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This week’s question

Should China worry over India,Japan bon homie?

Last week’s result

YES 27% NO 73%

Top Stories

Details on page 20

CONTENTS

MODI WINS DOUBLEJAPAN INVESTMENT

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

Classifieds ------------------------- 52Community Post -------------- 16-24

Date Book -------------------------- 50

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

HealthScience Post --------- 32-36

Horoscope ------------------------- 51

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

Life Style ----------------------- 47-49

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

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

Real Estate -------------------- 38-39

TechBiz Post ------------------- 25-27

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 40-43

Details on page 9

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Details on page 23

Details on page 9

Details on page 16

TOKYO: India and Japan agreed to enhance their de-fense and strategic cooperation to a new level during talksbetween Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counter-part Shinzo Abe, who also decided to speed up negotia-tions on civil nuclear deal that could not be concludednow.

Striking good personal chemistry, the two leaders had"very fruitful" and "meaningful" exchanges after whichAbe announced doubling of Japan's private and public

investment in India to about USD 35 billion over the nextfive years.

The talks at Akasaka Palace (State Guest House) cameon the third day of Modi's first major bilateral visit outsideSouth Asia. Abe had gone the extra mile in receiving hisold friend in Kyoto and spent the weekend with him on atour of two ancient Buddhist temples apart from hosting abanquet.

Dream run forrural 'Betis'in UP village

Rishikant - AirIndia's new facein New York

PERSONAL CHEMISTRY: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe before a delegationlevel meeting in Tokyo, Japan on September 1

Details on page 5

Rishikant Singh

A music icon &an amazingpersonality

4 of Indian-origin among 25top economists

12 Indian firms inForbes' 50 bestin Asia-Pacific

Stronger India isbeneficial forworld peace: US

Chicago NRIshonor two Indianstalwarts

Sonia attacksModi on pricerise, clashes

Kailash Kher

Should India’s Look East policyconcern US?

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Bollywood:Virat denialAnushka Sharma has denied she is get-ting married to cricketer Virat Kohli afterBCCI had declared such a scenerio

5Cover Story:Modi in Japan

16Community:Global leader

44

47Life style:

On the dusty streets of Bichola in UP,India, girls, boys, amateur and profes-sionals ran to promote child education

25Techbiz:

PM Narendra Modi says economicgrowth of 5.7% in the first quarter hasgenerated a "huge positive sentiment"

40Travel:KotaWith grandeur, rich heritage and history,Kota is one of the most dynamic and pic-turesque cities in Rajasthan

Positive sentiment

Narendra Modi is emerging as a globalleader with his pluralistic vision andstrong nationalism, says Dr Agnihotri

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has an-nounced doubling of Japan's private andpublic investment in India to $ 35 billion

Rural marathon

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Here's a shout out to the American Association of Physicians of IndianOrigin (AAPI) - not so much because of my long association with this

stellar organization, but because a lot of what it does is indeed praiseworthy.AAPI is among the few Indian American organizations that hold an immense

potential for giving back to society, particularly to their native India. Here's anorganization that never tires of ideating and coming up with some of the mostinnovative projects to extend a really long hand of support to reach out to theIndian government in order to serve the truly needy in India.

With a vision to rope in the services of the over 100,000 Indian origin physi-cians in the US and the several hundred thousand across the globe, AAPI recentlylaunched the SwaasthIndia Portal to help connect Government of India's healthrelated requirements with the medical expertise of Indian origin physicians.

How it works is that the governmental institutions and other healthcareproviders in India keep posting their express needs and special requirements onthe website and the NRI/PIO physicians who are registered on the site, depend-ing on their own expertise, availability and willingness can offer their serviceswherever required. These services may include health screening camps or ca-pacity building programs.

Now, what this enables is for healthcare requirements from even the smallertowns, districts and remote villages in India to be posted here, and for theoverseas physicians to reach out to the towns or villages of their choice.

AAPI takes the responsibility of screening profiles of the physicians that mayregister their services, as also of publicizing the availability of this initiative.

This seamless, two-way communication is expected to directly benefit thou-sands of hospitals - government, private as well as paramedical institutions inIndia. Now that's a perfect needs-based innovation for you.

I know personally many Indian American physicians who nurture a keendesire to do something for India, but are not sure where to begin or how. I wouldsay to them, check out SwaasthIndia, you will surely find a way.

Immigration:

Obama's delay in taking action on immi-gration has created uncertainty amongboth party advocates & lawmakers

Obama's delay

India PostSeptember 5, 2014 5

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Modi wins double Japan investmentTOKYO: India and Japan

agreed to enhance their defenseand strategic cooperation to a newlevel during talks between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and hiscounterpart Shinzo Abe, who alsodecided to speed up negotiationson civil nuclear deal that could notbe concluded now.

Striking good personal chem-istry, the two leaders had "veryfruitful" and "meaningful" ex-changes after which Abe an-nounced doubling of Japan's pri-vate and public investment in In-dia to about USD 35 billion overthe next five years.

The talks at Akasaka Palace(State Guest House) came on thethird day of Modi's first major bi-lateral visit outside South Asia.Abe had gone the extra mile in re-ceiving his old friend in Kyoto andspent the weekend with him on atour of two ancient Buddhisttemples apart from hosting a ban-quet.

Significantly, at an interactionwith business leaders, Modi de-plored the "expansionist" tenden-cies among countries which "en-gage in encroachment" and "in-trude" into the seas of others,comments seen as a veiled refer-ence to China.

At the summit talks, the two

countries decided to elevate theirties to a Special Strategic GlobalPartnership, emphasizing that adeveloped India and a prosperousJapan was important for Asia andfor global peace and security.

"This is not just raising the re-lationship from one category toanother... Our relationship is notonly regional in its framework, butwill have a global impact," Modi,who is on a five-day visit to Ja-pan, said.

While agreeing on greater de-fense equipment and technologycooperation, the two sides de-cided to expedite discussions onmodalities for the sale of Japanese

US-2 amphibian aircraft."The two Prime Ministers reaf-

firmed the importance of defenserelations between India and Japanin their strategic partnership anddecided to upgrade andstrengthen them," a joint state-ment issued after the talks said.

On the civil nuclear deal overwhich there were expectations ofit being finalized during the visit,

both Modi and Abe said they havedirected the officials to acceleratenegotiations for early conclusionof a bilateral agreement tostrengthen their partnership.

While India is said to be pur-suing the deal with Japan on thetemplate of the landmark Indo-USnuclear accord, Tokyo is said tobe not that enthusiastic about thatbeing the basis.

The joint statement while mak-ing a reference to nuclear ties said,

"In recent months, we have madesignificant progress in our nego-tiations on civil nuclear coopera-tion. Today, we have discussedthis issue at length. We have

reached better understanding ofeach other's positions throughthis discussion.

"We have agreed to instructour negotiators to work expedi-tiously to conclude the negotia-tions at an early date so that wecan further strengthen our strate-gic partnership," it added.

The 3.5 trillion yen (35 billionUSD) of investment from Japan toIndia including Official Develop-ment Assistance (ODA) during a5-year period will be under theaegis of India-Japan InvestmentPromotion Partnership for devel-opment of projects including in-frastructure and building smartcities.

The five-year period will alsosee the doubling of the presenceof Japanese firms in India, Abesaid.

Abe also announced that as anexample of Indo-Japan coopera-tion, Tokyo will help India in pro-viding financial, technical andoperational support to introduceBullet trains, a project that Modihas been actively pursuing.

Coinciding with the summit,Japan removed six of India's spaceand defense-related entities fromits Foreign End User List.

Modi appreciated this decisionand said both the countries arelooking forward to enhanced tradeand collaboration in high-endtechnology.

The six companies removedfrom Japan's end user list can nowenter into transactions involvingsensitive dual-use equipment,technology and software.

"We have to decide if we wantto have 'vikas vaad' (develop-ment) or 'vistar vaad' (expansion-ism) which leads to disintegration.Those who follow the path ofBuddha and have faith on 'vikasvaad', they develop. But we see,

those having ideas of the 18thcentury, engage in encroachmentsand enter seas (of others)," Modisaid at the business event.

He did not name any country

but the comments may be seen astargeting China which is engagedin territorial disputes with a num-

ber of its neighbors, including In-dia, Japan and some others includ-ing Vietnam.

Thanking Abe for providinghim an opportunity to make Japan

his first bilateral visit outsideSouth Asia, Modi said," we bothhave decided to raise the relation-ship to a special strategic and glo-bal partnership by giving it a spe-cial emphasis".

Asserting that his visit usheredin a dawn of new era in Indo-Ja-pan relations, Modi said there isno "limit" to partnership betweenthe two countries.

Modi also said that Japan oc-cupies top priority in India's for-eign policy.

He was effusive in his praisefor Abe saying he spent a consid-erable amount of his valuable timeto be with him in Kyoto for twodays and in Tokyo.

The Prime Minister said Abehas agreed to cooperate with In-dia in all areas taking into accounthis vision of inclusive develop-ment of the country.

"We will help you," Abe toldModi, adding he was ready to ex-tend his help in Ganga cleaningproject when he raised the issue.

"This is an example of his loveand respect for India," he said,adding the relationship betweenthe two countries was also spiri-tual in nature. -PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at a delegation level meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe after

signing the agreements, at Akasaka Palace, in Tokyo

The Emperor of Japan, His Majesty Akihito with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,

in Tokyo, Japan on September 2

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Fumio Kishida calling on Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, in Tokyo, Japan on September 1


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'No red tape but red carpet for investors'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering the keynote address at a Seminar hosted by JETRO and NIKKEI,

in Tokyo, Japan on September 2

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and Chief

Executive Osamu Suzuki (L) shake hands at a business meeting

TOKYO: Making a strong pitchfor bringing Japanese invest-ments into India, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has said there isno "red tape" but only "red car-pet" for investors as the govern-ment has eased a lot of regula-tions.

Asserting that his governmentis working on development and

increasing manufacturing activi-ties, Modi said there cannot be abetter place to make investmentsthan India.

"I have come to assure you that

there is no Red Tape but Red Car-pet in India. We have eased offlot of regulations," Modi said.

Calling for a new history be-tween the two countries on theeconomic front, the Prime Minis-ter said India is the only placewhere one can find "democracy,demography and demand".

