Vol-8-Issue-48 April- 9 -April - 15, 2016

8/18/2019 Vol-8-Issue-48 April- 9 -April - 15, 2016

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New York:

Renowned spiritual

Master, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji

Maharaj, head of

Science of Spirituality, will be in

the New Jersey and Long Island

area to offer a series of talks.

On Thursday April 28, 7pm, he

will speak at the Edison Hotel,

3050 Woodbridge Avenue,

Edison, NJ. His talk “Discover

Calm and Peace Within You” will

be simultaneously translated into

Spanish.

On May 1, at 2pm, his talk,

“Meditation to Access Spiritual

Realms,” will be at the Science of

Spirituality Meditation Center, 79County Line Road, Amityville, NY.

It will also have a Spanish trans‑

lation. People are expected to

travel to the Amityville Center

from all over the world. When

you ask them why, they all tell

the same story of how much easi‑

er it is to meditate in Sant

Rajinder Singh Ji Maharajʼs pres‑

ence and how uplifted and peace‑

ful they feel. The Amityville

The South Asian Timese x c e l l e n c e i n j o u r n a l i s m

excellence in journalism FASHION 15 TRAVEL 18

Vol.8 No. 48 April 9-15, 2016 80 Cents New York Edition Follow us on TheSouthAsianTimes.info

SPORTS 25

Panama City:

Thanks to a massive

2.6‑terabyte leak of confidential

papers to the

International

Consortium of

Investigative

J o u r n a l i s t s

from a

Panamanian

law firm Mossack Fonseca the

world has woken up to the global

web of corruption and tax avoid‑

ance and trained the spotlight on

this little country long regarded as

a safe tax haven for the rich.

So far, the scandal has brought

down the leader of Iceland andraised questions about the deal‑

ings of the presidents of Argentina

and Ukraine, senior Chinese

SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30

Panama Papers leakdivulge global web of

corruption, tax avoidance

Continued on page 4

Sant Rajinder Singh to

visit NJ and Long Island

Bethpage NY:

With New York now the focus of all

the 2016 presidential candidates, Donald Trump

headed to Long Island Wednesday evening to

rally his supporters in his home state.

Almost 10000 people supporters showed up

at the cavernous Grumman Studios in Bethpage

at the rally. The crowd cheered as Trump raised

his voice triumphantly.

“Weʼre going to start winning again, folks,”

Trump said. “Going to happen. Going to hap‑

pen. Going to happen.”He added: “Weʼre going to rebuild our mili‑

tary… nobody is going to mess with us!

Weʼre going to knock the hell out of

ISIS.”

But nothing got the crowd going

more than the candidateʼs words on

immigration. “We are going to have a

strong border. We are going to build

the wall,” Trump said. Indeed, “build

New Delhi: Pakistan High

Commissioner Abdul Basit on

Thursday said bilateral talks

between India and Pakistan were

"suspended" and that there was no

question of allowing an NIA team

to visit Islamabad for the

Pathankot probe.

However, the Ministry of

External Affairs cited the Pakistan

foreign ministry spokesperson

saying that both sides were in con‑

tact with each other over foreign

secretary level talks. MEA

spokesperson Vikas Swarup said

the visit of the National

Investigation Agency team to

Pakistan was on the basis of reci‑

procity, previously agreed upon.

Asked at the Foreign

Correspondents Club here about a

meeting between the foreign sec‑

retaries of the two countries, Basit

said: "There is no meeting sched‑

uled for now. I think at present the

peace process is suspended.

"India is not ready as yet," Basit

said, but quickly added that "we

can only resolve issues through

dialogue."

Basit also ruled out a reciprocal

visit by the National Investigation

Agency (NIA) to Pakistan to probe

the Pathankot attack.

"The investigation (into the

Pathankot attack) is not about rec‑

iprocity," he said.

Swarup in his statement cited

the Pakistan Foreign Ministry

spokesperson in Islamabad as say‑

ing that both sides were "in con‑

tact with each other" over the for‑

eign secretary level talks.

The Pakistani spokesperson said:

"...It has been reiterated from both

sides that modalities are being

worked out. I will again state that

negotiations are the best means to

resolve the issues." He added that

Thousands at Trump'sLong Island rally

Pakistan has ruled out NIA visit to probe Pathankot attack (Photo: PTI)

Spiritual master Sant RajinderSingh Ji Maharajʼs talk will

be at Long Island Meditation

Center on May 1st.

Continued on page 4 Continued on page 4

Pakistan envoysays talks with

India suspended,

no NIA visit

Also read our detailedcoverage from >> Page 8‑12)

Continued on page 4Donald Trump arrived at a rally on Wednesday in Bethpage, New

York, as a conquering hometown hero (Image courtesy: slate.com)


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TheSouthAsianTimes.info April 9-15, 2016


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Mineola NY:

On Apri l 3rd

Nassau County Comptroller

George Maragos engaged local

business and community lead‑

ers in a lively discussion on

Minority and Women‑owned

Business Enterprises (MWBE)

and doing business with

Nassau County.

Maragos and Sergio Blanco

of the Comptrollerʼs Office

described the Comptrollerʼs

initiatives to increase by 100%

business opportunit ies to

MWBEs as contractors and

subcontractors on County con‑

tracts. Comptroller Maragos

also answered a variety of

questions about the business

environment in Hicksville and

Nassau County. The India

Association of Long Island

(IALI) hosted the event in

Hicksville.

“My office is dedicated to

promoting opportunities for

MWBEs to participate in the

County contract awards,”

Comptroller Maragos said.

“Any minority and woman

owned enterprise in Nassau

County that is not participat‑

ing in these programs may be

losing out on millions in new

business.” Attendees included

IALI President Beena Kothari,

honorees Dilli Raj Bhatta, Esq.

and Hicksville Chamber of

Commerce President Lionel

Chitty, and many members of

IALI and Hicksville communi‑

ties.

3April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY

United Nations: UN

Secretary General Ban Ki‑

moon met Army Chief Dalbir Singh here Monday

and expressed his admira‑

tion for the Indian peace‑

keepers' commitment and

discipline.

Singh assured Ban of

Indian peacekeepers'com‑

mitment to the UN mission

and said they would con‑

tinue to receive the highest

quality of training for UN

deployment. They would be

held to the utmost stan‑

dards of discipline and the

Indian Army totally adhered to

Ban's zero tolerance policy on sex‑

ual exploitation abuse, he added.While the peacekeeping opera‑

tions have been marred by scan‑

dals of sexual abuse by UN and

other troops on missions, Indian

peacekeepers received a clean

chit in the first comprehensive

report last month on sexual

exploitation and abuse by UN per‑

sonnel.

Ban told Singh and India's

Permanent Representative Syed

Akbaruddin at their meeting that

he appreciated India's strong sup‑

port for the peacekeeping opera‑tions. India currently has 7,695

troops serving under the UN's

blue flag and historically has been

the largest contributor of person‑

nel, having sent 180,000 troops

to 48 missions.

Last September Prime Minister

Narendra Modi offered to provide

850 more troops and three police

units with a high proportion of

women for UN operations.

New York On March 24, Ekal

Vidyalaya Foundation and the

Indian Consulate jointly celebrat‑

ed ʻInternational Women's monthʼ

focusing on Women's

Empowerment through education.

The event also provided the first

opportunity for newly appointed

Consulate General Riva Ganguly

Das to interact with the diverse

Indian community for vibrant

exchange of ideas. In her welcome

address, Ambassador Das provid‑

ed an overview of the Beti Bachao

Beti Padhao as a flagship initiative

of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,

whereby a third of ʻVillage

Panchayatsʼ have been decreed to

have women in responsible posi‑

tions. She acknowledged that,

though great strides are being

made to empower women, a lot

yet is to be done to change age‑

old attitudes and beliefs affecting

women in our society, and espe‑

cially in rural areas. She expressed

hope that the grass‑root organiza‑

tions like Ekal, with presence in

60,000‑plus villages, can play an

important role in it.

Aroon Shivdasani, President of the Indo American Arts Council, in

her keynote address, stressed the

importance of educating women

on par with men to create an

environment in families where

self‑esteem of individuals is not

compromised and women have

equal opportunity in all walks of

life. ITVʼs famous anchor woman,

Renee Mehrra, moderated the

panel discussion among three suc‑

cessful women of Indian origin

from different backgrounds andfamily values.

