ofglobal prodigies

No curbing terrorcertification toPak, says US

AAPI launchesglobal clinicaltrials network

Pak boat menwere terrorists:Parrikar

‘SunandaPushkar wasmurdered’

Jadeja, Axarmake cut forWorld Cup

Will Pakistan ever convict theMumbai terror masterminds?

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January 9, 20152

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January 9, 2015

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HIGHLIGHTSPublisher’s Diary

INFO-CENTER

For advertisement rates call the office nearest to you:

Bollywood:Best item songDeepika's Lovely won with highest num-ber of votes (37%), making it the mostloved item song of the year.

5Cover Story:India focus

16Community:Kathak icon

44

50Life style:

Mukri, the lovable 'Tingu' of Bollywood,ruled the 70's and 80's era as favoritecomedian of the era

36Techbiz:

Indian-American economist ArvindPanagariya has been appointed by Modias the first Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog

40Travel:KulluAmidst the loftiness of the Himalayas,and the serene ambience of River Beas,Kullu is known as the "Valley of Gods".

NITI Aayog

Chitresh Das, dancer, choreographer,composer and educator of Kathak diedon January 4 in Marin County

Obama and his top diplomat - Secretaryof State John Kerry - would kick-off theirforeign trips of the year with India

Lovable comedian

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Immigration:

President Barack Obama plans new stepsto help middle-income Americans as partof a 2015 agenda on immigration

2015 agenda

Finally, Richard Verma has arrived in New Delhi and he will be the firstIndian American to be US Ambassador to India. He will have to workovertime since President Obama is also scheduled to be in Delhi as the

Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebration - the first US President to attend thisfunction. In a statement, the US embassy quoted Verma as saying he would work"with the Indian government on our shared goals of security, development, andprosperity."

Officials from both sides are leaving no stones unturned to make the Obamavisit a success. At the center of all this is the building of a personal relationshipbetween Modi and Obama. Therefore, Modi will make sure India gets the maxi-mum mileage from Obama's visit to benefit both the countries. The Summit willrequire lot more work covering key issues such as defense, energy, smart cities,environment, terrorism, education and several areas of mutual cooperationdiscussed during Modi's meeting with Obama four months ago.

I am sad to see that, Pakistan, on the other hand, has stepped up the crossborder firing targeting innocent civilians and also wants to bring in focus theKashmir issue before Obama's visit. They have still not learned the lesson thatsuch provocation will only harm them further. Modi had made several efforts tobring about amicable relations between both countries and all neighbors start-ing from his inaugural function.

Now, that the elections are over and hopefully the people of Kashmir willhave the chance to develop their state for prosperity and peace.

Diaspora from around the world have arrived to celebrate the PravasiBharatiya Divas in Gujarat this year. It also coincides with the 125th anniver-sary of Mahatma Gandhi's return to India from South Africa. We must use thisopportunity to take our expertise and entrepreneurial skills to further benefit ourmotherland and our adopted countries. Especially when you have the proactiveleadership of a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi.

India PostJanuary 9, 2015 5

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Cover/Top Stories

S. Asia to be Obama focus this monthWASHINGTON: As US Presi-

dent Barack Obama arrived at theWhite House after vacationing inpicturesque Hawaii; it is SouthAsia - India, Pakistan and Af-ghanistan - that would be focusduring the month in January onthe foreign policy front.

In fact, both Obama and his topdiplomat - Secretary of State John

Kerry - would kick-off their for-eign trips of the year with India,which officials said is reflective ofthe serious efforts made by theadministration to not onlystrengthen India-US relationshipbut also to send a message to thecountries of the region and othermajor international players too.

Preparations have begun in full

swing for Obama's India visit toattend the January 26 RepublicDay Parade as chief guest.

His visit would be preceded byKerry's Ahmedabad visit to attendthe Vibrant Gujarat Summit.

Thereafter Kerry is likely totravel to Pakistan for US-Pak Stra-tegic Dialogue.

And sometime in February

Obama would host the new Af-ghan leadership - President AshrafGhani and CEO Dr AbdullahAbdullah - at the White House.

A formal announcement ofKerry's trip to India and Pakistanand that of Afghan leadership tothe US has not been made yet.

But the three high-profile vis-its reflect the foreign policy prior-

ity of the US President as he en-ters the last two years of his presi-dency.

Obama himself is looking for-ward to his second trip to Indiaand before he left for his annualvacation had issued instruction tohis officials to work on specificdeliverables to realise the truepotential of India-US Strategic re-

lationship in the 21st cen-tury.

The first non-whiteAmerican President,Obama has accepted aninvitation from PrimeMinister Narendra Modito attend the RepublicDay Parade on January26.

He is the first USPresident to do so. He isalso the first AmericanPresident to visit Indiatwice.

This is because;Obama believes that In-dia - an anchor of peaceand stability in entireAsia-Pacific region - hasa major role to play in theglobal political scene indecades to come.

It is the two largestdemocracies of theworld, he believes, needto join hands together -

"Chale Saath Saath" - to resolvesome of the pressing problems ofthe world, be it addressing the is-sue of climate change or povertyelimination in Africa or develop-ing a joint policy to eliminate thescour of terrorism from Afghani-stan now that the US troops haveended their combat role in thecountry.

And it is in Modi, officials herebelieve, Obama has found an In-dian leader who is willing to walkthe talk to realise the commongoals of the two countries.

It is the confidence in Modi'sleadership that Obama quicklyaccepted the invitation to attendthe Republic Day Parade giventhat it is the time of the year thatis reserved for the US Presidentto delivers his State of the UnionAddress to the Congress - hismost important speech of the year.

Kerry's visit to Ahmedabadand his expected meeting withModi on the sidelines of the Vi-brant Gujarat Summit is expected

to prepare in a big way for theObama-Modi Summit in New Delhilater this month.

Kerry himself is taking a per-sonal interest on handling the is-sue of climate change with India.

Kerry, officials here say, under-stands India's developmentalneeds and wants Modi to take aglobal lead in climate change -which balances between develop-ment and climate change.

From Ahmedabad, Kerry is ex-pected to fly to Pakistan for thenext round of US-Pak StrategicDialogue at the ministerial level,during which India, Afghanistan,Islamabad's counter-terrorism ef-

fort and continued safe haven inparts of the country is expectedto figure predominantly in histalks with the top Pakistani lead-ership.

In November Kerry had met thePakistani army chief.

In Islamabad, among others hewould be meeting the PakistaniPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Visiting Pakistan at the time ofincreased cross-border shelling,the top American leadership islikely ask the Pak leadership togive up its distinction betweengood and bad terrorists/ and im-press upon them one more timeon the urgency to take strong ac-

tion against India-centric terror-ist groups and organisations.

He is expected to express con-cern over the developments inPakistan over bail to LeT com-mander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi,who played a key role in theMumbai terror attacks.

Once Kerry returns from hisfirst overseas trip in 2015 - Indiaand Pakistan - the Obama Admin-istration would have less than twoweeks to prepare for the historicObama-Modi Summit.

It is during that time that offi-cials are likely to give a final shapeto the deliverables for the Indiavisit of the US President. -PTI

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama

Visiting Pakistan at the time of increasedcross-border shelling, the top Americanleadership is likely ask the Pak leadershipto give up its distinction between goodand bad terrorists

No certification to Pakistan on curbing of terror: USWASHINGTON: US Secre-

tary of State John Kerry has notissued any certificate to the Con-gress on the progress made byPakistan in taking action againstterrorist groups, his spokesper-son said here.

The US State Department hasneither made any recent notifi-cation to the Congress under theKerry-Lugar-Berman bill for re-lease of American aid to Pakistan.

It was way back in 2013 thatthe State Department had noti-fied the Congress about dis-bursement of aid to Pakistan andfor this the Secretary of Statehad used the "national interestwaiver" and not the certificationrequirement.

In fact, no aid has been dis-bursed to Pakistan under theKerry-Luger-Berman in recent

past, US State DepartmentSpokesperson Jen Psaki told re-porters at her daily news confer-ence.

However, she quickly addedthat there are a number of ways

under which the US provides fi-nancial aid to Pakistan.

"Congress has not been noti-fied of the request. Congress hasnot approved of any request (ofaid to Pakistan under Kerry LugarBerman Bill)," Psaki told report-ers at her daily news conference.

In the past, the "national inter-est waiver" has been used to pro-vide Congressional-mandated aidto Pakistan, she said, adding thatno certification has been issuedwith regard to progress made by

Pakistan in taking action againstterrorist networks.

"A (national interest) waiverwas used instead of certification(in 2013)," Psaki said in responseto a question.

Not issuing certificate to Con-gress on Pakistan's counter-ter-

rorism measures, she noted, doesnot mean that progress has notbeen made.

She was responding to questionsabout reports that Kerry has issueda certification to Pakistan on itscounter- terrorism measures aheadof his Islamabad visit next week.

"The facts are: Congress hasnot been notified of a request.Congress has not approved a re-quest. I think in some of the re-porting it also suggested this im-plied an approval of progressmade (by Pakistan in war againstterrorism)," Psaki said.

"In the past, while I'm not go-ing to get ahead of any requestswe'll make, and obviously therewill be additional funding, I'm sure.But in the past, the Department ofState has employed the nationalinterest waiver provided for in leg-

islation in part because all thecriteria that is required to be methasn't been met. We obviouslyhave that ability in the future aswell," she said.

The last review made underthe Kerry-Luger-Berman billwith regard to Pakistani counter-terrorism cooperation was in2013.

"A waiver was used in lieu ofcertification," Psaki said.

She also refuted a recent Pa-kistan Finance Ministry state-ment that State Department hasnotified the Congress of a USD532 million assistance packagefor Pakistan with its break upbeing given for different sectorslike energy, defense against ter-rorism, economic growth, com-munity building, education andhealth.-PTI

She also refuted a recent Pakistan FinanceMinistry statement that State Department hasnotified the Congress of a USD 532 millionassistance package for Pakistan


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Top Stories

Pak boat men suspected terrorists: ParrikarNEW DELHI: With questions

raised over the credibility of themid-sea operation that suggesteda 26/11 like terror strike wasaverted, Defense MinisterManohar Parrikar has said all de-tails relating to the sinking of thesuspected Pakistani vessel wouldbe released soon.

He said "circumstantial evi-dence" indicated that the occu-pants of the vessel were "sus-pected or possible terrorists" and

that they were in touch with Paki-stani maritime officials and army.

"They are doing analysis. Wewill release it once they completethe analysis in 2-3 days. May be

it will take four days. Let them dothe analysis and after that we willrelease it" he told reporters here.

Parrikar said the people in theboat were in touch with variousauthorities in Pakistan, the armyand its maritime authority.

"The boat was in constanttouch, before the actual actiontook place, with various authori-ties which were located in Paki-stan and linked with maritime se-curity agencies, army and in Thai-

land," Parrikar said.He added that all this was prior

to the interception and CoastGuard was pressed into actiononly after receiving the intelli-

gence."I don't know what was in the

boat. I do not want to speculate.But their (those on board) inten-tions were not right. For severalhours they were in the area,"Parrikar said.

Parrikar dismissed the conten-tion that the four people on boardthe boat, which "exploded" andsank in the Arabian Sea in the in-tervening night of December 31and January one during an IndianCoast Guard operation, weresmugglers.

The Minister underlined thatthe suicidal act of setting the boaton fire by the men on board theboat showed that they were "com-mitted" and indicated suspectedterror link.

Smugglers don't com-mit suicide

He said he would classify theoccupants of the boat as "sus-pected or possible terrorists"since they had committed suicideafter being intercepted.

Talking to reporterson the sidelines of a De-fense Ministry event,Parrikar said, "There arespeculations but I don'tintend to be part ofspeculations exceptsaying one very impor-tant aspect that the lo-cation (where the boatwas found) is not a nor-mal route for fishingboat".

He said that therewere no other boats inthe vicinity and henceit was not a fishing area.

Parrikar added thateven smugglers of gold,drugs and other contra-band normally take abusy route since it iseasy to hide and mingle

with other boats.The Defense Minister said the

boat was in an isolated locationwhen spotted by surveillance air-craft which tracked it for about 12hours.

"It does not indicate any typeof smuggling activity but someother kind of activity. We are notsure what is that other kind," hesaid.

The Minister underlined thatthe suicidal act of setting the boat

on fire showed that they were"committed" and indicated sus-pected terror link.

"...circumstantial evidence in-dicates what I am saying," he said.

The Defense Ministry, in apress release, had said that theoccupants went down from thedeck and set the boat on fire whichled to its sinking.

Ruling out the possibility of theoccupants being smugglers,Parrikar said, "Smugglers don'tkeep in touch with Pakistani mari-time agency, or their army or in-ternational contacts".

He said intercepted satellitecommunication showed they wereinteracting about passing of cargoand talking about families of someof the boat members.

"A normal boat, even carryingsome drugs, can throw away theirdrugs and surrender. No one isgoing to be killing himself unlessyou are motivated enough to dothat".

He said the actions of the boatmen backs what he has said.

"Not speculating that it hadexplosives but it had some activ-ity in mind that does not fit thedescription of smuggling boat.Which smuggler would commitsuicide? That much I can say,"Parrikar said.

The Minister complimentedthe Coast Guard saying they didthe right job at the right time.

"They got surveillance done

on the boat for almost 12-14 hours,intercepted it as soon as possibleand stopped it after a chase," hesaid.

Parrikar underlined that oper-ating procedures for Coast Guardare clear.

"It was dark and it was ladenwith explosives... which appearsto be at least partly correct. Itcould have induced injuries anddamage to coast guard," he said.

Asked about the presence of asecond boat, he said it was in Pa-kistani Exclusive Economic Zone.

Parrikar pointed out that intel-ligence inputs were very cleareven about the exact position ofthe boat.

Meanwhile, asked aboutceasefire violations, he said thereis an attempt to push "unwantedelements" across the border andthe firing is a cover for them.

He said India is trying to en-sure that terrorism does not growor penetrate in its territory.-PTI

Pak dismisses boat issueas 'silly allegation'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has dismissed as a "very silly allega-tion" India's assertions that the boat which exploded off the Gujaratcoast belonged to it.

"I think this is a very silly allegation. We have checked with ourauthorities, no boats from Pakistan left," Pakistan Foreign OfficeSpokesperson Tasnim Aslam said.

"We saw the boat burn, it did not blow up. There have beenvarious contradictory claims," she told an Indian TV channel.-PTI

"The boat was in constant touch, before theactual action took place, with various au-thorities which were located in Pakistan andlinked with maritime security agencies, armyand in Thailand," Parrikar said

Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar

Pakistan announces Rs 760 mlnto nab 615 militants

An aerial view of the fishing boat carrying explosives before being intercepted by Indian

Coast Guard approximately 365 km off Porbander in Gujarat

PESHAWAR: The governmentof Pakistan's restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has an-nounced a combined bounty ofRs 760 million for 615 high-profilemilitants, including a Rs 10 millionbounty for information leading tothe arrest or death of Taliban chiefMullah Fazlullah.

A combined bounty worth Rs760 million for 615 militants andproclaimed offenders includingTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chiefFazlullah has been announced bythe Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa gov-

ernment, provincial InformationMinister Mushtaq Ghani toldPTI.

The combined bounty includesRs 10 million each for informationleading to the arrest or death ofthe Pakistani Taliban chiefFazlullah and Mangal Bagh, thechief of the Lashkar-e-Islam groupthat is active in the province.

Pakistan has stepped up itscampaign to wipe out terroristsfrom the restive northwest tribalareas in the aftermath of Taliban'sPeshawar school carnage in

which 150 people, mostly chil-dren, were killed.

A National Action Plan hasbeen formed to deal with the men-ace of terrorism.

Pakistan has also tabled twomajor bills in the National Assem-bly to amend the country's Con-stitution for creation of specialmilitary courts for speedy trial ofterrorists in the aftermath of thedeadly attack.

The Pakistan Army has inten-sified its offensive in the tribal ar-eas.-PTI


January 9, 2015


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Top StoriesIndian-American found dead

in Mexican mountainsNEW YORK: A 25-year-old In-

dian-American yoga instructor,who went missing in centralMexico during a hike in the rug-ged mountains, has been founddead.

Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, bornand raised in New York, had ar-rived in the colonial town ofTepoztlan for a yoga retreat withhis wife Ad Purkh Kaur and yogastudents on December 26.

His body was discovered inone of the ravines in the area, fourdays after he went hiking in therugged mountains that surroundthe town.

The place where thebody was found wasnot far from whereKhalsa was last seen ina picture of himself thathe sent his wife bycellphone.

A search got under-way after he went miss-ing but it took the res-cuers some time to reachthe spot because of the rough ter-rain. The cause of death has notbeen ascertained yet and an au-topsy will be conducted, officialssaid.

The US Embassy in MexicoCity confirmed the death, sayingit was offering consular support

to Khalsa's family and extendedthe American government's con-dolences, reports said.

The couple have been living inLeesburg, Virginia, but were plan-ning to move back to New York.

Khalsa appears to have fallenwhile hiking and sustained a fatalinjury to the head, the family saida statement.

"This journey has been a tes-tament to the enormous amountof love and goodness he sharedwith us all during his time onearth," USA Today reported, cit-ing the statement.

Tepoztlan, a popular touristdestination near Mexico City, isknown for its mountain peaks andthe towering cliffs.

Memorial serviceHis family is now dealing with

the legal aspect of bringing his re-mains back to Virginia to be cre-mated, according to informationon the website'findharisimran.com' that was setup after the young yoga instruc-tor went missing.

The memorial service would beheld at a Gurdwara in Sterling, Vir-ginia and Khalsa's family plans tocreate a foundation in his honor,"dedicated to his spirit of serviceand inspiration."

Vigils were held last week incities in Virginia, New York, Cali-fornia and New Mexico as well asamong communities in Europe,Latin America and China.

A remembrance from membersof the Occupy Wall Street move-ment was held over the weekendhere.

Khalsa was influential in estab-lishing and leading the 'OccupyYoga NY' movement, whichbrought meditation and yoga intothe heart of the protests againstsocial and economic inequality.

Khalsa was a member of theSikh-American community whooriginally hailed from Brooklynand had been running a Yoga cen-ter in Virginia along with his wife.

He was a long-time practitio-ner of the Kundalini yoga and hadtaught the yoga form and medita-tion to activists during the OccupyWall Street campaign in 2011.

He is survived by his wife andparents.-PTI

Khalsa appears to havefallen while hiking andsustained a fatal injuryto the head, the familysaid a statement

Sunanda Pushkar wasmurdered: Police

NEW DELHI: In a sensationaltwist to the mysterious death ofShashi Tharoor's wife SunandaPushkar, Delhi Police has regis-tered a case of murder after a medi-cal report said her death was un-natural and was caused due topoisoning but nobody has beennamed as a suspect as yet.

Disclosing this, Delhi PoliceCommissioner B S Bassi did notrule out questioning Tharoor, nowa Congress MP and a former UnionMinister.

It was not clear whether shehad consumed the poison on herown or it was administered force-fully or by injection, he said.

Nearly a year after 51-year-oldSunanda was found dead in aluxury hotel here on January 17,Delhi Police filed the case of mur-der under section 302 of the IPCbut no one has been named in theFIR.

"Nobody has been named inthe case," Bassi told reporters inreply to questions.

Sunanda's death had created asensation as it came hot on theheels of a bitter spat between thecouple over the twitter over hisalleged affair with Pakistani jour-nalist Mehr Tarar.

"On 29th December, the medi-cal board of AIIMS has given usa report. The main thing they haveinformed us is that the death isunnatural and not natural. Sec-ondly, it is due to poison thatcould have been taken orallygiven or injected and they havetold us other things as well," Bassisaid.

Bassi said since tests to find

out the quantum and nature of thepoison cannot take place in India,the police have decided to sendsamples abroad for examination.

"So it was necessary that acase be registered. We have reg-istered a case and we will investi-gate," he said in reply to ques-tions.

Asked whether Tharoor wouldbe questioned in the light of thelatest development, Bassi said,"Now as we have registered a caseof murder, all those people whowere connected with the case will

be examined.""All the witnesses in this case

were examined by the SDM, as heconducted inquest proceedings.So, all relevant witnesses wereexamined by him, we had also ex-amined them under Section 174 ofthe Cr.PC.

"Now as we have registered acase of murder, all those peopleconnected with the case will beexamined," he said.

Bassi said the AIIMS report hasnot specified the nature of thepoison and how it was adminis-tered into her body. The sub-stance is still not clear but thedeath is due to poisoning, he said.

Asked why a case was beingregistered one year after the inci-dent, he said the medical reportwhich the police got initially was"interim".

The doctors needed certain in-formation which was gatheredand given to them, he said, not-ing after that they demandedsome more information.

"Now they (doc-tors) have given ussome conclusions onthe basis of availableinformation. So on thebasis of that report itwas necessary to file acase and proceed fur-ther in the probe,"Bassi said.

The report has notgiven definitive con-clusion about how poi-

son was present in the body butit has suggested more possibilityof injection having been adminis-tered, he said.

Tharoor stunnedShashi Tharoor said he was

"stunned" over Delhi Police reg-istering a murder case in connec-tion with death of his wifeSunanda a year ago and sought"full information" from the inves-tigators on basis of which the con-clusion was arrived at.

Calling for a "comprehensiveinvestigation" into the case sothat "unvarnished truth" comesout, he said he will continue toextend full cooperation to the po-lice.

"I am stunned to hear that theDelhi Police have filed a case of

murder against unknown personsin the demise of my late wifeSunanda. Needless to say I amanxious to see this case is inves-tigated thoroughly and continueto assure the police of my full co-operation," Tharoor said in astatement.-PTI

File photo of Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar

Sunanda's death had cre-ated a sensation as it camehot on the heels of a bitterspat between the coupleover the twitter over hisalleged affair with Pakistanijournalist Mehr Tarar

Indian-origin man reappointedtop advisor to Singapore PrezSINGAPORE: Veteran Indian-

origin civil servant J Y Pillay hasbeen reappointed as the top advi-sor to Singapore's President.

80-year-old Pillay was sworn inand reappointed as the Chairmanof the PresidentialCouncil of Advis-ers (CPA) for aperiod of fouryears bySingapore Presi-dent Tony TanKeng Yam.

Pillay, was alsoreappointed as amember of theCPA. Both ap-pointments are fora further period offour years, witheffect from Janu-ary 2, 2015, thePresident's office said in a state-ment.

As Chairman of the CPA, Pillaywill exercise the functions of thePresident's office in the absenceof President. If he is unavailable,the Speaker of Parliament wouldact as the head of state.

The CPA, formed in 1992, ad-vises the President in various ar-

eas, including safeguarding thepast reserves of the Government,and key appointments in the pub-lic service.

Pillay, who has served in anumber of senior civil service po-

sitions, was first appointed to theCPA on January 2, 2001. He hasserved as Chairman of the CPAsince September 2, 2005.

He is one of the pioneers whohelped build the Singaporeeconomy after its separation fromMalaysia in 1965. He has servedas Chairman of Singapore Airlinesfrom 1972 until 1976. -PTI

J Y Pillay


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NJ to host internationalconference on Hindi

WASHINGTON: The Interna-tional Hindi Conference with thetheme of "Expanding World ofHindi: Possibilities and Chal-lenges," would be held in NewJersey in April, organizers havesaid.

To be attended by Hindi schol-ars from various parts of theworld, in particular from the USand India between April 3-5, par-ticipants of the InternationalHindi Conference would discussthe current status of the teachingand learning of Hindiamong other things.

The participants arealso expected to dis-cuss individual and or-ganizational partner-ships and leadershipand field capacitybuilding and infrastruc-ture building skills andtopics, such as materialselection and develop-ment funding, profes-sional development of teachers,and volunteer management, saidAshok Ojha, coordinator of theconference said in a statement.

"We will hold sessions on top-ics such as, 'Hindi in higher edu-cation,' 'Expanding the use ofHindi in businesses and com-merce,' 'Community support forHindi,' 'Current status of theteaching and learning of Hindi'etc," he said.

Ojha said the theme of the

conference reflects the growingurgency for coordinated effortsby the language education (pub-lic and private), government andbusiness communities to expandand develop the quality of theHindi field inside and outside ofIndia.

This conference will providea forum for community membersand leaders, language experts,policy makers, education admin-istrators, advocates and otherstakeholders from different parts

of the US, Canada, SouthAmerica and Caribbean coun-tries, such as, Trinidad and To-bago along with experts fromIndia to get together and sharetheir views and research, exam-ine a wide spectrum of opportu-nities, make plans for the future,identify challenges and find solu-tions for the advancement of theHindi language in North Americaand the Caribbean region, headded. -PTI

"We will hold sessions ontopics such as, 'Hindi inhigher education,' 'Expand-ing the use of Hindi in busi-nesses and commerce,''Community support forHindi,'

Jadeja, Axar make cutfor World Cup

MUMBAI: All-rounderRavindra Jadeja, still recoveringfrom a shoulder injury, and youngleft-arm spinner Axar Patel havebeen included in India's 15-mem-ber squad for the cricket WorldCup to be held in Australia andNew Zealand from next month.

All-rounder Stuart Binny alsomade the cut while there was noplace for Murali Vijay and RobinUthappa in the squad, announcedby BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patelafter a selection committee meet-ing here.

The five-man selection panel,however, ignored Yuvraj Singh, whowas not in the list of the 30-member

probables but had come into reck-oning after his three back-to-backcenturies in the Ranji Trophy.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan, whostruggled in the ongoing Test se-ries against Australia, has alsobeen retained in the squad for thehigh-profile event to be held fromFebruary 14 to March 29.

The squad, to be captained byMahendra Singh Dhoni has nomajor surprises with the selectorsopting to go with four specialistpace bowlers - BhuvneshwarKumar, Mohammad Shami, IshantSharma and Umesh Yadav - con-sidering the pacy wickets in Aus-tralia and New Zealand.

The 20-year-old Axar Patel,who has made a reasonably goodimpression in the few ODIs he has

played, was expectedly picked inthe squad, considering thatJadeja's fitness could be an issue.

The selectors have howevertaken some risk in picking Jadejain the squad but Patel expressedconfidence that the all-rounderwill be fully fit before the biggestcricket tournament.

"Jadeja at present is undergo-ing rehabilitation program. He isdoing wonderfully well. We haddetailed discussion with BCCIphysio (on his inclusion) and weare confident that he will return totraining within 10 days," Patel saidon Jadeja's fitness.

Patel said Yuvraj's name was

deliberated upon but they de-cided against selecting him.

"Not only Yuvraj Singh butother names were also discussedapart from the 30 probables. Therewere deliberations between fiveselectors and captain Dhoni andcoach Duncan Fletcher were onthe conference call," Patel said.

The selectors also announcedthe team for the tri-series to fol-low the Test matches in Australia.Hosts Australia, India and En-gland will compete in the tri-se-ries. Apart from the 15 selected forthe World Cup, Dhawal Kulkarniand Mohit Sharma have been in-cluded.

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawanand Ajinkya Rahane can performthe role of the opener while Kohli,

Suresh Raina, Rayudu and Dhoniwill bat in the middle order.

The squad has three spinnersin R Ashwin, Patel and Jadejathough it is highly unlikely thatmore than two spinners will be inthe playing XI during thematches.

Despite the failures of Dhawan,particularly in the Tests, the se-lectors have reposed faith in theleft-handed opener.

About Ishant's injury, Patelsaid: "Ishant Sharma has a kneeinjury. He's doing well but hasbeen advised by the BCCI Physioto not play the current Test. Hehas a knee related problem some

water retention," Patel said.Team for World Cup:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C),Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma,Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu,Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, AxarPatel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Mohammad Shami, IshantSharma, Stuart Binny and UmeshYadav.Team for ODI Tri-series:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C),Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma,Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu,Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, AxarPatel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Ishant Sharma, Stuart Binny,Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarniand Mohit Sharma. -PTI

The 15 member Indian Squad for the forthcoming Cricket World Cup 2015- (from left to right in top row)- Mahendra

Singh Dhoni (Captain), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma; Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya

Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, R Ashwin and Akshar Patel; Ishant Sharma, Mohd Sami, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav and

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Terror-related websitesdon't have contact details

NEW DELHI: As Indian gov-ernment cracks down on websitespurportedly carrying anti-Indiapropaganda of terror groups suchas ISIS, security agencies havefound that many of these portalsdo not have contact details of theirowners and have servers basedoutside the country.

The concerned agencies arefinding it difficult to proceed withlegal action against thesewebsites in the absence of any co-operation from domain registrarsand other entities in the US andEurope where their servers arebased, official sources said.

These websites have been ac-cused of allowing anti-nationalcontent and propaganda of vari-ous terror groups, including thatof banned ISIS (Islamic State ofIraq and Syria), to be hosted ontheir platforms.

The government recentlyblocked 32 websites following aMumbai court order, citing seri-

ous national security concerns.Out of these, only seven

websites responded to the noticessent by the Indian authorities andassured that they would not al-low their platforms to be used forpropagating terror-linked materi-als.

Unfazed by criticism on micro-blogging sites like Twitter on itsmove to block these 32 websites,including popular video and othercontent sharing platforms such asDailyMotion and Vimeo, the gov-ernment has made it clear thatthere would be no compromise onnational security.

The crackdown followed afterit was found that the content werebeing posted on these websiteswith an intention to create unrest,break communal harmony, whichmay result in law and order prob-lems and lead to breach of peaceand tranquility, officials at theDepartment of Electronics and IT(DeitY) said.-PTI


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Cabinet okays largest ever spectrum auctionNEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet has

approved the largest ever telecom spectrumauction that is targeted to fetch at least Rs64,840 crore from the sale next month.

The government will sell 380.75 mega-hertz of second generation (2G) spectrumin three bands - the premium 900 MHz, 1800MHz and 800 MHz. Spectrum in 2100 MHzmay also be put on auction simultaneouslyafter Defense Ministry vacates it.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, approved a reserve priceof "Rs 3646 crore pan-India per MHz in 800MHz, Rs 3980 crore for 900 MHz band panIndia excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,

and J&K; Rs 2191 crore pan India (exclud-ing Maharashtra and West Bengal) in 1800MHz band," an official statement said here.