Modi, who was addressing

Japanese investors at a seminarorganized by the Japan ExternalTrade Organization (Jetro) andNikkei here, also said that Indiaguarantees democracy, safety,

security and justice.He told Japanese investors

that India is a "god gifted loca-tion" for reaching out to globalmarkets.

Referring to his government's100 days in power, Modi said ithas achieved what could not be

achieved in the last two-and-a-half years.

The country's GDP grew 5.7 percent in the April-June quarter, thehighest in more than two years.

Modi said his government isready to offer whatever is requiredto promote foreign investment

into India."Without Japan, India is incom-

plete and without India, Japan isincomplete", he said.

According to him, the comingtogether of Japan's hardware skillsand India's software expertise cancreate miracle. -PTI

DNA of non-violence ingrained in our society: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering the address at the University of Sacred Heart, in Tokyo, Japan on September 2

TOKYO: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi sought to addressconcerns of international commu-nity over India not signing theNPT by saying that the country'scommitment to peace and non-violence is ingrained in the "DNAof Indian society" which is aboveany international treaty or pro-cesses.

"India is a land of Lord Bud-dha. Buddha lived for peace andsuffered for peace and that mes-sage is prevalent in India," Modisaid at Sacred Heart Universityhere while replying to a questionby a student.

During an interaction, he wasasked how India would enhancetrust of the international commu-nity without changing its standon Nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty (NPT), which it has re-fused to sign despite possessingnuclear weapons.

Modi used the land of Japan,which is the only country to havebeen the victim of an atom bombattack, to send out the messageon this issue amid moves to havea civil nuclear deal with Tokyo.India refuses to sign the NPT be-cause it considers it as flawed.

Asserting that India's "com-

mitment to non-violence is total",Modi said it is ingrained in the"DNA of Indian society and thisis above any internationaltreaty", apparently referring toIndia's refusal to sign the NPT.

"In international affairs, thereare some processes. But abovethem is the commitment of thesociety," he said, underlining theneed for rising "above the trea-

ties".To buttress his point, the

Prime Minister cited how Indiaundertook the freedom struggleunder the leadership of MahatmaGandhi with the entire societybeing committed to non-vio-lence, surprising the whole world.

He went on to add that India,for thousands of years, has hadthe belief in 'vasudhaiva

kutumbakam' (the whole world isone family). "When we considerthe whole world as one family,how can we even think about do-ing anything that would harm orhurt anyone?"

The question was asked in thecontext of India recently ratify-ing the Additional Protocol onSafeguards Agreement signedwith IAEA, that will allow inspec-

tors of the atomic watchdog easyaccess to India's civil nuclear fa-cilities.

During the interactive session,the Prime Minister was asked byanother student about howpeace could be pursued in Asiadespite China's "expansionist"designs.

Cont’d on page 9


September 5, 2014


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Pact to develop Varanasi as 'smart city'KYOTO: Nursing the ambition

of creating 100 smart cities in In-dia, Prime Minister Narendra Modibegan his Japan visit with a pactbeing signed under which hisconstituency Varanasi will be de-veloped as a 'smart city' in part-nership with Kyoto.

The Partner City AffiliationMoU marks the launch of smartheritage city program betweenthe two countries as a detailedroadmap of cooperation will beprepared which will form the basefor further understanding.

Modi and Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe, who madea special gesture of flying toKyoto to meet his Indian coun-terpart, oversaw the ceremonywhere the pact was signed byIndian Ambassador to JapanDeepa Wadhwa and DaisakuKadokawa, Mayor of Kyoto, theJapanese 'smart city' which is aconfluence of heritage and mo-dernity.

The Kyoto Mayor made a de-tailed presentation to Modi onhow the ancient tradition ofJapan's cultural capital has beenpreserved while building it into amodern city.

Kyoto, with around 2000temples and shrines, has been atthe crossroads of history sincethe end of the Nara Period (794

Mayor of Kyoto Daisaku Kadokawa delivering a presentation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Kyoto, Japan on August 31.

Ambassador of India to Japan, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa is also seen

A.D.), it was the capital of Japanfor over 1,000 years till the Em-peror moved to Tokyo.

Under the MoU, both citiesshall endeavor to strengthen ex-changes and cooperation in the

agreed fields based on principlesof equality and mutual respectand benefit and continuously ex-

change information and opinionin the agreed areas and cooper-ate in important fields.

Treated to specialJapanese 'chai'

TOKYO: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who has repeat-edly highlighted that he used bea tea seller early in his life, wastreated to a special Japanese"chai" by his Japanese counter-part Shinzo Abe as per a traditionin this coun-try.

The specialgesture wasAbe's way ofshowing af-fection to thevisiting leader,keeping inwith the Japa-nese tradition' C h a n o y u 'p r e v a l e n tsince the 16thcentury.

Modi saton the floorwith kneesbent as is thetradition in Ja-pan and drank tea from a specialcup. Abe sat next to him to sharethe moment.

The two also had tea cakesalong with the Japanese green tea.

Abe then told Modi about teamade in 1950 during the visit ofhis grandfather Nobusuke Kishito India as the Prime Minister.

The traditional Japanese tea is

powdered green and the utensilsare called Wamono (Japanesethings).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese

counterpart Shinzo Abe during a tea ceremony at

Akasaka Palace in Tokyo on September 1

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi reaches out to 99

year old Saichiro Misumi,

Netaji's oldest living

associate in Japan, in

Tokyo, Japan on

September 2

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting

with children during his visit to Taimei

Elementary School, in Tokyo, Japan on

September 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi beats a tradi-

tional Taiko drum during inauguration of the

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Japan

Technology and Culture Academy in Tokyo on

September 2


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"You seemed to be troubled alot by China," he quipped whileaddressing the student amid hisobservation that they were ask-ing questions like journalists.

Speaking further, he carefullyavoided any direct answer to thequestion and merely said, "Indiais a democratic country. Similarly,Japan is also a democratic coun-try. If India and Japan togetherthink about peace and positivethings, we can make the world re-alize the strength of a democracy.We should focus on progress anddevelopment instead of payingattention to others. If we pay at-tention to our situation, our con-dition will be better."

He then narrated animaginary story. "Imag-ine, there is darkness ina room. Someone goesinside with a broom toremove the darknessbut he will fail. Anotherperson goes inside witha sword to remove dark-ness. He will also fail.Another person goeswith blanket to removedarkness, but he will also fail.

Then a wise man goes with asmall lamp, the darkness will bechased away. A lamp of peace,prosperity and democracy willnever be scared of darkness."

Modi, who virtually turned intoa professor at the university, alsogave a lesson to the Japanese stu-dents on Indian ethos in terms ofrespecting the nature when askedhow a rapidly-growing Indiawould preserve ecology whilepursuing sources of energy.

"India is such a country wherepeople love and communicatewith nature," he said.

In this context, he said earth isrespected as mother, moon istreated as 'mama' (uncle), sun andHimalayas as grandfather, riversas mother while trees are wor-shipped like God.

"Let me tell you my own story.I come from a poor family. Myuncle once started wood businessbut my illiterate mother told himthat it is a sin to cut trees and the

DNA of non-violence ingrainedin our society: PM

family would rather prefer tostarve," Modi said.

He said if such is the treatmentgiven to nature, then Indians can'tharm the climate.

Referring to the terminology ofClimate Change, Modi questionedwhether it is correct. "Is it climatechange or habit change. Our hab-its have changed and we arefighting the nature. We shouldrather have communication withnature."

He then suggested the stu-dents to read his book 'Conve-nient Action' on climate.

Earlier, he told the assembly ofall girls about the status of womenin India, saying they are wor-shipped as goddesses in various

forms."India is the only country

which has gods in the shape offemale," he said. Coining his sen-tence in the context of a Cabinet,he said education is linked to God-dess Saraswati, finance to God-dess Laxmi, Security and HomeAffairs to Goddess Mahakali andFood Security to Devi Annapurna.

He also pointed out that womenhave 33 per cent reservation inlocal bodies in India.

He talked about his personalattachment to girls' education. Inthis context, he stated that whileleaving Gujarat when he becamethe Prime Minister, he had auc-tioned all the gifts he had got dur-ing his 14-year tenure as ChiefMinister. Rs 78 crore were col-lected and it was deposited in thegovernment treasury for use forgirls education.

At the university, Modi posedfor a 'selfie' with a small group ofIndians who were excited on see-ing him. -PTI

Cont’d from page 6

"Is it climate change or habitchange. Our habits havechanged and we arefighting the nature. Weshould rather havecommunication with nature."

Stronger India is beneficial for world peace: USWASHINGTON: India is going

to be a "very important" playerglobally and the stronger it be-comes, the more beneficial it willbe for world peace, a seniorObama Administration official hassaid amid preparations here togive a red carpet welcome to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

There is a "sense that there isa natural convergence, a naturalconvergence of views betweenIndia and the US both in terms ofwider Asia Pacific region, IndianOcean region as well as a broaderview globally," US Assistant Sec-retary of State for Political Mili-tary Affairs Puneet Talwar told PTIin an interview.

"We think India is going to bevery important globally, but alsoin the Asian continent. We think,the stronger India becomes, themore capable it becomes, the moreeconomic power it accrues, that'sfor the benefit of global peace andprosperity," Talwar said.

"That's what the United Stateswants ultimately. We share thatvery much with India. We see In-dia playing a stabilizing role in thatpart of the world and taking on

greater responsibilities that willaccrue as it continues to emergeinto its own," he said.

Officials from both the StateDepartment and the Defense De-partment said there is a naturalconvergence of India's "Look East

Policy" and the "Asia Pacific Re-balance" of the US.

"We have our Asia Pacific Re-balance. India has its Look Eastpolicy. There is a natural conver-gence between those two.

I think, that an India that is play-ing its rightful role, actually in ourview is a very positive thing. Itcan't do harm. It can only do wellin terms of providing stability, se-curity, peace and prosperity in theAsia Pacific," Talwar said.

"That is ultimately what we wantand I have a sense that this is verymuch shared by India," he said.

Having personally receivedfeedback from his top three Cabi-net ministers, US President BarackObama and his administrationhave begun preparations for wel-coming Modi to the White House,which going by indications wouldkick-off a new phase of relation-ship between the world's two larg-est and oldest democratic coun-tries, officials said.

Strategic relationship, defenseties and commerce are likely to bethe key pillars of the next phaseof the relationship.