Ranjani Saigal, Executive

Director of Ekal Vidyalaya,

touched on the need to uphold the

standards set by parents who pre‑

cipitated her own academic suc‑

cess at IIT and MIT. She further

related an anecdote of how during

a visit to a rural area a girl asked

her, “what can I do in my village

what you have done out

there?”According to her, the ques‑

tion has dogged her ever since

while she is working at Ekal. She

informed that Ekal puts special

emphasis on educating girls and

making them self‑reliant though

various skills‑training in rural‑

tribal areas.

Dr. Urmilesh Arya, COO at

Gastroenterology Associates in

Brooklyn, brought to fore a criti‑

cal challenge for girls in accessing

education ‑ the fear that their

daughter would get romantically

entangled with a boy, which may

bring shame to the family. She

herself overcame this challenge

and many others with self‑convic‑

tion and courage.

Dr. Sunita Saini, Director of

South Shore Psychological

Services and Long Island

Psychology and Psychotherapy

Services, highlighted the impor‑

tance of having a supportive fami‑

ly who, regardless of gender,

value building their childrenʼs

career more rather than acquiring

material assets.

There was a consensus that

when a woman is educated, she

educates her entire family. The

ensuing discussion highlighted

the relevance of good health for

women as a strategy towards

empowerment. The panel cau‑

tioned that overcoming the socio‑

cultural biases that promote

female infanticide and the percep‑

tion that a girl is a burden are

major stumbling blocks in restor‑

ing dignity of women in our socie‑

ty. Vinod Jhunjhunwalla,

President of Ekal Foundation,

USA, and Prof Subash Midha, the

main Ekal coordinator for the

event, thanked the Indian

Consulate, for their support in

hosting this event.

Ban tells Indian Armychief he admires

Indian peacekeepers

Ranjani Saigal, of Ekal Vidyalaya, Dr. Urmilesh Arya, Dr. Sunita Saini andmoderator Renee Mehrra at the panel discussion.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki‑moon withGeneral Dalbir Singh, the Indian Chief of

Army Staff, April 4, at the UN headquartersin New York. (Photo: United Nations/IANS)

MARAGOS URGES MINORITY

FIRMS TO AVAIL COUNTY

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Ekal Vidyalaya and Consulate host 'Beti Bacho - Beti Padhao' event

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos and others at the IALI event


4/32

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Pakistan envoy says talks withIndia suspended, no NIA visitContinued from page

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar

too had indicated in a recent statement

that talks would take place.

Basit also said that the arrest of an

alleged Indian spy, Kulbushan Jadhav,

proved Islamabad's allegations that

New Delhi was causing unrest in

Balochistan.The announcement comes nearly

three and half months after Prime

Minister Narendra Modi visited Lahore

on December 25 on an unannounced

trip to attend the wedding of the

granddaughter of his Pakistani coun‑

terpart Nawaz Sharif.

Modi's trip had raised hopes about

the resumption of peace talks between

the rival neighbors.

Basit's statement appears to be the

first official word from Pakistan about

the latest breakdown in the now‑on‑

now‑off peace process with India.

Thousands at Trump'sLong Island rallyContinued from page

the wall” was the mantra two weeks

shy of the New York primary, as

Trump continued to run as an out‑

sider.

Trump called on everyone in the

room to get out the vote, and to

encourage others to do the same.

“Youʼre going to say that it was the

most important vote that you ever

cast,” Trump said.

The event ahead of the stateʼs pri‑

mary on April 19 comes a day after

Trumpʼs presidential campaign hit a

bump Tuesday with a loss to Cruz in

the Wisconsin primary.

Sant Rajinder Singh tovisit NJ and Long IslandContinued from page

Center embodies Sant Rajinder Singh

Ji Maharajʼs visionary wisdom. Widely

recognized by civic, social and reli‑

gious leaders as one of the worldʼs

foremost spiritual Masters, he has

established similar centers around the

globe. Believing meditation enhances

every aspect of life, the Meditation

Center in Amityville holds regular pro‑

grams on meditation, spirituality,

healthy living and related subjects.

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj is no

stranger to New York. In August 2007,

New York Assemblyman Jose R.

Peralta (D. 39th District) presented the

spiritual leader with a New York

Assembly Proclamation which stated:

“On the occasion of his visit to theEmpire State, it is imperative to honor

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj who

breathes life into the humanity move‑

ment. His is a global effort to seek

unity at the level of the soul and tran‑

scend racial, cultural, national, reli‑

gious and economic differences. His

herculean efforts to uplift humanity

deserve our special recognition.”

He was welcomed to New Jersey

with a Joint Legislative Resolution

commending him for “his outstanding

record of devoted service to the chil‑

dren and people of the world commu‑

nity.”

On the occasion of the 50th anniver‑

sary of the United Nations, the spiritu‑al Master led an audience of thousands

into meditation at the Cathedral of St.

John the Divine in New York City. He

received a peace award from the

Interfaith Center of New York and was

invited to speak at a ceremony honor‑

ing UN Secretary Kofi Annan. In addi‑

tion, he was a featured spiritual leader

at the Millennium Peace Summit at the

United Nations.

For more information about Sant

Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj or his sched‑

ule, visit www.sos.org , email infotris‑

[email protected] , 631‑822‑7979.

Panama Papers leak divulge

global web of corruption...Continued from page

politicians, famous actors, athletes and

the circle of friends of Russian

Vladimir Putin, who some allege has

profited indirectly from such accounts.

Yesterday, British Prime Minister

David Cameron acknowledged he prof‑

ited from his father's investments in an

offshore tax haven before being

elected.

New York New York hematolo‑

gist ‑ oncologist selected for the

most prestigious advocacy

award by the American Society

of Hematology amongst it's

16,000 members from over

100 countries. Dr Akshat Jain,

section head for global hema‑

tology oncology at Northwell

Health and assistant professor

of pediatrics at the Cohen

Children's Medical Center on

Long Island will serve as the

voice of sub speciality doctors

at the Capitol Hill in

Washington DC in this current

role to bring out meaningful

changes in which medicine is

offered and practiced through‑

out the United States.

New York The Spring FestivalsCelebrations organized by

Rajasthan Association of North

America (RANA) last Sunday sawmore than 1000 people from

many Indian communities gath‑

er and celebrate the festivitiesunder one roof. RANA continues

to be a trendsetter by organiz‑ing this one of a kind event

titled – ʻGlamor with Humor ʼ

was a combination of a fashionshow, dance performances and

standup comedy & poetry held

in the Tri‑state area.Speaking on the occasion,

RANA President, Naveen C Shahmentioned that “As part of meet‑

ing the organizations charitable

objective of caring for orphans,the RANA Board has decided to

adopt 1000 children in orphan‑

ages in India over their lifetimeand support them for all opera‑

tional expenses including food,

shelter, clothing and educationalrequirements. We need

$250,000 to achieve this objec‑tive and I urge all those present

to donate generously to this

noble cause by contributingfinancial and intellectual

resources to achieve this goal.”

A spectacular fashion show withthe trendiest, glamorous and lat‑

est styles by leading designerswith stunning & gorgeous mod‑

els choreographed by Nishi Bahl

of Panache Entertainment inter‑spersed by electrifying dance

performances by students of

Arya Dance Academy arrangedby Shilpa Jhurani entertained

the packed audience. A classical

dance performance byrenowned Bollywood & TV

actress ‑ Prachee Shah Pandyaand standup comedy and satiri‑

cal poetry recitals by renowned

poets and comics from India,moderated by the incomparable

Master of Ceremonies – Shailesh

Lodha and his team of poets ‑Dinesh Kumar, Mahendra

Kumar & Vishnu Dayal Saxenawere the highlights of the

evening.

Prestigious advocacy award for Dr Akshat Jain

RANA celebrates ʻSpringFestivalsʼ with pomp

President Naveen Shah &Vice President Kanak Golia

Emcee Shailesh Lodha and poets

Dr Akshat Jain


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5April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY

New York 29‑year‑old

Devika Sirohi from Uttar

Pradesh is among the

seven‑member team of

researchers that has suc‑

cessfully determined the

structure of the Zika

virus for the first time.

Devika, who was born

and brought up in

Meerut city, is a doctoral

student at Purdue

University and the

youngest member of the

team. Out of the seven‑member team,three were professors and four were stu‑

dents. Amid growing concerns, global

health officials are racing to better

understand the Zika virus behind a

major outbreak that began in Brazil last

year and has spread to many countries

in the Americas.

Stating that it took four months to

identify the structure of

the virus, speaking to a

leading daily, Sirohi said,

"During the period of the

research, we barely slept

for two to three hours a

day, but our hard work

finally paid off. This dis‑

covery will help doctors

and researchers to find a

cure for the deadly dis‑

ease that has been

reported in 33 coun‑

tries."