Reserve price for 2,100 MHz was notannounced.

Government had garnered about Rs62,162 crore from the last auction in Febru-ary 2014.

Proceeds from this year's auction willhelp government reach its fiscal deficit tar-get of 4.1 per cent of GDP.

As per the tentative timelines drawn bythe Department of Telecommunications(DoT), last date for submission of applica-tion is February 2 and bidders will be pre-

said the government intends to auction thirdgeneration or 3G spectrum in 2,100 MHzsimultaneously.

"What had been pending for last manyyears, that is 5 MHz in 2,100 MHz fromDefense, we have been able to do it," hetold PTI.

The focus of the February auction, hesaid, "is to provide adequate spectrum, pre-vent hoarding, fair competition, improvetelecom services for consumers and ad-equate revenue for government."

The reserve or auction start price ap-proved is the same as the one recom-mended by the Telecom Commission, ex-cept in the case of 900 MHz. The TelecomCommission had proposed a reserve priceof Rs 3,695 crore for each MHz in 900 Mhz.

Against this, Cabinet approved reserveprice of Rs 3980 crore.

"The estimated revenues from this auc-tion are Rs 64,840 crore (excluding 2100 MHzspectrum) of which Rs 16,000 crore is ex-pected to be realized in the current finan-cial year," the statement said.

At the reserve price of last auction, air-waves were valued at about Rs 48,685 crore.

Government had put on the block about385 MHz of radio waves in 1800 MHz band,and 46 MHz in 900 MHz band. During thatauction, all the spectrum in 900 MHz bandgot sold but 78 Mhz in 1800 MHz band re-mained unsold.

Any company holding a universal ser-vice license to provide telephony servicesor eligible to obtain the same, can bid inthis year's auction.

Successful bidders have to pay within10 days 33 per cent of the final sale price incase of 1800 MHz. The same is 25 per centin case of 900 MHz and 800 MHz, the state-ment said.

"There shall be a moratorium of twoyears for payment of balance amount of one

time charges for the spectrum, which shallbe recovered in 10 equal annual install-ments," it said.

In 800 MHz band, 103.75 MHz in all ser-vice areas is being put on auction while177.8 MHz in 900 MHz band is being soldin 17 telecom circles or service areas. 99.2MHz will be auctioned in 15 circles in 1800MHz band, it said.

There are total 22 telecom service areasin the country and the price of spectrum ineach circle is different.

Telecom Commission has recommendedauctioning 184 Mhz in 900 Mhz band across18 service areas and 100.2 Mhz in 1800 Mhzband in 15 service areas. The quantum ofspectrum for auction in 1800 Mhz has beenreduced by Cabinet.-PTI

qualified by February 13. The auction willstart on February 23.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

The reserve or auction startprice approved is thesame as the one recom-mended by the TelecomCommission, except in thecase of 900 MHz


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E-passports to berolled by 2016

KOCHI: The new age e-pass-ports are expected to be rolled outin the country by 2016, a top offi-cial said here.

"We are going ahead and arein the process of tendering. By2015-16 we should be able toachieve e-passport," Muktesh KPardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP)and Chief Passport Officer, Min-istry of External Affairs, told re-porters here.

The ExternalAffairs Minis-try has plansin place andnecessaryorders inthis re-g a r d

h a v ebeen issued, he said.

Also known as Bio-metric or digital passports,these new passports willhave a microprocessor chipembedded in it.

India, which attained the dis-tinction of being the third largestpassport issuing country afterChina and US last year by pro-cessing one crore applications, isaiming at 20 per cent growth thisyear, he said.

Kerala, where 10 lakh applica-tions were received and pro-cessed, topped among the states,while Malappuram registeredmaximum applications among dis-tricts in the country, he said.

During January to December2014, 1.01 crore applications forpassport and related services

were processed by the ExternalAffairs Ministry. While 87.03 ap-plications for passport and relatedservices had been received, 84.69lakh passports and related docu-ments had been issued throughthe Passport Seva System,Pardeshi said.

During 2014, there was a 15 to20 per cent growth in the issuanceof passports compared to 2013, hesaid.

The government is expected toearn a revenue of about Rs 2000crore by March this year by issu-ance of passports as compared to2013-14 fiscal when the revenuewas Rs 1,800 crore, he said.

A total of 3,224 official pass-ports and 283 diplomatic pass-ports were issued last yearthrough the PSS, he said.

Besides, about 14.95 lakh ap-plications were received at the 183Missions and Posts abroad andapproximately 14.55 lakh Passportand related serves were renderedat these Missions and Posts, headded. -PTI

UPA started IT scrutinyagainst Robert Vadra

NEW DELHI: Giving a newtwist to the Robert Vadra case,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hassaid the process for issuing In-come Tax notices to him startedbefore he took charge of the Min-istry, in a clear hint that it was doneduring the UPA's tenure.

"The correct facts are whatevernotices have been issued, the pro-cess was started before I tookover this Ministry," he said.

"This whole process hadstarted much before I became Fi-nance Minister and to the best ofmy knowledge it is a computer-ized selection of which case hasto be assessed and it is not therandom draw. There is a criterionfor of a case, you can choose forthat," Jaitley told NDTV.

The Income Tax departmenthas a system where individuals,that is assessing officers, do not

take decision (of issuing notices),he said.

"If a particular return falls

within the categories, which aremarked categories, the computer-ized system itself chooses the case

for scrutiny and therefore a par-ticular return did had somethingwhich merited the scrutiny, the

c o m p u t e rwould haved e c i d e d , "Jaitley said.

He said itis for the as-sessing of-ficers to askfor explana-tion and ifvalid expla-nation isgiven that isthe end ofthe matter."And if validexplanationis not given

then they go and make an assess-ment order," the Finance Ministersaid.-PTI

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Ex-CM Beant's killer arrestedin Thailand

BANGKOK: Thai police havearrested a fugitive Sikh terroristwho was involved in the assassi-nation of former Punjab ChiefMinister Beant Singh and severalothers in 1995.

Thai National police spokes-man Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsirisaid 37-year-old Gurmeet Singh

entered Thailand in October andwas arrested in the eastern prov-ince of Chon Buri.

A team of Chon Buri provincialpolice and soldiers raided a houseon Soi Mabyailia in tambon NongPhreu in Bang Lamung districtand arrested Singh, one of six Sikh

militants convicted for the 1995blast which also killed severalothers.

Officers also arrested Pakistaninational Ali Alat, 48, the owner ofthe house. Alat said that he wasnot aware about Singh's criminalbackground.

The two men were taken to

Nong Phreu police station for in-terrogation.

"We had been following himfor a while, but at one point heslipped off the radar," Prawut said.

Sources here told PTI thatSingh could have been travelingon a fake passport as the police

Police officers escort Gurmeet Singh from India, as they arrive at the

criminal court in Bangkok

said the "Pakistani" terrorist facesextradition to India.

Singh escaped from a high-se-curity prison in 2004.

The swift action followed a re-cent request by Minister of Statefor Home Kiren Rijiju to Thai au-thorities to help capture the ter-rorist. Rijiju made the requestwhen he visited Bangkok late lastyear for a UN meet.

Last week the national policechief had announced that a spe-cial unit would be set up to targettransnational criminal gangs op-erating in Thailand or using thecountry as a shelter.

Some foreign criminals andgangs consider Thailand to be ahaven, including paedophiles, fi-nancial con men, electronic cardskimmers, robbers, drug traffick-ers and terrorists.

Pol Maj Gen Nitipong Niamnoi,head of Chon Buri police, said In-dian authorities had sought co-operation from Thailand, to helpapprehend the suspect.

The Indian government hadbeen in touch with Thai authori-ties to nab Jagtar "Tara" Singh,who had been hiding in Thailandfor months and probably underanother identity.

Beant Singh, who came topower as chief minister in 1992and began crushing the Sikh mili-tancy, was killed in the blast in 1995claimed by the Khalistani Sikh ter-rorists. -PTI


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US encourages India,Pak dialogue

WASHINGTON: Amidst sim-mering tension between India andPakistan after shelling across theborder, the United States has saidit encourages dialogue betweenthe two South Asian neighbors.

"We certainly support dia-logue between the countries.

There have been some stepsover the past year, that you know,where there have been more posi-tive exchanges. Obviously, there'smore work that needs to be done,"

US State Department Spokesper-son Jen Psaki said.

Psaki was responding to ques-tions on flare up in tension be-tween the two countries aftercross border shelling.

"Our thoughts would go outto the families of any lives whohave been lost. We certainly re-main concerned and watch overtensions along the border, and weencourage dialogue between thecountries," she said. -PTI

Is Cong fighting polls inIndia or Pak, asks ShahBHUBANESWAR: Hitting out

at Congress for raising doubtsover the Pakistani boat incident,BJP President Amit Shah hasasked the opposition partywhether it was fighting electionsin India or Pakistan.

On his maiden visit to Odisha,Shah said it should be the 'duty'of the Congress to boost the mo-rale of the defense personnel in-stead of finding faults with NDAgovernment's determined effortsto curb terror.

"I will like to ask the Congressfrom where (do) they fight elec-tions? In India or Pakistan?"Shah asked while addressingBJP's 'Mahasangram' rally here.

Congress has raised doubtsover government's version of Pa-kistani boat incident nearPorbandar and asked it to "comeclean" and explain "which terror-ist organization" was behind theepisode that unfolded on thehigh seas.

The Congress stand triggereda war of words with the BJPwhich accused the oppositionparty of touching a "new low"and doing politics over terror.

Shah lauded the Coast Guardand the defense intelligencewing for saving the country re-cently from another terrorist at-tack through water route.

Shah said the Narendra Modigovernment at the Centre wasdetermined to foil any attack andand give a befitting reply to

cross border firings."They (Pakistan) fire bullets

from across the border, but thenature of India's response un-der NDA government haschanged. We are giving a befit-ting reply.

Now there is a difference asthe BJP-led NDA government

has taken it seriously. Earlier,they (Pakistan) used to open firefirst and they ended it too. Butnow, we end the firing," the BJPchief said.

Expressing confidence thatthe Narendra Modi governmentwould provide good governancein the country for many years,he asked AICC vice-president

Rahul Gandhi to submit scorecard of 60 years of Congress rulein the country instead of seek-ing to know its performance inthe last 6 months.

"Rahul Baba is asking us fora report card on what we havedone in last six months. I askyou, first give a report card on

what your family has done in 60years when it ruled the country."

Faulty UPA policies hadpushed the nation into a situa-tion of inflation, high prices andlow growth, Shah claimed, add-ing that the turn around hadstarted with the coming topower of the politically stableModi government.-PTI

Amit Shah

Scientists deliberate space tech atIndian Science Congress

MUMBAI: Top space scien-tists of various research organi-zations, including those from theIndian Space Research Organiza-tion (ISRO) gathered at the ongo-ing 102nd Indian Science Con-

gress held here to deliberate onspace science and technology.

At a symposium on space andspace technology, Mars OrbiterMission (MOM) Project DirectorS Arunan, shared the success

story of 'Mangalyaan', with theparticipants.

He said that the Mars Orbiteris the first Indian spacecraft tosuccessfully survive the Van Allenradiation belts.

Indian Regional NavigationSatellite System's Project DirectorM Nageswara Rao said that manyaircrafts do not take off due to fogand the ISRO is building a systemto solve this problem. Rao spoke

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System'sProject Director M Nageswara Rao said thatmany aircrafts do not take off due to fog and theISRO is building a system to solve this problem.Rao spoke about Global Positioning SystemsAnd Geo Aided Navigation System (GAGAN)

about Global Positioning SystemsAnd Geo Aided Navigation Sys-tem (GAGAN).

"ISRO's experience in buildingboth remote sensing and commu-nication satellites was used tobuild GAGAN," he said.

GSLV MK-III Project DirectorS Somnath said that the launchvehicle development is funda-mental to space exploration.

"We will be using this Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle(GSLV) for our ambitious mission'Chandrayan-II', he said, addingthat GSLV-D6 would be launchedsoon.

P G Diwakar representing theNational Remote Sensing Centreof India, said that ISRO has col-lected around 1,275 terabytes ofdata since 1979 by mapping natu-ral resources using satellites. -PTI

ISRO gears up tolaunch its own GPS

CHENNAI: After completingan eventful year, ISRO is gearingup for some satellite launches thisyear, with the IRNSS 1D being thefirst, which would put in placeIndia's own navigation system onpar with the Global PositioningSystem of the US.

"The launch campaign forIRNSS 1D has come, which startson January 16. Within two months,all components from other ISROlabs have to reach Sriharikota. Thelaunch is likely after March 15," asenior ISRO official told PTI.

IRNSS 1D is the fourth in theseries of seven satel-lites, the national spaceagency is planning tolaunch to put in placethe Indian RegionalNavigation SatelliteSystem (IRNSS).

While four satelliteswould be sufficient tostart operations of thesystem, the remainingthree satellites wouldmake it more accurateand efficient.

The other launches also relateto the IRNSS series with theIRNSS1E and IRNSS1-F satellitesto be launched before the yearend, he said.

The first three satellites in theIRNSS series were launched fromSriharikota on July 1, 2013, April 4and October 16 last year respec-tively.

The fully deployed IRNSSwould consist of three and foursatellites in GEO stationary andin inclined geosynchronous or-bits respectively, about 36,000 kmabove the Earth.

The system would provide twotypes of services - Standard Posi-tioning Service, which is providedto all the users and Restricted Ser-vice, which is an encrypted ser-vice provided only to the autho-rized users.

The IRNSS system was tar-geted to be completed by this yearat a total cost of Rs 1420 crore.

IRNSS is designed to provideaccurate position information ser-vice to users in the country as wellas the region extending up to1,500 km from its boundary, whichis its primary service area.

A select group of countrieshave their own navigation sys-tems - Russia's Global OrbitingNavigation Satellite System(GLONASS), United States' Glo-bal Positioning System (GPS),European Union's Galileo (GNSS),China's BeiDou satellite naviga-tion system and the Quasi-ZenithSatellite System.

ISRO not only launched a GLSVrocket, a GSLV Mk III, besides twoPSLVs during 2014 but also suc-cessfully inserted its Mars orbiterinto the Martian atmosphere andtested the re-entry of unmannedcrew module from space. -PTI

IRNSS is designed to provideaccurate position informa-tion service to users in thecountry as well as the regionextending up to 1,500 kmfrom its boundary, which isits primary service area

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32-year-old chargedwith murder of PIO

26/11 case: Pak courtsummons Lakhvi

LONDON: A 32-year-old manhas been charged with the mur-der of Indian-origin Baljit Singh,who was found dead in the base-ment of a West Midlands housein the UK.

Singh's body was discoveredat an address in Beeches Road,Rowley Regis on New Year's Dayafter he went missing in the runup to Christmas.

50-year-old Singh from Bir-mingham was missing after leav-ing his home on December 23 to

collect a birthday cake for his son.A post-mortem examination re-

vealed he died as a result of headinjuries and a knife wound to theneck. West Midlands police saidStuart Millership, of no fixed ad-dress, was arrested on New Year'seve in Kingswinford, west Mid-lands and has been charged withthe murder.

A 27-year-old woman arrestedon suspicion of murder has beenreleased on police bail pendingfurther inquiries.-PTI

ISLAMABAD: LeT operationscommander Zaki-ur- RehmanLakhvi, the 2008 Mumbai terrorattack mastermind, has been sum-moned by a Pakistani court to ap-pear before it in the next hearingon the government's appealagainst his bail in the 26/11 case.

A two-member bench of theIslamabad High Court headed byJustice Shaukat Siddiqui admittedthe government's pleaagainst the Anti-Terror-ism Court's decision togrant bail to Lakhvi.

"The court sum-moned Lakhvi for argu-ments in the case onnext hearing and issueda notice to him in thisregard," ProsecutionChief Chaudhry Azhartold PTI after the hear-ing.

Azhar, a special pros-ecutor of Federal InvestigationAgency, said the court officewould fix the next date of hearing.

The prosecution informed thecourt in its petition that an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) ignoredtestimony in the 26/11 case whilegranting bail to Lakhvi.

On December 18, 2014, the ATCgranted bail to Lakhvi, who wasinvolved in planning, financingand executing the Mumbai terrorattacks in November 2008.

Next day, he was again de-tained under the Maintenance ofPublic Order (MPO).

However, Islamabad HighCourt judge Noorul Haq Qureshisuspended Lakhvi's detentionunder MPO, evoking a strong re-action from India.

Just before he was to be re-leased, Lakhvi was arrested oncharges of kidnapping Afghan

national Muhammad AnwarKhan.

The police kept him at theShalimar Police station here for atwo-day physical remand beforea magistrate sent him back toAdiala Jail for a 14-day judicialcustody.

Lakhvi has been detained atAdiala Prison for the last five yearsor so.

He will be produced before themagistrate on January 15.-PTI

The prosecution informedthe court in its petition thatan Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)ignored testimony in the 26/11 case while grantingbail to Lakhvi

Google's Page named business person of the yearNEW YORK: Google's Larry

Page has emerged as the 'busi-ness person of the year' for 2014,edging past the likes of Alibabaco-founder Jack Ma and FacebookCEO Mark Zuckerberg, accordingto Fortune magazine.

Page, who is Chief Executive

Officer (CEO) and co-founder ofGoogle, came on top in the 20 glo-bal corporate leaders' list com-piled on the basis of various fac-tors including company's perfor-mance, leadership style and totalshareholder returns, the magazinesaid while bringing out its list.

Apart from Jack Ma andZuckerberg, others in the race in-cluded Apple's Tim Cook and fastfood chain Chipotle co-CEOs -Montgomery Moran and SteveElls - and Fedex chairman & CEOFred Smith.

Besides, five women havemade the cut to the top 20 list.

Interestingly, Amazon's JeffBezos, who led Fortune list in 2012,failed to make in to the top 20 list.

As Google's core businesscontinues to thrive, Page, whotopped the list, is making "hugebets on new technology - ingest-ible nanoparticles, balloons thatbeam down broadband - thatcould define the future," themagazine noted.

Page and his company havepacked a lot of evolution into justover 15 years of existence, itadded.

The women contenders were

Ultra Beauty CEO Mary Dillon,ITT CEO and President Denise

Ramos, TJX Cos CEO CarolMeyrotwiz, Theranos Founderand CEO Elizabeth Holmes and

Larry Page

Williams-Sonoma President andCEO Laura Alber.

The list isbased on vari-ous parameterslike financial re-sults of the com-pany including12-month andthree yeargrowth in profitsand revenues,c o m p a n y ' sstock perfor-mance and totalshareholder re-turns over thesame periods.

Besides, sev-eral non-finan-cial elements likebusiness influ-

ence, leadership style, strategicinitiatives played a part in evalua-tion. -PTI


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Top Stories

BIHARI TEAM: Shatrughan Sinha and family calling on Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on January 6

Global devices shipment totouch 2.5 bn units

Smartphone swipe tolock your luggage

NEW DELHI: Global shipmentsof devices, including PCs, tabletsand mobile phones, are expectedto grow 3.9 per cent to 2.5 billionunits this year, research firmGartner has said.

The number of devicesshipped globally is expected togrow from 2.37 billion in 2014 toabout 2.5 billion this year and fur-ther to 2.57 billion in 2016, Gartnersaid in a statement.

According to its estimates,worldwide tablet sales will reach233 million units in 2015, an 8 percent increase from 2014 as demandfor tablets continues to be slowthis year.

After a troubled year in 2014,

global tablet market is not return-ing to the levels of growth seen inthe last four years, Gartner said ina statement.

"The collapse of the tablet mar-ket in 2014 was alarming.

In the last two years, globalsales of tablets were growing indouble-digits," Gartner ResearchDirector Ranjit Atwal said.

He added that the steep dropwas on account of lifetime of tab-

lets being extended andlack of innovation inhardware, which re-strains consumers

from upgrad-

ing.The mobile phone segment is

expected to grow 3.7 per cent in2015 to reach 1.9 billion this yearfrom 1.83 billion last year.

"The smartphone market is be-coming polarized between the

high- and low-end market pricepoints. On one hand, the premiumphone with an average sellingprice at USD 447 in 2014 sawgrowth dominated by iOS, and onthe other end of the spectrum youhave Android and other open OSphones' growth area in the basicphone segment, where the aver-age phone costs USD 100,"Gartner Research DirectorAnnette Zimmermann said.

For the mid-rangesmartphones, the market oppor-tunity is becoming increasinglylimited, Zimmermann added.

In the operating system (OS)market, Android surpassed a bil-

lion shipments ofdevices in 2014and will continueto grow at adouble-digit pacein 2015, with a 26per cent increaseyear over year.

"From 2015,we expect Win-dows to growfaster than iOS,as the PC marketstabilizes and thechallenge for the

next iPhone to find significantgrowth becomes greater, narrow-ing the gap between the two op-erating systems," Atwal said.

The PC market (desktops andnotebooks) is estimated to growabout one per cent in 2015. -PTI

WASHINGTON: A 'smart' lug-gage lock that allows users toopen or lock a suitcase with just aswipe of their smartphone hasbeen developed.

The lock called EGeeTouch canbe accessed with just a tap of aNear field communication (NFC)-enabled smartphone, tablet or

smartwatch.EGeeTouch is waterproof and

can handle both extreme hot andcold weather and is approved bythe US Transport Security Admin-

istration, Mashable reported.It can be accessed using a

pre-paired NFC smart tag orsticker (to put in a wallet) if theuser does not have an NFC-en-abled device.

Developed by US startupDigipas, the lock runs on batterypower, but can be recharged with

an external USB portable powersource when that runs out.

However, the availability andpricing for the EGeeTouch havenot yet been announced. -PTI

Business leaders unequippedfor challenges: Survey

NEW DELHI: Many businessleaders in the country are not fully-equipped to deal with challengesof volatility and complexity posedby the current business land-scape, says a survey.

As per global HR consultancyDDI's survey, which covered morethan 1,000 executives, includingfrom HR domain, most corporateleaders are not prepared to dealwith volatility, uncertainty, com-plexity and ambiguity (VUCA).

Less than two-thirdsof leaders said theywere either "highly con-fident" or "very confi-dent" in their ability tomeet the four VUCAchallenges, it said.

"In the volatile, un-certain, complex andambiguous (VUCA)business landscape ex-pected to continue for2015, leaders face manychallenges, requiringaggressive, sustained talent man-agement strategies to preparethem for success," DDI said.

As per the HR professionalssurveyed by DDI, about a thirdviewed their company leaders asnot possessing the capability ofmeeting challenges in the VUCAworld.

Of these 38 per cent felt the

corporate leaders were ill-equipped to deal with volatility,followed by 31 per cent who be-lieved that their leaders were in-capable of meeting ambiguity inthe business environment.

About 30 per cent felt that thecompany's leaders were not ca-pable of meeting complexities, and24 per cent did not feel they coulddeal with uncertainty.

"At best, only about 18 per-cent identified their leaders as

very capable," the survey said.Moreover, about 39 per cent

HR leaders felt that leaders in theirorganization are moderately readyor not ready to handle human capi-tal related challenges.

Globally, 25 per cent of the or-ganizations reported that theirleaders were not capable acrossany of the VUCA challenges. -PTI

Less than two-thirds of lead-ers said they were either"highly confident" or "veryconfident" in their ability tomeet the four VUCAchallenges, it said


January 9, 2015

www.indiapost.com January 9, 2015

COMMUNITYACROSS AMERICA

16 India Post

Desi News

Details on page 23

Duty andattachment -What is moreimportant?

Details on page 20

Details on page 23

Details on page 18

Kathak icon Pt Chitresh Daspasses away at 70

India Post News Service

SAN FRANCISCO: ChitreshDas, dancer, choreographer, com-poser and educator of the NorthIndian classical Indian dance formKathak died of an aortic dissec-tion on Sunday January 4 in MarinCounty. He was 70.

Das who was known for a newstyle of dance called, Kathakyoga, had followers from allaround the world. Das' parentswere founders of Nritya Bharati,the first of its kind dance school,where different dance forms weretaught.

In 1970, Das went to UnitedStates on a fellowship to teachKathak at the University of Mary-land. Later in his career, the dancerwas also a guest faculty atStanford University and was in-strumental in forming the first ac-credited Kathak course at SanFrancisco State University.

Das learnt Kathak from PanditRam Narayan Misra, a renownedKathak instructor who taughttawaifs at Kolkata Bowbazar.

Talking about Kathak yoga,Das had once told New York Timesthat "This is a recent thing in

Kathak history... because our formis classical doesn't mean it doesn'tevolve."

Das won several awards andfellowships for his dance. The per-former won the Isadora DuncanDancer of the Year Award twice.He also received grants fromOlympic Arts Festival, NationalEndowment for the Arts, Califor-nia Arts Council and RockefellerFoundation among others.

Das was the most familiar fig-ure on the busy Bay Area Indiandance scene and frequently per-formed locally, as recently as Sep-tember.

In 1979, he started theChhandam School of Kathak toinstruct a younger generation inthe art of Kathak, a semi-narrativeform of movement.

In 2002, he founded theChhandam Nritya Bharati in hisnative India. Today, there are 10branches of his school worldwide.

Das' parents, who were bothdancers, established one of India'sfirst Kathak institutions, and heoften referred to his mother as his"first guru."

Cont’d on page 19

New Year ushered in with Ramayan PathGEETHA PATIL

CHICAGO: The Hindu Mandirof Lake County ushered in NewYear with great pomp and relgiousfervor in the presence of scoresof devotees and temple members.

The Akhand Ramayana Pathwas the prime attractiion and itstarted with stuti to Lord Ganeshand Ram Parivar accompanied byVyasa Pujan by Pt. Anil Joshi.President Harsh Kumar, MadhupDhaon, and Avinash Khodkealong with more than a hundreddevotees participated in the Pujan.Dedicated devotees carried out 24hours continuous Ramayana Path.

At midnight, the temple devo-tees performed Aarti and chantedin chorus "Jai Shree Ram and JaiHanuman" to obtain the blessings

of the Lord for good things to hap-pen throughout the New Year. Inthe morning, Sanjay Sharma and

Mitilesh Sharma added lovelygrace to the function by their me-lodious chanting of Ramayana

and devotees by singing Bhajanswith utmost religious devotion.

Grays Lake Hindu Temple discourse by Pundit Anil Joshi

Cont’d on page 19

Janyaa empowerskids with handson learningIndia Post News Service

SANTA CLARA, CA, Everyconcept in math and science canbe taught in a simple and practicalway. Janyaa was born out of thispowerful idea with a noble goal ofchanging the lives of underprivi-leged children in India by simplychanging the way they learn.

Started in 2009 by Venu Nadella,Janyaa has been on a mission ofempowering children with handson learning. Janyaa is a 501c (3)tax exempt non profit organization.With its unique lab in the box pro-gram, Janyaa teaches young chil-dren across India the concepts ofscience and math in an effectiveway so that children can under-stand them by relating them to theirdaily life.

Roaring New Yearevent with AnjanaSukhaniAsian Media USA

CHICAGO: The New Year Eveevent at Ashyana Banquets pre-sented by the Indian Event Man-agement (IEM) team was onceagain a roaring success.

The banquet hall was chargedup with the amazing intensity offolks wanting to see the beautifulBollywood actress, AnjanaSukhani of Salam-e-Ishq famealong with other attractions suchas the Samba dance performance.

The IEM team of five members,Brij Sharma (President), PratibhaJairath (Vice President), SharanWalia (Director), Raju Bankapur(Director), Anoop Walia (publicrelations) were present thankingand greeting all present for theirsupport.

Over 500 ring inNew Year atWaterford Hall Asian Media USA

ELMHURST, IL: Ushering theNew Year Chicago Style was thehighlight of the spectacular NewYear bash organized by OceanBreeze Entertainment at WaterfordBanquet hall located at Elmhurston Dec 31. Despite the bitter coldweather 500 people of party revel-ers joined this beautiful celebra-tion with family and friends towelcome 2015. There was openbar from the beginning to end ofthe party serving premium liquorsand cocktails.

India Post 17January 9, 2015 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Beer with Gandhi imagewithdrawn after protest


NEW YORK: Dragging the name ofMahatma Gandhi for marketing of all thethings, beer, has stupefied and shocked In-dian Americans across the country and ahuge protest led the Woodbridge basedNew England Brewing Co. to apologize andsuspend marketing the so called vegetar-

ian beer with Mahatma image on the can.The beer named "Gandhi-Bot" de-

scribed as an ideal aid for self-purificationand the seeking of truth and love. The com-pany management retraction also follows alegal redress sought in an Indian court inHyderabad by an Indian attorney who as-serted that Gandhi's image on alcohol canswas condemnable and would be punish-able under In-dian laws. Thepetition statesthat the beercan amounts tooffenses underthe Indian Pre-vention of In-sults to the Na-tional HonorAct of 1971.

The brewing company has apologizedfor the label saying their "intent was not tooffend anyone but rather pay homage andcelebrate a man who we respect greatly."The company said they apologize to anyIndian people who find the label offensive.

"So many Indian people here in Americalove our tribute to him. Gandhi's grand-daughter and grandson have seen the la-bel and have expressed their admiration of

the label. We hope that you understand ourtrue intent and learn to respect our methodand the freedom we have to show our rever-ence for Gandhi," the apology read.

The brewing company further stated,"We also ask our supporters and fans torefrain from arguing on our page with thosewho may be upset by our label. We want todo our best to be culturally sensitive and

respectful."Indo-American activist

Rajan Zed said in a state-ment, "peace icon Ma-hatma Gandhi abhorreddrinking. Selling beernamed after him washighly damaging to hislegacy and hurt the feel-ings of Indo-Americansand Indians."

Zed, who is Chairper-son of Indo-AmericanLeadership Confedera-tion, pointed out the mar-keting of beer for mercan-tile greed was trivializationof Gandhian principlesand belittling of the Indo-American community andIndians.

Mahatma Gandhi wasone of the few men in his-tory to fight simulta-neously on moral, reli-gious, political, social,economic, and culturalfronts, and he continuesto be widely respected asone of the greatest moraland political leaders of thetwentieth century, RajanZed noted.