This has been reflected inObama's decision to send his Sec-retary of State John Kerry, De-fense Secretary Chuck Hagel and

Commerce Secretary PennyPritzeker, to India in the first 100days of the Modi-led government.

This is probably for the firsttime that an American DefenseSecretary has visited India soearly in any Indian government'stenure. -PTI

Puneet Talwar

Sonia attacks Modi on pricerise, communal tension

RAE BARELI/NEW DELHI:Sonia Gandhi led the Congressattack against Narendra Modigovernment and flagged the issueof price rise as her party slammedboth the Prime Minister and BJPfor "rise in communal tension" asNDA completes 100 days inpower.

"People will give a reply to

whether prices (of essential com-modities) have gone down ornot," the Congress President toldreporters in Rae Bareli, whenasked about 100 days of Modigovernment.

She was on a two-day visit toher Lok Sabha constituency.

Accusing the government of"causing rise in communal ten-sion" in its first 100 days in office,Congress leader Manish Tewari inDelhi questioned the "silence" ofthe Prime Minister and accused itof encouraging organizations fan-ning it.

Party spokesperson AbhishekSinghvi spoke of a "consistent

hiatus" in the over last 100 daysin the "preaching and practice" ofthe Prime Minister and the gov-ernment.

"Modi's eloquence and oratory,his using fine words of communalharmony and peace from the ram-parts of the Red Fort and then

maintaining a complete silencewhen Ashok Singhal (VHP) chief,Mohan Bhagwat (RSS chief) andAdityanath (BJP Uttar Pradeshchief) and Giriraj Singh (BJP MPfrom Bihar) do something else,"he said.

Attacking the governmentover the Prime Minister's plannedinteraction with students on the

Teachers' Day,Singhvi said"are we al-lowed to makevirtual propa-ganda?

"Has theg o v e r n m e n tever used gov-ernment ma-chinery to in-fluence impres-sionable mindswith political orpartially politi-c a lagenda?...It'san issue of mis-use of statemachinery fors e l f - p r o p a -ganda."

The Con-gress spokesperson said he doesnot think that any Prime Ministeror President has "by a dictat" saidstudents from class one muststand, sit and listen him.

"Thank God, they have sparedthe students from K G," Singhvisaid dismissively.-PTI

Congress President Sonia Gandhi interacts with village women during a visit to her constituency

Rae Bareli on September 2


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Aus satisfied with India's nuclear safeguardsMELBOURNE: Australia has said it is

"satisfied" with the nuclear safeguards In-dia has in place, signaling sealing of a much-awaited deal on uranium export during PrimeMinister Tony Abbott's visit to Delhi thisweek.

"We have satisfied ourselves that thesteps are in place," said Trade MinisterAndrew Robb, who will accompany Abbotton his India visit.

Prime Minister Abbott will arrive in Delhion September 4 to further strengthen thestrategic partnership and promote tradeand investment between the two countries.

Media reports recently said the two

sides have reached the deal on the civilnuclear agreement, which will be formallysigned by Prime Minister Abbott during hisvisit.

The negotiations between the two sideshave been on since 2012 after Labor partyreversed its decision to ban the uraniumsale to India because New Delhi has notsigned the Nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty.

"The negotiations and work that's goneon between authorities in India and Aus-tralia have gone on for some years to de-velop a bilateral nuclear cooperation agree-ment which meets the international require-

ments and we are satisfied, our officials aresatisfied that all the requirements have beenmet," he said in a radio interview to ABCchannel.

"And we are in a position, if that's whatcomes about with the Prime Minister's visit,to sign such a cooperation agreement," hesaid.

Australia holds about a third of theworld's recoverable uranium resources, andexports nearly 7,000 tonnes a year.

Energy-starved India is looking tonuclear power to supplement its existingoptions to fuel economic growth.

India has already concluded civil nuclear

cooperation agreements with countries likeArgentina and Kazakhstan.

Last week, Abbott had said he will visitNew Delhi and Mumbai to strengthen thestrategic partnership with India.

Australia and India have strong andgrowing economic and trade ties. India isAustralia's fifth largest export market, withtotal exports of 11.4 billion dollars, andthere is potential for further cooperation inresources, science, technology and educa-tion.

"My visit will be an opportunity to en-gage with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modiearly in the term of his government to in-crease bilateral cooperation to advance ourmutual interests," Abbott had said.

Two years back, then Prime MinisterJulia Gillard on her visit to India had an-nounced that the two countries would be-gin negotiations for a nuclear safeguardsagreement. -PTI

India, Canada toshare experience inpersonnel management

NEW DELHI: India and Canada willshare experience in personnel managementto improve governance through Informa-tion Technology, the government has said.

During his meeting with Canadian Min-ister and President of Treasury Board TonyClement, Union Minister of State in thePMO Jitendra Singh talked about variousgood governance initiatives taken up bythe new government.

"The two ministers announced the sign-ing of a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) between the two countries and shar-ing of experience in personnel managementthrough Information Technology and datacollection," according to a press releaseissued by the Ministry of Personnel, Pub-lic Grievances and Pensions.

Singh told the visiting minister how dur-ing the past three months, different initia-tives had been taken up to accomplishPrime Minister Narendra Modi's commit-ment for good governance.

He particularly referred to the attemptsto strengthen the federal structure of theIndian Union through decisions like wind-ing up of the Planning Commission and re-placing it with another appropriate body,according to the release.

Singh referred to the current phase ofprivate-public participation in India andhoped that in the background of consis-tently harmonious relationship betweenIndia and Canada, the two nations will mu-tually benefit.

Clement shared his government's inputsfrom Canadian Open Data Experience(CODE). He offered to share the same withhis counterpart in India.

Clement suggested that the Indian Gov-ernment should provide its inputs and datawhich could help in improving the level ofpersonnel management and governance inCanada as well, the release said. -PTI


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India, France to study polarregion-monsoon link

HYDERABAD: India andFrance will lead a major interna-tional effort to study the impactof climatic changes in Polar Re-gions on the Indian monsoon,which has become a subject ofintense debate over the years, atop Government official said here.

"Recent findings say Polar Re-gions have a major impact on ourmonsoon on decadal scale. A ma-jor international effort, led by In-dia and France, is beinglaunched...we are discussing it. InOctober, it will be taken forward,"said Shailesh Nayak, Secretary,Ministry of Earth Sciences here.

"Basically, we understand themelting that occurs in the Arcticcan dramatically change atmo-sphere circulation, motion circu-lation and bring many otherchanges. Now how these changesare going to affect ourmonsoon...that is the study whichwe want to take it up on an inter-national level," he told reporterson the sidelines of an event.

"In October we will take a deci-sion on that and in December or

in January next year we are goingto make an announcement in thisregard. Through this forum,whichever country participatesthey will spend their own money.Our estimate is USD 3 million forus. Right now eight countries

have shown interest," Nayak ex-plained.

Responding to a query on El-Nino, a weather condition thatgenerally leads to weak monsoonin India, he said "There is no di-

rect impact...we have been main-taining from beginning that as perour estimates the El-Nino, if it isto happen, is likely to happen inthe end of the year (during De-cember)."

Earlier, speaking at the inaugu-ration of an l workshop on `Sci-ence of Climate Change: IndianOcean and Monsoon' at IndianNational Centre for Ocean Infor-mation Services (INCOIS), Nayaksaid the last as well the currentdecades have witnessed unprec-edented weather extremes.

"Most scientists agree that thehigh incidence of weather ex-tremes is not accidental. We hadfive cyclones and extremely heavyrainfall in Uttarakhand andGujarat.

"We need to improve ourknowledge by increasing our ef-forts for understanding of basicphysics, and employing statisti-cal analysis and computer simu-lations of extreme events. Wehave launched a major project on'extreme weather' to address suchissues," he said. -PTI

‘The melting thatoccurs in the Arcticcan dramaticallychange atmospherecirculation, motioncirculation and bringmany other changes.Now how thesechanges are going toaffect our monsoon’

Indian-American scholarto explore Dino extinction

HOUSTON: An Indian-Ameri-can scholar has won the presti-gious 'Fulbright-Nehru Academicand Professional ExcellenceAward' which includes a grant tostudy the causes behind Dino-saur extinction.

Sankar Chatterjee, a Horn Pro-fessor of Paleontology and Cura-tor at theMuseum ofTexas Uni-versity, willtravel in thespring of2015 to Indiato continuehis ongoingresearch onhis "Shivacrater" hy-p o t h e s i s ,which, alongwith the"Chicxulubcrater" of Mexico, has been linkedto the extinction of dinosaurs 65million years ago.

"The Shiva crater is about 500kilometers in diameter, and we dis-covered it from geophysical evi-dence and drill core samples in theMumbai Offshore Basin on thewestern continental shelf of In-dia," Chatterjee said in a state-ment.

"The crater is largely sub-merged and buried by a 2 to 7-kilometer-thick strata and is thelargest oilfield in India.

"I have been invited to partici-pate in the Koyna Drilling Projectto study the core samples that mayunravel the genesis of the Shivacrater," Chatterjee said.

Grants were also awarded toabout 800 other US faculty mem-bers, according to the statement,who are conducting their research

in 140 countries.The recipients, according to

the release, are chosen based ontheir academic and professionalachievements as well as leader-ship potential in their fields.

The program was establishedin 1946 and has provided morethan 1,08,000 Americans and1,78,000 students scholars andteachers from other countries thathave come to the US the opportu-nity to travel and observe other'spolitical, economic, educationaland cultural institutions. -PTI

Pashupatinath Temple getsboost after Modi's visit

KATHMANDU: The num-ber of Indian devotees visitingPashupatinath Temple here forspecial pooja has gone up afterPrime Minister Narendra Modioffered prayers at the 5th-cen-tury shrine during his visit toNepal earlier this month, templeauthorities have said.

According to the chief ofPashupati Area DevelopmentTrust (PADT) GovindaTondon, the number of peoplevisiting the temple for perform-ing special worship has in-creased following the livebroadcast of Modi's specialpooja by various Indian chan-nels.

Among the devotees visit-ing the shrine so far areBollywood actor Anupam Kherand South-Indian actorChiranjeevi, who have per-formed special pooja at thetemple, Tondon said.

Chiranjeevi offered Rs 2 lakhfor the special pooja andAnupam Kher donated Rs 5,100for the pooja, he added.