Devika also said that the structure willhelp in creating effective anti‑viral treat‑

ments and vaccines. She will be submit‑

ting her thesis by the end of this year.

Devika completed her schooling from

Dayawati Modi Academy, honours in bio‑

chemistry from Delhi University and

MSc from Tata Institute of Fundamental

Research in Mumbai

N e w Y o r k The election of

Jagruti Panwala as secretary was

a highlight of the four‑day annu‑

al convention held March 29‑

April 1 at the Gaylord Opryland

Resort & Convention Center in

Nashville, Tennessee. The event

drew a record turnout – 5,000

hoteliers, vendors and franchise

CEOs and their cohorts. Panwala

told Asian Hospitality she is

“extremely honored and very

humbled to be AAHOAʼs new

secretary,” but the victory is not

hers alone. All of AAHOA can

benefit by electing its first female officer. Thewin is important, she said, for “women hoteliers,

young hoteliers, independent hoteliers and small

mom‑and‑pop owners.”

She will succeed to chair of AAHOA in 2019, a

first for the 27‑year‑old organization. Panwala is

a businesswoman in Ivyland, Pennsylvania,

where she is part of a family hotel company and

president and CEO of Wealth Protection

Strategies, an investment man‑

agement business she founded

in 1999. She has been active in

AAHOA for more than a decade,

holding leadership positions

since 2011 when first elected

female director at large, eastern

division. Re‑elected in 2014, she

has also co‑chaired the Womenʼs

Hotelier Committee for five

years and served on the strate‑

gic planning committee for two

years. She testified to Congress

against proposed harmful labor

laws. Her focus repeatedly has

been getting more women, independent and young hoteliers involved. In 2011, she received

the prestigious AAHOA Chairmanʼs Award of

Excellence. She is a second‑generation hotelier

who migrated from Surat, India, with her parents

when she was a teenager. She l ives in

Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.

Bruce Patel took over the baton from outgoing

chairman Jimmy Patel during the convention.

New York

Six hundred

Zarathushtis (Zoroastrians), their

friends and families from the tri‑

state area of New York, New

Je rs ey an d Co nn ec ti cu t ca me

together to celebrate a once in alifetime event – the opening of a

Zoroastrian religious and cultural

community center in Pomona, NY

on March 26. The inaugural event

held during the week of Nowruz,

the start of the Persian new year

also coincides with the birthday of

Zarathustra, the Zoroastrian

prophet. The goal of this new

building is to house the active

community of Zarathushtis which

has grown tremendously over the

past 40 years and is currently

estimated to be about one thou‑

sand.

Dar‑e‑Mehr is believed to mean

“Door of Peace”, and denotes aZarathushti temple without a per‑

manently consecrated devotional

fire. The inauguration of the

Arbab Rustam Guiv Dar‑e‑Mehr

building was hosted by The

Zoroastrian Association of Greater

New York (ZAGNY), the Iranian

Zoroastrian Association (IZA) and

the Dar‑e‑Mehr Zoroastrian

Temple (DMZT).

Thirty priests converged from

all over North America to bless

the building. The prayers were

lead by the honorable Vada

Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor the

high priest and religious leader of

the Zarathushti community who

joined from Udvada , Ind ia. Theevent was interwoven with music,

food prepared by community

restaurateurs, performances by

children as well as formal speech‑

es by local dignitaries including

off icials from the Mayor of

Pomonaʼs Office, respected acade‑

micians and revered community

members. The event was made

accessible to viewers worldwide

and broadcast by a live stream.

Inspired by ancient Persian and

Zoroastrian architecture of the

fire temples of India and Iran, the

new building was designed by

award‑winning architect Dinyar

Wadia of Wadia Associates. It fea‑

tures a stone façade with a colon‑naded portico, and decorative

capitols, evoking the architectural

style of Persepolis (the ancient

Zoroastrian city and heritage site)

as a nod to the long road traveled.

It is a 22,000 square foot struc‑

ture which has four classrooms,

three meeting rooms, a library, a

traditional prayer hall , chefʼs

kitchen, recreation room and a

main hall that can accommodate

up to 400 guests. Special features

include an Afarghanyu (fire ves‑

sel) based on the 250 year old

prototype found at a historic tem‑

ple in Mumbai, India, a custom

crafted Winterstone® panel

inspired by the ancient TripylonPalace in Persepolis and a tradi‑

tional Persian‑inspired water

fountain (that is yet to be built).

The building took 2 years to

construct and approximately

$5M. The small but unwavering

and dedicated community raised

funds locally, nationally and inter‑

nationally for close to six years to

construct and complete the build‑

ing. “Today we take a moment to

appreciate what we have built as a

community,” said Astad J.

Clubwala, President of ZAGNY.

“This will be the legacy of our

generation and can be seen as a

gift from the generation that was

born in our homelands of India,Iran and Pakistan to the genera‑

tion of Zoroastrians born in North

America.”

“This is a monumental achieve‑

ment for the Zarthushti communi‑

ties of New York, New Jersey, and

Connecticut to be able to see the

day that they have been dreaming

about, and contributing their time,

their work, and their funds

towards.” said Shirin Khosravi,

President of IZA.

Devika Sirohi(Image credit: TimesofIndia.com)

Jagruti will succeed to chair of AAHOA in 2019

(Image courtesy: theindianeye.net)

Thirty priests converged from all over North America

to bless the building

The new building is designed by award‑winning architect Dinyar

Wadia of Wadia Associates

NY area gets a new Zoroastrian Community Center

Indian doctoral student part of US team that decoded Zika virus

AAHOA gets its first woman officerJagruti Panwala elected secretary


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6 April 9-15, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY

Washington DC: An Indian‑Ameri‑

can Sikh military officer in U.S has

been granted permission to wear a

religious beard and turban while inuniform, the media reported

April1. The U.S. Armyʼs decision to

the make permanent religious ac‑

commodation for Capt. Simratpal

Singh makes him the first active‑

duty combat soldier in decades to

be permitted to wear a turban and

beard, www.nydailynews.com re‑

ported. The ruling ended the pro‑

tracted battle that pitted individual

religious freedom rights against

what the military said was a need

for uniformity and strict safety

standards.

“My two worlds are one again…

I can fully serve my country exact‑

ly the way I want to and still be afull Sikh the way I want to be,” re‑

ported nydailynews.com. Singh,

28, an observant Sikh had to cut

his hair and shave his beard when

he joined the West Point military

academy in 2006. “It was excruci‑

ating. For 18 years of your life,

youʼve had a certain image of your‑

self. All of a sudden, itʼs shattered

within 10 minutes,” Singh was

quoted as saying.

Ten years later, Singh, now anArmy Ranger and Bronze Star

Medal recipient, in a bid to reclaim

that image asked the U.S. Army in

October to allow him to begin

wearing a beard and turban. Fac‑

ing a discrimination lawsuit, the

Army granted him a temporary ac‑

commodation in December.

In February, with the temporary

accommodation set to expire, the

Army insisted Captain Singh to un‑

dergo extensive testing to make

sure his beard and hair wouldnʼtinterfere with his helmet or gas

mask.

Singh filed suit citing religious

discrimination. A judge ruled that

the Army couldnʼt impose the indi‑

vidualized testing on Singh and or‑

dered the service to decide on his

request by March 31.

On March 31, in a court ruling

Singh was finally granted a perma‑

nent accommodation.

“Because of the Armyʼs strong in‑

terest in maintaining good order

and discipline, the Army intends to

develop clear, uniform standards

applicable to soldiers who have re‑

ceived religious accommodation,”Debra S. Wada, the assistant secre‑

tary of the Army for manpower

and reserve affairs, wrote in a

memo to the captain released April

1. Until those standards are in

place, she said, Captain Singh will

be expected to appear in a “neat

and conservative” manner with a

black or camouflage turban.

San Francisco CA: This Interna‑

tional Womenʼs Day, womenaround the world celebrated

womanhood by sporting Bindi.Women from different corners of the world such as India, USA,

Canada, Fiji, Italy, New Zealand,Australia and beyond united to

join this campaign regardless of

their cultural background andethnicity. There were hindus,

muslims, christians, jews, every‑one, who came together to cele‑brate the common thread of be‑

ing a woman. Bindi is a small, or‑namental dot applied to the fore‑

head. The word Bindi is derived

from Sanskrit word “Bindu”,which means the point around

which the creation of the uni‑verse begins. Women have al‑ways been the central anchor

holding the families together. Awoman signifies the strength, the

beauty, the elegance and the

power. The bindi represents all of these qualities perfectly. “That is

why it made so much sense to cel‑ebrate the womenʼs day wearingBindi,” says Sailee Raje, founder

and CEO of EthnicThread appwho first came up with this idea.