New England BrewingCompany, whose tagline is "Drink it. It'sgood.", is a craft brewery launched in 2003which claims to be listed as one of the top20 breweries in the country, only secondcraft brewery on the entire East Coast tohave its beer for sale in cans, and "bringpassion for flavor". Rob Leonard is founder/owner while Matt Westfall is the head brewerwho created Gandhi-Bot beer. Its brews are

claimed to be "loaded into over 300 bars andrestaurants".

The company website states: "Gandhi-Bot is an intensely hopped double India paleale with a blend of three varieties of Ameri-can Hops. Aromatic and fully vegetarian.Gandhi-Bot is an ideal aid for self-purifica-tion and the seeking of truth and love." Thebeer can shows Gandhi's sketch with onehand raised as in blessing.

The brewing company has apologized forthe label saying their "intent was not to offendanyone but rather pay homage and cel-ebrate a man who we respect greatly." Thecompany said they apologize to any Indianpeople who find the label offensive.

Beer can with image of Mahatma Gandhi

New Year bash raisesfunds for cyclone victims

SURENDRA ULLAL

CHICAGO: With Charitable mission asits central focus to help the victims ravagedby Hudhud cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, abreathtaking New Year 2015 Bash was held

with an eclectic display of music, singingand dance performances augmented by alavish spread of food as overflowing guestsgathered in the Grand Ballroom of theSheraton Hotel in Lisle on December 31.

The joyful mood was so widespread and

engulfing that the event lasted till the weehours of the New Year day.

This grand New Year gala added a glamourquotient with the presence of the Bollywood/

Tollywood star power led by glamorous ac-tresses Madhu Shalini, Richa Panai celebrityAnchor Pradeep Machiraju joined by popularplayback singers Ranina Reddy and PrudhviChandra enhanced by a string of excitingBollywood dances.

New Year Bash's guests [L to R] IADO President Dr. Ashish Sen, FIA President Keerthi K. Ravoori,Tollywood actress Richa Panai, Principal host Dr Ram Gajjela, Tollywood actress Madhu Shalini

and Air-India Midwest Chief Nakul Singh Chand

Cont’d on page 20

January 9, 2015India Post18 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Roaring New Year event with Anjana Sukhani

Anjana Sukhani with dancers Raju Bankarpur and P Jairath, singers

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: The New Year Eveevent at Ashyana Banquets pre-sented by the Indian Event Man-agement (IEM) team was onceagain a roaring success.

The banquet hall was chargedup with the amazing intensity offolks wanting to see the beautifulBollywood actress, AnjanaSukhani of Salam-e-Ishq famealong with other attractions suchas the Samba dance performance.

The IEM team of five members,Brij Sharma (President), PratibhaJairath (Vice President), SharanWalia (Director), Raju Bankapur(Director), Anoop Walia (publicrelations) were present thankingand greeting all present for theirsupport.

The hall echoed with excite-ment and applauded when Anjana

Sukhani greeted the audience asshe walked up to the stage for acharismatic retro medley with pro-fessional dancers from SoniaDance Rhythm Academy and theChicago ADAA dancers.

The event was Grand spon-sored by Anil Loomba of HomeMortgage Solutions, Inc. Theprizes of Raffle draw were also byHome Mortgage Solutions, Inc.The winners were announced byMs Sukhani.

Raju Bankapur and PratibhaJairath, the Chicago artists pre-sented their music performancewith fast number medley thatcaptivated and rocked the audi-ence with their popular numbers.There was quite a bit of variety inthe program. Natasha Trikha, theChicago Indian Icon (CII) winnerin her category, presented a beau-tiful medley with Chicago ADAAdancers performing in the back-ground.

Another surge of excitementwas noticed when Anoop Waliaannounced the Samba dance per-formance. All heads turned to seeSamba dancers walking into thehall with beautiful head-gear andtheir own musicians. The audi-ence enjoyed their performance.

Party favors were distributedand the Balloon drop showeredthe dancers with bright neon col-ored balloons. The room wasfilled with enthusiastic peoplewishing each other Happy NewYear.

The ambience and dinner ar-rangements at Ashyana were ex-emplary. It was a hundred itemcruise style dinner that wasserved from 9 pm until 2 am. Thebars were open and the peoplesang, danced, and dined allthrough the evening into the latehours with non-stop music by DJSkyy.

The Host IEM Team with artists

A section of the attendees


Das grew up in his parents' dance schoolin Calcutta, India, studying Kathak tradi-tions as a 9-year old, and gaining fame at 11as a prodigy.

Called by the honorific names pandit orguruji, Das toured India, North America andEurope, acclaimed for his virtuosic footworkand compelling storytelling. His innova-tions included Kathak Yoga, a confluenceof dance and meditation. He also was a cen-tral figure in the San Francisco Ethnic DanceFestival.

"His contribution to Kathak, to dance,to art, to India, to community, to humanity,

Kathak icon Pt ChitreshDas passes away at 70

and to life stretches across the globe," saida statement released by his school andtroupe, which promised to continue hislegacy.

The statement said, ""Pt. Das did notsuffer and was surrounded by family andloved ones. In his words, "Life and deathare the only reality. You come alone, you goalone. Only thing to do in between is prac-tice and do whatever you do with love." Hecertainly did that and then some."

Pt. Das is survived by his wife, Celine,his two daughters, Shivaranjani andSaadhvi, his disciples, students and count-less people he had touched. A memorialservice will be held on January 25.

Cont’d from page 16

On January 1, 2015, the AkhandRamayana Path Purti, and offering ofNaivedyam were performed by Pt. Anil Joshi

around 11 am. The Hanuman Chalisa sungby everyone filled the shrine with spiritualether.

Pt. Joshi delivered a discourse on rel-evance of Ramayana in our daily life. Heemphasized on the love and sacrifices madebetween Lord Ram, Lakshman, and Bharat.He narrated the importance of Paduka whichwere handed over to Bharat by Lord Ramand their role in protecting Ayodhya for 14years. Lord Ram gave his divine power inthe form of Paduka which represents the'Nirakar Roopa' of the Lord. Bharat did Pujanand prayed to Paduka every day.

Grays Lake temple ushers in New Year with Ramayan PathPt. Joshi greeted and blessed everyone

including sponsors and volunteers for con-tributing their time and pecuniary help tothe upliftment of the temple. He motivateddevotees to follow Dharma and Satya Marg

all the time in life. After MahaMangalarati, lip-smacking MahaPrasadam was served to devotees.More than 500 devotees and theirfamilies enjoyed the New Year pro-gram at Hindu Mandir of LakeCounty.

Early morning on that day,devotees also sought darshan ofLord Venkanteshwra as the NewYear coincided with VaikuntaEkadasi Pujan which was per-formed by Pt. Ganesh. The mainsignificance of this VaikuntaEkadasi is that Ketu takes posi-tion in the 12th, the sign of theMoon when liberation is possible,and Saturn takes position in the


Maha Mangal Aarti

8th sign of Scorpio, when a spiritual trans-formation is expected. Therefore worship-ing of Lord Vishnu, who is facing the Southon Vaikunta Ekadasi, blesses his devoteeswith Moksha and protects them from theinfluence of Yamaraj.

In the evening a very elaborateAbhishekam of Lord Venkanteshwar wasperformed followed by Poolangi Seva. LordVenkateswara's idol was decorated withbeautiful flowers and more than 150 devo-

tees witnessed his divine grace and feltblessed to have his magnificent darshan.Maha Prasad was served to all the devo-tees after Maha Mangalarati.

President Harsh Kumar profuselythanked all the devotees for their enthusi-astic participation in the events. He alsoproposed his special thanks to templepriests, all the sponsors, volunteers and forhelping the temple with their contributionand dedication.

Vaikunth Ekadeshi Pujan

Balaji Poolangi Puja


This large bash was hostedunder the aegis of CDM & HRGroup, Nature Resource directedby Chandini Davuluri of EventsUnlimited.

Dr Ram Gajjela, a communityactivist and a prominent health-care industry figure, was the prin-cipal host. Outlining the primaryobjective, in his opening remarkshe said that the New Year eventwas hosted with the purpose ofraising funds for the victims ofHudhud Cyclone that ravaged thecoastal region of Vishakhapatnamin Andhra Pradesh state in Octo-ber 2014.

Substantiating his remarks withaudio/visual presentation, Dr.Gajjela made an impassioned pleawith the spotlight on the loss oflife and damage caused by thishigh-intensity cyclone in AndhraPradesh.

He also took the opportunityto throw spotlight on the othertragic incidents and urged the fami-lies to pause for a moment in si-lent prayer to pay homage for thevictims of various tragediesaround the globe with a pro-nounced focus on the victims ofHudhud cyclone. Dr. Gajjela an-

New Year bash raisesfunds for cyclone victims

nounced that a sum of $ 10,000would be donated in the first placeand intensive efforts are under-way to mobilize more funds tosupport the victims.

Some of the notable communityfigures who supported and/or par-ticipated in this gala event includeFIA President Keerthi KumarRavoori, IADO President DrAshish Sen, TAGC past-presi-dents Kalyan Anandula Reddy,Sundar Dittakavi, SrinivasPedamallu, current president,Jagan Bukkaraju, ATA FounderHanumanth Reddy, TTA Presi-dent Jagdish Kanuri, CTA Presi-dent Murthy Koppaka, SrinivasBoppana CTA Board of Directorand other community figures RajaKrishnamurthy, Jitender Diganker,Vir Doshi and Jawahar Police.

This New Year bash was ablysupported by Federation of IndianAssociations, Indo AmericanDemocratic Organization [IADO],Telugu Association of GreaterChicago [TAGC], and ChicagoTelugu Association [CTA] amongother community organizations.The celebrations continued intothe night with dancing by couplesand children which continued to ahigh-decibel music ushering in theNew Year.


Over 500 ring in New Year at Waterford Hall Asian Media USA

ELMHURST, IL: Ushering theNew Year Chicago Style was thehighlight of the spectacular NewYear bash organized by OceanBreeze Entertainment at WaterfordBanquet hall located at Elmhurston Dec 31. Despite the bitter coldweather 500 people of party revel-ers joined this beautiful celebra-tion with family and friends towelcome 2015.

There was open bar from thebeginning to end of the partyserving premium liquors and cock-tails. Excellent food provided byIndia House included 10 appetiz-ers, 12 sweet desserts and more

on belting the latest Bollywoodfare like jumme ki raat hai, fevicol,gandi baat, atta majhi satakli, tharkichokro etc. Featured performersfrom Milwaukee and belly danc-ers rocked the performance stage.DJ Bhatt filled the house with pul-sating tracks.

The countdown to the New

Year was led by Subhendu Modakand his group followed by themid-night toast. Clatter from partyflavors and colorful balloon dropsalong with Champaign toast filledthe hall. All the folks present atthe event greeted each other andthe party ended at about 1am onJanuary 1, 2015.

than 70 different mouth-wateringinternational items followed byvariety of deserts including attrac-tively arranged fruits. The Inter-national varieties tables includedPunjabi, Chinese, Rajwadi Gujarati,Khaman Dhokla, Royal Darbar andFusion India dishes along withfountain of Mango and ChikooLassi.

Poonam Bhatia rocked the stageright from the word go! She startedoff with 2014 Bollywood chartbusters like baby doll, nagadasang dhol baje, tune mari entry etc.Highly energetic performance byPoonam Bhatia was supported byAbhijit from New York. They keptPoonam Bhatia with Abhijit in charge of stage

New Year revelers at Waterford

Ringing in New Year with multifaith services

Religious leaders participating in multi faith service (left to right) are: Shelley L. Fisher, Elizabeth W. Beyer, Matthew T.Fisher, Bradley S. Corbin, Jim R. Eaglesmith, Rajan Zed, Brian E. Melendez, David L. Mathis, Alice Tolloch, Omar A.

Palmer and Muhammed A. Quddus


NEVADA: In a remarkable in-terfaith gesture, various religionsgot together in Reno Nevada toring in the New Year in a uniqueand divine manner, away from the

glitter of the casinos.Coordinated by Rajan Zed,

president of Universal Society ofHinduism, the "Multi-faith NewYears' Eve Service" was hosted byReno Buddhist Center and thatincluded prayers by Christian,

Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish,Baha'i and Native American clergy.

The religious leaders whoprayed included Seventh DayAdventist pastor Omar A. Palmer,

Cont’d on page 21


Live2U party captures New Year spiritAsian Media USA

CHICAGO: Live2U organized asplendid New Year's Eve celebra-tion on Wednesday, December 31at Meadows Club in Rolling Mead-ows featuring a Bollywood star,Bollywood comedian, 90 itemsCruise Style Food, open premiumbar, DJ by S. Khan, elegant stagedecorations, special light effects

and excellent sound system.The doors swung open at 8 pm,

the banquet hall was full withinhalf-an-hour, and the show wenton until 1am. The show was startedby some melodious numbers byKathakali. The husband and wife

combination of Krushna andKashmera Shah rocked the audi-ence making them dance to theirtunes.

After hearing beautiful melodi-ous tunes, the audience headedfor a still pleasant surprise. A gor-geous girl who was only 13 yearsold took over the stage. She wasnone other than Ashley Singh,daughter of showbiz queen, Rita

Singh. Often described Chicago'sChoti Sunidhi Chauhan, Ashleyhas been learning Indian Classi-cal singing since she was 5. Whenshe sings Hindi Bollywood songs,one cannot believe that couldbarely speak Hindi. Ashley sang

Ashley Singh Kathakali

two latest hits of Bollywood, MeinTenu Samjhawan (from HumptySharma ki Dulhania) and Yaar NaMiley (Kick).

Prem's Dance Studio & Group,based in Atlanta, GA were delight-ful performing with stars Krishna& Kashmira Shah. Overall thisparty was among the finest andthe consensus was that theywould look forward to party on31st December 2015 with the samegroup.

Krushna and Kashmera

Muhammed A. Quddus ofMuslim community, Jewish rabbiElizabeth W. Beyer, Hindu leaderRajan Zed, Baha'i teacher BradleyS. Corbin, American Indian spiritu-ality scholar Brian E. Melendez,Buddhist priests Matthew T. Fisherand Shelley L. Fisher, Mormon el-der David L. Mathis and JuneCanak of Unification Church. JimR. Eaglesmith sang multi-faith mu-sical medley, Spirit Singers headedby Leslie Alice Fudge delivered"Turn, Turn, Turn", while Laurie

Ringing in New Yearwith multi faith services

Martin led a team of drummers.There was no "cover charge"

for this Service where all were wel-come and which ended at midnightwith drum beats and ringing ofbells.

Prayers were a more appropri-ate way to welcome the New Yearto our lives than gambling anddrinking in the casinos and bars,said Rajan Zed. They intended tomake this Service an annual fea-ture, thus bringing diverse reli-gions together to pray for joy andlove in the lives of all in the up-coming year, Zed added.


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Yogananda rejuvenated & popularized Yoga in USDR MUNISH KUMAR RAIZADA

Rudyard Kipling wrote"The Ballad of East andWest" more than 125years ago, whose open-

ing lines "East is East and West isWest/And never the twain shallmeet" have become legendary.Looking at the scientifically ad-vanced life style in the westernhemisphere routinely aided bymachine and material, one mightask what is there that the Eastcould have contributed to theWest anyway! But, the way Yoga- the pristine science of India - hasgradually become a part of Ameri-can life, it suggests there liessomething deeper.

As Philp Goldberg rightly saysin "American Veda", Vedanta-Yoga has been the biggest contri-bution of East to West flow ofideas. Not to say that Vedas andVedanta have become popular asscriptures, but the essence of"Ekam Sat vipraha bahudhavadanti" (Truth is one, the wiseknow it by many names) that origi-nates in Rigveda has 'seeped intothe collective awareness of theWest' also.

Called by Mark Twain as thecradle of human race, India has along cherished history of divinity,spirituality, and mysticism. Thespiritual milieu of India was so vi-brant that four religions emanatedfrom its land: Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism and Sikhism. Some believeZoroastrian religion can also belinked to India. Scholars stressthat the tenets of Sanatan Dharma(Eternal Religion) are conducive toproliferation of diverse thoughts,beliefs and sects.

Fast forward, is it a mere coin-cidence that two recent movies -having a common theme - releasedin two different countries of theworld are having different trajec-tories? A Bollywood Hindi movie"PK" is making waves in India andright from the beginning has in-vited protests from Right wingHindu outfits. Well known forplaying the religious minority card,the ruling Samajwadi party in UttarPradesh, was quick to declare themovie tax free and Janata Dal(United) in Bihar followed suit.Meanwhile, the movie "Awake:The Life of Yogananda" has beenreleased in USA and is a pure blissto watch. Both movies weavearound the themes of religion andspirituality. Call it a sheer misfor-tune or fate of 'Karma', the movie'Awake' is currently not beingshown in India.

What is mysticism? The dictio-nary defines it as the belief thatdirect knowledge of God, spiritualtruth, or ultimate reality can be at-tained through subjective experi-ence (as intuition or insight). Theesoteric manifestation of divinity

NFIA seeks awardnominations for achieversIndia Post News Service

LONG BEACH, CA: The Na-tional Federation of Indian Ameri-can Associations (NFIA), an um-brella organization comprisingover 200 associations represent-ing over 3 million Americans whotrace their roots to India, is seek-ing nominations for awards foroutstanding achievements to begiven at its 18th biennial conven-tion in Cerritos, California, on theweekend of March 6-8. The lastdate to submit nominations withrelevant documents about thenominee is January 26.

The 18th biennial conventionwill be held at the Cerritos SheratonHotel at 12725 Center Court Drive,Cerritos CA 90703.

The awards will be presentedat the gala banquet, on March 7.The selected candidates must bepresent at the Award Ceremony.

Nominations are invited foroutstanding accomplishments in

the following categories: Serviceto the Indian American commu-nity; Sciences; Liberal and FineArts; Performing Arts; Medicineand Health Sciences; Education;Engineering and Technology;Business and Finance; Mass Me-dia-Radio, Television, Newspaper;Government and Non-Profit Insti-tutions.

Indian American associationsand individuals are encouraged tonominate distinguished IndianAmericans or institutions thathave done an outstanding job intheir chosen field and submit nomi-nations at the address/email givenbelow, with following documents:

1. A copy of the resume of thenominee

2. A copy each of the docu-ments in support of qualifications(publications, awards, recognitionletters, etc.); and

3. Names, addresses and tele-phone number and e-mail addressof two references.

cuts across human populationsand cultures: they say a seeker canrealize the Ultimate Truth throughspirituality. But there are thingsthat constitute exoteric manifesta-tions of divinity. Various forms ofreligions, cults and practices in-cluding rituals and doctrines comeunder this.

Swami Chinmoy rightly said:"Mysticism, poor mysticism!When it is underestimated andoversimplified, it comes down fromits original sphere and stands be-side religion". This adage sums upthe way we - humans - are re-sponding to the two movies thatare running in two countries sepa-rated by 8000 miles: India andUSA.

Last month, I had the opportu-nity to watch the premier show ofthe movie "Awake: The Life ofYogananda" in Chicago. Based onthe biography of SwamiYogananda, the movie, directed byPaola di Florio and Lisa Leeman,narrates his life and teachings.

Paramhans Yogananda (1893-1952) is credited with taking Yogato the West. At the age of 27, helanded in USA in 1920 on a spiri-tual mission (at the instructions ofhis guru Shri Yukteshwar).Yogananda used body and mindtechniques of Yoga to teach divin-ity and spirituality to Americans.He aptly called: "We are not thebody. We are the ocean of con-sciousness." He further said: "Bythe definite science of meditationknown for millenniums to the yo-gis and sages of India, and toJesus, any seeker of God can en-large the caliber of his conscious-ness to omniscience to receivewithin himself the Universal Intel-ligence of God."

Today, words like meditation,Yoga, karma, guru and evenmoksha have become parts of the

American lexicon. SwamiVivekananda must be given thecredit of initiating a Hindu-in-spired meditation movement inUSA, says Lola Williamson, au-thor of Transcendent in America:Hindu-Inspired Meditation Move-ments as New Religion.

She argues her case by show-casing three significant move-ments in the history of USA,which she terms as a new religion:Yogananda's Self Realization

Foundation (SRF), MaharishiMahesh Yogis's TranscendentalMeditation (TM) and SwamiMuktananda's Siddha Yoga. WithSwami Vivekananda (1993 on-

wards) having sensitized the Westto Sanatan Dharma, time was ripefor Yogananda to build upon itwhen he touched the Americanshores in 1920. Yogananda spentmuch of his next 30 years in USA,giving significant impetus to theintroduction of Eastern philoso-phy to the Westerners.

Yogananda rejuvenated andpopularized Kriya Yoga to theworld, and particularly to the West.The brown mystic from India usedyoga as a tool to teach the sci-ence of soul and spirit to the West.

After all, as modern science tooconcurs that even though Yoga isdone through the body, it is moreabout the mind! If today, a yogacenter in USA is as easy as find-ing a coffee shop, credit must begiven to Yogananda for the hardwork he did decades back.

While Paramhans Yoganandawas well received in USA, he hadhis share of disappointments andchallenges. Indians were not eli-gible for immigration to the US

until 1946 and for all practical pur-poses, significant arrival of Indi-ans did not happen until 1965. Inthe times of Yogananda, India wasunder British rule and racism was

a big thing inUSA.

With thisbackgroundand xeno-phobia not-withstand-ing, it wasnot surpris-ing thatYoganandafaced stiffracism in theS o u t h e r nparts of USA(part of thec o u n t r yw h i c hshowed deepdisdain forabolition ofslavery inA b r a h a mL i n c o l n ' stimes). Hewas even putunder sur-veillance bythe US gov-ernment atthe behest of

British India. When he came toknow that blacks were not allowedto attend his congregations inWashington DC, he tackled theracial prejudice with aplomb!

Yogananda announced creation ofAfrican-American center for hisbrothers and sisters of color. Simi-larly, he blessed a marriage be-tween an Indian and an Americanas a political statement against ra-cial barriers.

Yogananda was a great sup-porter of Mahatma Gandhi for hebelieved if a man can reform him-self, he can reform the world.Yogananda visited Gandhiji at hisAshram in Sewagarm, Wardha. Itis said that he even offered him aclass in Kriya Yoga and a tip aboutavocado as a rich source of pro-teins among vegetarian options. Iam sure, had Yogananda beenalive, Martin Luther King wouldhave got a big moral support fromParamhans for his civil rightsmovement. Is it mere coincidencethat the voice of these two evolvedsouls resembles?

In 1946, Yogananda's "Autobi-ography of a Yogi" came into themarket. It is a spiritual classic andhas been published in a score oflanguages and sold millions cop-ies. Yogananda breathed his lastin 1952 in USA.

The teachings of ParamhansYogananda continue to be rel-evant today. Despite the comfortsbrought to us by science, theworld continues to witness dispar-ity, violence and conflict, thus,stressing the need of spiritual heal-ing.

The author is a Chicago-basedsocio-political commentator.

The brown mystic from India used yoga as atool to teach the science of soul and spirit tothe West. After all, as modern science tooconcurs that even though Yoga is donethrough the body, it is more about the mind!


Janyaa empowers kids with hands on learning

Duty and attachment - What is more important?SWAMI NIKHILANAND

In the previous article of thisseries (There are conse-quences to every action thatwe perform), we learnt about

the law of Karma, and how that isrelevant in our lives. In this ar-ticle, we will understand the se-cret of duty and attachment, whichis also equally relevant.

Chapter 1 of the Gita is mainlythe poorv pakch or the part whereArjun puts all his questions anddoubts in front of Krishna. In it,Arjun makes his confusion knownto Krishna, Who then takes thenext 17 chapters to clear Arjun'sdoubts and answer all of his ques-tions. In fact, Shree Krishna didnot speak a word in the first chap-ter. He listened and allowed Arjunto express whatever was in hisheart before He said anything.Krishna's discourse - the uttarpakch or answer part of the Gita -

did not begin until the sec-ond chapter.

Arjun's DutyIn the first chapter, we

see that Arjun is not surewhat his duty - or dharm - isin this situation. His abilityto reason is clouded by hisattachment to those againstwhom he is going to fight.In fact, if he was not relatedto or attached to any of thewarriors in the other army,his duty would have beenvery clear to him.

What was Arjun's duty?In our modern terms, it canbe compared to that of apolice officer. The policeofficer has the duty to en-force the laws of the soci-ety. That means that he issupposed to protect those

who follow the law, andprevent others frombreaking the law. If some-one does break the law,he is supposed to capturehim and bring him to jus-tice so he cannot keepdoing it. If the one break-ing the law refuses toobey the police officerand continues to breakthe law, then the officermay use force to stophim. If the criminal threat-ens the officer's life or thelife of another citizen, thepolice officer may be jus-tified in using lethal force- although he will exhaustall other options first. Theuse of force by the policeofficer is the last option.

In just the same way,Arjun had a duty to up-

hold the laws of the society inwhich he lived. This was his physi-cal dharm. Duryodhan was break-ing those laws. In order to protectthe laws and the citizens, Arjunhad a duty to stop him. Arjun andthe Pandavs were on the side ofdharm, and Duryodhan and theKauravs were on the side ofadharm.

Before coming to the point ofwar, Arjun had exhausted all otheroptions to resolve the situation;but Duryodhan would not com-promise and demanded a war. SoArjun had only two options re-maining: fight the war or allowDuryodhan to continue his evilways unchecked. If a police officerfinds himself in such a situation,then it is obvious what his dutyis: he must use force to bring thecriminal to justice.

Cont’d on page 24


SANTA CLARA, CA, Everyconcept in math and science canbe taught in a simple and practicalway. Janyaa was born out of thispowerful idea with a noble goal ofchanging the lives of underprivi-leged children in India by simplychanging the way they learn.

Started in 2009 by Venu Nadella,Janyaa has been on a mission ofempowering children with handson learning. Janyaa is a 501c (3)tax exempt non profit organization.With its unique lab in the box pro-gram, Janyaa teaches young chil-dren across India the concepts ofscience and math in an effectiveway so that children can under-stand them by relating them to theirdaily life.

Janyaa has grown tremen-dously over the span of 5 yearsby empowering over 100,000 chil-

and two magnets, the studentslearn how magnets attract and re-pel, and how about learning anabstract concept like center ofgravity with help of a fork and acoin.

A complex topic like soundwave transmission is demon-strated to the students by using astring attached to 2 plastic cups.How wonderful, kids talking totheir fellow classmates using plas-tic cups and learning the concept.

These are just some of the ex-citing experiments that teach andingrain science and math conceptsto thousands of children in a lan-guage they can understand, a me-dium they can enjoy and a con-cept they can use in their dailylives.

If you would like to supportjanyaa in it's mission and to learnmore details, please contactJanyaa at [email protected] or visitwww.janyaa.org

dren from 800 schools spreadacross 10 states in India.

The working model of Janyaais quite simple. A kit containingover 90 science and math experi-ments has been developed to

match the curriculum of stateschools. Each experiment has beencarefully crafted using the prin-ciples of simplicity and practicalunderstanding. Teachers aretrained on using this kit to teachchildren from 6th to 9th grade.These teachers then make the dailyclasses in their schools more ef-fective and interesting by infus-ing the hands on experiments fromJanyaa.

With this, children take moreinterest in understanding the con-cepts, relate them effectively totheir daily lives and more impor-tantly have increased scientifictemperament. Janyaa has consis-tently received a highly positiveand encouraging response fromboth teachers and students.

Janyaa's program is highly sus-tainable and cost effective. A kitdelivered to a school empowersstudents for 4 consecutive years.Imagine this, with just a small stick


Duty vs. AttachmentWhen Arjun's duty is so clear cut, then

why was he confused? The reason is clear -only because of his attachment. When hesaw the people against whom he was goingto fight, his heart melted, because many ofthem were part of his extended family or werehis elders who had educated him as a boy.Because they were dear to him, he becameconfused about his duty.

Is it right to fight against his own family?

Although this may seem like a confusingsituation, from the point of view of dharm, itis still perfectly clear. Ask yourself: if a po-lice officer sees someone from his own fam-ily breaking the law, is he supposed to takehis relation to them into consideration, or ishe supposed to enforce the law equally, re-gardless of his personal attachments?

The answer is obvious: he is required toenforce the law against a family member orloved one in the same way he would againsta stranger. In fact, if he gives a family mem-ber or loved one any special consideration,

he may be punished by his superi-ors or viewed as an accomplice inthe crime.

Arjun's situation highlights thisconflict between duty and attach-ment, which is something every per-son faces on a daily basis. Every daywe are met with situations where wehave to weigh duty versus attach-ment. If your own son was breakingthe law, would you call the police orwould you try to cover it up? Dutysays to call the police. Attachment

says to cover it up.It is for this very reason that Dhritrashtra

was unable to do his duty as king. Hisattachment to his evil sons was so greatthat it made him helpless. Even though heknew what Duryodhan was doing wasevil, he was powerless to stop him be-cause he was unwilling to see his songetting punished. In the end, Dhritrashtrawas as responsible for all of his son's evildeeds as he was.

This is one of the central themes of theGita, and is very relevant in our daily life.In the next article we will begin Chapter 2and see how Shree Krishna began to re-solve Arjun's confusion.

Disciple of Shree Kripaluji MaharajSwami Nikhilanand Ji is a Canadian

born Hindu spiritual leader based in Aus-tin, Texas. He is a sanyasi disciple andpracharak of Jagadguru Shree KripalujiMaharaj.

Attracted to the teachings of Hindu-ism from a young age, Swamiji eventuallylet his deep spiritual longing lead him toIndia, where he was most fortunate tocome under the guidance of Shree

Kripaluji Maharaj. Thereafter, living in theashrams of JKP, he extensively studiedHindi, the philosophy of the prime San-skrit scriptures (Vedas, Darshan Shastras,Gita, Bhagwatam), and practiced medita-tion in the tradition of raganuga bhakti.In 2003, he was given sanyas.

Now, with the blessings of his Guruji,he offers satsang programs throughoutAmerica, engaging audiences with hisclear explanations of Hindu philosophycoupled with inspired chanting of San-skrit mantras and shlokas and charmingnam sankirtan. His informative and compel-ling speeches provide practical insight intohow to adopt the teachings of SanatanDharm into our daily lives, and inspire us toawaken our inner spiritual potential.