During his visit, Prime Min-ister Modi had spent 30 minutesfor the special pooja while do-nating 2,500 kgs of white san-dalwood worth more than Rs 2crore to the temple.

Many telephone enquiriesabout the special pooja havecome after the visit paid byModi to the temple, Tandonsaid.

According to Treasurer ofthe Trust, Taranath Suubedi,the number of Indian nationalsperforming special worship andvisiting the temple went up af-ter Modi's pooja, resulting in theincrease in income generationfor the temple.

Around 150 special pooja areperformed everyday at the fifthcentury old temple.-PTI

Afghan election close to failureas Abdullah sets deadline

KABUL: Afghan presidentialcandidate Abdullah Abdullah hasissued another ultimatum over thedisputed election result, threaten-ing to withdraw from all efforts tonegotiate a solution to the deep-ening political crisis.

Abdullah claims that fraudcheated him of victory in the June14 election, and fears have risenof a return to unrest of the 1990scivil war after his supporters called

on him to form a "parallel govern-ment".

As tensions threatened to boilover, the United States brokereda deal between Abdullah and hisrival Ashraf Ghani in which they

agreed to an audit of all eight mil-lion votes and the formation of apost-election national unity gov-ernment.

But Abdullah's spokesmanFazel Aqa Hussain Sancharaki saidhis team was on the brink of aban-doning both parts of the deal -potentially plunging Afghanistan'sfirst democratic transfer of powerinto further turmoil.

"Our patience is running out,

any announcement of resultsmade by the fraudulent electioncommission will be rejected byus," Sancharaki told reporters.

"We are setting this deadline -that if tomorrow our logical de-

mands of transparent auditingand an honest political processare not met, we will completelyboycott the whole process."

Last week, Abdullah pulled outof the audit but had said difficultnegotiations on the national unitygovernment were still under way.

The talks have floundered overthe new role of "chief executiveofficer" who will serve under thePresident.

"The problem is that(Abdullah's) team wants more au-thority for the chief executive, forhim to be like a prime minister,"Tahir Zaheer, a spokesman for theGhani campaign, told AFP, deny-ing negotiations had already col-lapsed. "These threats of an ulti-matum will not change anything,there is no logic in them. Theyhave to be realistic."

Abdullah won the first-roundelection in April out of a field of eightcandidates, but preliminary resultsfrom the June run-off showed thathe was far behind Ghani.

Any street protests by ag-grieved Abdullah supporterscould set off a spiral of instability.Many of Ghani's supporters arePashtuns in the south and east,while Abdullah's loyalists are Tajiksand other northern groups. -AFP

"The problem is that (Abdullah's) team wantsmore authority for the chief executive, forhim to be like a prime minister,"Tahir Zaheer, a spokesman for the Ghanicampaign, told AFP

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Drop environ nod for border projects: RajnathNEW DELHI: Concerned over

delay in strategic border projects,Home Minister Rajnath Singh hassuggested exemption of environ-ment clearance given to suchprojects falling within 100 km fromInternational Border, Line of Ac-tual Control and Line of Control.

He said there is a need to dealwith the issue of delay in accord-ing environment, forest and wild-life clearances in a comprehensivemanner.

"All strategic border projectsfalling within 100 km from IB, LACand LoC may be fully exemptedfrom obtaining environment/ for-est/ wildlife clearances from theMinistry of Environment and For-est and the State/ Union Territorygovernments," Singh wrote toEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar.

The strategic border projectsinclude border roads, fencing,border out posts, floodlighting,surveillance infrastructure, powerinfrastructure besides others.

The Home Minister said all ex-ecuting agencies like CPWD andpublic sector undertakings en-gaged in border infrastructurework of the ministries of HomeAffairs and Defense may betreated on par with Border RoadsOrganization in respect of envi-

ronment, forest and wildlife clear-ances.

The suggestions were part ofthe recommendations of an inter-ministerial group set up by theHome Ministry on how to getquick and time bound environ-ment, forest and wildlife clear-ances as well as suggest any otherdispensation or institutional

mechanism required for the same.Referring to the issue of com-

pensatory afforestation, as raisedby the inter-ministerial group, thehome minister said that since asubstantial time is lost in identifi-cation of suitable land for compen-satory afforestation, it is proposedthat the Ministry of Environmentand Forest in consultation withstates and Union Territories maycreate land banks both at the cen-tral and the state/ Union Territorylevel by identifying patches of landor degraded forests.

Singh said a separate meetingof the National Wild Life Boardmay be held to consider border,security infrastructure proposalsof the ministries of Home and De-fense in a time bound manner toavoid delays.

"It is requested that the pro-posals mentioned above may beconsidered for approval and issueof necessary notification/ instruc-tions for early completion of timebound border infrastructureprojects," the Home Ministerwrote.

While highlighting the issue ofcompensatory afforestation, asraised by the inter-ministerialgroup, he said that the forest

cover of states/ UTs varies from3.52 per cent of the geographicalarea in Punjab to 90.33 per cent inMizoram.

"Since diversion of forest landfor non-forest use is more com-mon in states/ UTs which have

large forest cover, commensuratecompensatory afforestation isbeing carried out in these states/UTs," he said.

Singh said this has led to a situ-ation that some states or UTs like

Mizoram which are already rich inforest cover do not have land forcompensatory afforestationwhich is leading to an inordinatedelay in getting clearances underthe Forest (Conservation) Act1980, whereas in states/ UTs hav-

ing little forest cover, instances ofdiversion of forest land for non-forest use are less common andthese states/UTs do not get thebenefit of compensatory affores-tation scheme.-PTI

Home Minister Rajnath Singh

"All strategic border projects falling within 100km from IB, LAC and LoC may be fullyexempted from obtaining environment/forest/ wildlife clearances from the Ministryof Environment and Forest and the State/Union Territory governments,"


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Chef gives Prince Charles flavorof Indian food

LONDON: Prince Charles hasbeen getting a taste of spicy In-dian food cooked by one ofBritain's most celebrated In-dian-origin chefs.

Atul Kochhar, a Michelin-starred restaurateur who ownsa number of popular Indian eat-eries here, has said he has beencooking Indian food for theheir to Britain's throne at hisresidence in Clarence House.

"I have cooked Indian foodfor him many times," the pre-senter of television show'Curry On With Atul Kochhar'told 'The Telegraph'.

"I help with the Prince'sTrust and also the BritishAsian Trust and I often getasked by him and his trustees tocook for the events, which is fan-

tastic," he said.The 44-year-old Jamshedpur-

born chef, however, did not giveout the Prince's favorite dish but

hinted at one of his favorites."Whenever I am cooking din-

ner for him, I always putmutton on the menu. Heis a big promoter of Brit-ish mutton and I have al-ways loved it as it lendsitself well to Indian cook-ing," he said.

When the Prince ofWales was on a tour inIndia last year with wifeCamilla, Duchess ofCornwall, he was teasedby journalists for havinga "bland" palate after headmitted that he foundthe cuisine on offer "toomuch to take".

It seems he will bemore adventurous the next time. -PTI

Atul Kochhar

Congress disapproves ofremarks by Digvijay

NEW DELHI: Senior Congressleaders Digvijay Singh andJanardan Dwivedi were under firefrom the AICC over their remarksconcerning Rahul Gandhi and ad-vocating that elder leaders take abackseat in favor of the young.

"It is not a good thing," partygeneral secretary MadhusudanMistry told reporters, questioningthe two leaders issuing state-ments to themedia on theissues whenthe Con-gress chiefand vicepresident are"easily ac-cessible" tothem.

The AICCbriefing alsosaw spokes-p e r s o nA b h i s h e kSinghvi dub-bing as "notappropriate" the statements ofSingh.

Digvijay Singh had remarkedthat Rahul Gandhi's silence on criti-cal issues had contributed to theirloss in the "war of perception".He had said the party vice-presi-dent should be "more visible andheard more" to bring the Congressback on the path of revival.

The AICC has already dis-tanced the party from Dwivedi'sremarks that leaders of 65 to 70years of age should not take upactive posts in the organization.

Singhvi also did nottake kindly to the re-marks of MaharashtraChief Minister PrithvirajChavan that RahulGandhi's reluctance tojoin the Union Cabinetcost the party.

He wondered as towhat was new as thethen Prime MinisterManmohan Singh hadtime and again re-quested Gandhi to be-come a Minister. "It isan old and knownview".

The remarks of Mistry, who isconsidered close to the CongressVice President as well as Singhvi,show disapproval by the leader-ship of the remarks by Singh andDwivedi, who have been seniorgeneral secretaries in the party.

Responding to a volley of ques-tions over Digvijay Singh's re-marks, Singhvi said, "This may behis personal view. But this is cer-tainly not the time to advise eachother through the media ratherthan focusing on strengthening

the party by working collec-tively.... It is not appropriate".

Echoing a similar view, Mistryquestioned Singh and Dwivedi fortheir going to the press over in-ternal party matters.

"Those who have easy acces-sibility to Congress President andCongress Vice President and whowere and are party to the decisionmaking process regarding elec-

tions and who express their con-cerns without any fear...then whyshould they go to the press to tellall this.

"They can meet the top lead-ers and tell them directly.

Matter ends there. Telling me-dia does not solve problems",Mistry said.

Taking a dig at Dwivedi, he saidthat it is the "prerogative" of theparty chief whether an officebearer should be of sixty years ofage or forty and therefore itshould be nobody's business to

suggest that one should retire af-ter a certain age.

Besides age, there are variousother factors like performance andexperience to decide on the issueof office bearers. "I fail to under-stand that as to why those whohave been involved in the wholeprocess are going public", hewondered.

The development is significantgiven the fact that a reshuffle ofthe AICC is on the cards in thewake of the Lok Sabha poll de-bacle. -PTI

Digvijay Singh

Responding to a volley ofquestions over DigvijaySingh's remarks, Singhvisaid, "This may be his per-sonal view. But this is cer-tainly not the time to adviseeach other through the me-dia rather than focusing onstrengthening the party


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FIR against Sharifs amendedto include terrorism

LAHORE: Police has included"terrorism and blasphemy"charges in the FIR registeredagainst Pakistan Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbazand senior officials for their allegedrole in the killing of 14 supportersof fiery cleric Tahirul Qadri here.