She further says, “Bindis are Bold

and Beautiful. They are very easyto apply or draw on your body.”

Itʼs an incredibly simple and funway for women to sport it on thewomenʼs day and unitedly cele‑

brate the pride of being awoman.”

New York: The 16th annualNew York Indian Film Festival,

presented by the Indo‑Ameri‑can Arts Council, has an‑

nounced that its opening night

film will be “Nachom‑ia‑Kumpasar (Letʼs Dance to the

Rhythm),” directed by Bardroy

Barretto.The festival will kick off May

7 at 5 p.m. at the Skirball Cen‑ter for Performing Arts in New

York City, N.Y., and continue

until May 14.Among the celebrities and

guests that will grace the red

carpet and cocktails event areAparna Sen, Salman Rushdie,

Indian Ambassador to the U.S.

Arun Singh, Ambassador VijayNambiar, Madhur Jaffrey,

Aasif Mandvi, Paul Williams,Tracey Jackson, Umesh Kulka‑

rni, Suketu Mehta, Hansal

Mehta, Sakina Jaffrey, SaritaChoudhury, Kalki Koechlin,

Ayad Akhtar, Muzaffar Ali,Nasseredin Shah, Vishal

Bhardwaj, Rekha Bhardwaj

and Aditya Basu Bhattacharya.Aroon Shivdasani, artistic

and executive director of IAAC,

will give the welcome address.Filmmaker Mira Nair and

Singh will also give addresses.A post‑screening discussion

with Barretto and the cast will

be moderated by AseemChhabra. The evening will end

with a gala benefit dinner and

dancing at the Rosenthal Pavil‑ion Penthouse.

New York: In an unpredictableUS Presidential primaries, theUS‑India Political Action Com‑mittee (USINPAC) continues itsinteractive Presidential Dialogueseries with Democratic and Re‑publican Presidential campaignsto engage and discuss issues im‑portant to the Indian Americancommunity. USINPAC invites allto join its Google hangout, onThursday, April 7th at 12:30 pmEST with the Presidential Cam‑

paign of Governor John Kasich,represented by Ohio State Rep.Niraj Antani.

The Google hangout will bechaired by Manish Antani andSanjay Puri and will draw IndianAmericans across the country,eager to know more about Gov.Kasichʼs stand on issues pertain‑ing to US‑India relations, immi‑gration, terrorism and domesticissues like education and theeconomy among others.

State Representative Niraj An‑tani, serving his first term, is the

youngest currently serving mem‑ber of the Ohio House.

Additionally, he is the secondIndian‑American state elected of‑

ficial in Ohio history, and thefirst Indian‑American Republi‑can. Sanjay Puri, Chairman of US‑

INPAC, remarked, “I welcome allIndian Americans to join us onour next Presidential DialogueSeries with Gov. Kasichʼs cam‑paign.

USINPAC expects it to have a

very interactive and productivediscussion on Apr 7th. Joinus.”

New York: Spe‑

cial address byArun Jaitley,Indiaʼs Minis‑ter of Finance,Corporate Af‑fairs, and In‑formation andBroadcastingwill deliver aspecial ad‑dress on Mon‑day, April 18from 11.30 amto 1.00 pm atAsia Society in

NY. A memberof the Cabinet

of India, Minis‑ter Jaitley holdsthe primary responsibility formanaging Indiaʼs economy̶which, as the fastest growingmajor economy in the world, isincreasingly critical given theslowdown in the global econo‑my. Minister Jaitleyʼs remarkswill focus on the Indian Gov‑

ernmentʼs

Make in Indiaprogram,which in‑cludes majornew initia‑tives de‑signed to fa‑cilitate invest‑ment, fosterinnovation,and buildmanufactur‑ing infra‑structure.

Also pres‑

ent will be Dr.Naushad

Forbes, Presi‑dent of Con‑

federation of Indian Industry;Shaktikanta Das, Secretary of the Department of EconomicAffairs in the Indian Ministry of Finance; Kevin Rudd (modera‑tor), President of the Asia Soci‑ety Policy Institute, formerPrime Minister of Australia.

Army grants Sikh Americanofficer right to wear turban

NYIFF to kick off

with ‘Nachom-ia-Kumpasarʼ

USINPAC invites all to interactwith Gov.Kasichʼs campaign

Capt. Simratpal Singh(Image courtesy: Sikh Coalition)

Governor John Kasich (Photo Source : Yahoo.com)

Arun Jaitley

India's FinanceMinister to addressAsia Society in NY

Women all over unite to celebrate womanhood with Bindi


7/32

7April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info NAT I ONAL COMMUNI TY

New York: Many bloodlines around the world,particularly of south Asian descent, may actually

be a bit more Denisovan ‑‑ a mysterious popula‑

tion of hominids that lived around the same time

as the Neanderthals ‑ researchers including

Indian‑origin scientists have revealed. The team

from Harvard Medical School and University of

California‑Los Angeles (UCLA) has created a

world map and also used comparative genomics

to make predictions about where Denisovan and

Neanderthal genes may be impacting modern

human biology. The analysis also proposes that

modern humans interbred with Denisovans about

100 generations after their trysts with the

Neanderthals. Denisovan genes can potentially be

linked to a more subtle sense of smell in Papua

New Guineans and high‑altitude adaptions in

Tibetans. Meanwhile, Neanderthal genes found in

people around the world most likely contribute

to tougher skin and hair.

Most non‑Africans possess at least a little bit

Neanderthal DNA.

"There are certain classes of genes that modern

humans inherited from the archaic humans with

whom they interbred, which may have helped the

modern humans to adapt to the new environ‑

ments in which they arrived," explained senior

author David Reich, geneticist at Harvard Medical

School. On the flip side, there was negative selec‑

tion to systematically remove ancestry that may

have been problematic from modern humans.

"We can document this removal over the

40,000 years since these admixtures occurred,"

Reich added.Reich and lab members, Swapan Mallick and

Nick Patterson, teamed up with previous labora‑

tory member Sriram Sankararaman, assistant

professor of computer science at the University

of California, Los Angeles for the project. They

found evidence that both Denisovan and

Neanderthal ancestry has been lost from the X

chromosome as well as genes expressed in the

male testes.

The team theorises that this has contributed to

reduced fertility in males, which is commonly

observed in other hybrids between two highly

divergent groups of the same species.

The researchers collected their data by compar‑

ing known Neanderthal and Denisovan gene

sequences across more than 250 genomes from

120 non‑African populations publicly available

through the Simons Genome Diversity Project.

The analysis was carried out by a machine‑

learning algorithm that could differentiate

between components of both kinds of ancestral

DNA, which are more similar to one another than

to modern humans. The study's limitation is that

it relies on the current library of ancient

genomes available. "We can't use this data to

make claims about what the Denisovans or

Neanderthals looked like, what they ate, or what

kind of diseases they were susceptible to," said

Sankararaman, first author on the paper. "We are

still very far from understanding that." The new

map of archaic ancestry was published in the

journal Current Biology. (IANS)

Houston An Indian‑American

professor and pharmaceutical

department chair at a prestigious

American university has been

selected for the Fulbright

Specialist Roster for his outstand‑

ing achievements in the field of

pharmacy. Rajender R Aparasu is

the first pharmacy faculty mem‑

ber at the University of Houston

selected to be the candidate ros‑ter of the Fulbright Specialist

Program, which helps US faculty

share their academic expertise

and develop linkages with non‑US

institutions on curriculum,

assessment, faculty development

and research training. The

Fulbright program, which is fund‑

ed by the Department of State's

Bureau of Educational and

Cultural Affairs, serves to pro‑

mote international engagement

of academic scholarship and build

linkages between US and over‑

seas institutions. "There are very

few Fulbright specialists in phar‑

macy; I am really honoured to be

selected for Fulbright Specialist

Roster," said Aparasu, whose five‑

year term ends in 2021.

"This is a great opportunity to

offer my expertise in developing

professional and graduate phar‑

macy programs that involve phar‑maceutical health outcomes and

policy," he said. "I am looking for‑

ward to the opportunity to visit

overseas pharmacy institutions to

assist faculty and administrators

with respect to academic and

research programs in pharmaceu‑

tical outcomes research." (PTI)

Washington DC: US law enforce‑

ment agencies have arrested 21 peo‑

ple, including 10 Indian‑Americans,

on charges of visa fraud involving

about 1,000 foreign students.