Duty and attachment - What is more important?Cont’d from page 23

Swami Nikhilanand

If your own son wasbreaking the law, wouldyou call the police orwould you try to cover itup? Duty says to call thepolice. Attachment saysto cover it up.

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January 9, 2015


PerspectiveJanuary 9, 2015

Removing pollution & obstructions inGanga a big challenge

BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA

Israel offers help in Ganga cleaning projectNEW DELHI: Israel has expressed in-

terest in sharing its expertise on waterpurification and waste water treatmentunder Prime Minister Narendra Modi's petproject for cleaning river Ganga.

The Centre had set a target of threeyears to rejuvenate the polluted holy riverGanga and has formed an integrated plan'Namaami Gange' in this regard.

"We have already met the Union WaterResources Minister Uma Bharti and the

concerned Secretary few times, we want tobe involved. We offered our knowledge,technology and technical know-how (for theproject)," Israel's Head of Economic andTrade Mission Yonatan Ben-Zaken said.

Speaking on sidelines of a seminar on'Water Security & Waste Water Manage-ment', he said Israel is known for its capa-bilities and expertise in waste water treat-ment, purification and water reuse for agri-culture and industry.

"We are in talks and we think that cleaningindustrial pollutants from the river (Ganga)should be first priority," Yonatan said.

Emphasizing on the need to make Gangarejuvenation a mass movement, Modi hadsaid the first priority of the Namaami GangeMission should be to prevent fresh genera-tion of pollutants.

Modi was chairing the first high levelmeeting of the mission.

As many as 11 Israeli companies partici-

pated at the seminar, which was a B2B (busi-ness-to-business) interaction between Is-raeli and Indian companies. The companiesincluded Aqwise, Biopetroclean, Amiad,Ayala Aqua and Nisco.

The 25 Indian companies that were in-vited for the event included L&T, PunjLloyd, IVRCL, Essar, Engineers India Ltd(EIL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd(BHEL) and National Thermal Power Cor-poration (NTPC).-PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasmade clear his commitment to cleanup the Ganga River. This is a mostwelcome step since Ganga is holy

to people the world over. Ashes of manyIndian Americans are taken to Hardwar tobe immersed in the holy river. PIOs worldover have offered help to the Government ofIndia in cleaning up the river.

The Ganga suffers from two problems-pollution and obstructions to free flow. Pol-lution, in turn, comes from two sources-mu-nicipalities and industries.

Large amounts of monies have been spentin building Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) incities along the Ganga. However, the munici-palities have no incentive to run these plants.They would rather spend their limited re-sources in providing pressing civic serviceslike street lighting and road repairs. The mu-nicipalities, however, are mighty happy to con-struct more STPs since that provides oppor-tunities for leakage and corruption.

The problem cannot be solved by yetmore funding on non-working STPs. The wayout is to make sewage treatment a profitableactivity. Municipalities in Mumbai andNagpur are selling sewage to industrial unitswho find it cheaper to use treated sewagewater instead of buying fresh water. Thismodel has to be applied across the board.The Government must invite private entre-preneurs to set up the STPs and make ar-rangements to buy the treated sewage waterwhich can then be supplied for irrigation. Thiswill make it profitable for businesses to treatsewage. This treatment will no longer be a"liability" for the municipalities.

This change of gears will require buildinga new system of canals to reach treated wa-

ter to the farmer's field. The supply of thiswater to farmers would also reduce their needfor drawing fresh water from the Ganga andlead to increase in flows in the holy river.The Modi Government has opened the purse

strings and is providing large amounts ofmonies for STPs. Though good intentioned,it is still pursuing the "build STP" model thatis destined to fail.

Industrial pollutionThe other source of pollution is from the

industries located in the Ganga Basin. Theconsortium of seven Indian Institutes of Tech-nologies is making a Ganga River Basin Man-agement Plan under directions of the Gov-ernment. They have suggested that all in-dustries be required to adopt "Zero LiquidDischarge." Industries should be requiredto treat and reuse the effluent continuouslyso that nothing is discharged.

Industries are willing to adopt this. Their

problem is that the additional cost would pricethem out of the market vis-à-vis industrieslocated outside the Ganga Basin that are al-lowed to discharge effluent. The problemcannot be solved by imposing punitive mea-

sures on industries in the Ganga Basin. Perforce, industries in the Ganga Basin will haveto close down. The way out is to make anational legislation requiring Zero Liquid Dis-charge by all industries irrespective of theirlocation.

Let us not forget that the Krishna, Cauveryand Mahanadi also need to be conserved. Itis to the credit of Modi Government that Wa-ter Resources Minister Uma Bharati has putthe industries on notice to control effluentdischarges. This is a step forward. But it isstill following the punitive model instead ofsolving the underlying economic problem.

The second dimension of conservationof Ganga is to ensure free flow in the river.Flow of the Ganga is presently obstructed

by hydropower projects like Tehri, VishnuPrayag and Srinagar; irrigation barrages atHardwar, Bijnor, Narora and Kanpur; and theFarakka Barrage made in West Bengal to di-vert water to the Hooghly to enable ships toreach the Kolkata Port.

Hindu scriptures clearly state that onlyflowing water is holy. These projects obstructthe flow and damage the spiritual energy thatthe Ganga brings from the holy shrines ofGangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Japa-nese researcher Masaru Emoto has takenphotographs of water crystals made from dif-ferent waters and found that crystals madefrom flowing rivers are of beautiful shapewhile those made from stagnant waters arenot so.

Extraction of water for hydropower, irri-gation or navigation requires building a bar-rage that obstructs free flow and damagesthe spiritual quality of the water. But we can-not stop extraction either. The way forwardis to extract water by making a partial ob-struction on the riverbed so that, say, onehalf of the water flows freely while other halfis extracted for various purposes.

Unfortunately Modi Government is bentupon making yet more obstructions to thefree flow of the Ganga. The Ministry of Ship-ping has come up with a plan to develop theGanga as a waterway from Haldia to Allahabadso that imported coal can be carried to thethermal power plants to be made along thebanks of the Ganga. This will entail buildingthree or more barrages between Allahabadand Buxar.

The Uttar Pradesh Government is in-creasing the size of Narora canal so thatmore water can be extracted for irrigation.The Government-owned Tehri Hydro De-velopment Corporation has only recentlystarted construction of the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydropower project that will cre-ate one more obstruction to the free flow ofGanga.

It must be mentioned here though thatthe Government has recently stated in theSupreme Court that it wants to ensure freeflow in the Ganga but the measures it pro-poses to take are still unclear.

Challenge before the PIOs is to make pro-posals to the Government of India and leadthe Government in the right direction.

Ganga River Haridwar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing a high level meeting on the Namaami Gange Project in New Delhi on January 6

www.indiapost.comIndia Post

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS1 Dance Basanti : Ungli

2 Manali Trance : The

Shaukeens

3 Jee Karda: Badlapur

4 Manwa Laage : Happy New

Year

5 Tharki Chokro : PK

6 Jaise Mera Tu : Happy Ending

7 Mileya Mileya : Happy Ending

8 Superman : Tevar

9 G Phaad Ke : Happy Ending

10 Chaar Kadam: PK

28 January 9, 2015

BollywoodLife recently conducted an item song pollwith five top item songs for the readers to vote:Lovely from Happy New Year, Asalaam-e-Ishqumfrom Gunday, Baby Doll from Ragini MMS 2, Yaar

Naa Miley from Kick and Dance Basanti from Ungli.There was a stiff competition for the first place between

Deepika and Priyanka's item number. Deepika's Lovely wonwith highest number of votes (37%), making it the mostloved item song of the year. Priyanka's Asalaam-e-Ishqum stood second with marginal differencereceiving 36 percent votes. Once againDeepika's fans have shown their loyalty overPriyanka's fans.

The sexy siren Sunny Leone's Baby Dollwas also a hit song but ended up in third placereceiving 15 percent votes, followed by SalmanKhan and Nargis Fakhri's Yaar Naa Miley with just8%. Lastly, Emraan Hashmi and Shraddha Kapoor'sDance Basanti was placed fifth with only 4 percent votes.

Hence, Deepika Padukone's Lovely steals the showwith her dazzling item number.

There was a stiff competition for thefirst place between Deepika and

Priyanka's item number. Deepika'sLovely won with highest number of

votes (37%), making it the mostloved item song of the year.

The grapevine suggests that the di-rector of Dabangg and Besharam,Abhinav Kashyap is in a relation-

ship with model-actress Simran Kaur Surifor the last six months.

Besides being seen in ads for a mobilephone brand, Simran has also acted in thetelevision show Sinhasan Battisi.

Turns out, the director met her familywhen he visited Delhi in November, fol-lowing which Simran posted a picture ofthem together on her social networkingprofile. When one of her friends com-mented on the picture, Simran wrote,"Oye couple mein bhi ghussegi??"- sug-gesting that the two are a couple.

According to a source, they met at aparty hosted by a common friend last yearand grew close. The rumored couple, whostay in the same neighbor-

hood, has beenspotted togetherin and aroundAndheri. Theywere spottedwatching DumbAnd Dumber Toat a multiplex inNovember.

India Post 29January 9, 2015

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

Shraddha Kapoor had heard a lot about the 'O'Show in Las Vegas, but even though she had a

very hectic schedule, she made sure to catch it onher first day off.

The young actor has been currently shootingwith the team of ABCD 2 in Las Vegas where herschedule has been very grueling. On her first dayoff, Shraddha went to see the 'O' show. 'O' is awater-themed stage. It is a group of 85 per-formers which includes international ac-robats, synchronized swimmersand divers. Some of them areformer Olympic athletes.The show is extremelyfamous and very spec-tacular and sinceShraddha is essaying the role of a dancer in ABCD2, she was very keen to watch the show.

Ajay Devgn has now become fullyinvolved in his next project titled 'Shivay', a big budget film.

The budget indeed seems to belarge because now the Bollywood ac-tor turned director is in talks with Hol-lywood actress Nicole Kidman whomay play an important role in the film.Though the talks have not yet beenfinalized and the 'Days of thunder'actress has not yet signed on the dot-ted lines, excitement is mounting be-

cause of the rumors.The name of the film is derived

from the third word of the San-skrit chant 'Om namah Shivay'.Ajay has the word tattooed onhis chest. According to rumorsthe film is loosely based on thefilm 'Shivam' of Upendra in thesouth. It is going to be an ac-tion film and Devgn has con-firmed that most of the castwill be foreign and the filmwill be shot in a number ofinternational locales. Report-edly, the action director of'Fast and the furious' hasbeen brought on board forthe project.

If Kidman agrees, it willdefinitely be a coup andfilm lovers are eagerlywaiting for the final re-sults of the talks.

Aishwarya RaiBachchan is excited to work

with filmmaker Karan Johar in 'AeDil Hai Mushkil'. In the past, Ash missed

many opportunities to work with the ace film-maker and finally it is happening with 'Ae Dil

Hai Mushkil' which also stars Ranbir Kapoor andAnushka Sharma in a pivotal role.In an interview to a leading tabloid the actress said,

"When I heard the script of 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil', it made mesmile. For me as an actor, it is exciting to be a part of this story

and with Karan, it will be the way it should be told. Thus amhappy to be on board,"

Aishwarya will be donning a different role in the film.Karan is excited to work with the three of them, he said it is his

big dream to work with Aishwarya. "Love is the theme and conflict ofmy next directorial endeavor. 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' also fulfills my big

dream to work withAishwarya Rai Bachchan.It is possibly her mostunusual and contemporary char-

acter and I can't wait to work with her. All I want to say isthat it is not a conventional love story or love triangle.

It's a film that dwells deeply on relationships, heart-breaks and how love completes you, defines you

and yet leaves you wanting for more. I havenever had, in my entire career, a film

that has come to me so fast, soorganically and so from

within," he disclosed.

India Post January 9, 2015www.indiapost.com

Real Estate30

Realty Tidbits I-T dept issues notice to firmowned by Robert Vadra

Affordable mega housing schemefor EPFO subscribers

NEW DELHI: The Labor Min-istry is preparing a mega housingscheme to offer affordable housesto over 5 crore subscribers of re-tirement fund body EPFO in thebackdrop of the government's mis-sion 'Housing for all by 2022'.

The Ministry intends to col-laborate with PSU banks, housingfinance companies, state-ownedconstruction firms like NBCC andauthorities like DDA, PUDA,HUDA to build houses at a priceto be fixed by the government.

"Labor Ministry is preparing ascheme under which affordablehouses will be provided to theEmployees' Provident Fund Orga-nization (EPFO) subscribers, par-ticularly those who are in the lowincome bracket," a source in theministry said.

At present, there are over 70 percent EPFO subscribers whose ba-sic wages are less than Rs 15,000per month.

In a recent note, the PrimeMinister's Office had asked EPFOto promote affordable housing for

its subscribers and use its fundsfor the purpose.

According to the note, deploy-ment of 15 per cent of EPFO fundsas loan for low cost housing wouldgenerate a credit flow of Rs 70,000

crore and can create 3.5 lakh addi-tional low-cost homes.

EPFO currently manages a hugecorpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore and itsannual incremental deposit is inexcess of Rs 70,000 crore.

The Labor Ministry is keen ona scheme under which EPFO sub-

scribers could withdraw their PFdeposits to make part-payment ofthe total cost of the house.

At present, EPFO subscriberscan withdraw money from their PFaccounts for buying houses only

after contributing for a period offive years in the schemes run bythe body.

The Ministry also intends toprovide subsidy to the EPFO sub-scribers in low-income bracket tohelp them avail benefits of vari-ous low-cost housing schemes of

the government.Financial institutions, sources

said, would be roped in to providehousing loan at low interest ratesunder the priority sector lendingfor construction of affordablehouses under the scheme.

The scheme, however, will beoptional for EPFO subscribers asthere is no need to provide afford-able houses to those who alreadyown one.

Under the housing scheme,there would three different incomecategories--Low Income, MiddleIncome and High Income.

Houses and financial incentivesunder the scheme will be offeredon the basis of the income of asubscriber.

The subscribers would be facili-tated to pay equated monthly install-ments of their home loan throughtheir provident fund account.

The source said that under thescheme EPFO may use its fundsto create a corpus for providehousing loan at affordable inter-est rate to its subscribers. -PTI

Housing sales likely to rise to 1.92 lakh unitsNEW DELHI: Housing sales

are estimated to rise this year to1.92 lakh units in the country'stop seven cities on expectationsof interest rate cut and stableprices, according to propertyconsultant JLL India.

Housing sales fell to 1.75 lakhunits in the primary markets ofseven major cities in 2014 ascompared to nearly 2 lakh unitsin the previous year.

These seven cities are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

Supply, however, is estimatedto decline marginally to 2.18 lakhunits this year from 2.2 lakh unitsin 2014.

Developers would be sittingon unsold inventories of 27months at the end of this yearas compared to 28 months in2014-end.

"2015 will see home buyers

benefiting from reduced borrow-ing rates, increased developer-fo-cus on affordable homes, largelystable prices, and better job andincome prospects," JLL Chairmanand Country Head Anuj Puri said.

Puri added that this year woulddefinitely be good for the real es-tate sector as borrowing rates aresure to go down from the current

levels and economic activity isgradually picking up.

"With property prices stayingstable and good deals being of-fered by developers in order toclear their inventory, fence-sit-

ting buyers be further encour-aged to press the 'buy' button,"JLL said in a report.

Stating that developers are

now largely focusing on af-fordable homes, the consultantsaid this would help in bridg-ing the existing wide gap be-tween demand and supply ofaffordable homes.

According to JLL, develop-ers would become more ear-nest about right-sizing andright-pricing their offerings.

"Smaller, yet better-de-signed and more efficienthomes will define the residen-tial real estate market in 2015,and selective corrections insome of the over-priced citieswill help bring about fastersales for stagnated supply oflarger configurations," JLLsaid.

The consultant felt thattownships would become moreprevalent, while the supply ofluxury homes would moderate toalign with the slow demand. -PTI

LIC takespossession ofOrbit's property

MUMBAI: LIC Housing Fi-nance Ltd (LICHFL) has takenpossession of Orbit Corporation's35-storeyed premium residentialtower in central Mumbai here af-ter the realty player failed to repaya Rs 95.50 crore loan.

The realty firm had borrowedthe money from LICHFL and the25,670 sq ft property was a collat-eral for the loan, which had OrbitManging Director Punit Agarwaland Chairman Ravikiran Agarwalas the guarantors.

LICHFL, in a public notice, said

it took physical possession of thetower on December 24 after serv-ing the company a loan demandnotice on February 21 last year.

The property, Orbit Grand, islocated in Lower Parel area, whichhas been witnessing constructionof a slew of real estate projects inthe recent past.

However, 16 flats have beenexcluded from the mortgage,LICHFL said.

Orbit, in a statement to the BSE,said, "We would like to inform youthat LICHFL has taken the pos-session (of the building). How-ever, DRT (Debts Recovery Tribu-nal) has allowed us the access tocarry out construction work atsite." -PTI

PE investmentsup 11 pc to USD11.42 bn

NEW DELHI: Private equity in-vestments, excluding real estate,increased 11 per cent in terms ofdeal value to USD 11.42 billion in2014 from USD 10.32 billion in theprevious year, says a report.

According to the provisionalyear-end data (until December 29,2014) culled out from VCCEdge,the financial research platform,there was a 11 per cent jump indeal value even as the number oftransactions declined 4 per centto 734 deals as against 764 dealsin 2013.

"2014 has been the year of ven-ture capital, while late stage pri-vate equity deals slowed down.With India's Internet usage andpenetration going up, several net-based business models includinge-commerce have been in the fore-front of raising capital this year,"Sahad PV, Founder & CEO, TheVCCircle Network, which ownsVCCEdge data platform said.

Details on Page 31

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department has issuednotice to a business firm owned by Robert Vadra as part ofits probe to understand the "financial structure" of thecompany and real estate projects undertaken by it.

Sources said the notice has been issued by the I-Tdepartment to Sky Light Hospitality which has its officesin Delhi and Gurgaon and the taxmen have asked com-pany officials to disclose details about the transactionsand sale deeds executed from the financial year 2005-06by the firm. Details on Page 31

31India PostJanuary 9, 2015

www.indiapost.comReal Estate Post

I-T dept issues notice to firm owned by Robert VadraNEW DELHI: The Income Tax

department has issued notice to abusiness firm owned by RobertVadra as part of its probe to un-derstand the "financial structure"of the company and real estateprojects undertaken by it.

Sources said the notice hasbeen issued by the I-T departmentto Sky Light Hospitality which hasits offices in Delhi and Gurgaonand the taxmen have asked com-pany officials to disclose detailsabout the transactions and saledeeds executed from the financialyear 2005-06 by the firm.

The department has also askedthe firm to explain its real estateprojects and deals struck in vari-ous parts of North India includingloans taken in this regard fromsome prominent builders in thecountry.

"A probe has been initiated

against the company after publicreports in this regard were receivedby the department.

The department wants to know

details about the company and itsoperations and any full fledged in-

vestigation would be taken uppost these issues are understood,"a source said.

Congress President SoniaG a n d h i ' sson-in-lawVadra, whohas notbeen namedin the no-tice, hasbeen in thenews re-garding hisland deal-ings and reale s t a t eprojects inv a r i o u sparts ofnorth Indiainc lud ing

the national capital region,Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal

Pradesh.Sources said the I-T depart-

ment has earlier gathered docu-ments on the companies' creden-tials from the Registrar of Com-panies and through local inputsin the real estate and hospitalitysector before the notices were is-sued.

Reacting on the development,BJP said sending such noticeswas the duty of the I-T depart-ment as it accused Vadra of mak-ing "windfall gains" from the al-leged land deals.

"If there is a tax notice givento Robert Vadra, I think it is a natu-ral process... administrative pro-cess. It is the responsibility of taxauthorities to send notices andseek questions and seek answersto all cases where windfall gainshave been made. The issue con-cerning Vadra's firm is in black

and white," BJP spokespersonGVL Narasimha Rao said.

"He has made several crores,over Rs 50 crore in windfall gainsin just one transaction. The en-tire details of this transaction isin public domain. So, if tax au-thorities have sent him a notice, Iwould consider that they havedone their duty and he wouldhave an opportunity to explain hisposition," he said.

Congress spokespersonAbhishek Manu Singhvi, how-ever, said that the issue of noticeto Vadra's firm was a routine ac-tion done by the I-T department.

"I think there is absolutelynothing to comment on the Vadraissue. It is wrong for anyone, in-cluding the media, to start ques-tioning every time any notice orstep in a proceeding takes place,"he said. -PTI

PE investments up 11 pc to USD 11.42 bn

Honolulu councilman seeksvacation rental rules

NEW DELHI: Private equity in-vestments, excluding real estate,increased 11 per cent in terms ofdeal value to USD 11.42 billion in2014 from USD 10.32 billion in theprevious year, says a report.

According to the provisionalyear-end data (until December 29,2014) culled out from VCCEdge,the financial research platform,there was a 11 per cent jump indeal value even as the number oftransactions declined 4 per centto 734 deals as against 764 deals

in 2013."2014 has been the year of ven-

ture capital, while late stage pri-vate equity deals slowed down.With India's Internet usage andpenetration going up, several net-based business models includinge-commerce have been in the fore-front of raising capital this year,"Sahad PV, Founder & CEO, TheVCCircle Network, which ownsVCCEdge data platform said.

The report further said the me-dian deal amount increased 9 per

cent from USD 2.75 million to USD3 million and the average deal valueincreased 18 per cent from USD 17million to USD 20 million betweenCY2014 and CY2013.

The consumer discretionarysector, piggybacking on the grow-ing ecommerce story, recorded amammoth USD 4.6 billion in in-vestments, the maximum amountof private equity capital investedin any sector during the year.

The other sector to rake in sig-nificant private equity invest-

ments was information technol-ogy with USD 2.32 billion; the297 deals across which this capi-tal was invested places the sec-tor at the top of the deal volumepack.

Early stage investing pickedup with more capital being in-vested to fund startups acrosssectors. Angel/seed investmentsstood at USD 109 million spreadacross 280 deals, compared to theUSD 69 million in CY2013.

VC investments also grew 50per cent in value from USD 1.41

billion in 2013 to USD 2.12 billionin 2014.

The deal of the year wasFlipkart, raising over USD 1.91 bil-lion in investments in 2014 acrossthree deals from new as well as oldinvestors, including Tiger GlobalManagement LLC, Accel IndiaVenture Fund.

Another landmark deal for theecommerce industry seen duringthe year was the USD 637 millionraised by Snapdeal, the reportnoted. -PTI

HONOLULU: A Honolulu citycouncilman is looking for ways toboost regulation on vacation rent-als on Hawaii's most populous is-land.

The rise of illegal rentals onOahu has been criticized by resi-dents who believe they disruptpeace and gobble up parking.Critics say vacation rentals takeaway sorely needed housing fromOahu residents, and they com-plain that the landlords likely side-step hotel room and general ex-cise taxes.

Some vacation rental operatorssay they would get the requiredpermits if the city eased decades-old restrictions that were meantto curb short-term rentals.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiserreported Councilman IkaikaAnderson is asking his col-leagues and Mayor Kirk Caldwellto propose legislation by Feb. 2.

Anderson says he hopes to havenew laws addressing the issue inplace by the end of the year.

``This issue has been very

complex for many years,'' Ander-son said at a news conference.`Ìf this were an easy issue tosolve, it would have been solveda long time ago.''

Besides leading the Zoningand Planning Committee, Ander-son represents the Council dis-trict that includes Kailua, one oftwo areas believed to have thehighest number of short-term va-cation rentals. The other is theNorth Shore.

The city Department of Plan-ning and Permitting has recorded789 transient vacation units and39 bed-and-breakfast establish-ments. But preliminary data froma recent Hawaii Tourism Author-ity study show there may be 4,411unregistered vacation rental unitson Oahu.

The department has at most 14inspectors tasked with monitor-ing not just vacation rentals, butchecking everything from build-ing and electrical code violationsto dilapidated sidewalks. ̀ `That'sbeen the issue,'' Anderson said. -AP

Some vacationrental operators saythey would get therequired permits ifthe city eased de-cades-old restric-tions that weremeant to curbshort-term rentals.

Robert Vadra

www.indiapost.com32 India Post January 9, 2015

Health ScienceHealth Line

Details on Page 34

Flu didn't takea holiday in

SouthCarolina

Global clinical trials networklaunched during AAPI summit


MUMBAI, India: During theground-breaking Global HealthCare Summit held at the TridentHotel in Mumbai in India, AAPI -Global Clinical Trials Network, anew initiative of American Asso-ciation of Physicians of IndianOrigin (AAPI) was launched onthe concluding day, January 4.

According to Dr RaviJahagirdar, President of AAPI, thenew AAPI initiative is about "edu-cating physicians regarding clini-cal trials - an extensive networkprovided by AAPI Membership -across the United States includ-ing in small towns, and rangingfrom large groups that can run thetrials themselves, to solo or smallgroups that will serve as a referralsource to a designated center forresearch and/or clinical trials."AAPI could be instrumental forany pharmaceutical Researchcompanies in USA or globally inpotentially recruiting a Phase 3 or

4 trial in the USA as part of itsintroduction of new products to aworldwide market.

AAPI, which is the umbrellaorganization representing the in-terests of over 60,000 doctors ofIndian origin in the USA, and with

over 25,000 medical residents andfellows currently in USA, hasbeen performing a unique wide-spread role in the United States.One in every seven American pa-tient is seen by an Indian doctor,and this ratio is even higher in the

smaller townsa n dunderserved ar-eas due tithelarger propor-tion of Indiandoctors in moreremote loca-tions. Partly dueto this, the In-dian doctor alsoserves the mostdiverse groupof patients inthe USA includ-ing Caucasians,Afro Americans,Hispanics andother groups,which is impor-tant for clinical

research and trials.The launch event through the

live streaming presents a remark-able opportunity. "With the livestreaming of sessions during GHS15, which were being viewed liveby physicians from around theworld, totaling a million viewers."In addition to the hundreds of del-egates from around the world,who have been made aware ofAAPI's this unique program, theevent was webcast live to mem-bers in the USA who were unableto attend, as well a live telecast toan estimated 50,000 doctorsaround India.

Dr. Ravi announced thatProvectus Biopharmaceuticals, adevelopment stage oncology re-search company has committed tobe the inaugural member of theGlobal Clinical Trial network.AAPI is looking forward to creat-ing a large network of Pharmaceu-tical companies to make this ini-tiative a great success.

'Providing affordable, quality healthcare a challenge'MUMBAI: Union Health

Minister J P Nadda has said thegovernment is working towardsmaking essential medicinesavailable at a cheaper rate evenas he acknowledged that provid-ing access to the qualityhealthcare at affordable rates,particularly to the poorest, re-mains a challenge.

"A list of essential medicinesis being made and the govern-ment is working towards provid-ing such medicines at a cheaperrate," Nadda told reporters afterdelivering his address at the 'Glo-bal Health Summit: Access andAffordable Healthcare for Peopleof India', organized by the Ameri-can Association of Physiciansof Indian Origin (AAPI).

Seeking suggestions fromgeneral public on the Center'sdraft National Health Policy, theminister said the care has beentaken to ensure that the blue-print focuses on the health ofrural India.

"We have prepared a draft of

the National Health Policy whichwe have put on our website. I ap-peal to people to come forward andgive their suggestions which willbe accepted till February 28,"Nadda said.

He said government has triedto ensure that the Policy focuseson rural areas of the country. "Weneed to promote preventivehealthcare, shift focus from sick-

care and reduce the need for hos-pitalization/ tertiary care," Naddaadded.

On healthcare, he said,"healthcare is a state subject" andthe Centre is trying to understandproblems of state governments onthis front.

"We are trying to make statesmore aware of healthcare facilities.We are very serious about malnu-trition in tribal areas. We are talk-ing to states and are trying to un-derstand their problems. But it isup to the states to finally imple-ment Central government's poli-cies," he said.

Nadda said providing accessto quality healthcare at affordablerates remains a challenge for thegovernment.

"India wants access to afford-able healthcare. Equity, accessand affordability of qualityhealthcare to all, particularly to thepoorest, is a challenge that gov-ernment is acutely seized of. Meet-ing pocket expenditure onhealthcare is a priority for the gov-

ernment," he said.Nadda said shortage of man-

power in terms of doctors,nurses and para-medical staff toenable effective delivery ofhealthcare services, is a matterof concern.

"We have a shortage of abouthalf a million medical doctors. Weneed to stress on medical edu-cation. (We) have to increase thecapacity to train doctors, nursesand paramedical staff to enableeffective delivery of healthcareservices, particularly to the ru-ral, remote and inaccessible ar-eas of the country, where theneed for healthcare is felt themost," he said.

The minister said instancesof non-communicable diseaseslike cancer, diabetes, etc., are onthe rise due to affluent lifestyles.

"Early detection and propercare is essential here. Whenthese diseases are not ad-dressed, it further stresses thehealthcare system in the coun-try," Nadda said. -PTI

Kaiser mentalhealth staffplans strike

SAN FRANCISCO: Hundredsof Kaiser Permanente's mentalhealth professionals plan to go ona weeklong strike in Californiastarting Jan. 12 to protest whatthey say is the health careprovider's failure to offer timely,quality mental health care.

The Contra Costa Times re-ports Kaiser Permanente's 2,600psychologists, therapists and so-cial workers are represented bythe National Union of HealthcareWorkers.

They say the problem is in partdue to inadequate staffing andthat more than 700 other Kaiserworkers who also report staffingproblems will join their strike.

Kaiser says in a statement itplans to meet with the union.

The state fined Kaiser $4 mil-lion in 2013 for failing to providemental health treatment in a timelymanner. -AP

Gov. Quinn'sMedicaid chief toleave 'hardest' job

CHICAGO: The director of theIllinois Department of Healthcareand Family Services plans to re-sign as part of the transition toRepublican Gov.-elect BruceRauner's administration.