On August 28, the police hadregistered murder and attemptedmurder cases against 21 personsincluding the Sharif brothers fortheir alleged role in the June 17operation.

Interior Minister ChaudhryNisar Ali, Defense MinisterKhawaja Asif, Information Minis-ter Pervaiz Rashid, Railways Min-ister Saad Rafique, State MinisterAbid Sher Ali (also a relative ofSharif), former Punjab law minis-ter Rana Sanaullah and other se-nior police officers who took partin the June 17 operation werenamed in the FIR.

Fourteen people including twowomen were killed and 100 otherssuffered bullet injuries when po-lice raided the house and officesof Pakistan Awami Tahreek's (PAT)chief Tahirul Qadri in Model Townin a bid to remove barriers from

there."Today police included four

more sections in the FIR - 7 anti-terrorism act, 295-B (desecrationof Quran), 365 (kidnapping) and252 (tress passing)," Lahore po-lice spokesman Niyab Haider toldPress Trust of India.

He, however, did not commenton a question whether theseclauses had been included on 'anypressure'.

"We have included theseclauses on the request of the

PAT," he said.Earlier, Tahirul Qadri had re-

jected the FIR saying terrorismcharges had not been included init as the PAT's application had thissection.

"Unless the Sharifs and othersare booked under terrorismcharges we will not accept thisFIR," he had asserted.

There was an impression thatthe government allowed to regis-ter the murder case against thePrime Minister and 20 others onthe 'insistence' of the establish-ment.

The inclusion of four moreclauses appear to be a step to"please" Qadri and an effort toconvince him to start the talksstalled on the FIR issue.

Three federal ministers (namedin the FIR application) challengedthe decision in the Lahore HighCourt but it upheld the lowercourt's decision.

Federal Information MinisterPervaiz Rashid said the police hadregistered the FIR against theprime minister and others on theLahore High Court's order and noton any body's pressure. -PTI

There was animpression that thegovernment allowedto register the murdercase against thePrime Minister and20 others on the'insistence' of theestablishment

Cop faces trial for raciallyabusing Indian-MalaysianMELBOURNE: Facing trial for

allegedly racially abusing an In-dian-origin Malaysian taxi driver,a New Zealand policewoman ap-peared in Queenstown court.

Jeanette May McNee, 44, ischarged with using abusive lan-guage against taxi driver, GaneshParamanathan, atQueenstown in NewZealand on November 3last year.

Police allege McNeesaid, "F*** off to India,you come here and getall the Kiwi jobs. Eatyour curry and f*** offto India. This is a Kiwijob."

Police prosecutorGlenn Henderson askedthe taxi driver to narrate the inci-dent, which happened in LakeHayes Estate, after he picked up agroup of six people from centralQueenstown and drove to drop-off points in Quail Rise and LakeHayes Estate, Stuff.co.nz re-ported.

After the alleged words werespoken, the driver told the court,

"I was looking at her, she was fac-ing me.

"She was pointing her fingertowards my face and I pointedback at her and said, 'do not beabusive and racist, I am only do-ing my job as a taxi driver' and shegot more angry and she said, 'do

not point your fingers at me'."McNee grabbed his left wrist,

squeezed and twisted, he said.Paramanathan said he told her

not to touch him or be abusiveand racist or he would call thepolice.

"She got very aggressive... andsaid, 'I am the police'."

The trial continues. -PTI

Jeanette May McNee,44, is charged with usingabusive language againsttaxi driver, GaneshParamanathan, atQueenstown in NewZealand

More parents comfortableoutsourcing parenthoodWASHINGTON: Many mod-

ern-day parents are comfortableoff-loading traditional parentalduties to professional care-givers,researchers, including one of In-dian-origin, have found.

Recognizing a need for help,many businesses now offer tradi-tional care-giving services rang-ing from planning birthday partiesto teaching children how to ride abike.

Researchersfound that byo u t s o u r c i n gtraditional pa-rental duties,m o d e r n - d a yparents feelthey are ulti-mately protect-ing parent-hood.

"Parents areincreasingly outsourcing care-giving activities. The expandingarray of care-giving services isblurring the boundaries betweenfamily and the marketplace andraising new questions about whatis acceptable to outsource andhow parents make sense of thesesometimes contentious deci-sions," said research authorsAmber M Epp and Sunaina RVelagaleti, both from the Univer-

sity of Wisconsin, Madison.To better understand the role

of the marketplace in modern-dayparenting, the authors conductedin-depth interviews with partici-pants who varied in parentingviews, practices, and challengesranging from income to socialclass and the availability of helpfrom immediate family.

The interviews showed that

parents are more willing to turn tothe marketplace for help once theyhave provided a strong baselineof activities that allow them to di-rect how care is given, protecttheir connections as parents, andassert their role as the primarycaregiver.

Achieving this balance helpsparents maintain their feelings ofresponsibility, control, and inti-macy, researchers said.-PTI

2,20,000 Indiansgranted Saudivisa in one month

DUBAI: Over 2,20,000 Indians,mostly domestic helpers and la-borers, have been granted visasby Saudi Arabia in one month,officials said.

"Since we resumed bringing inIndian workers at the end ofRamadan, the number of visas hasreached 220,000," Ahmad AlFuhaid, the labor ministryundersecretary for international af-fairs, was quoted as saying by theGulf News. "Around 44,000 visaswere for domestic helpers while theothers were for workers in the pub-lic and private sectors," he said.

The official, however, cau-tioned that the arrival of the In-dian helpers and workers into thekingdom could take some time.

"There are several proceduresto be followed including securityand medical checks and properqualification and training," he said.India and Saudi Arabia had signedan agreement in January this year,regulating contractual relationsbetween Indian domestic workersand their Saudi employers.

The agreement covered 12 cat-egories of workers including driv-ers, janitors, cleaners, waiters,gardeners and household manag-ers working for individuals. -PTI

BOLT FROM THE BLUE: Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt

having fun with cricketer Yuvraj Singh on the sidelines of a friendly

cricket match in Bengaluru on September 2


September 5, 2014

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16 India Post

Desi News

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IndianTricolor lights up

Niagara Falls

Details on page 18

'Modi emerging global leader,will usher in new world order'

PRAKASH M SWAMY

NEW YORK: India's PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is emerg-ing as a global leader with his plu-ralistic vision and strong nation-alism and penchant for public ser-vice, said Ambassador Dr BhishmaK. Agnihotri, former Ambassador-at-Large of Government of Indiahere.

Addressing a seminar on "PMNarendra Modi and New WorldOrder" organized by Global Citi-zens Forum at One UN Plaza Hotelto a packed audience, Dr Agnihotrisaid that the newest leader in theIndian subcontinent has arrivedlike a boon to bring in a new glo-bal order and peace.

India was used to passive lead-ers at the helm of affairs who sac-rificed national interest and pride.The arrival of Modi on the sceneheralded a refreshing change. Inless than two months since takingoffice, he traveled to Nepal,Bhutan, BRICS Summit and nowhe has engaged Japanese leader-ship for fruitful cooperation. He isa leader with a clear vision and

commitment to enhance the imageof India, he added.

Dr Agnihotri said realizing theimportance of BRICS, Modi en-sured that India is at the top of theBRICS banking system of thegroup and thus play a pivotal role

in shaping the policies in the yearsto come.

Modi enjoys the mandate of thenation to move forward on theroad of inclusive development.India is now in safe hands and will

rise again like a phoenix in the co-mity of nations earning respectand admiration of all. The goldenera of India as envisioned bySwami Vivekananda and SriAurobindo will become a realityunder Modi's leadership, he

added.Historians predicted that in ev-

ery 175 year cycle India will wit-ness the emergence of a yogicleader who can provide vision andleadership and in 2011 India cel-

ebrated the 175th year of SwamiRamakrishna Paramhansa. DrAgnihotri said. "There is a divinepower working through Modi as Ihad observed that when he talks,it is as though Goddesses Durga,Lakshmi and Saraswati combinedare speaking through him."

Modi is bound to succeed inhis efforts as he is inspired byVedic tradition and grounded indisciplined teachings of RashtriyaSwayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) thatgave birth to patriotic nationalistleaders in India. The RSS producedsome of the nation's best selflessleaders who have no personal in-terest other than serving India andits people.

He has the combined valuesand virtues of a selfless leaderwith sincerity and honesty in ap-proach. He does not hate anyoneand loves all irrespective of coloror creed. Of course Modi speaksfrom the position of strength andbelieves in India first, he said.

Cont’d on page 19

Dr Bhishma K. Agnihotri

Rishikant - Air India's new face in New YorkRAMESH SOPARAWALA

India Post News Service

CHICAGO: Rishikant Singh,Midwest Manager for Air Indiain Chicago, is now up for a newassignment as Manager Air In-dia, New York - Canada. Thisfollows the now improved AirIndia, needing better marketingpersonnel where every guestgets treated like a Maharaja!

Rishikant, Air India's Man-ager for the Midwest regionsince July 2012 has got addi-tional charge of Canada sinceJuly 2014. He now joins NewYork as the Regional Manager -Americas from September 14,upon retirement of his colleagueMr Norbhu.

Singh's main job would be togrow revenues on Air India'snon-stop flights to India,

though the US route is one of theleast profitable because of fuelcosts and immense distances. Heaims to help his team improve cus-tomer service and brand image,now that Air India is part of the

Star Alliance.Singh had spent three years in

New York completing MBA atBaruch College in the City Univer-sity of New York in 1987 and as alicensed stockbroker on Wall

Street very briefly. He went toBombay in June 1987 and joinedAir India, accumulating over 27years experience since.

Passenger revenues accountfor 95% of all revenues of Air In-

dia. His notable contribution wasin revenue management's comput-erization of forecasting and seatinventory control, and field sales.Before taking up the Midwest op-erations, since 2007, he has

worked towards selection andimplementation of a common ITplatform for the merged carriersof Indian Airlines and Air India.

He has exposure to airportoperations, field sales, market-ing, sales promotion, distributionchannel, viability and profitabil-ity of routes and realignment ofoperations. His stint as Man-ager - Kuwait & Cyprus during2004-07 saw Air India chartingunprecedented sales growth of60 percent. An air evacuation ofIndian and subcontinent nation-als fleeing Lebanon in the crisisof July 2006 was an experiencehe recounts with satisfactionand reflected happiness ofthose rescued.