Arrested in New York, New Jersey,

Washington and Virginia these 21

individuals were brokers, recruiters

and employers who conspired with

more than 1,000 foreign nationals to

fraudulently obtain student and for‑

eign worker visas through a "pay to

stay" New Jersey college,

Department of Justice said. As per

the federal compliant unsealed on

Tuesday, the defendants, many of

whom operated recruiting compa‑

nies for purported international stu‑

dents, were arrested for their

involvement in an alleged scheme to

enroll foreign nationals as students

in the University of Northern New

Jersey (UNNJ, a purported for‑profit

college located in Cranford, New

Jersey. Unbeknownst to the defen‑

dants and the foreign nationals they

conspired with, however, the UNNJ

was created in September 2013 by

federal agents.

Through the UNNJ, undercover

HSI agents investigated criminal

activities associated with the Student

and Exchange Visitor Program

(SEVP), including, but not limited to,

student visa fraud and the harboring

of aliens for profit.

The UNNJ was not staffed with

instructors or educators, had no cur‑

riculum and conducted no actual

classes or education activities.

New York A 45‑year‑old

Indian‑origin man, who worked

as a talent agent, has been sen‑

tenced to up to six years in

prison in New York for stealing

more than $2 million from

clients by falsely promising to

book famous recording artists

for events.

Yugeshwar Rajkumar of New

Jersey, who had pleaded guilty

last month in New York State

Supreme Court to grand larce‑

ny and fraud charges, was also

ordered to pay $1.7 million in

restitution. Manhattan DistrictAttorney Cyrus Vance said Rajkumar

was a booking agent and stole more

than $2 million from clients by falsely

promising to book famous recording

artists for events."The defendant took

advantage of his reputation in the

music industry to convince his victims

to pay him tens of thousands of dollars

to secure supposed performances by

world‑famous recording artists," Vance

said.

Around 2008, Rajkumar falsely

promised clients and event promoters

that he would book popular recording

artists for overseas concerts, including

Akon and Chris Brown.In exchange for the supposed book‑

ing, Rajkumar charged his clients

between $45,000 and $300,000, and

directed them to wire payments to

bank accounts held by entities based in

New York and controlled by him.

However, instead of using the money

to book the promised artists, he made

cash withdrawals and spent the money

on rent, car payments, legal fees, and

personal debts, Vance said.

In many cases, victims were forced to

pay additional fees to secure perform‑

ances by desired artists who were

never booked by Rajkumar. (PTI)

Yugeshwar Rajkumar(Image credit: nypost.com)

Prof Rajender Aparasu

South Asians share ancestrywith a mysterious

population: Researchers

TALENT AGENT

SENTENCED FOR

$2 MILLION FRAUD

Prof Rajender Aparasu selectedfor Fulbright Specialist Roster

10 Indian-Americans among 21

arrested in visa fraud case


8/32

The massive data leak from a

Panama‑based law firm, now

known across the world as

the "Panama Papers", has put

many world leaders, politicians,

celebrities and sport‑stars under

the spotlight.

The leaked files from the

Panamanian firm Mossack

Fonseca has revealed that it hid

billions of dollars in assets for its

clients. The files, comprising over

11 million documents from the

firm totaling close to 2.6 TB of

data, have revealed names which

have shocked many.

The International Consortium of

Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and

100 other media partners conduct‑ed an investigation into the files

and unearthed information on

more than 214,000 offshore com‑

panies connected to people in

more than 200 countries and terri‑

tories. The information might

throw light on a widespread sys‑

tem of global tax evasion.

According to WIRED website,ICIJ director Gerard Ryle said that

the leak began in late 2014, "when

an unknown source reached out to

the German newspaper

Suddeutsche Zeitung, which had

reported previously on a smaller

leak of Mossack Fonseca files to

German government regulators."

Ryle revealed that Bastian

Obermayer, a Suddeutsche Zeitung

reporter, said that the source had

contacted him via encrypted chat,

offering data intended “to make

these crimes public.”

Upon being contacted by the

source, Obermayer asked, “How

much data are we talking about?”Obermayer told WIRED the

source's response: “More than you

have ever seen.”

Additionally, according to the

report, Ryle said that the source

had warned Obermayer that his or

her “life is in danger.”

Obermayer said that he commu‑

nicated with his source over aseries of encrypted channels that

they frequently changed. They

took the precaution of deleting all

history from their prior exchange

each time.

Without revealing the exact

channels used for communicating

with the source, Obermayer,

according to the report, alluded to

crypto apps l ike Signal and

Threema, as well as PGP‑encrypted

email. Obermayer revealed that

each time the reporter and the

source re‑established a connection,

"they would use a known question

and answer to reauthenticate each

other."“Iʼd say ʻis it sunny?ʼ Youʼd say

ʻthe moon is rainingʼ or whatever

nonsense, and then both of us can

verify itʼs still the other person on

the device,” Obermayer told

WIRED. As the source provided the

files, Suddeutsche Zeitung contact‑

ed the ICIJ.

The WIRED report says that theICIJʼs developers built a "two‑fac‑

tor‑authenticat ion‑protected

search engine" for the leaked files,

the URL for which they shared "via

encrypted email with scores of

news outlets including the BBC,

The Guardian, Fusion, and dozens

of foreign‑language media outlets."

Given the sheer size of the leakand the terabytes of data involved,

it is unlikely that it could all be

shared over email. However,

Obermayer, according to the

report, refused to divulge how the

source was able to pass on all that

information.

Reykjavik Iceland's right‑wing government

has named a new Prime Minister and said it

would hold early elections in the autumn,

after the previous leader was forced to step

down over his implication in the Panama

Papers scandal.

The two coalition partners, the Progressive

Party and the Independence Party, agreed

after talks late yesterday to hand the prime

ministerial post to the agriculture minister

Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, 53, of the

Progressives. He replaces Sigmundur David

Gunnlaugsson, 41, who stepped down

Tuesday amid massive public protests over a

hidden offshore account revealed in the so‑called Panama Papers leak of 11.5 million

financial documents.

"We expect to have elections this autumn,"

Johannsson said, insisting that the coalition, in

power since 2013, would continue to run the

country's affairs despite thousands of protest‑

ers calling for the whole government's resig‑

nation. "We will continue our work together.

We are of course hoping this will help bring

stability in the political system," he said.President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who at 72

is due to retire in June after five terms and 20

ye ar s in of fi ce , is ex pe ct ed to ap pr ov e

Johannsson's appointment. Iceland's next leg‑

islative elections were originally scheduled for

April 2017. Gunnlaugsson, who remains the

head of the Progressive Party for the time

being, was the first major political casualty to

emerge from the leak of millions of docu‑

ments detailing offshore accounts held by

world leaders and celebrities. Two other

Iceland cabinet ministers have been singled

out in the leak ‑‑ Finance Minister Bjarni

Benediktsson and Interior Minister Olof

Nordal ‑‑ and the coalition is keen to stall for

time to avoid what would surely be a resound‑

ing protest vote if a snap election were held

soon. The coalition parties "have lost all their

legitimacy, but I am sceptical they will leave of

their own initiative. Time is on their side and

it's crucial for them to stay in power," lament‑

ed Gyda Margret Petursdottir, a 42‑year‑old

teacher who was one of hundreds whoprotested against the government outside par‑

liament yesterday. The Panama Papers,

revealed by the International Consortium of

Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), showed that

Gunnlaugsson and his wife owned an offshore

company in the British Virgin Islands and had

placed millions of dollars of her inheritance

there. (AFP/PTI)

Opposition lawmakerpresses charges againstArgentina PresidentMauricio MacriBuenos Aires An Argentine opposition law‑

maker has pressed charges against

President Mauricio Macri, seeking to havehim investigated for financial crimes after

his name appeared in the so‑called Panama

Papers leaks.

Lawmaker Norman Martinez asked a fed‑

eral judge to order an investigation into

whether the conservative president "knew

of, collaborated in, ordered or approved

maneuvers to launder money or evade

taxes."

Martinez, an ally of Macri's predecessor

and opponent, Cristina Kirchner, filed the

complaint after the lower house voted down

a bill that sought to force the president to

testify before Congress on his interests in

two firms registered in the Bahamas and

Panama. Macri still faces a separate move to

launch a congressional commission to probeany irregularities in his finances.

Information about Macri's offshore finan‑

cial dealings emerged in the leak of millions

of documents from Panamanian law firm

Mossack Fonseca, which has put a host of

world leaders and celebrities in the hot seat

over their secret financial dealings.