Julie Hamos, 65, oversees thelargest state agency and has re-sponsibility for the $18 billionMedicaid program, which paysmedical expenses of the poor anddisabled, including the cost ofmore than half the state's child-births.

In a statement, the formerDemocratic legislator said leadingthe department has been `òne ofthe most fulfilling jobs I've everhad - as well as the hardest.''

``Despite our limited resources,bureaucratic hurdles and tightdeadlines, we have tackled verytough challenges and mostly suc-ceeded in achieving our goals,''Hamos said.

Appointed to the post by Gov.Pat Quinn in 2010, Hamos carriedout extensive cuts to Medicaidservices to bring the program'sbudget into line, a Quinn priority.That chafed some black and His-panic lawmakers, who thenpushed unsuccessfully for Quinnto replace her.

The Democratic governorstood by her with an unusual ma-neuver when it appeared her re-appointment was in jeopardy lastyear. He withdrew her name, thenre-nominated her, which reset theclock for her confirmation andbought her more time.-AP

Cont'd on Page 35

Union Health Minister J P Nadda

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January 9, 2015

Surgery in ancient Indiawas advanced, says doc

Global medical tourism marketto rise over USD 30 bn

MUMBAI: Surgery in ancient India wasvery advanced and Sushruta, the "fatherof surgery," described qualities of a goodsurgeon in his book 'Sushruta Samhita', adoctor said at the 102nd Indian ScienceCongress (ISC) here.

The book is an important classical San-skrit text on medicine, Dr Ashwin Sawantsaid during a symposium at the ISC un-

derway here while delivering a lecture on'Ancient surgery in ancient India'.

"Sushruta was the first medical personto use leeches in medical treatment. Inthe last two decades, the FDA of UnitedStates has accepted leeches as a medicaldevice," he said.

Sawant spoke of reference to surgeryin ancient India, found in Rigveda andAtharvaveda. A drilled tooth dating back

7,000 years was found at a place now inPakistan, the Mumbai based GeneralPractioner said.

"Sushruta was the first to say that thehuman heart is the centre of the body'scirculation system. However, we givecredit to William Harvey for the discov-ery of the circulation of blood," he said.

"The surgical instruments in ancientIndia were so sharp thatthey could split a hu-man hair," Sawant said.

Sushruta had ex-plained 20 types of sur-gical procedures to beperformed, he said.

There is a great simi-larity in ancient Indianmedical instruments likeforceps and scalpelsand their modern coun-terparts, Sawant said.

"He pointed out 107'marmas' (vital spots) onhuman body which themodern surgeons areunaware of," he said.

Sushruta's book hasreference to use of wines and hemp(bhaang) as anesthetic in surgery. He alsospoke of maintaining the natural color andtexture of a scar which is still uncommonto modern surgery, he said.

During the symposium, Dr RahulAltekar spoke about the 'scientific prin-ciples in ancient Indian architecture andcivil engineering', while Dr Leena Phadkespoke about 'neuroscience of yoga'. -PTI

HOUSTON: Global medical tourism mar-ket will rise to USD 32.5 billion by 2019 onaccount of rising healthcare costs in devel-oped countries, like the US and improvedstandards of healthcare technology andservices in nations like India and China, aresearch says.

The surging costs of healthcare andmedical insurance in the US will give a riseto global medical tourism which will regis-ter a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 17.9 per cent from 2013 to 2019, accord-ing to the research titled "Medical TourismMarket (India, Thailand, Singapore, Malay-sia, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, Turkey, SouthKorea, Costa Rica, Poland, the Philippinesand Dubai).

The research has been conducted byTransparency Market Research (TMR), aUS-based market intelligence company,which has pegged the current medical tour-ism market at USD 10 billion.

Factors like ageing population, adoptionof newer technologies to treat various prod-ucts and better exchange rates in theeconomy as a whole push the case for itsrise.

The possibility of economic crisis in

developed nations which has led to de-crease in disposable incomes has alsoadded to its growth.

Better pricing for cosmetic surgeries andshorter waiting period for treatment is alsolikely to accelerate the growth in the sec-tor.

Besides escalating healthcare costs,many medical and surgical procedures areno longer covered by insurance. This hasmade it imperative for Americans to seekalternative, affordable options for theirhealthcare treatments.

One such option is medical tourism ortraveling to foreign countries that offer ex-ceptionally good medical services at afford-able rates.

Today more Americans fly out to placeslike India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, andSingapore among others to get themselvestreated in the high-tech hospitals at a frac-tion of costs demanded by hospitals in US,the research said.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities invarious south-east Asian countries, espe-cially India and China, often match or evensurpass the quality of healthcare availablein US-based hospitals, it added. -PTI

Healthcare expenditureturns 63 million poor

NEW DELHI: A whopping 63 millionpeople are faced with poverty every yeardue to "catastrophic" expenditure overhealthcare which neutralizes the gains ofrising income and various governmentschemes aimed to reduce poverty, accord-ing to the Health Ministry.

The draft of National Health Policy citesthis as a significant reason for a new health

charter as it seeks to ensure universal ac-cess to affordable health care.

"Incidence of catastrophic expendituredue to healthcare costs is growing and isnow being estimated to be one of the majorcontributors to poverty. The drain on fam-ily incomes due to healthcare costs canneutralize the gains of income increases andevery government scheme aimed to reducepoverty.

"Over 63 million persons are faced withpoverty every year due tohealthcare costs alone. It is be-cause there is no financial protec-tion for the vast majority ofhealthcare needs," says the draftput out by the Health Ministry onits website for inviting public sug-gestions.

Healthcare costs are more im-poverishing than ever before andalmost all hospitalization even inpublic hospitals leads to cata-strophic health expenditures, itsays.

In 2011-12, the draft says, theshare of 'out of pocket' expenditureon healthcare as a proportion oftotal household monthly per capita

expenditure was 6.9 per cent in rural areasand 5.5 per cent in urban areas.-PTI

A paramedic distributes free medicine provided by thegovernment to patients inside a ward at Rajiv GandhiGovernment General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai

India Post Health Science Post34

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January 9, 2015

Flu didn't take a holidayin South Carolina

No change in fast food calories, salt

COLUMBIA, S.C.: The fludidn't take time off in South Caro-lina over the holidays, and nowdoctors and nurses are worried itwill keep spreading as people goback to school and work.

Twenty people have died fromthe flu so farthis season inSouth Carolina,according tothe state De-partment ofHealth and En-v i r o n m e n t a lControl.

Seventeenof the deathshave been inpeople overage 65, DHECsaid.

But peopleof all ages keepgetting andspreading theflu. Officials hoped school breakand vacations might slow the out-break down. But that hasn't beenthe case.

Almost 9,000 positive flu testswere reported statewide the weekbefore Christmas. That numbergrew to 10,000 positive tests theweek that included Christmas, ac-cording to DHEC.

``This is a heavy season,'' said

Dr. Matthew Crist, an epidemiolo-gist with DHEC. ̀ `This is the typeof season seen only a couple oftimes a decade.''

Schools are preparing for chil-dren who come back to schooldespite having flu symptoms.

``Some children love schooland say `Mom, I feel fine.' Thentheir teachers will notice them get-ting droopy and send them to us,''Lexington School District 1 leadnurse Jessica Porter told TheState newspaper. Employees willlikely feel like they need to workafter extended time off too, Portersaid.

And even with all the newsabout a less effective flu shot thisyear, doctors said it isn't a goodidea to skip the vaccination. Al-most all the flu cases this yearhave been a strain not covered bythe shot, which means the vacci-nation is working against severalother strains.

Crist said the easiest way forpeople not to spread the flu farand wide is to stay home whenthey start feeling bad.

`Òne of the most importantways to protect others, particu-larly if you have a fever, is to notexpose others,'' Crist said. -AP

WASHINGTON: Average calo-rie count, sodium and saturatedfat content in fast food is as hightoday as in 1996, new US researchhas found.

Researchers at the US Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA) Hu-man Nutrition Research Centre onAgeing at Tufts University showlittle change in fast food portionsizes and product formulationbetween 1996 and 2013.

They analyzed the calorie, so-dium, saturated fat and trans fatcontent of popular menu itemsserved at three national fast-foodchains between 1996 and 2013.

Researchers found that aver-age calories, sodium, and satu-rated fat stayed relatively con-stant, albeit at high levels.

The exception was a consis-tent decline in the trans fat offries.

"There is a perception thatrestaurants have significantly ex-panded their portion sizes overthe years, but the fast food weassessed does not appear to bepart of that trend," said Alice HLichtenstein, who led the re-search.

"Our analysis indicates rela-tive consistency in the quanti-ties of calories, saturated fat, andsodium. However, the variabilityamong chains is considerable

and the levels are high for mostof the individual menu items as-sessed, particularly for items fre-quently sold together as a meal,pushing the limits of what we

should be eating to maintain ahealthy weight and sodium in-take," said Lichtenstein.

"For example, among the threechains, calories in a large cheese-burger meal, with fries and a regu-lar cola beverage, ranged from1144 to 1757 over the years andamong restaurants, representing57 per cent to 88 per cent out ofthe approximately 2000 caloriesmost people should eat per day,"

Lichtenstein said.According to data, calorie

content of the cheeseburger mealamong the three chains repre-sented 65 per cent to 80 per cent

of a 2,000 calorie per daydiet and sodium contentrepresented 63 per centto 91 per cent of the rec-ommendation.

Lichtenstein and col-leagues focused on thefour most popular menuitems: fries, cheesebur-gers, grilled chickensandwiches, and regularcola, looking for trendsin portion size and nu-trient content over an 18year period.

They examined 27items including small,medium and large friesand cola beverages, agrilled chicken sand-

wich and cheeseburgers.They found only small fluctua-

tions in calorie content and theamount of saturated fat and so-dium. The notable exception wasfries, which decreased first in satu-rated fat in 2001 and then transfat, likely due to changes to thefrying fat.

The research was published inthe journal Preventing ChronicDisease. -PTI

Punjab plans separatedept for health awareness

MUKTSAR, Punjab: Punjabgovernment is considering to forma separate department for healthawareness in the state for inform-ing public about the benefits ofgood health.

Chief Minister Parkash SinghBadal has asked the Vice Chan-cellor of the Baba Farid Univer-sity of Health Sciences to explore

the feasibility of constitutingsuch a department so that peoplecould be made aware about howto keep good health through mas-sive awareness campaigns.

These campaigns must belaunched at village level also sothat people could be benefitedfrom it, Badal said at the annualconference of Indian Medical As-sociation.

He also announced that thestate government would annuallybear the expenditure of five pri-vate practitioners, who are desir-ous of upgrading their expertiseby undergoing training in foreigncountries.

These doctors would be se-lected every year by a committeeof officers of the state government,representatives of IMA and VC ofBaba Farid University, Badal said.

"We were already sendingdoctors from the government sec-tor for such courses and now wehave decided to extend this facil-ity to the private practitionersalso," he added.

The Chief Minister said thatthe setting up of the Homi BhabhaCancer Treatment and ResearchCenter at Mullanpur was a rightstep towards making Punjab aleading state in providing qualitytreatment to the cancer patientsacross the country.

He further said that the stategovernment had also initiated acashless treatment scheme forcancer patients besides makingefforts to provide subsidized medi-cines to them.

He exhorted the doctors toserve the people far more zeal-ously and sincerely by dedicatingat least one day in a week for theservice of poor and needy.

Badal also urged the leadingprivate practitioners to adopt acluster of villages around theirhospitals to treat the people freeof cost. -PTI

New app to boost socialskills of autistic kids

WASHINGTON: Researchershave designed a new app that canhelp kids growing up with autismdevelop basic social skills.

The app, called Look At Me,aims to train autistic childrento maintain eye contact andconvey basic emotions.

The app was developed bySamsung in conjunction witha multidisciplinary team ofclinical psychiatrists fromSeoul National University andYonsei University, South Ko-rea.

The app uses selectedSamsung devices' cameras,putting users through a set ofpoints-based missions, 'Gizmag'reported.

Each mission focuses on a spe-cific goal, such as recognizingemotions in others via facial rec-ognition, or helping the child toexpress their own feelings by mim-

icking the emotions conveyed onthe app.

To assess the effectiveness ofthe tool, researchers conducted asmall-scale clinical trial involving

20 autistic children, which yieldedvery "promising" results.

"Sixty per cent of the childrentested showed improvement inmaking eye contact," said Kyong-Mee Chung, a Professor at YonseiUniversity. -PTI

Parkash Singh Badal

India PostHealth Science Post 35

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January 9, 2015

Software predicts bacteriaresponse to new drugs

The networking opportunities from agroup that is known for such, leading to aclose knit execution of projects in researchand/or clinical trials, provides an incredibleopportunity for any participating organi-zation.

"I am very excited about potential forIndian investigators through this networkto be part of clinical trials with PV 10 in

melanoma other malignancies," said Dr.Agarwala, Chief of Medical Oncology &Hematology at St. Luke's Cancer Center andProfessor of Medicine at Temple Univer-sity School of Medicine and has been Prin-cipal Investigator of Provectus clinical tri-als involving immunotherapy and targetedtherapy for melanoma.

"Connecting to the brand of AAPI andits extensive US Physician network will lead

to an increased visibility of pharmaceuticalclinical trials here in the USA," commentedDr. Joseph Chalil, Strategic Advisor toProvectus Biopharmaceuticals, who at-tended the event.

About AAPIHeadquartered in Chicago, having a

strong legislative presence in Washington,DC AAPI has come to be recognized as astrong voice in the healthcare legislationand policy arena.

About Provectus Biopharmaceuticals,Inc.

Provectus Biopharmaceuticals special-izes in developing oncology and dermatol-ogy therapies. PV-10, its novel investiga-tional drug for cancer, is designed for in-jection into solid tumors (intralesional ad-ministration), thereby reducing potential forsystemic side effects. Its oncology focusis on melanoma, breast cancer and cancersof the liver. The Company has received or-phan drug designations from the FDA forits melanoma and hepatocellular carcinomaindications. PH-10, its topical investigationaldrug for dermatology, is undergoing clinicaltesting for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.Provectus has recently completed Phase 2trials of PV-10 as a therapy for metastaticmelanoma, and of PH-10 as a topical treat-ment for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

WASHINGTON: Researchers have de-veloped a novel computer software whichidentifies genetic changes that allow bac-teria to develop resistance to new experi-mental drugs.

Duke University researchers used thesoftware to predict a constantly-evolvinginfectious bacterium's countermoves to oneof these new drugs ahead of time, beforethe drug is even tested on patients.

The team used their program to identify

the genetic changes that will allow methi-cillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, orMRSA, to develop resistance to a class ofnew experimental drugs that show promiseagainst the deadly bug.

When the researchers treated live bac-teria with the new drug, two of the geneticchanges actually arose, just as their algo-rithm predicted.

"This gives us a window into the futureto see what bacteria will do to evade drugsthat we design before a drug is deployed,"said co-author Bruce Donald, a professor ofcomputer science and biochemistry at Duke.

Developing pre-emptive strategies whilethe drugs are still in the design phase willgive scientists a head start on the next lineof compounds that will be effective despitethe germ's resistance mutations.

"If we can somehow predict how bacte-ria might respond to a particular drug ahead

of time, we can change the drug, or plan forthe next one, or rule out therapies that areunlikely to remain effective for long," saidDuke graduate student Pablo Gainza-Cirauqui, who co-authored the researchpaper.

Until now, scientists trying to predict thegenetic changes that would enable a bac-terium to evade a particular drug have hadto look up possible mutations from "librar-ies" of resistance mutations that have beenobserved previously.

But this approach falls short when itcomes to anticipating how bacteria willadapt to new drugs.

To overcome this problem, a researchteam led by Donald at Duke and Amy Ander-son at the University of Connecticut useda protein design algorithm they developed,called OSPREY, to identify DNA sequencechanges in the bacteria that would enablethe resulting protein to block the drug frombinding, while still performing its normalwork within the cell.

The team focused on a new class of ex-perimental drugs that work by binding andinhibiting a bacterial enzyme calleddihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), whichplays an essential role in building DNA andother processes.

The drugs, called propargyl-linkedantifolates, show promise as a treatmentfor MRSA infections but have yet to betested in humans.

From a ranked list of possible mutations,the researchers zeroed in on four tiny dif-ferences, known as single nucleotide poly-morphisms, or SNPs, that would theoreti-cally confer resistance.

Though none of the mutations they iden-tified had been reported previously, experi-ments with live bacteria in the lab showedtheir predictions were right.

The study appears in the journal PNAS.-PTI

The team focused on a newclass of experimental drugsthat work by binding andinhibiting a bacterial en-zyme called dihydrofolatereductase (DHFR)

Global clinical trials networklaunched during AAPI summit

"Connecting to the brand ofAAPI and its extensive USPhysician network will leadto an increased visibility ofpharmaceutical clinicaltrials here in the USA," com-mented Dr. Joseph Chalil

Court revives malpracticecase in transplant death

ST. PAUL, Minn.: A malpractice case fora Minnesota woman who died after receiv-ing a transplant of a cancerous pancreasmay be headed for a trial.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruledthe case against Dr. Ty Dunn shouldhead to court in the death of 36-year-oldJodie Shierts, reversing a HennepinCounty judge's decision dismissing thelawsuit.

The court said Dunn violated statelaws on standard care by clearing the or-gan for a transplant. Dunn didn't knowthe pancreas was infected with cancer,the court said, but should have more thor-oughly screened the donor, who wasthought at the time of transplant to havedied of bacterial meningitis.

`Ì'm sure the family is happy,'' said KayNord Hunt, the attorney for the trusteeof Shierts' heirs. ̀ `Now the suit can go totrial and be heard on its merits.''

Shierts, of Pequot Lakes, needed kid-ney and pancreas transplants because ofrenal disease, stemming from diabetes.

The Star Tribune reported Dunn linedup a donor through an organ procurementorganization called Life Source, whichtold her the donor had died of bacterialmeningitis. After her own investigating,Dunn concluded that was likely true andapproved the transplant, which was per-formed March 30, 2007.

A month after the donor's death, anautopsy revealed he had died of a rareform of cancer. By the time the pancreaswas removed from Shierts, the diseasealready had spread.

She died Sept. 12, 2007. Shierts' familyand a trustee filed a malpractice lawsuitagainst Dunn and the University of Min-nesota-Physicians, which represents theMinneapolis hospital where Dunn worksas a transplant surgeon. -AP

Cont'd from Page 32

36 India Post January 9, 2015www.indiapost.com

TechBizTech News Manu Sharma,Director, Mobile,

Samsung India; KenKang, Senior VicePresident, Mobile &IT, Samsung Indiaand Asim Warsi,Vice President,

Marketing, Mobile &IT at Samsung India

at the launch ofGalaxy A5, A3, E7and E5 in Mumbai

on January 6

Honored to be appointed by PM toNITI Aayog: Arvind Panagariya

NEW YORK: Indian-Americaneconomist Arvind Panagariya hassaid that he is "honored" to beappointed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as the first ViceChairman of the newly createdNITI Aayog, which replaces the65-year-old Planning Commission.

"I am honored by this appoint-ment, and I look forward to work-ing with Prime Minister Modi andpolicymakers across India,"Panagariya was quoted as sayingin a statement issued by the Co-lumbia University here.

Panagariya is the professor ofeconomics and the JagdishBhagwati Professor of Indian Po-litical Economy in the Departmentof International and Public Affairs.He will take a leave of absencefrom Columbia to accept his posi-tion at the National Institution forTransforming India (NITI) Aayog.

The 62-year-old professor saidhe expects to continue to engagewith Columbia's School of Inter-national and Public Affairs (SIPA)"when such opportunities arise"and will resume his work at theSchool when his assignment iscompleted.

In his new cabinet position,Panagariya will work closely withModi, who will serve as chair ofthe renamed institution.

Officials envision NITI Aayogas a government "think tank" thatwill provide strategic and techni-cal advising on key issues.

Panagariya, who has been astrong supporter of Modi'sGujarat model of development,had said some months ago that hewants the BJP government's firstbudget to boost capital spendingeven at the risk of a higher fiscaldeficit.

He has earlier worked with vari-ous international bodies likeWorld Bank, IMF and Asian De-velopment Bank (ADB).

Holding a Ph.D degree in Eco-nomics from Princeton University,Panagariya has also worked for theWorld Trade Organization and theUnited Nations Conference onTrade and Development(UNCTAD) in various capacities.

During an address at Columbiain September last year on what the

Modi government must do totransform the Indian economy, hehad said a replacement for the Plan-ning Commission must be "leanand thin" and had termed as

"brave" the decision by Modi todo away with the 1950-dated in-stitution.

Panagariya had suggested thatModi should put in "as lean and

thin a team" for the Commission'sreplacement with 10-12 people and"lots of resources so that they candraw on the experts as necessary"and then periodically that team

should meet with the Prime Minis-ter and Finance Minister.

SIPA Dean Merit Janow con-gratulated Panagariya on his newrole and said his global perspec-

tive and broad experience wouldserve him well as the Vice Chair-man of NITI Aayog.Other members

Economist Bibek Debroy andformer DRDO chief V K Saraswatwere appointed as full-time mem-bers while Union ministers RajnathSingh, Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhuand Radha Mohan Singh weremade Ex-Officio members.

Ministers Nitin Gadkari, SmritiZubin Irani and Thawar ChandGehlot will be Special Invitees,according to a PMO statement.

Formation of the NITI Aayogor National Institution for Trans-forming India was announced onJanuary 1. It will serve as a policythink-tank for the central as wellas state governments with thePrime Minister as its Chairperson.

The NITI Aayog will have agoverning council comprising allstate Chief Ministers and Lt Gov-ernors and will work towards fos-tering a 'co-operative federalism'for providing a "national agenda"to the Centre and states. -PTI

44 Indians in Forbes list of global prodigies

Arvind Panagariya

NEW YORK: Over 40 Indiansand people of Indian-origin, includ-ing technology wizards, inventorsand policymakers, have beennamed by Forbes in its annual listof "young game changers, mov-ers and makers" under the age of30 from around the globe.

The fourth annual compilationby Forbes includes 600millennials in 20 fields, includingconsumer technology, retail, en-tertainment, science, finance,media, social entrepreneurs, lawand policy and enterprise tech-nology.

The list includes big nameslike Harry Potter actress and UNGoodwill Ambassador EmmaWatson, actor Zac Efron, basket-ball player James Harden andNBA star Chris Paul.

There are 44 Indians andpeople of Indian-origin in the list,who are doing exemplary worklike inventing an inexpensivemethod of purifying water, work-

ing on international food securityinitiatives and developingcrutches that don't hurt armpits.

In the venture capital categoryis Nitesh Banta, 28, whocofoundeded Rough Draft Ven-

tures that helps student entrepre-neurs receive up to USD 25,000 tostart a company.

In the consumer technologycategory is Ankur Jain, 24, whocofounded 'Humin', an app thatorganizes contacts, social net-works and calendars into a neat,

searchable interface.Avinash Gandhi, 26, is mak-

ing waves in Hollywood as anagent for talent agency WilliamMorris Endeavor.

Partha Unnava, 22, is the CEOof Better Walk which develop abetter set of crutches that don'thurt people's armpits.

The retail category featuresAman Advani, 26, who co-founded 'Ministry of Supply', amen's fashion company that hasdeveloped shirts that useNASA-developed technology tomanage heat and moisture.

In the sports category, 29-year-old Ishveen Anandfounded OpenSponsorship,which is the first online platformto facilitate sponsorship agree-ments by connecting brands withpro-sports rights holders likeleagues and teams. The groupcurrently includes Indian cricketcaptain M S Dhoni and F1 teamForce India.-PTI

Partha Unnava, 22, isthe CEO of BetterWalk which developa better set ofcrutches that don'thurt people's armpits.

It is govt of'pickpockets',says Congress

NEW DELHI: The Congresshas dubbed the Narendra Modidispensation as "government ofpickpockets", saying the benefitsof unprecedented fall in globalcrude prices were not been passedon to the common man.

As a result, it said, petrol costsmore than Aviation Turbine Fuelused by planes.

Seeking to paint the govern-ment as anti-poor, Congress ac-cused it of "shameless profiteer-ing" and "betraying" the peopleby refusing to reduce the pricesof petrol.

"Petrol for common man costsmore than the Aviation TurbineFuel used in planes. It is a govern-ment of pickpockets (Ab ki bar, jebkatronki sarkar)," the party said onits Twitter account.-PTI

Relianceexpects boostin insurance biz

MUMBAI: Confident aboutfurther growth in its mutual fundand securities market businesses,financial sector conglomerate Re-liance Capital expects a boost inits life insurance business as wellin 2015.

Besides, the group shouldrecord a faster growth in its gen-eral insurance venture this year,Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghoshsaid.

He said the 2014 has been verygood for Reliance Capital in areaslike mutual funds and brokeragebusinesses, although growth wassomewhat stagnant in the life in-surance segment.-PTI

Govt aligns FDIpolicy with codeof industrialization

NEW DELHI: With a view toimprove the ease of doing busi-ness, the government has alignedthe foreign direct investmentpolicy with the upgraded NationalIndustrial Classification (NIC)Code.

The code will classify businessactivities and help the industry inseeking policy approvals for spe-cific activities.

"With the objective of improv-ing ease of doing of business, anexercise has been undertaken tomap the activities...of the Consoli-dated FDI Policy, 2014 with theNational Industrial Classification- 2008," the Department of Indus-trial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)said.-PTI

37India PostTechBiz PostJanuary 9, 2015

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Govt not to interfere in state-owned banks: PM

Take decisions without fearor favor: Govt to banks

PUNE: Prime Minister NarendraModi has pledged not to interferein the functioning of public sectorbanks, but wanted the lenders tobe accountable failing which in-terventions in public interest couldbe made.

At the concluding session ofthe two-day bankers' meet 'GyanSangam' to chalk out banking re-forms, Modi also called for end-ing "lazy banking" and said banksmust prioritize lending to employ-ment-generating sectors.

While Finance Minister ArunJaitley called for bold reforms, Re-serve Bank Governor RaghuramRajan emphasized on the need forcleaning up bad debts and pos-sible Non-Performing Assets(NPAs) in the system within a yearto bring the economy back ontrack.

Bankers on their part sug-gested that government owner-ship in PSBs should be broughtdown below 51 per cent over timeas well as eliminate market distor-

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the “Gyan Sangam”, a two-day retreat function of chiefs of financial institutions, in Pune on January 3. Union Ministerfor Finance, Arun Jaitley, Governor of Maharashtra, C. Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, the Minister of State for Finance,

Jayant Sinha and Governor of Reserve Bank Raghuram Rajan are also seen

tions like loan waivers and inter-est rate caps for agriculture loans.

Briefing reporters about thedeliberations, Financial ServicesSecretary Hasmukh Adhia said

Modi has promised that the PSBswill not ever get "a call from PrimeMinister's Office (PMO)" that mayaffect their working.

Calling upon the banking sec-

tor to establish banks which rankamong the top of the globalleague, Modi said banks need tobe run professionally and assuredthem that there would be no inter-ference.

"But accountability is essen-tial," he said, adding that the gov-ernment had no vested interest,and public sector banks can de-rive strength from this fact.

Stating that India is a democ-racy, the Prime Minister said he isagainst political interference, butsupports political intervention inthe interest of the people.

He said, "political interventionwill enable the voice of the com-mon man to reach such institution".

In his remarks at the conference,Jaitley assured bankers that gov-ernment was ready to protect theircommercial decisions as "riskshave to be taken" by them.

The Finance Minister also saidthe government was willing to "re-consider the rules" to help banks

reduce the non-performing assets(NPAs), which have become amajor challenge for the bankingindustry.

"Government is open to bolddecisions for professionalisationof the management and autonomyin decision making, rewardingmerit, and relooking at the recruit-ment process at the top manage-ment level of PSBs," Jaitley said.

Rajan favored channel sing"full savings" of the householdsinto the financial system so thatrequisite financial resources forgrowth could be made available.

"In the short term (from 0 to 12months) there is need to clean upthe NPAs and then restructureother stressed loans so as to putthe economy back on the track,"Rajan said.

He also said that the bona fidemistakes made by the bankerswhile taking commercial decisionsshould be protected by the gov-ernment. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Acting swiftly onPrime Minister Narendra Modi'spromise of non-interference inworking of public sector banks,Finance Ministry has issued direc-tions asking PSBs to act without"fear or favor" and to ignore "ex-traneous considerations" in theircommercial decisions.

The Ministry also assured thebanks and other financial institu-tions that there will be no govern-ment interference in transfer andpostings within the organizations.

"The banks/FIs should take allcommercial decisions inthe best interest of theorganization withoutfear or favor," the min-istry said in communica-tion to chiefs of all state-run banks, FIs and in-surance companies.

It further said that nodecision should betaken due to any "extra-neous considerationsuch as the influence or the posi-tion that the borrower is holding".

The instructions follow soonafter Modi said at a bankers' re-treat that banks were free to takedecisions and they would neverget any "call from Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO)".

The Prime Minister had saidbanks would be run profession-ally and there would be no inter-ference.

The Finance Ministry commu-nication further said that banks

should take all commercial deci-sions "objectively, based on factsof the case".

"...if any complaint comes to the(Financial Services) Departmentfrom anybody informing that excep-tions were made in certain caseswithout any objective basis, andin order to favor somebody, theperson taking such decision wouldbe accountable," it said.

The Ministry has also askedthese banks and FIs to have a ro-bust grievance redressal mecha-nism for borrowers, depositors and

the staff.It asked each of them to draw a

well laid out transfer and postingrules and follow them strictly.

"No exception should be madein such rules at the behest of anyrecommendation given by anyoneincluding anybody from the Min-istry of Finance.

"If, for genuine reason any ex-ception to the rule is made, itshould be done only by CMD bygiving proper reasons," the com-munication said. -PTI

The Ministry has also askedthese banks and FIs to havea robust grievance redressalmechanism for borrowers,depositors and the staff.

Combine Laxmiwith Saraswati:PM to bankers

PUNE: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi took to mythol-ogy to underscore a need forbuilding adequate knowledgecapacities in the banking space,saying that Laxmi - goddess ofwealth - would stay longerwhen combined with Saraswati,who is worshipped for knowl-edge.