India is still close to his heartand he misses no effort at reviv-ing patriotism among Desis to-wards their motherland.

‘There is a divinepower workingthrough Modi as Ihad observed thatwhen he talks, it is asthough GoddessesDurga, Lakshmi andSaraswati combinedare speaking’

Singh had spent threeyears in New Yorkcompleting MBA atBaruch College in theCity University of NewYork in 1987

Rishikant Singh

A music icon &an amazinghumble personalityRITU MAHESHWARI


Bollywood music industry isone of the fiercest fieldsever. Kailash Kher took to

the roots and based his quest toclimb music ladder by leveragingSufi style. Today Kher is one ofthe most admired pop-rock musicsingers, known for his fan follow-ing and openness.

It is also a testament to thestrength and appeal of what isundeniably one of the most uniquevoices in Indian music today. Hehas sung in 18 languages for In-dian films and in over 300 songsfor Bollywood. Kher is not onlyone of the most loved Indian art-ists internationally, but also amongthe most respected for his modestand inspiring lifestyle.

Details on page 23

Sresta winningUS over toorganic foodRAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Amerender Reddy,a no-nonsense chemist turnedbusinessman from Dublin OH,was on a short visit to Hyderabadjust a few years ago and it wasjust a chance that he saw a facil-ity in his home town that toutedOrganic Food - spices, grain, flour,pulses, etc. For a while he ques-tioned himself - was he really in In-dia or in US as the concept of or-ganic food though catching upreally fast in his adopted land, itwas a newer thing in remote India.

Chicago NRIshonor two Indianstalwarts

S C SHAH

CHICAGO: A trio of communityactivists in Chicagoland - JodhSingh Rawat, KanubhaiBrahmbhatt and Madhu Patel -hosted a unique event here atManav Seva Mandir last weekhonoring two Indian stalwarts, theOctogenarian Dr N Subbarao andDr Amarjeet Singh.

Many among Indian Americanswould have faint memories ofthese two great frontline Indiansand one of the objectives of thistrio of community activists was toremind the NRIs here about thehandsome work that Dr Subbaraoand Dr Singh did for their mother-land and the community at large.

India Post 17September 5, 2014 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Modi emerging as global leader: Ram MadhavPRAKASH M SWAMY

EDISON, NJ: Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is emerging as one of themost popular leaders in the world with sev-eral countries lining up to invite him, saidRam Madhav, General Secretary ofBharatiya Janata Party, here recently.

Addressing a felicitation organized byIndian American community jointly by theOverseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) and HSS,he said Modi invited the leaders of SAARCnations to his swearing-in ceremony andalso visited Bhutan and Nepal sending amessage of according high priority to thebordering countries. "The reception he re-ceived from the public in Bhutan and Nepalspeaks of his popularity beyond India'sborders," he said.

He gave example of how India withstoodthe pressure of the world nations at WTOand safeguarded the interest of its farm-ers. He said that a man who gave five meet-ings a day during the elections has notuttered a word for the last 75 days and let-ting his work speak for himself and hisgovernment like a true karma yogi.

Madhav said that Modi government ac-cords high priority to hygiene and cleanli-

ness and set social service goals for theparty. Commending the work done byMadhya Pradesh, government in this areaMadhav exhorted the Indian Diaspora tohelp India achieve its goals.

He said that India is re-surging under

the dynamic leadership of Modi and hisgovernment consists of young ministerswho are working hard and brought a quali-tative change in the work culture.

The bureaucracy is responding and thefiles are being dusted off and cleared fast.He said that the recently concluded parlia-

mentary elections were historic becausenot only the mandate was huge for Modibut also the Congress Party was decimatedto such a level that it could not fulfill theconstitutional rules to attain oppositionparty status.

He said that the Congress got zero in 12states and five union territories while BJPhas representation from every state exceptKerala. "Thus, BJP became a pan Indiannational party", he said to thunderous ap-plause. OFBJP President ChandrakantPatel, in his welcome address, exhorted theIndian Diaspora to give their might to thedevelopment of India.

Earlier, the meeting started with ceremo-nial lighting of the lamp and offering flow-ers to the founding fathers of BJP followedby the rendition of Vandemataram led bySumedh and Pushpahas.

Abhimanyu Gupta, Joint Secretary, HSSgave a presentation on HSS work in NewJersey while Chandrakant Patel highlightedthe work done by OFBJP during the elec-tion campaign followed by a presentationof Lalji Goswami (Youth Convener, OFBJP).Ila Sukhadia spoke about Vishwa HinduParishad of America (VHP-A) and PrakashWaghmare gave a glimpse of EkalVidyalaya's work.

Answering a question on the law andorder situation in West Bengal and UttarPradesh, Madhav said that the governmentis closely watching the situation as the re-spective state governments are filing falsecases on BJP office bearers to contain theparty.

To another question, he said that themedia could no longer afford to ignore BJP.Answering a question related to Consu-late services in US, he said that serviceswill improve and OFBJP has a great oppor-tunity to work with the consulates in im-proving the services.

On the issue of appeasement of minori-ties by the Telangana government thatpromised to bring the rule of Nizam, he re-minded that another Sardar Patel is nowruling India and India's integrity will bepreserved at all costs.

Krishna Reddy (Treasurer, OFBJP) pre-sented the vote of thanks and recognizedthe community leaders including SunilNayak who provided the venue.

Ram Madhav in NJ

OFBJP hosts Dinner receptionfor Jolly & Rathore

VINESH VIRANI

CHICAGO: Overseas Friends of BJP(USA), Chicago Chapter, hosted a DinnerReception at India House Restaurant inSchaumburg on Sunday, August 24 to cel-ebrate the victory of the BJP in India andalso to enlist a warm Diaspora participationat the upcoming reception for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi scheduled for September 28at New York Madison Garden Stadium.

The program started with a large screenvideo presentation of Narendra Modi's In-dependence Day address from the rampartsof Red Fort to the delight of 125 plus at-tendees.

The kick off of stage program was withthe traditional 'Lighting of the Lamp' fol-lowed by 'Vande Mataram'. The dignitarieson the stage were Vijay Jolly, Global Con-

vener BJPOverseas Af-fairs (NewDelhi), Colo-n e lRajyavardhanS i n g hRathore BJPMP fromJ a i p u r ,Ra ja s than ,ChandrakantPatel, Presi-dent OFBJP(USA), AmritM i t t a l ,staunch sup-porter of' S a n g hParivar' ac-tivities andA m a rUpadhyaya,Vice Presi-dent, OFBJP(USA).

Cont’d on

page 20Lamp lighting ceremony at OFBJP Dinner reception

September 5, 2014India Post18 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Sresta winning US over to organic foodRAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Amerender Reddy, a no-non-sense chemist turned businessman fromDublin OH, was on a short visit toHyderabad just a few years ago and it wasjust a chance that he saw a facility in hishome town that touted Organic Food -spices, grain, flour, pulses, etc. For a whilehe questioned himself - was he really in In-dia or in US as the concept of organic foodthough catching up really fast in hisadopted land, it was a newer thing in re-

mote India.His inquires revealed that an Indian

chemical engineer who worked as a top levelexecutive in a chemical-fertilizer company,Rajashekhar Reddy Seelam , was the brainbehind this organic move. Seelam's fatherhad died of cancer and it really dawned uponhim that injections of chemicals via foodcan be the cause of many diseases in thebody, including cancer.

Brooding over this, Seelam, an MBA fromAhmedabad with huge chemical back-ground, left his lucrative job and started hisown company, Sresta "that would promoteonly organic food from farm-to-fork." Thefirst of its type organic food company inIndia, Sresta had a modest beginning in 2004in Hyderabad, but Seelam was determinedto make it a top of the line company with anend-to-end supply chain for cultivation,procurement, processing, and distributionof organic food. The brand selected was

24 letter Mantra.Amerendra Reddy intuitively felt that the

company Sresta and its products could de-cidedly have better markets in developedcountries like US. This is primarily becausethe concept of organic food thru organicfarming is getting ingrained with the healthconscious mainstream society.

Rajashekhar Reddy Seelam, Mantra Appeal for

Organic food and Amerender Reddy

Cont’d on page 22


Modi has changed the face ofthe government after takingcharge and sends the messagethat public service is his first pri-ority. He ensures that everyone ingovernment works hard andchanged the psychology of gov-ernment employees who hadstarted to come on timeto give their best to thenation.

US Defense Secre-tary Chuck Hagel hassaid that India willshape the destiny of21st Century. He saidthis while keepingModi's leadership in mind. The USneeds India more than ever nowbeing the largest democracy andstrategic partner.

However, Modi is sending themessage that he is neither pro-USnor pro-Russia but pro-India andwould negotiate from position ofstrength. America should work withIndia now and the US administra-tion needs to engage Modi, he said.

The Cold War era witnessedtension due to bipolar world of the

'Modi emerging global leader,will usher in new world order'

US and the then USSR and the fallof Berlin Wall signaled the arrivalof the unipolar world of America.With the arrival of China and re-emergence of Russia along withIndia, the world is witnessing amulti-polar scenario, which willusher in a new world order, DrAgnihotri said.

Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi,

chairman (GCF) in his address, saidthat Narendra Modi is a true globalcitizen with nationalism in his heart.

Dr Dinesh Agarwal, a leadingIndian-American scientist, saidModi government-in-action iscrystallizing a new India. All theministers, officers and bureaucratswork in tandem in national inter-est that has never been seen inthe last 60 years. He is committedto nation's progress and to makeIndia a Shreshtha Bharat.


Chivukula honors Mridangam exponentPM SWAMY

TRENTON: UpendraChivukula, Deputy Speaker of NewJersey State Assembly last weekhonored eminent South Indianclassical instrumentalist andMridangam exponent TiruvarurVaidyanathan with the New JerseyAssembly proclamation for hisservice and promoting Carnaticmusic abroad.

The Citation saidVaidyanathan, born in a family ofpercussionists, began training atthe age of six from his grandfatherand uncle and through his inher-ent sense of rhythm, disciplinedpractice and urge to excel in the artof playing Mridangam, was show-cased in concerts even when hewas a high school student.

He underwent rigorous train-ing under the tutelage ofMridangam maestro KaraikudiMani and with dedication andhard work, became a much soughtafter percussionist for countless

leading musicians in India, itadded.