(AFP/PTI)

8 April 9-15, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info P ANAMA P AP ERS LEAK

PANAMA PAPERS:

Decoding historyʼs biggest data leak

ICELAND NAMES NEW PM;

will hold autumn election

Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca is at the center of the storm. Thefirm hid billions of dollars in assets for its clients at offshore tax havens.

(Image courtesy: newyorker.com)

The previous PM Sigmundur DavidGunnlaugsson was forced to step down

over his implication in the Panama Papersscandal (Courtesy: londonlovesbusiness.com)

The Fall Out of Panama Papers Leak


9/32

9April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info P ANAMA P AP ERS LEAK

Beijing Hong Kong:

Authorities

across the globe have openedinvestigations into the activities of

the world's rich and powerful after

a cache of leaked documents from

a Panamanian law firm showed

possible wrongdoing using of f‑

shore company structures.

The "Panama Papers" have cast

light on the financial arrange‑

ments of high profile politicians

and public figures and the compa‑

nies and financial institutions they

use for such activities. Among

those named in the documents are

friends of Russian President

Vladimir Putin and relatives of the

leaders of China, Britain, Iceland

and Pakistan, and the president of Ukraine.

Leading figures and financial

institutions responded to the mas‑

sive leak of more than 11.5 million

documents with denials of any

wrongdoing as prosecutors and

regulators began a review of the

reports from the investigation by

the US based International

Consortium of Investigative

Journalists (ICIJ) and other media

organizations.

Following the reports, China has

moved to limit local access to cov‑

erage of the matter with state

media denouncing Western report‑

ing on the leak as biased against

non‑Western leaders.

France, Australia, New Zealand,Austria, Sweden and the

Netherlands are among nations

that have commenced investiga‑

tions, and some other countries,

including the United States, said

they were looking into the matter.

Mossack Fonseca, the

Panamanian law firm at the center

of the leaks, has set up more than

240,000 offshore companies for

clients around the globe and

denies any wrongdoing. It calls

itself the victim of a campaign

against privacy and claims media

reports misrepresent the nature of

its business.

The Hong Kong government saidin a statement that its Inland

Revenue Department has taken

note of the recent release of the

documents and will take "neces‑

sary actions" based on any infor‑

mation it gets. It will not comment

on individual cases or disclose the

course of action because of secre‑

cy provisions in Hong Kong tax

law, the government said.

Credit Suisse and HSBC, two of

the world's largest wealth man‑

agers, dismissed suggestions they

were actively using offshore struc‑

tures to help clients cheat on their

taxes. Both were named among the

banks that helped set up complex

structures that make it hard for

tax collectors and investigators to

track the flow of money from one

place to another, according to ICIJ.

Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam,

who is aggressively targeting

Asia's wealthiest for growth, said

his bank was only after lawful

assets. Speaking at a media brief‑

ing in Hong Kong, he acknowl‑

edged the bank uses offshore

financial structures, but only for

very wealthy customers with

assets in multiple jurisdictions and

did not support their use for tax

avoidance or allow them without

knowing the identities of all those

concerned. "We do not condone

structures for tax avoidance," he

said. "Whenever there is a struc‑

ture with a third party beneficiary

we insist to know the identity of

that beneficiary."

Separately, HSBC said the docu‑

ments pre‑dated a thorough

reform of its business model.

Both banks have in recent years

paid large fines to US authorities

over their wealth management or

banking operations.

Credit Suisse agreed in 2014 to

pay a $2.5 billion fine for helping

rich Americans evade taxes. HSBC

agreed in 2012 to pay $1.92 bil‑

lion in fines, mainly for allowing

itself to be used to launderMexican drug money.

The reports on leaks also point‑

ed to the offshore companies

linked to the families of Chinese

President Xi Jinping and other

powerful current and former

Chinese leaders.

Chinese Foreign Ministry

spokesman Hong Lei, when asked

if the government would investi‑

gate tax affairs of those mentioned

in the Panama Papers, told

reporters at a daily news briefing

the ministry would not comment

on "these groundless accusations".

Searches for the word "Panama"

on Chinese search engines bringup stories in Chinese media on the

topic, but many of the links have

been disabled or only open onto

stories about allegations directed

at sports stars.

China's Internet regulator did

not immediately respond to a

request for comment. The Global

Times, an influential tabloid pub‑

lished by the ruling Communist

Party's official People's Daily, sug‑

gested in an editorial on Tuesday

that Western media backed by

Washington used such leaks to

attack political targets in non‑

Western countries while minimiz‑

ing coverage of Western leaders.

Geneva Uruguay's Juan Pedro

Damiani has resigned from FIFA's

ethics committee after the

Panama Papers showed his law

firm acted as an intermediary for

a disgraced FIFA official. "We canconfirm that Mr. Damiani resigned

from his position as member of

the adjudicatory chamber of the

independent Ethics Committee of

FIFA," panel spokesman Marc

Tenbuecken told AFP in an email.

The Panama Papers indicate

that Damiani's firm helped

Eugenio Figueredo ‑‑ the former

head of the South American foot‑ball confederation who is now fac‑

ing corruption charges in the

United States ‑‑ set up a shell com‑

pany.

San Jos Costa Ricans named in

the "Panama Papers" leak that

disclosed the offshore financial

dealings of the world's wealthy

will be scrutinized for any crimi‑nal or tax‑dodging activity, offi‑

cials have announced.

State prosecutors and the

finance ministry are teaming up

to tackle the matter, the Public

Ministry yesterday said in a

statement.

At the same time, a special

commission including the public

and finance ministries and the

police will meet next week to

define their lines of action.

The Costa Rican government

has seized upon the scandal to

urge lawmakers to pass a seriesof laws on tax reform.

It particularly wants to see one

adopted that demands partners

and ultimate owners of anony‑

mous companies be registered ‑‑

something that has met with

resistance from some corporate

and political figures. (AFP/PTI )

World over probes opened in financialarrangements of public figures

Damiani resignsfrom FIFA ethicscommittee

PROBE ANNOUNCEDFOR COSTA RICANSREVEALED IN DATA LEAK

A security guard sits outside the the Mossack Fonseca law firm inPanama City. (Image courtesy: hindustantimes.com)

Juan Pedro Damiani


10/32

New Delhi

Cautioning against

ju mp in g to co nc lu si on s onPanama Papers, the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI, or central

bank) on Wednesday said it

would have to look into the evi‑

dence to find what was legiti‑

mate.

Panama Papers have disclosed

a list of nearly 500 Indians,

including celebrities and indus‑

trialists who have allegedly

stashed money in offshore enti‑

ties.

The government has set up a

task force and the RBI is a part of

it . RBI Deputy Governor S S

Mundra said on the sidelines of

an event organized by Assocham

here. "It would be too hasty to

jump to a conclusion that every‑

thing is illegitimate or everything

is legitimate. There would be all

kind of cases once the details are

available, we will look into the

evidence along with the team.

Then it would be fair to reach to

a conclusion," he said. Soon after

the Panama Paper disclosure, the

government set up a group,

which includes officials from

CBDT, RBI and FIU (Financial

Intelligence Unit) to investigate

whether the money deposited in

the tax heaven are legal or ille‑

gal. RBI Governor Raghuram

Rajan had said yesterday that the

multi‑agency probe will look into

the legitimacy of such holdings

of Indians named in the leaked

Panama list. It is important to

note that there are legitimate

reasons to have accounts outside

and the LRS scheme allows you

to take money outside, he had

said.

Under the Liberalized

Remittance Scheme (LRS), all res‑

ident individuals , including

minors, are allowed to freely

remit up to $2,50,000 per finan‑

cial year for any permissible cur‑

rent or capital account transac‑

tion or a combination of both.

Besides, the Special

Investigation Team (SIT) on

black money is also investigate

thoroughly the Panama Papers

issue. "Investigations are being

carried out. We are going to

investigate it (the list) thorough‑

ly," SIT Chairman Justice (retd) M

B Shah had said. (PTI)

New De lh i Niira Radia, the founder of

Vaishnavi Communications whose taped

telephone chats with some prominent peo‑

ple in India around eight years ago, includ‑

ing ministers, journalists and business

tycoons became the matter of a probe, has

now surfaced in the "Panama Papers"

expose.

Her name (appearing as Nira Radia, in

the documents investigated, minus theextra 'i') is allegedly linked to a company

in British Virgin Islands, which her office

has denied, The Indian Express reported

on Wednesday.