"Prime Minister said it is notimportant to worship onlyLaxmi, because Laxmiji is'chanchal'," Financial ServicesSecretary Hasmukh Adhia toldreporters here, quoting fromModi's address to bankers atthe two-day Gyan Sangamhere.

"If you combine Saraswatiand Laxmi, then Laxmi stays fora longer time," Adhia said,drawing references from theGoddesses of Knowledge andWealth, respectively.

The Prime Ministerstretched the same eulogy tocement the need to have sucha two-day conclave which hadthe entire spectrum of stake-holders from the banking andfinancial world, includingbankers, financial sector regu-lators and external experts.

"This (Laxmi and Saraswati)is the confluence at GyanSangam, in which there is a'milan' of Saraswati and Laxmi,"Adhia said, quoting the PrimeMinister. -PTI

38 India Post TechBiz Post January 9, 2015

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India advised to curtail outflow of black moneyWASHINGTON: India's efforts

to bring back black money stashedabroad may not succeed as majorwestern economies, including theUS and UK, are the main benefi-ciaries of illicit funds, a global

think-tank has said, underliningthat the government should in-stead focus more on curtailing itsoutflow which has jumped nine-fold since 2003.

"These are not easy issues tosolve. I think it is important that agreat deal of importance be fo-cused on curtailing the mechanismby which money continues to goout of India. That has more chance

of success than getting very muchblack money back into India," US-based Global Financial Integrity(GFI) president Raymond Bakertold PTI.

In a report last month, GFI saidthat the outflow of black moneyfrom India to foreign countries hasincreased nine-fold from USD 10billion in 2003 to USD 94.7 billionin 2012.

India has replaced Malaysia asthe fourth largest exporter of blackmoney after China, Russia andMexico for the 10-year period from2003-2012.

These figures are on the con-servative side and the actualamount could be much larger,Baker said.

"Getting black money back forany country is a hard thing to do,because international mechanismdoes not basically support this,"he said, noting that the major west-ern countries like the US and UK,which are the main beneficiariesof black money from countries likeIndia would not like to stop thisillicit flow of money into theireconomies.

"There is a global view that themoney that has been stolen bygovernment officials or corruptlyacquired should be returned to thecountry of origin, but there is nosuch global understanding withregard to the money generated inthe commercial sector which wastax evading," Baker said.

The money generated throughtax evasion is the bulk of the illicitmoney that has gone out of India,

he said.One of the things, Baker said,

that Prime Minister Narendra Modicould do "very effectively" is toput this issue much more effec-tively and solidly on the agendaof the G-20.

He said that it is not just thereturn of the corruptly stolenmoney, but it is also the whole is-sue of cross border illicit flow ofmoney that needs to be addressed.

"This issue is crying out for amajor figure from the emerging

market and developing world toinsist that this must be addressedat the level of G-20," Baker said.

The GFI chief noted that mostof the outflow of illicit money isthrough misinvoicing, and withIndia's international trade increas-ing in recent years, the blackmoney going out of the countryhas also jumped.

However, he said, GFI has noidea or data on the amount of black

money goes out of India throughpolitical leaders and governmentofficials involved in corrupt prac-tices, but an overwhelming major-ity is through commercial malprac-tices.

According to Baker, in recentyears some of the black money isflowing back into India throughMauritius or European route asforeign direct investment.

"May be 20-40 per cent," hesaid.

Baker argued that by bringing

in "transparency in financial deal-ings/transactions" the outflow ofblack money from India could becurtailed in a big way.

The issue of black money hasbeen a matter of a serious politicaldebate in India, including duringthe last general elections and theModi government has said that itis committed to bring back illicitfunds stashed in tax havensabroad. -PTI

The GFI chief noted that most of the outflowof illicit money is through misinvoicing, andwith India's international trade increasing inrecent years, the black money going out ofthe country has also jumped

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) president Raymond Baker

Seven snoop units abroad tocheck black money

NEW DELHI: Seven overseasintelligence units, including two inChina, have been proposed to beset up by the government in orderto check black money transactionsand customs fraud.

A proposal for creation ofseven Customs Overseas Intelli-gence Network (COIN) units ispending with the Ministry of Ex-ternal Affairs. Three COIN unitshave been proposed at Colombo(Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh)and Bangkok (Thailand) with aclear focus on fake Indian cur-rency notes smuggling, officialsources said.

Two such snoop units havebeen proposed at Beijing andGuangzhou because of the expo-nential growth of trade betweenIndia and China and the intelli-gence supported by cases of un-dervaluation and anti-dumpingduty, they said.

The Directorate of Revenue In-telligence (DRI), lead agency tocheck customs frauds and smug-gling, has also proposed two COINunits in Brasilia (Brazil) and Pretoria

(South Africa), the sources said.The decision to open these two

units has been taken due to theirincreasing importance in view ofIBSA (India, Brazil and South Af-rica) framework, they said.

The proposal is being discussed

with the ministries of Finance andExternal Affairs. The Home Minis-try has actively supported the cre-ation of three COIN units at Co-lombo, Dhaka and Bangkok. TheMEA has given in principle ap-proval for creation of two posts at

Beijing and Guangzhou in China,the sources said.

The proposal to set up theseven new COIN units is yet to befinalized, they said.

At present, there are nine of-ficers posted overseas in Dubai,

Hong Kong, Kathmandu, Lon-don, New York, Moscow,Singapore and Brussels. Indiahas customs mutual agreementswith some of these countrieswhich provide the framework toseek information.-PTI

Jaitley: New land law will balancedevelopment, compensation

NEW DELHI: Brushing asidecriticism against changes in landacquisition laws, Indian FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley has said theamendments would ensure highercompensation to land ownerswhile fulfilling developmentalneeds of the nation.

"The amendment... balances thedevelopmental needs of India, par-ticularly rural India, whilestill providing enhancedcompensation to the landowners," he said in hisFacebook post titled'Amendments to the LandAcquisition Law - The RealPicture'.

Pursuant to a decision ofthe Union Cabinet, Presi-dent Pranab Mukherjee, af-ter some inquiry, on Decem-ber 31, 2014, promulgatedan ordinance to amend pro-visions of the Right to FairCompensation and Transparencyin Land Acquisition, Resettlementand Rehabilitation (Amendment)Act, 2013.

The decision of the Cabinet toadopt the Ordinance route to pushchanges in the land acquisitionlaws evoked sharp reaction from

former minister and Congressleader Jairam Ramesh who haddescribed the amendments as "dis-turbing" saying they would en-courage forcible eviction.

Jaitley said the need to amendthis Act was due and that it hadbeen repeatedly mentioned thatthe Land Acquisition Act, 1894had become obsolete and needed

amendment."Those who are opposed to it

can certainly mandate their party'sstate governments not to use theprovisions of the ordinance. His-tory will judge how these stateswill lose out in the era of competi-tive federalism," he wrote.-PTI

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

39India PostTechBiz PostJanuary 9, 2015

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Modi launches scheme for LED bulb distributionNEW DELHI: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has launched ascheme for LED bulb distributionunder domestic efficient lightingprogram in Delhi.

Describing the LED (light emit-ting diode) bulb as a 'Prakash Path'- 'way to light', Modi said that it ismuch more economical to con-serve power than to producepower. He launched this schemeunder the domestic efficient light-ing program in Delhi and a Na-tional Program for LED-basedHome and street lighting.

Modi said this initiative wasexpected to reduce import bills andwould save the environment.

LED bulbs have almost 50 timesmore life than ordinary bulbs andtherefore provide both energy andcost savings in the medium term.

PM launched a web-based sys-tem to enable consumers in Delhito register requests for procuringLED bulbs under Domestic Effi-cient Lighting Program (DELP).

LED bulbs shall be distributedin a phased manner from March2015 onwards, an official state-ment said.

The entire project of installing

South Block with LED bulbs willenable savings of 7,000 units ofenergy each month, the statementsaid. Modi said it is much moredifficult to conserve power, thanto produce power, because whileone producing entity can gener-ate large quantity of power, it re-quires the active participation ofcrores of people to conserve thatamount of power.

The Prime Minister also em-phasized the need for generatingawareness among people for thesame.

He called for extensive involve-ment of celebrities and eminentcitizens in these programs, whocould motivate people to adoptLED bulbs.

Modi said: "These programsalso represent a challenge tomanufacturers, to rise to the occa-sion, and produce LED bulbs with-out any compromise on quality.

He added that gifts such as dia-ries and calendars on New Yearshould be replaced by gifts ofLEDs. Modi called for setting dis-trict level goals, and to prioritiesthis scheme in all towns with popu-lation above one lakh.-PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the National Programme for LED Street Lighting and LED Home Lighting, in NewDelhi on January 5. Lt. Governor Delhi, Najeeb Jung and Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and

New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal are also seen

LED bulbs for domestic andstreet-lighting in 100 cities is tar-geted for completion by March2016.

In Delhi, LED bulbs will be pro-vided to all domestic consumersat an initial payment of Rs 10 eachand recovery of Rs 10 each for 12

months from their electricity bill.Hence, the cost for an LED bulb

to domestic consumer will be Rs130 through this program due tobulk procurement, compared to thecurrent open market retail price inthe range of Rs 350-600 for LEDbulbs.

The estimated annual savingsfor households in Delhi per LEDbulb will be Rs 162. The LED bulbswill have a warranty of 3 years.

PM also symbolically replacedone bulb in South Block, with anLED bulb.

Replacement of all bulbs in

AIESL plans to offer MRO servicesto defense aircraft

NEW DELHI: Air India Engi-neering Services Limited (AIESL),which serves civilian planes, nowplans to offer its MRO services todefense aircraft and aims to gar-ner about 20 per cent revenuefrom the defense sector.

Eyeing a 50 per cent growth inits topline to Rs 750 crore in thenext fiscal, the Air India subsid-iary also plans to rope in overseascarriers in

its bidto corner a largermarket share in the USD 800 mil-lion Maintenance, Repair andOverhaul (MRO) business in thecountry.

"This year, we expect to clockaround Rs 500 crore revenue fromour MRO business. With thegrowth of domestic and interna-tional traffic in and around the Asiaregion. We are hopeful of rampingit (revenue) up to Rs 750 crore in2015- 16," a senior airline officialsaid.

He said the carrier was alsolooking at providing MRO servicesfor defense aircraft, adding, "Weexpect an up to 20 per cent rev-enue to come from this sector bythe next fiscal."

The total Indian MRO market

currently stands at USD 800 mil-lion, which is expected to touchUSD 2.5 billion mark by 2020 andAIESL aims to corner a majorshare, he said.

Air India's engineering unitalong with the ground handlingservices were hived off into sepa-rate wholly-owned subsidiaries in2013. AIESL was set up to providemaintenance services for aircraft,

engines and componentsfor its own fleet as

well to otherc u s -

t o m -ers.

The engineeringarm has last week received themandatory DGCA certification tocarry out maintenance, repair, over-haul and test of aircraft, enginesand components maintenance atany of its facilities spread acrossDelhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta,Hyderabad andThiruannathapuram, the officialsaid.

These facilities are capable ofmaintaining up to 50 wide and nar-

row body aircraft engines, he said."This certification will help us

in securing business from the for-eign carriers as well. The globalcarriers are mounting more flightsto India, particularly after Air In-dia joined the 27-member globalairlines group Star Alliance. So weexpect to cater to this demandalso," the official said.

AIESL is already approved byoverseas aviation regulators tocertify aircraft of Etihad and QatarAirways, Mihin Lanka,S i l k A i r ,

SingaporeA i r l i n e sand SriL a n k a nAi r l ines ,he said.

"PrimeM i n i s t e r

Narendra Modi's'Make In India' cam-

paign also raises MRObusiness prospects in the coun-try, which has so far failed to flour-ish due to the high costs," he said.

Noting that Indian MRO mar-ket was around 30 per cent cost-lier than those in the neighbor-hood like Sri Lanka, Dubai, HongKong, Singapore and China, hesaid, "if the government abolishesservice tax and VAT, we will havean edge over these players." -PTI

Indian firms line upIPOs worth Rs 8,000 cr

NEW DELHI: Indian companieshave lined up initial public offers(IPOs) worth at least Rs 8,000 crorein 2015 to fund business expan-sion and meet working capital re-quirements on expectations thatthe bullish trend in the stock mar-kets would continue.

Videocon D2H, Lavasa Corpo-ration, Adlabs Entertainment,Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL)and MEP Infrastructure Develop-ers are among the firmsthat are planning tolaunch public offers inthe coming months.

At present, sevencompanies are planningto raise Rs 2,965 croreand have Sebi's ap-proval. Another 12firms, intending to mop-up Rs 5,362 crore, havefiled draft documents with the capi-tal market watchdog and are await-ing approval, Prime DatabaseManaging Director Pranav Haldeasaid.

Most of the companies plan togarner funds for business expan-sion and to support working capi-tal requirements.

According to market experts,IPO market is expected to see someactivity in 2015 as a dozen compa-nies have filed draft papers withSebi for public offers since the new

government took charge at theCentre in May.

"In 2015, we will see spurt inIPO activities as more than a dozencompanies have filed their draftdocuments in 2014 ," Geojit BNPParibas Research Head AlexMathew said.

He further said that many com-panies, which scrapped their IPOplans earlier due to bad marketconditions, are making an another

attempt to enter the capital mar-kets.

Echoing a similar view, Haldeasaid: "A flurry of IPOs are ex-pected in the Q4 (January-Marchperiod of 2015)."

Besides, Sebi is expected tonotify new norms soon to sellshares through electronic IPOs (e-IPOs) to revitalize the market.

However, during the just-ended2014, fund raising through IPOswas at Rs 1,528 crore, lower thanRs 1,619 crore raked in 2013.-PTI

"In 2015, we will see spurtin IPO activities as morethan a dozen companieshave filed their draft docu-ments in 2014”

Amidst the loftiness of themajestic Himalayas, andthe serene ambience of

the unpolluted River Beas, Kulluis in the state of HimachalPradesh also known as the "Val-ley of Gods".

Formerly renowned asKulanthpitha, translating to 'theending point of inhabitableworld', this fabulous valley hasits mention in epics likeRamayana, Mahabharata andVishnu Purana. Kullu was not aneasily accessible place till inde-pendence, which helped to pre-serve its unspoiled charm andcenturies' old tradition. A clus-ter of beautiful valleys, Kullupresents an enjoyable touristspot where one can feel the re-juvenating warmth of MotherNature.

Bestowed with abundant natu-ral resources, Kullu valley offerseverything that tickles the tourist'simagination. The awe-inspiringlandscapes, friendly people withvaried culture and traditionsmakes Kullu a favorite picnic spot.Challenging trekking, river raftingand mountaineering are activitiesyou can enjoy in this serene val-ley. Words would not suffice toexplain the downright excitementof descending from the sky,paragliding over subterraneanmountain, rafting in the deafeningcrystalline water, or hiking the gla-ciers and mountain acmes ofHimalayas.

At an altitude of 1230 meter, thisvalley of gods commands thebeauty of nature at its zenith. Itspicturesque views dotted withsnow clad mountain peaks, ver-

dant grassy fields, soaring deodarjungles, gurgling rivers and theapple orchards are awe inspiringspectacles.

With the awesome views of lushevergreen grazing lands, engulfedby the gushing streams and twistyrivulets, tossing all around, Kulluoffers a rather broad area which isideal for everyone who wishes toget away from the trappings of thehectic city life.

Besides these blessed beautyspots, Kullu valley is also famedfor its finely carved temples, bril-liant artistries and cultural festi-vals. In a nutshell, Kullu Valleyoffers a variety of amazing attrac-tions which gather large crowdsyear after year. Kullu is very closeto Manali and numerous Manalitour packages are available.

India Post40 January 9, 2015www.indiapost.com

Cont’d on page 42

India PostJanuary 9, 2015 41Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Tourism Ministry tells officialsto avoid delays

Tourists throng Gulmarg for New Year bashSRINAGAR: Hundreds of tour-

ists and locals thronged the fa-mous ski-resort of Gulmarg, innorth Kashmir, for the New Yearcelebrations, but the dry weatherplayed a dampener and disap-pointed many revelers.

"We had made plans for cel-ebrating New Year in Gulmarg veryearly in the year. We had heardfrom our friends that it was the bestplace to be in winters and it trulyis. We enjoyed a lot," AmitBanerjee from West Bengal said.

He said though the celebrationswere "awesome", there was somedisappointment as the weatherplayed a spoilsport.

"We were expecting it to snow,but to our disappointment, theweather remained dry. It otherwisewas awesome," he said.

Another tourist from Gujarat,Rati Lal, said welcoming the NewYear amidst snow-capped moun-tains and meadows is a dreamcome true and he would love tovisit the resort every year.

"We do not get to see snow. Iam happy that I visited Gulmargwith my family. It is a dream cometrue," he said.

However, he said the snowfallcould have made the experience

much better."Gulmarg is famous for snow,

so yes we were kind of disap-pointed as there was no fresh

snowfall," Lal said.Many events were organized

by Tourism department as part ofthe celebrations.

The resort turned eco-friendlyfor the New Year bash as the first-ever environment friendly cel-ebrations including a digital fire-cracker show was held.

There were cultural programs,

music performances and a perfor-mance by DJ Aki, along with otherevents aimed at entertaining thevisitors.

The celebrations at Gulmargwere a part of 'Jashne Chillai-Kalan' (festivities for the 40-dayharshest winter period) organizedby the Tourism Department herewith the aim to improve the imageof the sector which was hit by thefloods last year (in September).

The floods damaged the imageof the tourism sector.

Jashne Chillai-Kalan was an en-deavor to improve our image andthis in-house event at Gulmargcoincided with the New Year cel-

ebrations, DirectorTourism Kashmir,Talat Pervez toldPTI.

Pervez said thedepartment wasmaking efforts to re-vive the sector fullyafter it received aset-back due to thedeluge.

"The tourist ar-rivals took a dip af-ter the floods. Forthat period of theyear, Kashmirhosted more than40,000 tourists permonth, but the num-bers dipped by 50

per cent this year due the floods.There was a huge impact on theimage of the sector, but we aremaking efforts to revive it and

have been successful to a largeextent," he said.

The director said the New Yearcelebration at Gulmarg, eventhough an annual feature, was aconscious effort to improve theimage of the sector and revive it.

"We want to show that thesituation in Kashmir was not badas had been projected. We areholding local level events, inter-actions with tour operators out-side the state and festivals to dis-pel the notion that Kashmir wasnot safe to travel after floods," hesaid.

Pervez said the department hasalso invited tour operators fromoutside to see for themselveswhat the Valley had to offer.

"We are on a vigorous public-ity campaign for the promotion oftourism," he said, adding a seriesof programs had been held to at-tract maximum tourists.

The director said the hotels inthe resort saw occupancy ofaround 95 per cent. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Minister of Statefor Tourism Mahesh Sharma hasdirected his ministry officials toobtain timely land clearances andother statutory approvals to avoidinordinate delays while implement-ing the schemes.

Reviewing the progress of twonew schemes PRASAD and Cre-ating Tourist Circuits around Spe-cial Themes here, a statement said

that he directed that land clear-ances and other statutory approv-als must be obtained in a timelymanner to avoid any litigation orcomplication at a later stage toavoid inordinate delays.

He also insisted that time

lines must be maintained at anycost during the implementationof the schemes and there shouldbe close monitoring by the of-

ficers of the Ministry of Tour-ism, the statement added.

Referring to the tourist cir-cuits from the Himalayan andNorth Eastern region, Sharmasaid that several requests havebeen received from these statesseeking more time for implement-ing schemes due to difficultconditions in the states.

Highlighting the importanceof stakeholders in the projects,the Minister said that they mustbe closely involved in the pro-cess of implementation and theirwisdom must be fully utilized.

With regard to the overallworking of the Ministry, Sharmaurged his officers to clear allbacklog and that no file shouldbe pending in the New Year.

He also asked them to obtainthe views, suggest ions andfeedback from the organizations/offices under the Ministry ofTourism within two weeks andresolve all their outstanding is-sues.

The Minister also sought thatsocial media be made interactiveand queries to be responded, thestatement said. -PTI

Mahesh Sharma

Naidu wants organic wasteplants mandatory in eateries

NEW DELHI: Union Urban De-velopment Minister M VenkaiahNaidu has pitched for making itmandatory for eateries and hotelsto have organic waste plant andsaid he will write to Tourism minis-try in this regard.

"I will write to Ministry of Tour-ism to make it mandatory in all fiveand four star hotels and eateryestablishments to have organicwaste plant," Naidu said while in-

augurating a plant in Malcha Margmarket here.

The plant, which can processone tonne waste in 24 hours, willconvert the organic waste of ho-tels and eateries in this area intocompost for horticulture and agri-culture use.

Calling the project undertakenby New Delhi Municipal Corpora-

tion (NDMC) a step in the direc-tion of Prime Minister NarendraModi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,Naidu said the plant will be help-ful in saving the cost of collection,transportation and disposal ofwaste.

"It will also reduce the landfillspace and water, noise & air pollu-tion," he said.

NDMC Chairman JalajSrivastava said the introduction of

this system toconvert or-ganic waste tocompost willreplace the oldmanual gar-bage disposalsystem.

The plantwill be able toconvert or-ganic wasteinto compostwithin 24hours usingt h ec o m p o s t i n gmachine, hesaid.

Two similar plants have beeninstalled at Palika Services Offic-ers Institute, Vinay Marg and atMalcha Marg Market.

Earlier, Naidu also inaugurateda public toilet unit (PTU) atHanuman Lane which has beenconstructed by NDMC under pub-lic-private-partnership project. -PTI

M Venkaiah Naidu

Gulmarg

India Post January 9, 201542 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Tourist AttractionsChandrakhani Pass:

Chandrakhani Pass is located inthe Parbati valley that joins MalanaValley to Kullu Valley. An ideal basefor trekking, the pass is known forits scenic beauty. Chandrakhani is3600m above sea level and offers

scenic trekking trails.Just below the Chandrakhani

pass, trekkers can stop over at thesmall village of Malana which is acluster of stone roof houses. Thebest season for trekking atChandrakhani pass is from May toOctober.

Pandoh Dam: Around 10 kmsfrom Manali lies this vast expanseof man-made beauty. Pandoh damis a power generator hydro-elec-tric dam, built on river Beas. Thelake is the reservoir of the dam andhas five bays that regulate thewater.

The Great Himalayan NationalPark: Great Himalayan NationalPark, also known as Jawahar LalNehru Great Himalayan NationalPark, is an ideal place for wildlifebuffs. Located amidst the spectacu-

lar natural vista, the park is home tosome of the most elusive and en-dangered species of animals.

Sprawling on an area of 50 sqkm, there are around 180 speciesof bird and mammals that touristscan sight here. Tourists can lookforward to sights include muskdeer, brown bears, Himalayan Tahr,

Ibex, black bears and rare speciesof snow leopard.

Bijli Mahadev Temple: Situatedatop a majestic hill, Bijli MahadevTemple is dedi-cated to LordShiva. This templehouses the picto-rial view of the luxu-riant valley below.The Pahari styletemple architectureoffers an eye-catching scenarioto visitors.

Hanogi MataTemple: Locatedon the Mandi-Manali NationalHighway, it is apopular attraction.Dedicated to

Kullu, Himachal PradeshAwe-inspiring landscapes & friendly people

Hango Mata, this Hindu temple isvisited by devotees all the yearround. Located atop a small peak,green mountains serve as a back-drop for the temple and a gleam-ing stream flowing below makesthis temple a stunning attraction.

Jagannathi Devi Temple(Bekhli Temple): This temple isbelieved to have been con-structed 1500 years ago. The de-ity in the temple is also known asBhuweneshawari, who is consid-ered as the sister of Lord Vishnu.The walls of the temple are carvedwith images of Durga and thetemple as such reflects the localarchitecture.

Raghunath Temple: This fa-mous temple is renowned for itsseven day long Dussehra festi-vals. It is dedicated to RaghunathJi. The idol in the temple is takenfrom Tretnath temple and thepopular belief is that it is the sameidol that was used by Lord Rama.Raghunath Temple was built inthe year 1650 AD. The temple ar-chitecture is a curious blend of Py-ramidal and Pahari style.

Rafting: Kullu is one of the mostpopular destinations for rafting.River Beas, located close to Kulluis the place where rafters can en-joy this sport. The season from

end of April to June and again frommid-September to mid-October isthe apt time for rafting in Kullu.

Trekking: Kullu features amongthe main trekking areas inHimachal Pradesh. There are sev-eral famous treks around the KulluValley, but most of the trails aresituated beyond the Rohtang Pass

in the valleys of Spiti, Lahaul,Zanskar and Ladakh. Expeditionsfor up to 10-12 days are organizedin this area from Pin-Pass to Spitiand Manikaran to Chhota Dhara.

Kullu Shawl Factory: The KulluShawl fac-tory is asmall yetsignificantat tract ionfor thoseplanning aholiday inKullu. Heretourists canshop forhandmadeau then t i cK u l l us h a w l s .The way toreach thef a c t o r y

where tourists pass through gar-dens, mountains, falls and otheramazing scenic beauties is anadded attraction.

Best time to visitIn Kullu, summers are good for

sight seeing and relaxation, whilewinter months are ideal for trekking,

rock climbing, sight seeing, riverrafting and enjoying snowfall.

How to reachBy Train: Jogindernagar is the

nearest railhead to Kullu, which isat a distance of 125 km. This rail-way station is connected to all In-dian cities via Chandigarh which is270 km away from Kullu.

By Air: Nearest airport to Kulluis Bhuntar airport, which is at a dis-tance of 10 km from the city centerof Kullu but has low connectivity.

By Bus: State owned bus ser-vices of Himachal Pradesh RoadTransport Corporation are avail-able from Kullu connecting with thenearest cities. Kullu is connectedto Delhi (570 km), Chandigarh (267km), Pathankot (285 km) and Shimla(270 km) by tourist deluxe buses ofHimachal Pradesh Tourism Devel-opment Corporation.

Pandoh Dam

Bijli Mahadev Temple

The Great Himalayan National Park


India PostJanuary 9, 2015 43Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Alaska communities reachrecord-high temperatures

Nebraska's Archway monumentsees attendance jump

Kochi airport traffic grew 15% in 2014

World-traveling Museumchief finds home

EVANSVILLE, Ind.: BryanKnicely always felt the need towander and explore.

Growing up in a small Ohio townwill do that to you. It was nothingagainst Coshocton, but Knicelyknew there was more in store forhim beyond its city limits.

The Evansville Museum's newexecutive director, who took thehelm mid-October, has traveled allover the world and worked in sev-eral different capacities within thearts community. But what he hasfound in Evansville is somethinghe hasn't felt since his youth - aplace to call home.

``Sometimes you can get so

busy climbing and trying to expe-rience everything life has to offerthat you don't stop to think aboutwhat will make you happy,''Knicely said. ̀ Ì found everythingand more upon moving here.''

He took his first step along hiswinding and adventurous careerpath when he changed majors atthe end of his junior year atOtterbein University inWesterville, Ohio. Despite partici-pating in several artsextracurriculars growing up,Knicely's parents wanted him tostudy ̀ `something serious'' duringhis college tenure. The thought ofbeing an accountant and crunch-ing numbers everyday wasn't forKnicely though, so he made theswitch to managing and marketingwith eyes toward a career in law.

Despite many law school ac-ceptances, Knicely still wonderedif becoming a lawyer was his truecalling. After graduation, he de-cided to pack up his car and travel8,000 miles across the country toclear his head. What he discov-ered along the way was a desire topursue a career in the arts - a pur-suit he truly began at The OhioState University where he receiveda masters of arts in art administra-tion and policy.

It's been full-speed ahead sinceKnicely's Buckeye days. He wouldmove onto several different rolesin diverse arts institutions acrossthe country, many of which gave

him the opportunity to work inter-nationally. He has worked with theLaumeier Sculpture Park in St.Louis, the Maine Arts Commis-sion, several different organiza-tions in Columbus, Ohio, includ-ing the Greater Columbus ArtsCouncil and most recently theCoral Springs Museum of Art inFt. Lauderdale, Florida, as its ex-ecutive director.

You wouldn't know that his ca-reer was full of glittering accoladesand achievements though. Whenreflecting on his career to this point,Knicely lingers on the beauty ofcoastal Maine or his love/hate re-lationship with the Ft. Lauderdaleheat rather than the innovative artsprogramming he brought to theorganizations he served while liv-ing there.

Knicely's experience working invarying disciplines made his tran-sition into the executive directorrole seamless, said Mary Bower,who served at the museum's in-terim director following JohnStreetman retirement in 2012 aftermore than 37 years in the role.

``We are absolutely thrilled tohave (Knicely,)'' said Bower, chiefcurator and the Virginia G.Schroeder Curator of Collectionsfor the museum. ``We are reallyfocusing on how to incorporate allthe disciplines of the museums tofuture exhibitions and programs.''

Bower's guidance in the con-struction and opening of theEvansville Museum's new wingand Koch Immersive Theatre hasinspired Knicely to explore newand diverse ways of experiencingart for future exhibitions and pro-grams. Many of his goals for themuseum stem from strengtheningit's ties to the region through part-nerships and outreach. Knicely isalso looking to update the RiverTown exhibit to be even more trueto Evansville, as well as bringingin new technology for more inter-active learning for visitors.

The city and region's heritagehas always been a pillar at themuseum but will be especiallyprominent in the coming yearswith the state's bicentennial in2016. Bower said she and Knicelyare in the planning stages for amultiple-disciplinary exhibitionfocusing on the Ohio River Val-ley.

While walking through themuseum's permanent collection,Knicely's eyes glimmered behindhis thick-framed glasses as hescanned the art on display. Theexpansiveness of the collectionstill amazes him, and he said hehas great respect for those whohave shaped and cultivated themuseum before his arrival.

``What brought me here werethe people - those who I now workwith and those who take residencehere,'' Knicely said. ``They'veshaped what I've come into, and Iwant to build upon the great workthey've done.'' -AP

KOCHI: Passenger trafficthrough Kochi airport has wit-nessed 15.36 per cent growth in 2014with over 61 lakh people having trav-eled though the airport in Kerala.