He has performed in leadingvenues such as Lincoln Center inNew York and Kennedy Center inWashington DC. He formed asymphonic ensemble 'Vibrations'which performs multiple genres of

music on a global level as well aspromotes music through his po-sition as Faculty Member ofSIFAS in Singapore and as a men-tor of young musicians who es-tablished the TiruvarurTalavadya Vidyalaya in Chennai,the official proclamation added.

Upendra Chivukula presenting the NJ Assembly proclamation to Tiruvarur

Vaidyanathan while Dance guru Divya Yeluri, founder director of Nrithya

Madhavi School of Dance, NJ and Venu Yelur, look on

Modi is sending the mes-sage that he is neither pro-US nor pro-Russia but pro-India and would negotiatefrom position of strength

Deal signed for own facility of Bal ViharRAJ IYER & ASHWIN PATEL

ST LOUIS: After a long four+years wait, an agreement has beensigned between Bal Vihar andHindu Temple for starting a facil-ity to further Bal Vihar activitiesfor children.

On July 31, Bal Vihar presenteda check of$250,000 tothe HinduTemple to be-gin construc-tion of thenew buildingadjacent tothe temple. Inan auspiciousmoment, thepriest offeredat the feet ofthe Idol thed o c u m e n t sreflecting thegood faith ofboth the par-ties and for abright futurefor the nextgenerations.After theprayers, thed o c u m e n t swere formally signed and pre-sented to Hindu Temple alongwith the token amount.

Bal Vihar has also committed tohelp the temple raise additionalfunds and assured another$150,000 upon occupying thebuilding. Both parties have signeda lease of 99 years. A total of eightnew classrooms and two largerooms will be built on the secondfloor of the community center. The

community center will also have akitchen and large hall on the firstfloor. Bal Vihar is expecting to startits classes at this new facility fromschool year 2017-2018.

It is a moment of realization thatthe dreams of having a permanent

facility for the community and sup-ported by the community wouldcome to fruition in the next fewyears.

The new center is being builtfor other organizations within thecommunity. Having a center nextto the temple will also help thefamilies to leverage the opportu-nity to instill more culture and faithin their children.

Center for Indian Cultural Edu-

cation - Bal Vihar of St. Louis, anon-profit organization, since itsinception in 1992 has been serv-ing the Metro St. Louis Indiancommunity. The primary focus ofthis organization is to provide In-dian cultural education to stu-

dents age 5-18, its application andintegration with the globalmulticultural and multifaceted so-ciety. They are also taught disci-pline, tolerance and devotion intheir daily routine. The ultimategoal is "to throw the light of cul-tural knowledge on every child, tomake every child an outstandingcitizen and to spread the song ofpeace and harmony around theworld."

Bal Vihar and Hindu Temple management sign deal for community good


OFBJP hosts Dinner receptionfor Jolly & Rathore

more than 41 countries has trulybecome a 'Global Organization'.Addressing the audience he said"I salute you for the Brand Indiayou have created in the USA byyour hard work and excellence inthe various professions of engi-neering, medicine, business, aswell as many other entrepreneurpositions. Your voice and strengthabroad are assets for us in India".He exhorted the Diaspora to joinat the USA reception for NarendraModi in large numbers.

Chandrakant Patel gave a slidepresentation of the various activi-ties that OFBJP (USA) has beendoing since its founding in 1991.Earlier, Amar Upadhyaya wel-comed the gathering and intro-duced Chandrakant Patel. BhailalPatel introduced the visiting BJPMP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathoreand Prasad Yelamanchi introducedthe Keynote speaker Vijay Jolly.Rohit Joshi gave the vote ofthanks.

This was followed by an excel-lent cultural program by studentsof 'Balagokulam' of MundelineSakha of Hindu SwayamsevakSangh. The program concludedwith Dinner in the fabulous 'Ban-quet Hall Setting' of the IndiaHouse Restaurant for the packedaudience.

The master of ceremonyS.Vemuri set the tone with his elo-quent opening remarks: "Thespectacular rise of Narendra Modiis like the resurrection of a leaderlike Sardar Patel. After 67 years,the Sardar is back with a hugemandate from the people of India,to transform India into a modern,prosperous nation, free of corrup-tion and scandals".

The young and energetic MPRajyavardhan Singh Rathorestressed the importance of publicparticipation in politics for thevigilant functioning of democracy.He said, "I come from the most

admired profession of the Army tothe least admired profession ofPolitics by choice, precisely for thereasons I mentioned". He urgedthe audience to show their sup-port to the promising administra-tion of BJP, by attending the Sep-tember 28 Prime Minister's recep-tion in large numbers. Rathore hadalready won the estimation of thepeople with his credentials whichincluded the winning of SilverMedal for India in Shooting at theAthens Olympics in 2004.

In his Keynote address, VijayJolly outlined the various ambi-tious plans of BJP for India'sgrowth and said the OverseasFriends of BJP with chapters in

A section of the audience at OFBJP reception

BJP MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Vijay Jolly addressing the gathering


Chicago NRIs honor two Indian stalwartsS C SHAH

CHICAGO: A trio of communityactivists in Chicagoland - JodhSingh Rawat, KanubhaiBrahmbhatt and Madhu Patel -hosted a unique event here atManav Seva Mandir last weekhonoring two Indian stalwarts, theOctogenarian Dr N Subbarao andDr Amarjeet Singh.

Many among Indian Americanswould have faint memories ofthese two great frontline Indiansand one of the objectives of thistrio of community activists was to

remind the NRIs here about thehandsome work that Dr Subbaraoand Dr Singh did for their mother-land and the community at large.

Emceed by Ms Gaitheri Rathoreand presided over by noted on-cologist from Indian, Dr BharatBarai, the two-hour event was at-tended by 100 plus guests andinvitees from all walks of life andall India communities. As put byJodh Singh, "we also wanted topay our respect and tribute tothese two great souls and let them

know that NRIs do cherish theirgood deeds."

Dr Subba Rao is probably theonly living Gandhian who activelyparticipated in Quit India move-ment in 1942 and got imprisonedfor fighting for Indian Indepen-dence. He was the youngestsatyagrahi wearing khadi at the ageof 10 in 1942 in Mysore state. Asocio-spiritual leader Dr S.NSubba Rao is a living and movingencyclopedia, making his presencefelt and words memorable wher-

g a r l a n d e dwith freshflowers byHari BhaiPatel, presi-dent of Se-nior Pariwar.Dr AmarjeetSingh wasgarlanded byanother com-m u n i t yl e a d e rThakar SinghBasati. DrB h a r a tBharai, presi-dent of thewelcomingcommittee,was wel-

comed and garlanded by MadhuPatel.

Dr Subba Rao started hisspeech by reciting bhajans in allthe main languages of India and

from all the major religions of theworld. The audience was spell-bound. The way Dr Rao touchedthe whole world and the wholehumanity with his captivating lan-guage; he mesmerized everyone

by words of wisdom. Dr SubbaRao spoke widely about MahatmaGandhi and his mission, his visionand his philosophy of non-vio-lence. Dr Amarjeet Singh thankedall for honoring him.

Food was served by IndiaHouse Restaurant.

ever he goes. He likes himself tobe called a "ghoomakkad" - thetraveler.

Dr. Amarjeet Singh is a notedscientist and Padmabhushan re-cipient in 1985.

Food was providedby the India House andrest of the preparationsfell upon the shouldersof Jodh singh Rawat,founder of Forum forGandhi AwarenessWorldwide and KannuBhai Brambhatt of YogSetup Universal andMadhu Patel founder ofeklavya ashram. TheCenter of Indian Classi-cal Music had their new venturelaunched in the presence of DrSubbarao and Dr Singh.

Jodh Singh Rawat welcomedpeople gathered there and thenurged Emcee Ms Rhatore to invite

Dr Subba Rao up on the stage. Themajestic looking grand MahalxmiHall of Manav Seva Mandir wasglittering to find their two digni-taries on the stage probably forthe first time, with different and ex-traordinary backgrounds.

Dr Subba Rao was honored and

Jodh Singh welcoming guests

Dr Amarjeet Singh, Dr N Subbaro and Dr Bharat Barai

Dr Subba Rao is probablythe only living Gandhianwho actively participatedin Quit India movement in1942 and got imprisonedfor fighting for Indian Inde-pendence


US postal stamp to honor Dr AkkineniBABU TANGEWALA

DALLAS: A postal stamp in honor of leg-endry actor Padma Vibhushan, NatasamratDr Akkineni Nageswara Rao will be broughtout very soon by the United Stated PostalService (USPS), according to the AkkineniFoundation of America (AFA).

AFA President Dr Prasad Thotakurasaid, "It has been a long journey - submit-ting needed documents and literature from

time to time and explaining Dr Akkineni'ssalient features but all that hard work haspaid off. It is the first time in the history ofthe USA that an Indian movie actor will getthis kind of rare honor of a commemorativepostal stamp release. We sincerely thankUSPS for consenting to our request to is-sue this postal stamp in honor of Dr.Akkineni Nageswara Rao."

Dr ANR's Postal Stamp release specialceremony is slated in Dallas, Texas on Sep-tember 20, the birthday of Dr ANR.

AFA is also planning to release the stamp

in India at the first "International AkkineniAwards Ceremony" in the presence of ANRfamily members and to be held by AFA onDecember 17 at ANR College, Gudivada,Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh.

The AFA Board consists of Dr PrasadThotakura, President; Ravi Kondabolu, Vice-president; Sarada Akunuri,Secretary, Dr. C.R. Rao, Treasurer.

Board of Directors: Dr Srinivasa ReddyAlla, Murali Vennam, Bakthavatsalu Dhama,Chalapati Rao Kondrakunta and RaoKalvala.Dr Akkineni Nageswara RaoGrays Lake

temple hostsKaraoke Mehfil

GEETHA PATIL

GRAYS LAKE: This Summer Season's'Gata Rahe Mera Dil - Musical Night', in itsfourth consecutive year, is one of the mostpopular annual music lovers' gathering atthe Grayslake temple.

This is the place for singers to come andshare their talents. The key organizers madea welcoming environment for new singersand readers of Shayari to start out at thisfriendly podium. Their remarkable slogan is"if you enjoy listening to music or singingyour favorite song/s, this will be the perfectplatform for you."