In the article, as Part 3 of the expose on

Indians having alleged offshore links,

Radia is said to have figured prominently

as a director in the 232 documents per‑

taining to the company listed in the tax

haven, Crownmart International Group.

The list published by the newspaper on

Wednesday also has the names of a top

business tycoon in Bellary, a prominent

industrialist and a chartered accountant ‑‑

each of whom, which The Indian Express

says were contacted for their responses,

with many also sharing their versions.Another article seeks to shows how the

world's largest currency note maker De La

Rue had contracted a New Delhi business‑

man to help bag tenders in India, in return

for a 15‑percent commission.

The paper identifies the company as

Aphra Consultants, linked to Somendra

Khosla of New Delhi.

Amid these allegations, Reserve Bank of

India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has

said that not every off‑shore company

opened by an Indian national need be ille‑

gitimate, and that this would be the pri‑

mary task of a probe team in which the

central bank has been co‑opted.

On Radia, the paper said: "An investiga‑

tion of these papers shows the existence of one offshore entity owned by Radia, an

International Business Company regis‑

tered in the British Virgin Islands by

Mossack Fonseka in 1994 named

Crownmart International Group Limited."

In response, her office said the said enti‑

ty was set up by her late father Iqbal

Narain Menon and that she was not a ben‑

eficiary. Also that Radia had disclosed her

assets to the authorities in UK and India

and that such information was personal

and confidential for third parties.

In another article published on

Wednesday, the newspaper said the Indian

diamond merchants, who were probed ear‑

lier for having overseas accounts in

Liechtenstein, British Virgin Islands and

HSCB, have also surfaced in "Panama

Papers."Prominent among them are Rosy Blue,

one of the largest diamond traders in the

world, and Chetan Mehta of the Belgium‑

based Gembel family.

The paper also reported that Harshad

Ramniklal Mehta of Rosy Blue did not

respond to its calls or queries, while

Chetan Mehta said he has been a non‑resi‑

dent Indian living in Belgium and that the

companies were shut longtime ago.

A part of the list, Hyderabad‑based

Moturi Srinivas Prasad said the off‑shore

entities were started as one dollar compa‑

nies with the hope of doing business, but

were closed.

Satish Modi of Modi Global was away

from India, but an e‑mail reply from hisoffice said he is an NRI and laws were fol‑

lowed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has

already ordered a multi‑agency probe

team on the expose. (IANS)

Mumbai Actor Amitabh Bachchan, whose name

figured in the Panama Paper leaks as allegedlyhaving links with offshore entities in two tax

havens, on Tuesday denied

any connection with thosecompanies, saying his

name may have been“misused”.

He also claimed thateven the news reporthad not suggested any

wrongdoing on his part.

The Indian Expresscarried a report

based on leaked

documents of aP a n a m a ‑

based lawf i r m

M o s s a c k

F o n s e c a ,which is said to feature links of over 500 Indians

to firms and accounts in offshore tax havens.

Referring to the report, Bachchan, 73, said, “Ido not know any of the companies referred to by

Indian Express ̶ Sea Bulk Shipping CompanyLtd, Lady Shipping Ltd, Treasure Shipping Ltd,

and Tramp Shipping Ltd. I have never been a

director of any of the above stated companies. Itis possible that my name has been misused.

"I have paid all my taxes including on monies

spent by me overseas. Monies that I have remit‑ted overseas have been in compliance with law,

including remittances through LiberalizedRemittance Scheme (LRS), after paying Indian

taxes. In any event the news report in Indian

Express does not even suggest any illegality onmy part," his statement read. The names of his

daughter‑in‑law Aishwarya Rai, her parents and

brother also figured in the leaked documents asbeing directors in a firm in the British Virgin

Islands. The newspaper quoted her media adviserArchana Sadanand, who raised questions about

the International Consortium of Investigating

Journalists and said all the information the paperhad was totally untrue and false. (PTI)


Niira Radia (Image courtesy: sify.com)

Amitabh Bachchan (File Photo)

RBI warns against jumpingto conclusions

PANAMA PAPERS HAVE DISCLOSEDA LIST OF NEARLY 500 INDIANS

Hyderabad‑based businessman

Bhavanasi Jaya Kumar who main‑

tained he had nothing to do with off‑

shore companies.

UK‑based Bhaskar Rao, whose son

said the companies were not exactly

active and that due procedures werefollowed.

Civil construction business people

Preetam Bothra and Sweta Gupta,

with the latter when contacted, pos‑

ing the query, as to why she should

share any information with the

newspaper.

Ahmedabad‑based Bhandari Ashok

Ramdayalchand, with a response

from someone at his residence that

he was not interested in talking.

Kolkata‑based Ashok Malhotra who,

the paper says, admitted to knowing

about the off‑shore accounts but

kept changing his stories.

Dehradun‑based Sanjay Pokhriyal,

who said the $10,000 endowmentfor a Panamanian fund allegedly

linked to him was not his own

money.

Belary iron exporters Prasanna V.

Ghotage and Vaman Kumar who the

paper could not contact.

Vadodara‑based Pradeep Kaushikray

Buch, who denied he had any such

overseas company linked to him.

Rahul Arunprasad Patel of Sintex

Industries, who reportedly said he

has several overseas companies but

was not sure if the one named in the

expose belonged to him.

Thiruvananthapuram native and

chartered accountant George

Mathew, who said the linked compa‑nies belonged to clients and that

Indian agencies had nothing to do

with them.

Niira Radia now surfacesin 'Panama Papers'

OTHERS

Amitabh Bachchan

says no link with

offshore companies


11/32

11April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info P ANAMA P AP ERS LEAK

The massive data leak in

Panama has revealed namesof thousands of world lead‑

ers and celebrities who have

stashed money in tax havens

In his first reaction to the leaked

'Panama Papers' that revealed

names of thousands of world lead‑

ers and celebrities who have

stashed money in tax havens,

President Barack Obama today

said that global tax avoidance

may be running into trillions of

dollars worldwide.

"There is no doubt that the

problem of global tax avoidance,

generally, is a huge problem,"

Obama said adding the issue has

been brought up in G7 and G20meetings.

"There has been some progress

made in coordinating between tax

authorities of different countries

so that we can make sure that

we're catching some of the most

egregious examples," he said.

"But as I said before, one of the

big problems that we have is that

a lot of this stuff is not illegal.

Unless the United States and other

countries lead by example in clos‑

ing some of these loopholes and

provisions, then in many cases

you can trace what's taking place,

but you can't stop it. There is

always going to be some illicitmovement of funds around the

world. But we shouldn't make it

easy. We shouldn't make it legalto engage in transactions just to

avoid taxes," he asserted.

"That's why I think it is impor‑

tant that the Treasury acted on

something that's different from

what happened in Panama. The

corporate inversions issue is a

financial transaction that is bro‑

kered among major Fortune 500

companies to avoid paying taxes,"

he said.

"But the basic principle is mak‑

ing sure that everybody is paying

their fair share, and that they

don't just have a few people who

are able to take advantage of tax

provisions, that's something thatthey really have to pay attention

to.

"This is a l l net outf lows of

money that could be spent on the

pressing needs here in the United

States. The volume that you start

seeing when you combine legal

tax avoidance with i l l ic it tax

avoidance, or some of the activi‑

ties that we're seeing, this is not

just billions of dollars.

"It's not even just hundreds of

billions of dollars. Estimates are

this may be trillions of dollars

worldwide, and it could make a

big difference in terms of what we

can do here," Obama said.Obama urged the Republican‑

controlled Congress to close legal

loopholes so as to prevent

American companies from evad‑

ing taxes and shipping jobs over‑

seas.

"We should keep building an

economy where everybody has a

fair shot, and everybody plays by

the same rules," Obama said a day

after the US Treasury Department

issued new set of rules making it

more difficult for US companies to

save taxes by shipping jobs

abroad.

Americans, he stressed, should

be able to know that big corpora‑tions aren't playing by a different

set of rules.

Obama praised the Treasury

Department for its new set of

rules that would reduce the tax

benefits for "serial inverters"as he

lashed out at such US companies.

"They effectively renounce their

citizenship. They declare that

they're based somewhere else,"

Obama said.

"It sticks the rest of us with the

tab, and it makes hardworking

Americans feel like the deck is

stacked against them," he added.

"In the news over the last couple

of days, we've had anotherreminder in this big dump of data

coming out of Panama that tax

avoidance is a big, global problem.Its not unique to other countries

because, frankly, there are folks

here in America who are taking

advantage of the same stuff. A lot

of it is legal, but that's exactly the

problem," Obama said.