This is the second consecutiveyear when over 50 lakh passengershave traveled via Kochi airport.

Cochin International AirportLtd, the airport company, said in astatement that 61,04,559 passen-gers traveled through the airportin 2014, while during the previousyear, it was 52,91,793, a growth of15.36 per cent.

While 24.86 lakh persons trav-

eled within the country throughthe airport last year, it was 21.06per cent in 2013.

In the international sector, 31.85lakh passengers had traveledabroad through Kochi in 2013while last year it was 36.18 per cent,a growth of over 13 per cent. -PTI

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: SevenAlaska communities have re-corded their hottest annual aver-age temperatures ever in 2014.

The relatively warm weathersent dogsled teams traveling hun-dreds of miles to find reliable snowfor training, and interrupted ru-ral travel along rivers that wouldnormally be safely frozen.

The Kuskokwim River usu-ally becomes a highway arteryfor the community in winter, butit wasn't drivable for an unusu-ally long time, said AnnastasiaHoffman, President of the BethelNative Corporation.

``We have been seeing moreand more commuters, who wouldtravel into Bethel for work, haveto stay in Bethel because theycannot commute due to the warmweather,'' Hoffman said.

The warm weather blanketedmost of western and southwest-ern Alaska and stretched tonearly every corner of the state,the National Weather ServiceAlaska said.

Some Alaska communities hit

climate records that were heldfor 70 years or more, said RickThoman, climate sciences andservices manager for theWeather Service in Alaska.

`Ìt's quite unusual, and it'salso quite a large area,'' Thomansaid. ``We also have a numberof places - Anchorage, Barrow,St. Paul - that also made it intothe top three warmest years.''

In Anchorage, 2014 was thefirst recorded calendar yearwhen the temperature failed tofall below zero, researcherswrote on the weather agency'sFacebook page. In Bethel, it wasthe first winter in recorded his-tory where temperatures didn'tfall to 20 degrees below zero,Thoman said.

Communities that broke therecord for highest-average tem-perature recorded in a singleyear include Cold Bay, KingSalmon, Homer, Bethel ,McGrath, Nome and Kotzebue.

But despite the concerns, noteveryone misses the cold, KTUUreported. ). -AP

KEARNEY, Neb.: The Archwaysaw more than 50,000 visitors in2014 - the most the monumentspanning Interstate 80 at Kearneyhas seen in three years.

Attendance figures show that50,457 visited the attraction lastyear, a 1 percent increase from2013, the Kearney Hub reported.

The Archway had also brought in$693,343 in revenue for 2014, anincrease of nearly 26 percent from2013.

The Archway hosted its50,000th visitor of the year on Dec.26, marketing coordinator JaceRobinson said.

`Ìt's been a phenomenal yearfor The Archway,'' Robinson said.`Ànd the thing that isn't repre-sented in our attendance numberis the thousands of local people

that have attended one of themany community events through-out the year.''

The higher numbers come aftera year of transition for the monu-ment. The attraction closed for twomonths at the beginning of 2014to focus on rebranding after filingfor bankruptcy in late 2013 and

later settled itsdebt of morethan $20 million.

A r c h w a ystaff took stepsto reduce over-head costs andincrease focuson communitye n g a g e m e n t ,Robinson said.Some structuralchanges werealso made, in-cluding eliminat-

ing a full-time director and havingthe city perform in-kind mainte-nance services.

Recently, the attraction alsoclosed its concession area andmoved it to the gift shop, whichallows one staff member to coverboth areas at once, Robinson said.

Nearly 250,000 people visitedthe monument the year after itopened in 2001, but attendancehad dropped steadily after that toa low of 49,960 in 2013. -AP

The Evansville Museum

44 India Post January 9, 2015www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationObama looks past Republicans

in promoting 2015 agendaHONOLULU: President Barack

Obama plans new steps to helpmiddle-income Americans, part ofa 2015 agenda he hopes can buildon the post election momentumfrom high-profile moves on immi-gration and Cuba.

His approach for the New Yearappears to look straight past newlyemboldened Republicans whohave taken full control of Con-gress.

Fresh from a two-week Hawai-ian vacation, the president wasreadying executive actions andlegislative proposals to start pro-moting right away while advisersand speechwriters flesh out thebroad themes that Obama wants toemphasis in his State of the Unionpolicy address on January 20.

It will be his sixth since takingoffice, but his first before a Con-gress entirely in Republicanhands.

In a sign of their divergentpaths, Obama was heading out ofWashington just as the new Con-gress was settling in.

He plans stops in Michigan,Arizona and Tennessee aimed athighlighting how his own eco-nomic policies were contributing

to the country's recovery.Obama has appeared energized

by the end-of-the-year action onimmigration policy and Cuban re-lations, suggesting continued

presidential relevance despite apolitical landscape dramaticallyaltered by deep Democratic lossesin the November elections.

Since the November election

setback, the key question hasbeen whether Obama will lean inor away from compromise withRepublicans in his final two years.

Of the issues the White House

said Obama will emphasize in thecoming weeks, none was amongthe few areas that both Democratsand Republicans have cited asripe for deal-making, trade, taxes,

and public works.An Obama spokesman, Eric

Schultz, said the president wouldannounce proposals this comingweek that focus on helping middle-class Americans benefit from theeconomic recovery.

"There are a number of issueswe could make progress on, butthe president is clear that he willnot let this Congress undo impor-tant protections gained particu-larly in areas of health care, WallStreet reform and the environ-ment," Schultz said.

Obama has threatened to usehis veto power to block Republi-can attacks this year.

In Detroit, Obama plans to citethe return of manufacturing jobsand his decision to bail out theauto industry.

In Phoenix the next day, Obamaintends to showcase gains in thehousing sector since the real es-tate crash and come out with newsteps to help Americans buy ahome, the White House said.

Vice President Joe Biden willjoin Obama in Tennessee to dis-cuss new ways to help morepeople attend college or receivejob-training. -AP

Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio listen asPresident Barack Obama gives his address on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Why the lawsuit against Obama is a wasteGARY ENDELMAN & CYRUS D. MEHTA

For I was hungry and yougave me food, I was thirstyand you gave me drink, I

was a stranger and you wel-comed meMatthew 25:35

A lawsuit was expected as soonas President Obama dramaticallyannounced that his immigrationexecutive actions could impactmore than 5 million people. It isalready here. On December 3, 2014,Texas took the lead with 18 otherstates in a lawsuit against theUnited States asserting that thePresident's unilateral ImmigrationAccountability Executive Actionsare unconstitutional.

The coalition of states in addi-tion to Texas include Alabama,Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas,Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi,Montana, Nebraska, North Caro-

lina, South Carolina, South Da-kota, Texas, Utah, West Virginiaand Wisconsin.

The complaint essentially al-leges that the DHS directive vio-lates the President's constitutionalduty to "take Care that the Lawsbe faithfully executed" under Ar-ticle II, §3, Cl. 5 of the United StatesConstitution. Another basis forthe complaint is that under theAdministrative Procedure Act, 5U.S.C. § 553, the President's execu-tive action is akin to a rule, whichneeds to be promulgated throughnotice-and-comment rulemaking.

The complaint also cites APA,5 U.S.C. § 706, which gives a fed-eral court power to set aside anagency action that is, among otherthings, arbitrary or capricious,contrary to constitutional right orin excess of statutory authority.

But it reads more like a white-hottabloid, and instead of providinga forceful legal basis, loudly pro-claims in bombastic fashion sev-eral prior utterances of PresidentObama claiming that he couldnever bypass Congress. Here aretwo out of many examples:

"I am president, I am not king.I can't do these things just bymyself…[T]here's a limit to thediscretion that I can show becauseI am obliged to execute the law…Ican't just make the laws up bymyself."

"[I]f in fact I could solve allthese problems without passinglaws in Congress, then I woulddo so. But we're also a nation oflaws. That's part of our tradition.And so the easy way out is to tryto yell and pretend like I can dosomething by violating our laws.

And what I'm proposing is theharder path, which is to use ourdemocratic processes to achievethe same goal. "

The President still went aheadand changed the law himself de-spite his many previous asser-tions that he could not, accordingto the complaint, as if that can bea legal basis to challenge the ac-tions. Interestingly, the Presidentconsistent with these prior utter-ances of his still insists even afterNovember 20, 2014 that only Con-gress can change the law andbring on meaningful reform.

The centerpiece of thePresident's executive actions is tobroaden deferred action, whichhas always been deployed by theExecutive Branch.

Cont'd on Page 45

Jeb Bush declinesinvitation fromhard-liner

MIAMI: Separating himselffrom much of the emerging Repub-lican presidential field, Jeb Bushhas declined an invitation tospeak at a political event orga-nized by one of Congress' moststrident immigration critics.

A Bush aide said that theformer Florida governor appreci-ated the invite from Republicancongressman Steve King butwould not be able to attend theIowa Freedom Summit on Jan. 24because of a scheduling conflict.

More than a half-dozen poten-tial Republican presidential con-tenders are set to appear, includ-ing New Jersey Gov. ChrisChristie.

Bush's absence is notable be-cause of King's status as a con-servative power broker in Iowa,home of the nation's first presi-dential caucuses.

Bush is one of the GOP's mostvocal advocates for comprehen-sive immigration reform. Kinggenerally opposes such efforts. -AP

Immigrantsseek Californiadriver licenses

STANTON, Calif.: Mexican im-migrant Jesus Moreno emergedsmiling from a California Depart-ment of Motor Vehicles office withofficial permission to do some-thing he's been doing here formore than a decade: driving.

The 30-year-old vending-ma-chine installer, who has forkedover hundreds of dollars in traf-fic tickets and car-impound feesas an unlicensed driver, becameone of the first to get a permitunder a new program to givedriver's licenses to the nation'slargest population of immigrantsin the country illegally.

`Ìt's not that I want to drive,''said Moreno, after leaving apacked DMV office in OrangeCounty. `Ìt's a necessity.''

Thousands of people crammedinto DMV offices and waited inhours-long lines to apply for a li-cense as California became oneof 10 states to authorize immi-grants in the country illegally todrive.

The DMV expects to field 1.4million applications in the firstthree years of a program aimed atboosting road safety and makingimmigrants' lives easier. By 3 p.m.on January 2, more than 11,000immigrants had applied, said Jes-sica Gonzalez, a DMV spokes-woman. -AP

Lawmaker wants immigrants'licenses tagged

PHOENIX: A newly elected Ari-zona lawmaker says he's draftinglegislation to add a ``non-citizen''designation on driver's licensesissued to young immigrants par-ticipating in a federal program en-abling them to avoid deportation.

Republican Rep.-elect JayLawrence said he wants to pro-tect the integrity of the votingsystem. -AP

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India Post 45January 9, 2015 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

The November 20, 2014 an-nouncement defers the deporta-tion of people who were in unlaw-ful status as of the date of the an-nouncement, and who were alsothe parents of US citizen or per-manent resident children, pro-vided they were in the UnitedStates before January 1, 2010.

The previous Deferred Actionfor Childhood Arrivals (DACA)program has been expanded to in-clude those who came to theUnited States when they were be-low 16 years prior to January 1,2010 instead of January 15, 2007.The previous age limit of 31 thatwas imposed in the June 15, 2012announcement has been lifted. Eli-gible people who are a non-prior-ity for enforcement purposes canapply for deferred action, and ob-tain employment and travel autho-rization.

The lawsuit is a waste of timeand taxpayers money. The authorshave argued in A Time for HonestTruth: A Passionate Defense ofPresident Obama's Executive Ac-tions (http://blog.cyrusmehta.com/2014/11/a-t i m e - f o r - h o n e s t - t r u t h -passionate.html) that the Presi-dent clearly has the legal author-ity to exercise discretion with re-spect to prioritizing on whom toenforce the law against, especiallywhen Congress has not providedsufficient funding to deport 12 mil-lion undocumented people all atonce. Even the conservative es-tablishment refers to those whodesire to deport 12 million as the"boxcar" crowd.

The truth is that deferred ac-tion is neither recent nor revolu-tionary. Widows of US citizenshave been granted this benefit.Battered immigrants have soughtand obtained refuge there.

Never has the size of a vulner-able population been a valid rea-son to say no. Even if the law suitalleges that the President does nothave authority, now is a good timeto remind critics about JusticeJackson's famous concurrentopinion in Youngstown Sheet& Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343U.S. 579, 635 (1952), which heldthat the President may act withina "twilight zone" in which he mayhave concurrent authority withCongress. Unlike YoungstownSheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer,where the Supreme Court held thatthe President could not seize asteel mill to resolve a labor disputewithout Congressional authoriza-tion, the executive branch underthe recent immigration actions iswell acting within Congressionalauthorization. In his famous con-curring opinion, Justice Jacksonreminded us that, however meri-

torious, separation of powers it-self was not without limit: "Whilethe Constitution diffuses powerthe better to secure liberty, it alsocontemplates that practice will in-tegrate the dispersed powers intoa workable government.

It enjoins upon its branchesseparateness but interdepen-dence, autonomy but reciprocity."Id. at 635. Although PresidentTruman did not have authorizationto seize the mill to prosecute theKorean War, Justice Jackson laida three-pronged test to determinewhether the President violated theSeparation of Powers clause.

First, where the President hasexpress or implied authorization byCongress, his authority would beat its maximum. Second, where thePresident acts in the absence ofcongressional authority or a de-nial of authority, the President maystill act constitutionally within a"twilight zone" in which he mayhave concurrent authority withCongress, or in which its distribu-

tion is uncertain.Under the second prong, Con-

gressional inertia may enable, if notinvite, measures of independentpresidential authority. Finally, un-der the third prong, where thePresident acts in a way that is in-compatible with an express or im-plied will of Congress, thePresident's power is at its lowestand is vulnerable to being uncon-stitutional.

Through the Immigration Ac-countability Executive Actions,the President is likely acting un-der either prong one or two of Jus-tice Jackson's tripartite test. INASection 103(a) (1) charges the DHSSecretary with the administrationand enforcement of the INA. Thisimplies that the DHS can decidewhen to and when not to removean alien..." INA § 212(d) (5), whichCongress also enacted, authorizesthe Executive to grant interim ben-efits for "urgent humanitarian rea-sons" or "significant public ben-efits." Parole can also be used toallow promising entrepreneurs tocome to the United States and es-tablish startups, although this andmany other actions to help busi-nesses have not been attacked inthe law suit.

Moreover, INA § 274A (h) (3)(B) provides authority to the Ex-ecutive to grant employment au-

thorization. Even if such author-ity is implied and not express, Con-gress has not overtly prohibitedits exertion but displayed a pas-sive acquiescence that reinforcesits constitutional legitimacy. Op-erating in Justice Jackson's "twi-light zone," such constructiveambiguity creates the opportunityfor reform through executive initia-tive. In terms of employment au-thorization issuance, Congress hasrarely spoken on this except viaINA § 274A (h) (3) (B), so that manyinstances of employment authori-zation issuance are purely an act ofexecutive discretion justified bythat one statutory provision.

Furthermore, INA § 103(3) con-fers powers on the Secretary ofHomeland Security to "establishsuch regulations, prescribe suchforms or bonds, reports, entriesand other papers; issue such in-structions; and perform such otheracts as he deems necessary forcarrying out his authority underthe provisions of this Act."

We reproduce the very pen-etrating and insightful commentsof our esteemed colleague Jose R.Perez, who is a partner at Foster:

It's my hope that Federal JudgeAndy Hansen in Brownsville, TX,will do the right thing and dis-miss this lawsuit based on:

• 1: Lack of subject matter ju-risdiction since the alleged causeof action is a 'political question'or a dogfight between the execu-tive & legislative branchesas there is no case or controversyfor an Article III Court to decide;

• 2: The plaintiffs lack 'stand-ing' since the states have NOT suf-fered a palpable injury sufferedand the 'alleged injury' is baselessand at best highly speculativesince no undocumented alien hasbenefited from the executive ac-tions of November 20, 2014; and

• 3: Once implemented, the ex-ecutive actions do NOT circum-vent Congress or usurp our Con-stitution since President Bemahas the executive authority underArticle II of the U.S. Constitutionand the statutory authority underthe INA to grant deferred actionbased on law enforcement priori-ties as an act of prosecutorial dis-cretion. Other presidents havedone so. [ My family and I cameto the U.S. as 'parolees' based onPresident Johnson's exercise of

discretion that allowed approx.1 Million Cubans to be paroledand to eventually benefit from theCuban Adjustment Act of 1966, avery open-ended and most favor-able statute.]

We wish to double down onthese sage comments concerninglack of state standing to bring thislawsuit for they are its Achillesheel. This is not a case where afederal agency like the Environ-mental Protection Agency has de-clined a request by an affectedstate actor to regulate the emis-sion of toxic greenhouse gas emis-sions whose presence in our airand water present a clear andpresent danger of environmentalcatastrophe.

For this reason, the holding bythe Supreme Court that the Stateof Massachusetts did have requi-site Article III standing to sue theEPA is fundamentally inappositeboth in logic and law. Massachu-

setts v. Environmental ProtectionAgency, 549 U.S. 497 (2007). Un-documented immigrants who worklong hours at low pay doing thehard and dirty jobs on which weall depend but are loath to performare not the cause or harbinger ofglobal warming. Whatever griev-ances Texas and her sister stateshave , the proper forum for theirexpression and resolution in oursystem of governance is the Con-gress not the courts. See Lajan v.Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S.555, 576 (1992).

Courts are loath to review anynon-enforcement decisions takenby federal authorities. See, e.g.,Lincoln v. Vigil, 508 U.S. 182, 191-92 (1993). Arizona v. United States,132 S.Ct. 2492, 2499 (2012), ar-ticulated the true reason why: "[a]principal feature of the removalsystem is the broad discretion ex-ercised by immigration officials…

Why the lawsuit against Obama is a waste

First, where the President has express orimplied authorization by Congress, his au-thority would be at its maximum. Second,where the President acts in the absence ofcongressional authority or a denial of au-thority, the President may still act constitu-tionally within a "twilight zone"

Cont'd from Page 44

Cont'd on Page 46

India Post46 January 9, 2015Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Federal officials, as an initialmatter, must decide whether itmakes sense to pursue removal atall…" The decision by Presidentto order ICE to focus its enforce-ment activities on designated pri-orities is a policy judgment whichthe courts have neither the timenor inclination to second guess:

This Court has recognized onseveral occasions over manyyears that an agency's decisionnot to prosecute or enforce,whether through civil or criminalprocess, is a decision generallycommitted to an agency's abso-lute discretion. See United Statesv. Batchelder, 442 U. S. 114, 123-124 (1979); United States v.Nixon, 418 U. S. 683, 693 (1974);Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U. S. 171, 182(1967); Confiscation Cases, 7Wall. 454 (1869). This recogni-tion of the existence of discretionis attributable in no small part tothe general unsuitability for ju-dicial review of agency decisionsto refuse enforcement.

Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S.821, 8311 (1985)

The Constitution neither allowsnor encourages any of the statelitigants in this extra-constitutionallitigation to micromanage the en-forcement or implementation ofcurrent immigration law or regula-tion. That is up to the Presidentand those federal agencies towhom he delegates his authority:"An agency has broad discretionto choose how best to marshal itslimited resources and personnel tocarry out its delegated responsi-bilities." Chevron v. Natural Re-sources Defense Council, 467 U.S.837, 842-845 (1984). Under theoft-quoted Chevron doctrine, fed-eral courts will pay deference tothe regulatory interpretation ofthe agency charged with execut-ing the laws of the United Stateswhen there is ambiguity in the stat-ute. The courts will intrude onlywhen the agency's interpretationis manifestly irrational or clearlyerroneous.

Similarly, the Supreme Court inNat'l Cable & Telecomm. Ass'n v.Brand X Internet Servs., 545 US967 (2005),while affirming Chev-ron, held that, if there is an am-biguous statute requiring agencydeference under Chevron, theagency's understanding will alsotrump a judicial exegesis of thesame statute. There is simply nocase or controversy here for thefederal courts to settle.

None of these Plaintiffs iden-tify or present such a "personalstake in the outcome of the con-troversy as to assure the concreteadverseness which sharpens thepresentation of issues upon whichthe court so largely depends forillumination." Baker v. Carr, 369

U.S. 186, 204 (1962). Where is theirstanding then one wonders? In allof the hyperbolic protestationsthat suffuse this complaint, whererhetoric often masquerades as re-ality, one looks in vain for anyallegation or evidence that any ofthe state complainants can " showthat it has suffered a concrete andparticularized injury that is fairlytraceable to the defendant andthat a favorable decision will likelyredress that injury." Lujan v. De-fenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555,560-561 (1992).

Still, one should not be too san-guine about Judge Hanen doingthe right thing who will hear thiscase in the United District Courtfor the Southern district of Texas,Division. In US v. Nava-Martinez,a case that involved a human traf-ficker who sought to smuggle anEl Salvadorian girl into the UnitedStates, Judge Hanen chastised theDHS for completing the crime bydelivering the minor to the cus-tody of the parent, even thoughthe DHS was obliged to unify thechild under the 1997 Flores v.Reno, CV-85-4544-RJK, settlementagreement.

Judge Hanen equated thispolicy to "taking illegal drugs or

weapons that it had seized fromsmugglers and delivering them tothe criminals who initially solicitedtheir illegal importation/exporta-tion." Id. at 10. The plaintiffs havecleverly cited Nava-Martinez intheir complaint as an example ofDHS laxity encouraging illegal mi-grants, and also disingenuouslyconflated the surge of unaccom-panied minors this summer withthe President's previous DACAprogram, even though it has beenwell documented that these chil-dren may have come to the US forother legitimate reasons, such asfleeing horrific gang persecutionin countries such as Honduras, elSalvador and Guatemala. . A De-cember 5, 2014 NY Times articleconfirms this:

At the National Immigrant Jus-tice Center in Chicago, lawyersinterviewed 3,956 migrant chil-dren this year. Lisa Koop, associ-ate director of legal servicesthere, said the number of childrenwho had heard of the 2012 pro-gram was "in the single digits."

"It is clear that DACA was nota driving force behind the migra-tion," Ms. Koop said. "What we

heard time and again was thatviolence in Central America andthe need for safe haven was whatprompted these children to un-dertake the journey north."

Even if Judge Hanen does notrule the way we think he should, itis hoped that the Fifth Circuit willswiftly reverse him. Indeed, theFifth Circuit has recently recog-nized the supremacy of federalimmigration law over state law aswell as federal discretion in enforc-ing immigration law. In Villas atParkside Partners v. FarmersBranch, 726 F.3d 524 (5th Cir. 2013),the Fifth Circuit struck down a lo-cal housing ordinance on preemp-tion grounds because it conflictedwith federal law regarding the abil-ity of aliens not lawfully presentin the United States to remain inthe US. The Fifth Circuit also notedthat the federal government couldexercise discretion:

Whereas the Supreme Courthas made clear that there are"significant complexities in-volved in [making] . . . the deter-mination whether a person is re-movable," and the decision is"entrusted to the discretion of theFederal Government," Arizona,132 S. Ct. at 2506; see also Plyler,

457 U.S. at 236 (Blackmun, J.,concurring) ("[T]he structure ofthe immigration statutes makes itimpossible for the State to deter-mine which aliens are entitled toresidence, and which eventuallywill be deported."), the Ordinanceallows state courts to assess thelegality of a non-citizen's pres-ence absent a "preclusive" federaldetermination, opening the doorto conflicting state and federalrulings on the question.

The creation of law by federalagencies in the implementation ofexecutive initiative has become thenorm rather than the exception inour system of governance , if forno other reason than that thesheer multiplicity of issues, as wellas their dense complexity, defy tra-ditional compromise or consensuswhich are the very hallmarks ofCongressional deliberation. De-spite the assertion in Article I ofthe Constitution that "All legisla-tive Powers herein granted shallbe vested in a Congress of theUnited States," it is far from novelto acknowledge as we must thatindependent federal regulatoryagencies also exercise legislative

powers. As Justice White notedin his dissent in INS v Chadha, 462U.S. 919, 947 (1983) (White,J., dis-senting) after reviewing prior casesupholding broad delegations oflegislative power:

These cases establish that byvirtue of congressional delega-tion, legislative power can be ex-ercised by independent agenciesand Executive departments with-out passage of new legislation.For some time, the sheer amountof law- the substantive rules thatregulate private conduct and di-rect the operation of government-made by the agencies has far out-numbered the lawmaking engagedin by Congress through the tradi-tional process. There is no ques-tion that agency rulemaking is law-making in any functional or realis-tic sense of the term.

Immigration has historicallybeen linked to foreign policy. In-deed, a core reason for the plenaryfederal power over immigration isprecisely because it implicates realand genuine foreign policy con-cerns. This is another reason whythe Executive enjoys wide, thoughnot unchecked, discretion to ef-fect changes in immigration pro-cedures through sua sponte regu-lation. Indeed, it is perhaps only amodest exaggeration to maintainthat the INA could not be admin-istered in any other way.

The President's executive ac-tion does not displace Congressas the primary architect of federalimmigration policy but rather is inaid of the legislative function and,as such, is in harmony with theconstitutional injunction to diver-sify authority. The President is notdivorced from lawmaking; that isthe very reason why the Framersprovided an executive veto power.If the President had no role in law-making, why give such a weaponto limit congressional prerogative?

Once we accept the fact that theExecutive is a junior partner in law-making, then the President's ex-ecutive actions become a strongbut unremarkable expression ofthis well-settled constitutionalconcept. To suggest that the Presi-dent is powerless to act simplybecause only Congress canmodify the INA is to isolate oneco-equal branch of our nationalgovernment from another beyondwhat the Constitution suggests orrequires. This is not what the Fram-ers had in mind:

Yet it is also clear from the pro-visions of the Constitution itself,and from the Federalist Papers,that the Constitution by no meanscontemplates total separation ofeach of these three essentialbranches of government…Themean who met in Philadelphia inthe summer of 1787 were practi-cal statesmen, experienced in

politics, who viewed the principleof separation of powers as a vitalcheck against tyranny. But theylikewise saw that a hermetic seal-ing off of the three branches ofGovernment from one anotherwould preclude the establishmentof a Nation capable of governingitself effectively.

Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1,121 (1976)

Not only is it appropriate for thePresident to direct the formulationof immigration policy on technicalissues of surpassing importance,this is the way it must be; this iswhat the Constitution expects. Thedecision by President Obama to donow what he had been reluctant orunwilling to do earlier suggests nota reversal of position or a grab forimperial power but a willingness tochange, to grow, to embrace solu-tions that meet the exigencies of anever-changing challenge stub-bornly resistant to what has beentried before and failed.

We are reminded of what Presi-dent Lincoln wrote to Albert G.Hodges on April 4, 1864: "I claimnot to have controlled events, butconfess plainly that events havecontrolled me." In perhaps themost famous judicial exposition ofthe need for pragmatic presiden-tial initiative, we end our advocacyin confident reliance upon the stillcogent observations of Chief Jus-tice John Marshall in McCullochv. Maryland:

To have prescribed the meansby which government should, inall future time, execute its pow-ers, would have been to change,entirely, the character of the in-strument, and give it the proper-ties of a legal code. It would havebeen an unwise attempt to pro-vide, by immutable rules, for exi-gencies which, if foreseen at all,must have been seen dimly, andwhich can be best provided for asthey occur

17 U. S. 316 (1819)The President's proposals do

nothing to inhibit or prevent Con-gress from enacting amendmentsto the INA. He has not attemptedto supplant Congress when itcomes to the exercise of the legis-lative function over which in aloneenjoys plenary power. PresidentObama has acted solely in further-ance of what the Congress has al-ready done to give America theimmigration policy that it needsand deserves, one that is more ef-fective and adaptable to the exi-gencies of the moment so that boththe nation and the immigrants whohave sacrificed all to write the nextgreat chapter in the Americanstory can benefit in full measure.

Why the lawsuit against Obama is a waste

The Constitution neither allows nor encour-ages any of the state litigants in this extra-constitutional litigation to micromanage theenforcement or implementation of currentimmigration law or regulation. That is up tothe President and federal agencies

* Cyrus D Mehta, may be contactedat 212-425-0555 or

[email protected]

Cont'd from Page 45

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India PostJanuary 9, 2015 49www.indiapost.com

Horoscope

PANDIT PARASHAR, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA isalso available for individual consultations.He can be reached at: [email protected]

510-886-4370www.parashar.com

BY PANDIT PARASHAR

(September 23 to October 22)

(January 20 to February 18)(October 23 to November 22)

(February 19 to March 20)(November 23 to December 22)

(December 22 to January 19)

What the stars foretell for Year 2015

Saturn will transit second and favorable nakshastra's through out 2015. Jupiter will stay in house of career till July 15 before moving into house of gains. Jupiter will definitely

bring big change in career. Additional pressure and unsatisfactoryworking conditions will make you look for better opportunity. Closefriends doing well will be another factor for you to explore the op-portunity. Saturn in second will help you locate the dream job. Someof you may start your own business before July, 2015. Money wise

you will be very lucky and any risk you take will turn out favorable. You will make big moneythrough couple of properties this year. Business will definitely multiply in first six monthsand the profit margin will improve. Some of you may also successfully make a bid onexisting franchise already doing very well and take over in mid 2015. You will be going ona number of trips in second half and all trips will be financially rewarding. You will beassociated with an older person who will be a great guide and teacher. Value of yourassets will shoot up and some of you may move in a bigger home this summer. One ofyour child not doing so well in the past, will suddenly find the direction and make a bigcomeback in life. There is a big chance of money coming through legal channels in themonth of July or August.

Saturn's transit in first is troublesome. Jupiter will keep things under little check from ninth till July 15th but still you will need to be very very careful when taking any decisions in

personal as well as professional life this year. This Saturn willneed you to work extra hard to achieve your goals, big or small.Isolation from some one too close will be heart breaking. Try tomaintain close relations with good people and attend all socialevent in order to stay away from negative energy. Jupiter's pres-

ence in ninth is very helpful. Children will be a big source of happiness this year. This isthe most favorable transit for people looking forward to have an addition in the family.There will be big change in the way you think. Mind will deviate from religion to spiritually.Once Jupiter moves in house of career in July, changes become imminent. Whether youmake the right or wrong choice will be a big question as Saturn will try to create confusionand you may end up making the wrong choices. Do not ignore legal and health issues,pay quick attention in order to avert big complications. Money will come at slow pace. Youmay have few chances to make money little unorthodox way, but may decide not to adoptthat path. Only a female could be the root cause of troubles. Think twice before you takeany big decision and the year can pass comfortably.

Jupiter will stay in a negative house till July 15th before moving into house of luck for remainder of time. Saturn will transit twelfth house or the house of loss and expense. Try to stay

away from getting involved in unnecessary litigation, compromise ifpossible and do not purchase and old property or vehicle this yearand you will be fine. Rahu in tenth will make things slight difficult andit might be difficult for you to hit your professional goals in first shot.If waiting for something from government, it will come with a delay.

Time after July is very favorable. There will be some interesting an major positive develop-ments in career and once again you could reach new heights in life. Self confidence andimage will improve. You may be going on several long distance journeys this year. As far asthe health is concerned, back may start to give some trouble. Western medications will nothelp but yoga and sleeping on hard bed will. The year may start will slow pace but fromMarch and onward you will accomplish a lot in life. You may also invest in a nice property ormove to a bigger house this summer. Some one lot younger in age will be real helpful thisyear. You will make a serious bid on a running franchise around June and may take overaround September, 2015. You will be able to save a lot in second half of 2015. Some of youmay join a short term course to update your knowledge this summer.

Jupiter's transit in eighth after July 15th will be better. ThisJupiter can cause unnecessary delay for bachelors to find theright soul mate. Negotiations will very like minded people will

go well in the beginning but misfire in the end because of no validreason. Spouse may continue to have health issues but nothinglife threatening. Saturn's transit in house of gains is very lucky as itwill transit his own as well as Mercury nakshastra. People con-nected with hardware, oil, mines, mineral, land and properties will

benefit a lot. If you initiated any litigation in the past year, the good chances are that it willbe decided in your favor with large financial gains after July. People in business will findvery good and reliable associates. You may also purchase a big piece of land but waitsome time to construct anything on it. After July, planets will bring in large gains fromdistant lands and ongoing overseas projects. Couple of business trips after July will beturning point in career. Do not take any chance with a government agency and when onroad. People already having franchise will expand and buy more locations. Saturn will behelpful if you are ready to be on the move more than usual hours this year. You will becompletely cured of an old issue with the help of minor surgery. Religious activities willdecline. Chance of addition of a new member in the family very strong after July.

Saturn's transit in house of career is really helpful. Of course there is no escape from hard work, but the financial re wards will be lot better than expectation. Business will ex-

pand with the opening of new location and you will be on the movemost of the time. Watch out for a person almost bald and short,may create lots of confusion in your mind that's all. You will makemore than one trip overseas all for business. It will be a very goodyear for students, they will do lot better than expected. Money wise

things will pick up all of a sudden after July as projects started in early part will becomeprofitable quickly. Some one will come up with some schemes to make money littleunorthodox way, but you will be able to hold on to temptation and decline his offer. Someof you may also initiate a law suit not for financial gains but just to prove your point in firstquarter of 2015. First few months will be very expensive but most of the money will bespend on family and a wedding in close family. Some of you may also get out of apartnership setup and start on your own in second half. There is very strong indicationsof money through stocks in month of April. You will make some very important contacts incareer as well as personal life. Help from people with political connections will be avail-able when needed.

Jupiter's presence in fifth and later in sixth is very favorable for career related matters as compared to past several years. Saturn's presence on the other hand in ninth is not bad ei-

ther. Take advantage of this auspicious transit of Jupiter and do notwaste time and go with a full swing starting beginning of 2015. Youwill continue to well in career and may have a very lucrative offer inFebruary or March. Just grab it and you will be content in time tocome. This is going to be a great year for students also. Some of

you may also sign up and receive some short term training and improve or update yourknowledge. This transit can also be a factor to add another member in the family. Bach-elors will have to go through little roller coaster ride but will ultimately settle with a personof their liking. Jupiter will gift you the wisdom to take all important decisions with cool andrational mind. Your valuable advise will help many needed close friends this year andthey will be really thankful. Saturn's transit in ninth will make you more humble and eagerto help those who are less fortunate. You will be doing something really good for yourparents this year. Your image will improve and you will become more active in the society.Jupiter's transit in sixth from July 15th will cause one more positive change in career insecond half. You should eat more nutritious food and do some breathing exercises.

CONT’D FROM LAST WEEK

Whenever Indian cinema may talkabout the great comedians ofIndian cinema, one name that

would arguably top the list is that ofMukri, the lovable 'Tingu' of Bollywood,who ruled the 70's and 80's era as favoritecomedian of the superstar AmitabhBachchan. Mukri's short height andAmitabh Bachchan's lanky personalitymade a formidable Jodi.

Remember Amitabh Bachchan's fa-mous dialogue Mooche Ho Toh NathulalJaise Ho...Warna Na Ho in the movieSharaabi. Other hit movies of the Jodi in-clude Amar Akbar Anthony, Laawaris,Coolie, Mahaan, Naseeb ...the list is long.

Dilip the mentorHowever, readers would be surprised

to know that prior to Amitabh Bachchan,Mukri made a fantastic pair with the thes-pian Dilip Kumar. Remember hit movieslike Aan, Ram Aur Shyam, Kohinoor, etc.In fact, Dilip Kumar has been instrumen-tal in making Mukri a film star.

Praising the thespian, Mukri once inan interview said, "I am highly grateful to

Yusuf bhai (Dilip Kumar). It was be-cause of him that I landed in Bollywood

or else I would have ended just being aQazi (Muslim clergy)".

Mukri, whose real name is MohammedUmer Mukri recalling his early days, said,"I was a Qazi in a local Madrassa (Mus-lim school). My job was to teach Quran

to small kids. My income was scarce and my familywas big, hence it was difficult to make ends meet."

He added, "Luckily once Dilip Kumar spot-ted me during the holy month of Ramzaanin a mosque and after hearing my sorrowtale he recommended me to Devika Raniof Bombay Talkies to appoint me as ajunior assistant. Later he suggested my

name to Mehboob Khan during the making ofAAN. The movie was a runaway hit and myassociation with Dilip Kumar became hit."

Mukri acted in about 600 films in his 50 yearscareer. He passed away due to heart attack atthe age of 78. Dilip Kumar was present at thetime of his cremation.-Courtesy Glamsham

www.indiapost.com50 India Post January 9, 2015

India Post

www.indiapost.com

51January 9, 2015

Ileana treat for San Jose New Year bashIndia Post News Service

SAN JOSE, CA: There was spe-cial New Year treat for over 1200

people as they crowded forBollywood Glitz 2015-Ileana D'cruz(Live & Direct) special event atSan Jose Tech Museum, 201 S mar-ket street San Jose.

It was organized by InstantKarma, Bolly Events U & Me En-tertainments in association withRavi Tax Services. The program

on 31st December was a success-ful event in the Bay Area with 6levels of entertainments, 3 mas-sive dance floors (Bollywood

headquarters, Telugu & Punjabi/Hip-Hop Lounge). Bollywood ce-lebrity DJ Aks along with Bay areafinest DJ Mirage, DJ Precaution,DJ Sneh, DJ Dindi welcomed theNew Year with style, joy and hap-piness. Actress Ileana doubledtheir joy with her dance, photosession and midnight countdown.There was Live performance bySaregama superstar Zaheer Abbasand Nithya Bayya.

Ileana D'Cruz is an Indian filmactress, who appears in Telugu,Tamil and Hindi films. She won theFilmfare Award for Best FemaleDebut - South for the 2006 Telugu

film Devadasu. She has appearedin films like Pokiri (2006), Jalsa(2008), Kick (2009), and Julayi(2012), establishing herself as oneof Telugu cinema leading ac-tresses. D'Cruz made herKollywood debut with Kedi andmade a comeback in Shankar'sNanban (2012).In 2012 she made

her Bollywood debut with AnuragBasu's critically and commerciallysuccessful Barfi!, for which shereceived critical appreciation andthe Filmfare Award for Best Female

Debut.Lavish In-

dian buffet featand multi-cui-sine food sta-tion was pro-vided by Pea-cock Restau-rants.

Artist ArvindK o t h a( G u i n n e s sWorld BookRecord Holder)with his wifeSarika pre-

sented a portrait Sketch to IleanaD'Cruz. She was very impressedwith the sketch and appreciated itfor the excellent work and said "myfirst gift in this year is awesome".

San Jose Councilmember AshKalra and SaratogaCouncilmember Rishi Kumar alsoactively participated in this event.

Arvind Kotha along with his wife Sarika presenting portrait sketch to IleanaD'cruz

Ileana D'cruz addressing the public and wishingeveryone a very happy New Year.

Ileana D'cruz with the San Jose Councilmember Ash Kalra,Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar

Public happily welcoming New Year

How top stars remain fitMost of them try not to

cheat...but of course,there are small indul-

gencesHrithik Roshan has six meals a

day, most of which are proteinbased. The actor insists on hav-

ing minimum oil in his food. Hisbreakfast includes protein shake,four egg whites and a brown bread,while his lunch consists of 50-60grams of chicken breast along withsteamed or stir-fried veggies.

Throughout the day, he haseight egg whites with an intervalof two hours between each meal.For dinner, it is roasted fish(salmon or sea bass) or chickenbreast along with steamed or stir-fried vegetables. He has a proteinshake after every workout. Hischeat sheet only has chocolates -the actor sometimes nibbles on achocolate bar at night.

Diet tip - Gets his share of ani-mal protein from roasted fish orchicken breast

Special laddoosAkshay Kumar has a unique

way to keeping himself in ship-shape. The actor, who is fighting

fit, stays away from carbs andgorges on special laddoos that areloaded with over 40 different

herbs. Cont'd on Page 52

India Post

www.indiapost.com

52January 9, 2015

Diet tip - Has herb-basedladdoos and fruits between low-cal meals.

Ajay Devgn, who showed offhis toned physique in Action Jack-son last year, follows a strict no-carb diet. While he enjoys his in-take of fish and mutton, the actorbelieves in organic food and in-cludes fresh vegetables from hisfarm in his daily diet. He alsomunches on almonds at regularintervals.

Diet tip - Includes farm freshveggies and makhana (lotus

seeds)Sonu Sood is another actor who

takes pride in his fit body. He al-lows himself one chapati per meal,

brown rice, vegetables and fruits.His only indulgence is egg whites- the actor has two to three of themevery day.

Diet tip - Gets his proteins fromegg whites

Ranbir Kapoor is not your typi-cal six-pack guy, but is extremelycareful when it comes to his diet.RK Jr is known to start his daywith caviar and a toast, and has

small meals at regular intervals,preferably homemade.

Diet tip - Starts his day withcaviar and a toast

Tusshar starts his morningswith oatmeal and whey protein.The actor has six meals a day, withhis lunch and dinner includinggrilled chicken or fish and veg-etable salads.

Diet tip - Has whey protein af-ter workout

How top stars remain fit

Young stars turning producersIn the past, Bollywood actors

such as Aamir Khan, ShahRukh Khan and Ajay Devgn

have not only acted in, but alsoproduced, the films that they

starred in. And their successfulstints have paved the way for moreactors to follow in their footsteps.In 2015, the likes of RanbirKapoor, Priyanka Chopra andAnushka Sharma will put theirmoney where their talent is. "It's

good that they're doing it. Thesestars can invest smartly inscripts that they believe in," saystrade analyst Amod Mehra.

Anushka SharmaComing to the aid of a

film that was stuck for along time, Anushka turnedproducer with her upcom-ing starrer, NH10. More-over, even before her firstproduction hits thescreens this year,Anushka has gone aheadand announced her sec-ond production ventureas well. "Through the jour-ney of my first produc-tion, I've become moremature as an actor, and asa person. As an actor, youdon't actually know whathappens behind thescenes and what needs tobe in place before theshooting starts. This time,I've been involved in theproject from scratch and

I've literally experienced the pro-cess of film-making. I'm aware ofall the aspects of this film, rightfrom the technicians who are in-volved and the locations we'veshot at, to the budgets. I did all ofthis as a producer," Anushka told

HT Café.

Ranbir KapoorAll set to team up with his Barfi!

(2012) director Anurag Basu again,

Ranbir's Jagga Jasoos, in which heplays the lead alongside allegedgirlfriend Katrina Kaif, will hit thescreens this year. The actor is one

of the film's co-producers,and recently told a maga-zine, "Though the studioculture has taken over Hindicinema, there are young pro-

ducers who can make a dif-ference. It is a great experi-ence to make a film, standby it, market it and put it outthere for audiences to see...

I have a vision about the kind ofcinema I want to make and I'm ex-cited about it."

Priyanka ChopraShe's dabbled in music and is

even set to make her small-screendebut with a TV show in the US.But now, Priyanka has added thetitle of 'producer' to her CV. Theactor is co-producing her next,Madamji, in collaboration with herFashion (2008) film-maker, MadhurBhandarkar. "When I came into thefilm industry, I had no one to holdmy finger and show me the way…I never had a mentor, and I nevereven had friends who knew any-

thing about films. So for me, it wasa very lonely and scary journey,and somewhere I wanted to makea production house which is aplace to introduce new talent -writers, directors, musicians andactors through maybe small, butgood films," Priyanka said.

PK first film to touchRs.300-crore mark

Aamir Khan-starrer PK hasbecome the first film totouch the Rs.300-crore

mark in its box office earning indomestic markets.

According to Trade AnalystTaran Adarsh, the social satirewhich invited ire from several re-ligious groups became the firstBollywood film to enter the

Rs.300-cr club.Interestingly, the top three

films to have first scored the 100,200 and 300 crore milestone areall Aamir Khan starrers. #Ghajinifirst Hindi film to cross Rs.100cr; 3Idiots first Hindi film tocross Rs.200 cr; #PK first Hindifilm to cross Rs.300 cr." Adarshtweeted.

Cont'd from Page 51

India Post 53January 9, 2015

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Philosophy

Suffering is due to identificationwith what I am not

Krishna tells us to try &relish the work itself

In Bhaja Govindam, Shankaracharya advisesus not to do chinta -worry. He points out thatthere is somebody taking care of us as well asthe world. One should dedicate all chinta toHim and do the work

WEI WU WEI(TERENCE JAMES STANNUSGRAY)

Who is there to suffer?Only an object could suffer.I am not an object (no object

could be I), and there is no I-ob-ject nor I-subject, both of whichwould then be objects.

Therefore I cannot suffer.But there appears to be suffering,and its opposite, both pleasureand pain. They are appearances,but they are experienced. Bywhom, by what, are they experi-enced?

They are apparently experi-enced, and by means of an identi-fication of what I am with what Iam not, or, if you prefer, by whatwe are not, illusorily identified withwhat we are.

What we are does not knowpain or pleasure, what we are doesnot, as such, know anything, forin neither case is there an objec-tive entity to suffer experience.

Whatever intensity sensationsmay appear to have, in the dreamof manifestation they are effectsof causes in a time-sequence, andapart from the time-sequence inwhich they develop they are noteither as cause or as effect.

There is no one to suffer. Weappear to suffer as a result of ourillusory identification with a phe-nomenal object.

Let us at least understand.What we are is invulnerable and

cannot be bound.

SWAMI NIKHILANANDA

The first step on the path ofspirituality is karma yoga.The beauty in it is that even

if one does not reach the ultimategoal, walking on the path itself willgive great joy and great peace.

What is karma yoga? The Lordasks us to fulfill all our responsi-bilities. What are they? As a hu-man being, we have obligationstowards ourselves, the family, so-ciety, nature, ancestors, the envi-ronment, and, of course, God. Wehave responsibilities towards all ofthese and fulfilling them is veryimportant.

Another vital aspect aboutkarma yoga is that one should dis-charge these responsibilities asworship of Ishvara. When I startdoing my duties for the Lord, Istart enjoying them. The work it-self begins to give great pleasureand satisfaction.

No doubt, the subsequent re-sult will come, but Sri Krishna tellsus to try and relish the work itself.The result, when it comes, shouldbe accepted gracefully. Here, theprincipal factor is the attitude;when the attitude is of worship,working itself will give immensehappiness and contentment.

The Bhagavad-Gita reveals the

nature of Ishvara. Sri Krishna em-phatically states: "I reside in thehearts of every being. I pervadethe whole world." He adds, "I per-vade this entire world in Myunmanifest form." To dedicate allour actions to the Lord, we do nothave to go to a temple; whereverwe are, Ishvara is there. Just bring

the right bhavana, the right atti-tude in your heart of offering allyour work to Ishvara - "OShambho, whatever work I do isYour aradhana!" When we developthis dedicated attitude, a numberof our psychological and self-cre-ated problems will disappear.

In Bhaja Govindam,Shankaracharya advises us not todo chinta -worry. He points outthat there is somebody taking careof us as well as the world. One

Volition, then, would seem to be an illusoryinference, a mere demonstration on the partof an energized I-concept, resulting either infrustration or fulfillment and thereby being thesource and explanation of the notion of karma

Swami Nikhilananda

Wei Wu Wei

The Will-InferenceThe Mechanism of living

seems to be based on the notionthat what sentient beings do is dueto an act of volition on the part ofeach such phenomenal object.

It is obvious, however, that theyreact rather than act, and that theirliving is conditioned by instinct,habit, fashion, and propaganda.

Their way of life is primarily aseries of reflexes, which leaves alimited scope for deliberate andconsidered action; that is, pur-

poseful action which, superficiallyconsidered, might appear to be theresult of volition, or what is calledan act of will.

Nevertheless 'volition' is onlyan inference, for, search as we may,we can find no entity to exercise it.All we can find is an impulse whichappears to be an expression of thenotion of 'I'. It would seem to beunjustifiable to assume that suchan impulse could be capable of af-fecting the inexorable chain of cau-

sation or, alternatively, the processof manifestation which producesapparent events, unless itself itwere an element of one or of theother.

VolitionVolition, then, would seem to be

an illusory inference, a mere dem-onstration on the part of an ener-gized I-concept, resulting either infrustration or fulfillment andthereby being the source and ex-planation of the notion of karma.Sentient beings are entirely 'lived'

as such, as has often been notedby philosophers and endorsed bymetaphysicians, and the psycho-somatic phenomenon is inexorablysubject to causation.

That is why sentient beings assuch, as the Buddha is creditedwith stating and re-stating in theDiamond Sutra, are not as entities.That, also, is why, since as phe-nomena they are not, noumenally-though they cannot be as entitiesor as anything objective-neverthe-

Thousands of candlescan be lighted from asingle candle, and the lifeof the candle will not beshortened. Happinessnever decreases by beingshared.

- Buddha

Said the master, "Which ofyou knows the fragranceof a rose?" All of them in-dicated that they knew.Then he said, "Put it intowords." All of them weresilent.

- Anthony DeMello

Attachment to your appe-tites - whether you de-prive or indulge them - canlead to slavery, but satis-fying the needs of daily lifeis not wrong. Indeed, tokeep a body in goodhealth is a duty, for other-wise the mind will not staystrong and clear.

- Buddha

Whether one believes ina religion or not, andwhether one believes inrebirth or not, there isn'tanyone who doesn't ap-preciate kindness andcompassion.

-Dalai Lama

Rely on the spirit andmeaning of the teachings,not on the words. Rely onthe teachings, not on thepersonality of the teacher.

-Traditional Buddhistteaching

should dedicate all chinta to Himand do the work. The compassion-ate Lord, lovingly tells us that forthose who do His chintan, He willdo their chinta. He will look aftertheir welfare and protect them.

Swadharma and ParadharmaKarma yoga is the first lesson

taught in the Bhagavad-Gita. Itmight appear very simple, but it isextremely profound and important.Many people try to do somebodyelse's duties instead of doing theirown. This is called paradharma.My own duties are calledswadharma.

Let us take the example of ahouse with children playing andleaving their toys scattered allaround. The hardworking mothercollects everything, puts them

less, they are as noumenonAnd noumenon, by definition

being integrally devoid of anytrace-element of objectivity, is not,cannot be, in any sense whatever-since all forms of being must nec-essarily be objective. Here lan-guage fails us and must be leftbehind like the raft that has car-ried us across the river. All we cansay is something such as 'this,which is all that sentient beingsare, itself is not'.

If this is not understood it willappear unsatisfying but, under-

stood, it will appear luminous andrevelatory, and for the obviousreason that the understanding is'itself this noumenon which we are.

'Volition', therefore, may be re-garded as an objectivisation ofnoumenality.

Excerpted from Open Secret.Terence James Stannus Gray, bet-ter known by the pen name WeiWu Wei, was a 20th-century Tao-ist philosopher and writer of Brit-ish origin.

away and continues to clean upafter the child.

The mother should teach thechild to tidy up and keep toys backafter playing with them. A motherdoes the child's duties out of her loveand compassion, but the child getshabituated to leaving his toys hereand there because he knows his

mother will come and collect them.This same child grows to be an

adult citizen and thinks that thegovernment is the 'mother'. Hethrows garbage everywhere, littersgardens and parks thinking that'mother' will clean after him! Thisattitude remains because we havenot taught swadharma.

Excerpted from Blog No. 4 from"Guidance from the Bhagawad Gita"Swami Nikhilananda is the head ofChinmaya Mission Delhi and NCR

54 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

January 9, 2015India Post

India PostTerror threats

President Barack Obama's imminent India visit has encouragedPakistan based terrorists to plan something big to spoil theparty. Already an alleged terrorist boat from Pakistan blew up

on being challenged by the Indian Coast Guard off Porbander inGujarat. Air India received a threat of a hijack threat on the Delhi-Kabul route. A low intensity blast killed a woman in Bengaluru.Daily shellings on the Jammu & Kashmir border have been intensi-fied attracting punitive response from the Indian side under thetough policy of the new BJP government.

Although intelligence sources are alerting the authorities on thepossible threats, it is apparent that big strikes do not come withwarnings. So there is extraordinary pressure on security agencies toprevent such an event. Pakistan continues to play a double game.Even though after the Peshawar massacre of children an all outcampaign against terrorists has been launched, the establishmentcontinues to act on the basis of "good" terrorists and "bad" terror-ists. "Bad" terrorists are those who strike Pakistani assets and"good" terrorists are those who strike Indian assets as Pakistan'sproxies.

There is evidence that Pakistan is continuing this double gamebut still getting good behaviour certificates from the Obama admin-istration. Recently US Secretary of State John Kerry is reported tohave commended Pakistan on its fight against terrorists. This hadto be done in order to clear $ 1.5 billion annual aid to Pakistan whichhas been blocked under the Kerry-Lugar-Burman Act which makesthe aid conditional on the State Department certification that Paki-stan was doing all it could to fight terrorism. India has reacted sharplyto reports that the 2014 assistance package was given after Kerrytold Congress that Pakistan was doing all it could to fight terrorism.

The spokesman of the Indian ministry of external affairs saidIndia does not believe that Pakistan is showing commitment or anyeffort to cease support to India-specific terrorist groups.

On the eve of Obama visit to India, it is strange that the US istrying to override provisions of the Kerry Lugar Act in order toprovide financial assistance to Pakistan. However a US spokesper-son has denied that the Secretary of State had issued any certificateto the Congress on the progress made by Pakistan in taking actionagainst terrorist groups. She however made it clear that the US hadbeen using some other provision to give aid to Pakistan.

The aid had been provided under the "national interest waiver"and not the certification requirement. She slipped in that there werea number of other ways by which aid can be channelled to Pakistan.So the denial was only about the way the aid has been routed.

All this doesn't take away from the importance of the USPresident's coming visit to India. Secretary of State Kerry is inAhmedabad to attend the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) - anotherfirst by a top ranking leader of the United States. In fact, he wouldbe taking the opportunity to meet up with Prime Minister NarendraModi in Ahmedabad to discuss with him the plans for the Obamavisit.

The US may not completely write off Pakistan where daily terror-ist attacks take place but it is not willing to trust Indian securityagencies to be able to successfully guard the US President duringhis visit. It is reported that the US Secret Service has expressedreservations over Chief Guest Barack Obama traveling in the IndianPresident's vehicle to Rajpath for the January 26 parade.

It seems the options being discussed are that the two presidentstravel in their respective vehicles or both travel in Obama's vehiclethat will sport the flags of the two countries. It would be lettingdown Indian public if an arrangement is made where the two presi-dents are not seen together. There is still time to arrive at a bettersolution.

Need for a new anti-terrorpolicy in North-East

WASBIR HUSSAIN

The Christmas-eve mas-sacre in Assam of morethan 75 Adivasi men,women and children by

rebels belonging to the Songbijitfaction of the National DemocraticFront of Boroland (NDFB-S) hasmade two things clear - that it wasa pure act of terrorism, not a rou-tine incident of insurgency, andthat an assortment of rebel lead-ers are still remote-controlling theirtrigger-happy foot soldiers fromsafe hideouts in India'sneighbourhood.

By way of a response to thiscontinuing bloodbath in Assam(46 people were gunned down bythe same outfit in Baksa andKokrajhar districts in May 2014),the new Government in New Delhiis expected to demonstrate on theground its 'zero tolerance' policyon terror, besides coming up witha new anti-terror strategy that fac-tors in the firm commitment of sup-

port from Myanmar, Bhutan andBangladesh.

The Narendra Modi Govern-ment must put its 'zero tolerance'policy against terrorism into imme-diate operation in Assam becausethe NDFB-S men, during their raidsin Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districtson the evening of 23 December2014, did not hesitate to kill infantsby putting their gun barrels intotheir mouths. This explains thebrutality of their crime and thecommitment of this armed groupto indulge in terror.

The same group had killed anAdditional Superintendent of Po-lice in January 2014, shot dead 46people in May, and killed a schoolgirl in August because they sus-pected her of being a 'police in-former.' The question that arisesis obvious: what is the UnifiedCommand of the Army, police andthe paramilitary, headed by theChief Minister, doing by way ofmeasures to neutralise the rebels?

That the Government of India'speace policy is flawed has beenproved yet again by the latest car-nage. New Delhi is already 'talk-ing peace' with two other NDFBfactions: the NDFB (Progressive)and the NDFB (Ranjan Daimary).For the record, the NDFB (RanjanDaimary) group - and Daimaryhimself - has been clearly accused

by the security establishment, in-cluding the CBI, for involvementin the October 2008 serial blasts inAssam that had killed 100 people.Now, despite the year-long killingand extortion spree by the NDFB-S gunmen, some Assam Police of-ficers are reported to have beenengaged in 'talks' with some lead-ers of the outfit.

Such actions - talking peacewith killer gangs - amounts to ac-cording legitimacy to such groupsand their actions and only encour-age newer militant groups to up-scale their violent acts. It is thispolicy of the Centre that whichamong other reasons is keepinginsurgency alive and kicking in theNortheast. The rebels by nowknow they only have to agree tosit for talks if the going gets toughfor them!

Union Home Minister RajnathSingh did talk sense when he vis-ited Assam in the wake of the lat-

est massacre. He said there is noquestion of engaging in talks withkillers who have shot dead eveninfants and ruled out any politicalsolution to the issues of groupslike the NDFB-S. Singh talked of a'time-bound' security offensive toneutralise the rebels.

The Centre must now make apolicy statement and announce amoratorium on peace talks withnewer militant groups in Assamand elsewhere in the Northeast.This will go a long way in sendingout a clear message to new insur-gent outfits who would realise thatthey are henceforth going to bedealt with as nothing but a law andorder problem.

After all, the Government can-not be expected to sign freshBodo accords with the two NDFBfactions it is currently talking to.Again, for those uninitiated, theCentre had signed a Bodo Accordwith the rebel Bodo Liberation Ti-gers (BLT) in 2003. The BLT there-after transformed itself into a po-litical party, contested local elec-tions, and has been ruling the areafor the past decade.

As usual, there have been claimsand counter-claims in the wake ofthe carnage - central intelligenceagencies have said they had inter-cepted radio conversations in whichNDFB-S leaders were instructing

their hit-squads to target Adivasisand that they had forwarded theseto the Assam Police.

If this is true, the Assam Gov-ernment owes the people of thestate an explanation as to the ac-tion taken on the information. But,killings by insurgents have be-come so commonplace in Assamand other Northeastern states likeManipur and Meghalaya that thelocal governments can afford tobe complacent and unaccountable.Of course, the ongoing peace talkswith a plethora of rebel groupsonly add to the confusion, surelyeven among the security forces onhow to respond to a situation.Therefore, the need for a new anti-terror strategy.

The fact that External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj was quickto speak to Bhutanese Prime Min-ister Tshering Tobgay seeking hisGovernment's assistance in tack-ling the NDFB-S militants indicatesthe rebels may have once againopened shop inside the Himalayannation or are sneaking in and outof its dense jungles.

This is not surprising becausethe ULFA, NDFB and theKamatapur LiberationOrganisation (KLO) were flushedout of Bhutan by a joint Bhutan-India military assault in 2003. TheExternal Affairs Ministry has alsoconfirmed that Sushma Swaraj wasin touch with other 'friendlyneighbouring' countries as part ofIndia's bid to tame the Northeastrebels. This means that New Delhiis in touch with Myanmar andBangladesh.

The Modi Government'sneighbourhood push is indeednotable, but commerce aside, NewDelhi must also work out institu-tional mechanisms with Thimphu,Naypyidaw and Dhaka to dealwith insurgents who operate sansborders in their trasnational crimi-nal journey.

The question now is this: canIndia work out an anti-terror strat-egy that transcends its bordersand work together with the secu-rity establishments in Myanmar,Bangladesh and Bhutan? Therehas been cooperation on this frontbut one is talking of somethingwith standard protocols in place.One hopes Prime Minister Modi,Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swarajwill be able to devise an India-Myanmar-Bangladesh-Bhutan se-curity umbrella to fight terror in theNortheastern frontier, and includeNepal too in the endeavour.

The writer is Executive Direc-tor, CDPS, Guwahati, and Visit-ing Fellow, IPCS

The ongoing peace talks with a plethora ofrebel groups only add to the confusion,surely even among the security forces onhow to respond to a situation. Therefore, theneed for a new anti-terror strategy


January 9, 2015

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