"Its not that they're breaking the

laws, it's that the laws are so poor‑

ly designed that they allow peo‑

ple, if they've got enough lawyers

and enough accountants, to wig‑

gle out of responsibilities that

ordinary citizens are having to

abide by," he said.

In the US there are loopholes

that only wealthy individuals and

powerful corporations haveaccess to. They have access to off‑

shore accounts, and they are gam‑

ing the system, he noted, adding

that middle‑class families are not

in the same position to do this.

"In fact, a lot of these loopholes

come at the expense of middle‑

class families, because that lost

revenue has to be made up some‑

where. Alternatively, it means that

we're not investing as much as we

should in schools, in making col‑

lege more affordable, in putting

people back to work rebuilding

our roads, our bridges, our infra‑

structure, creating more opportu‑

nities for our children," he said.(PTI)

Panama City One of the founders of the

law firm at the center of the explosive

"Panama Papers" revelations on off‑shore holdings said his company was

hacked by servers abroad.

Ramon Fonseca said the firm MossackFonseca had lodged a criminal com‑

plaint with Panamanian prosecutors onMonday over the breach.

He added that in all the reporting so

far "nobody is talking of the hack, andthat is the only crime that has been com‑

mitted."

Fonseca said, "We have lodged a com‑

plaint. We have a technical report thatwe were hacked by servers abroad."

He did not specify from which country

the hack was carried out.Fonseca also rued the fact that report‑

ing on the 11.5 million documents takenfrom Mossack Fonseca's computer sys‑

tem focused on the high‑profile clients

who had used the law firm to set up off‑shore companies to hold their wealth.

"We don't understand. The world is

already accepting that privacy is not a

human right," he said.The hack has badly shaken Panama's

financial services sector, which relied on

discretion to do its business.With high‑profile politicians, sports

stars, celebrities and a few criminalsrevealed to have used Mossack Fonseca

to set up offshore entities, scrutiny on

the small Central American nation hassuddenly ramped up.

But the law firm and the government

have stressed that offshore companies

are not, in themselves, illegal, and thatMossack Fonseca was not responsible

for what its clients used them for.

The government, which has recentlyseen through reforms to get the country

taken off an international list of statesseen as money‑laundering hubs, is

mounting a fierce defense of the finan‑

cial sector, which contributes 7% of gross domestic product. (PTI)

Global tax avoidance hugeproblem, says Barack Obama

Panama Papers: Law firm says'hacked by servers abroad'

President Barack Obama speaking out against tax havens amidst

Panama Papers fallout (Image courtesy: winningdemocrats.com)

The firm further said that in all the reporting so far "nobody is talking of the hack, and that is the only crime that has been committed"


12/32

Washington The Panama law

firm at the center of the huge

leak of data on offshore financial

accounts reportedly incorporat‑

ed a string of companies named

after James Bond films.

Among the 11 million docu‑

ments leaked from the firm

Mossack Fonseca that specializes

in setting up complex offshore

corporate structures, are files

showing that the firm established

companies named after James

Bond movies and villains, ABC

News reported.

The files include companies

named Goldfinger, SkyFall ,

GoldenEye, Moonraker, Spectre

and also Blofeld, the arch Bond

nemesis fond of remote island

lairs, the Organized Crime and

Corruption Reporting Project

(OCCRP), which investigated the

files alongside 100 other media

outlets, wrote in an article on

Wednesday.

The files also include "corre‑

spondence from a man named

Austin Powers, apparently his

real name and not the movie

character, and Jack Bauer, a real

person whom a Mossack Fonseca

employee entered into the firm's

database as a client after the

employee "met him at a pub", the

article said.

Jack Bauer was also the charac‑

ter portrayed by actor Kiefer

Sutherland in the hit TV series

24. (IANS)

Beijing

Nearly a third of the business of the

law firm at the center of the Panama Papers

scandal came from its offices in Hong Kong

and China, reports said today, with the

Asian giant assailed by corruption and capi‑

tal flight.

More than 16,300 of Panamanian law

firm Mossack Fonseca's active shell compa‑

nies were incorporated through its Hong

Kong and China offices, 29% of the world‑

wide total, according to the International

Consortium of Investigative Journalists

(ICIJ), which co‑ordinated a year‑long inves‑

tigation into a trove of 11.5 million docu‑

ments.

The investigation found that relatives of

at least eight current or former members of

China's Politburo Standing Committee, the

ruling party's most powerful body, have

been implicated in the use of offshore com‑

panies.

Such vehicles are not illegal in themselves

and can be used for legitimate business

needs. But they commonly feature in cor‑

ruption cases, when they can be used to

secretly move ill‑gotten gains abroad.

Graft is rife in China, which Transparency

International rates in 83rd place out of 168

in its most recent Corruption Perceptions

Index.

At the same time growth in the world's

second‑largest economy is slowing, and its

wealthy have increasingly sought to move

funds abroad, but have to contend with

Beijing's strict exchange‑control regime.

Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has

launched a much‑ publicized anti‑graft

drive, but has not instituted systemicreforms such as public declarations of

assets.

Xi's brother‑in‑law and family members of

two current members of the Politburo

Standing Committee (PSC), Zhang Gaoli and

Liu Yunshan, have offshore holdings, the

ICIJ reported.

Deng Jiagui, the husband of Xi's sister,

was previously a shareholder in three com‑

panies : Supreme Victory Enterprises ,

Wealth Ming International and Best Effect

Enterprises, reports said. The companies

were closed before Xi took power in 2012.

Relatives of past PSC members Jia

Qinglin, once the fourth‑ranked leader in

China, Li Peng, who led the Tiananmen

Square crackdown, Hu Yaobang, ex vice‑

president Zeng Qinghong, and Tian Jiyun

were named by The Guardian, which took

part in the investigation.

The documents also named movie star

Jackie Chan, billionaire heiress Kelly Zong

Fuli, and shopping‑mall magnate Shen

Guojun.

Media in the Communist‑ruled country

have avoided reporting on the leaks'

Chinese revelations, and social media has

been scrubbed of references to them, with

foreign news broadcasters such as the BBC

blacked out when they report on the

Panama Papers. (AFP/PTI)

Swiss policesearch UEFAoffices inPanamaPapers falloutGeneva authorities raided the

headquarters of European foot‑

ball, Iceland named a new prime

minister and the world's largest

drugs company merger fell

apart, as the fallout from the

Panama Papers scandal gath‑

ered pace.

Police searched UEFA's Geneva

offices as part of a probe into a

Champions League television

rights deal signed by Gianni

Infantino before he became the

president of world football's gov‑

erning body.

The year‑long investigation,

published on Sunday, revealed

the hidden offshore assets of

some 140 political figures,

including 12 current or former

heads of state, as well as celebri‑

ties, sports stars and dozens of

billionaires.

People close to Russian

President Vladimir Putin,

Chinese President Xi Jinping's

relatives, Argentine footballing

great Lionel Messi and film star

Jackie Chan have all been named

as owning offshore accounts

with Mossack Fonseca.

But the Panama law firm also

counted criminals among its

clients, including "drug traffick‑

ers from Mexico, Guatemala and

Eastern Europe" and people and

companies under US and

European sanctions, said

Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the

German newspaper that

obtained the documents.

In the first taste of how the

revelations could reshape theworld of business, Pfizer said a

$160 bil l ion merger with

Allergan to create the world's

largest pharmaceuticals compa‑

ny would not go ahead after

Washington moved to tighten

taxation rules.

Countries around the world

have been piling pressure on

Panama to reform its financial

sector, which has been trying to

head off a feared international

clampdown on its offshore busi‑

ness.

France has added Panama to

its "grey" l ist of world tax

havens, and Finance MinisterMichel Sapin on Wednesday

called on the OECD group of

wealthy nations to do the same.

(AFP/PTI)


Companies named includeBond movie names like

Goldfinger, SkyFall, GoldenEye,Moonraker and Spectre

How James Bond helpedMossack Fonseca

set up offshore accounts

China largest market for

Mossack Fonseca: ICIJMORE THAN 16,300 ACTIVE SHELLCOMPANIES WERE INCORPORATED

THROUGH THE HK AND CHINA OFFICES


13/32

13April 9-15, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IA

New Delhi :

A week after it blocked

efforts to ban Jaish‑e‑Mohammed

chief Masood Azhar, China supported

India against the World Trade

Organisation (WTO) ruling that oppos‑

es India's domestic manufacturing

under its National Solar Mission.

Th

Documents

Vol-8-Issue-48 April- 9 -April - 15, 2016