Accordingly, Mehul Rami, ManishSharma, Amit Dave, Ajay Patel, SumitVarshney and Kalpesh Bagaria organizedthis event by putting together several localold and new music artists and singers toshowcase their singing talents and enter-tain the audience. It was a fun packedevening that featured non-stop karaokesinging with multiple rounds of genre-basedon Bollywood music for over 100 attend-ees.

Karokee singers at Grays Lake Temple

Cont’d on page 23


With a few back and forth, anda few meetings with the top man-agement brass, includingRajashekar Seelam, he got Srestachanting its Mantra in this coun-try too.

The start was from Marylandthree years ago and the marketingwas through a chain of sub-dis-tributors in all major cities, includ-

ing Chicago. The managementhowever felt that its aim would betbetter served by having its ownfacility in major markets. Soon itgot branched out to Elgin nearChicago, Illinois.

Amerendra Reddy who actsmore as a consultant to the com-pany, said that the plans are to getin West Coast and by 2015 there

Sresta winning US over to organic foodcould be a facility in San Francisco.He said this did not mean that thecompany would dispense with itsnow developed marketing outlets.The facilities in cities like Mary-land and Chicago would aim atserving the needs of distributors,retailers and consumers betterwith the first hand feel of their re-quirements and off the shelf sup-plies. "In fact, the number of subdistributors across the country -

LA, Houston Atlanta, Detroit -would function as before" he saidin a talk to this paper.

The business in USA is grow-ing really fast and it has qua-drupled in the past two years. "Thegrowth is stupendous as our prod-ucts - different varieties of rice,wheat flour (Atta), most types oflentils, spices-herb, and ready to

eat items - are in huge demand.The range of products the com-pany supplies is up from 40 to 75,and it plans adding more in thecoming months. The total rangeof products that the company mar-kets in India runs into 220 plus andthis number is not static. It is go-ing up. "We move cautiously inthis country as we want to meetall technical and health related re-quirements," he said.

Tapping the mainstream Ameri-can market is sine qua non for in-creasing sales here. Amerendersaid that the coming years wouldsee our concerted efforts in thisdirection. The survey indicatesthat the organic conscious con-sumers are inclined to pay a muchhigher price for quality productsand "if we are top in this area of

quality and are most competitivein prices, there should be no prob-lem in making successful inroadsin mainstream markets," he ob-served.

It is not in the US market alonethat Sresta has made its presencefelt. Even before it came here, ithad successfully entered manyglobal markets. Its ready-to-eatproducts besides the usual itemslike spices, grains, dals, etc are

marketed in 15 countries coveringNorth America, Canada, WesternEurope and Australia. "The de-mand is huge and right now we donot meet even 3 to 4 per cent ofthis, which obviously means thatthere is huge potential for expan-sion and growth, "he observed.

The farms, products, facilitiesare certified for EU, USDA NOP &

Indian NPOP standards. The pro-cessing facilities are certified forGMP, GHP, HACCP, ISO22000,BRC. Sresta is managed by peoplewith extensive experience in agri-culture, food processing, qa,sales, marketing and internationaltrade. Sresta doesn't use preser-vatives even to store produce. Ituses a technique where oxygenlevels are kept low in the storageunits. "This keeps them fresh," heexplains.

The hike in demand for Srestaproducts could not be met if thereis no production back up. Themanagement is equally alive to thisfactor. This is obvious from thefact that it has expanded its pres-ence in India in a big way - from8,000 to the current 70,000 acresand is expected to reach the cov-eted figure of 100,000 acres in 15Indian States soon.

Sresta's farming projects arespread across Andhra Pradesh,Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand,Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal andNortheast. The plans are for at leasta 20 per cent growth every year, ifnot more, said Reddy

Sresta's vision is sustainablelivelihood for farmers, sustainablelifestyles for consumers and a sus-tainable Earth. It partners with lo-cal NGOs in India for mobilizingfarmers and training them in Or-ganic Agriculture as also withleading agriculture research insti-tutions and experts in India andabroad to evolve best organic ag-riculture practices to improve ag-ricultural productivity, farmsustainability and quality of theproduce. With its objective of pro-viding a huge portion of the fam-ily food basket with Organic alter-natives, developing new productshas also become a necessity,Amerender pointed out.


Mantra at Vegi Fest

Indian Tricolor lights up Niagara FallsPM SWAMY

NEW YORK: For the first timein history, the world-famous andmost visited tourist spot NiagaraFalls was illuminated with Indiantri-color, thanks to Indian-Ameri-can physicians of Rajasthan Medi-cal Alumni Association of NorthAmerica (RAJMAAI).

The Silver Jubilee celebrationof RAJMAAI was held betweenAug 14 and 17 at Hotel MarriotGateway on the Falls in Ontario,Canada in which over 300 physi-cians and their families attendedall over from the US.

Leaders of AAPI and RAJMAAI at the Silver Jubilee ConventionCont’d on page 24


Grays Lake temple hostsKaraoke Mehfil

Summer season has motivatedthe 'Friends of Lake County' groupto present high-energy perfor-mances by local artists who sanga variety of old and newBollywood songs. The melodious,enjoyable, and romantic songs ofthe night reflected the human feel-ings and love.

This memorable, mellow Music& Karaoke Night of Hindu Mandirof Lake County was held on awarm and pleasant night of Satur-day, 23 August. Loving Shayarireading and over 40 Hindi melodi-ous songs were sung by Radhika

Chemburkar, Amit Dave, SachinKalgoankar, Sumit Varshney,Mehul Rami, Manish Sharma, andmany new singers. Enthusiasticdevotees dedicated songs to theirloved ones.

Delicious dinner withmouthwatering snacks wereserved to the audience. The fareincluded yummy Mirchi Bajiyas,Samosa, Batata Bonda, Vada, Idliand hot masala tea. The devoteesenjoyed their dinner while listen-ing to mellow songs that madetheir memories of their teen andadolescent days, favorite actorand actresses including the leg-endary singers, afresh once again.


Community activist Dr V.K. Patelpasses away

JAYANTI OJHA

Dr VK Patel

Dr V.K. Patel, 74, of Skokie,Illinois passed away onAugust 27 at Manor Care

Nursing Home after a lengthybattle with thyroid cancer.

His dignified and customary"Hindu" cremation was performedat Bohemian National Cemetery ofChicago on Thursday August 28in the afternoon. David Pimm,Funeral Director, personally ar-ranged all ends of the ritual as perHindu Cremation Code of Ethicsand Guidelines. Rajubhai Jani,Priest, guided his son Dr SatyenPatel to perform the "AntimVidayi" rituals in the presence ofover 500 people including closerelatives, friends, and variousmembers of Chicagoland area or-ganizations. Many prominentcommunity leaders, businessmen,doctors, pharmacists, trustees anddignitaries attended the last cer-emony

Dr Patel had his degree in medi-cine from the M.P. Shah MedicalCollege in Jamnagur and came tothis country in June 1972 for fur-ther studies.

He started his professional ca-reer in 1978 and provided medicalservices for 36 years in severalChicagoland hospitals besides

running his practice as a familyphysician and pediatrician in Chi-cago. He was socially active andwas associated with GujaratPragati Mandal, Gujarati Cultural

Association, Gujarat Samaj of Chi-cago, the Manav Seva Mandir andthe American Association of Phy-sicians of Indian Origin (AAPI).Dr Patel was one of the foundingmembers of the Kadva PatidarSamaj of Chicago (KPS) and con-ducted philanthropic activities inIndia such as the Langhnaj Edu-

cational Trust and Dharati.Son of Kahandas Patel and

Jadiba Patel, he was born inLanghnaj, India. Dr Patel was aloving father, grandfather, brother,

community leader, and friend. Hewill be missed dearly.

Dr Patel is survived by his wife,Premila Patel, daughter SeemaPatel, son and daughter-in-law, DrSatyen and Dipti Patel, two grand-children and an extended familyencompassing many nieces, neph-ews, and in-laws.

A music icon & an amazinghumble personality

Ritu Maheshwari interviewing Kailash Kher

RITU MAHESHWARI


Bollywood music industry isone of the fiercest fieldsever. Kailash Kher took to

the roots and based his quest toclimb music ladder by leveragingSufi style. Today Kher is one ofthe most admired pop-rock musicsingers, known for his fan follow-ing and openness.

It is also a testament to the

strength and appeal of what isundeniably one of the most uniquevoices in Indian music today. Hehas sung in 18 languages for In-

dian films and in over 300 songsfor Bollywood. Kher is not onlyone of the most loved Indian art-ists internationally, but also amongthe most respected for his modestand inspiring lifestyle. The Sufimusic icon says that folk music,which preceded mainstream music,has its place secure in the annalsof music and it can never go outof style.

Kailash Kher and Kailasa re-leased their first album, Kailasa, in

2006, which resulted in the smashhits "Teri Deewani" and "TaubaTauba." This was followed in 2007by their second album Jhoomo Re,

which was also a critical and com-mercial success. In 2008, Kher wasinvited to become a judge on thetelevision series Indian Idol, thelocal version of the successfulsinging competition.

With his bubbly spirit and aninfectious, expansive personality,Kher endeared himself to the In-dian mainstream. It is impossiblefor Kher to walk the streets any-where in India without his beingbesieged by adoring autographseekers. He has earned even fur-ther admiration for the opennesswith which he treats his fans.

In 2007, Kher participated in aconcert tour in the US, Canada andthe Caribbean entitled TheIncredibles. While the show al-lowed Kher to perform in front ofhuge audiences at major amphithe-aters, it was his appearance withKailasa at the January 2008 edi-tion of GlobalFest at New York'sWebster Hall where Kher's trueartistry was on display.

The group's performance thatevening electrified the audience,and proved to be the first step in

launching Kher's career as a glo-bal world music star.

Ritu Maheshwari interviewedKailash Kher for India Post dur-ing his recent visit to SF Bay Area.

Ritu: How do you feel visitingBay area?

Kailash Kher: It feels great tobe in Bay area. Over many visits toUS, I find that Bay area always giveslot of positive experiences. Bay areafans are most lively and energeticof all. It makes me feel like I am inIndia. I can feel the warmth every-where and that is what an artistlooks for to thrive and survive. Iam going to have a live chat withfans on Facebook and try to builda strong music community.Ritu: What changes do you seein the music industry over the

He has sung in 18 languages for Indian filmsand in over 300 songs for Bollywood. Kher isnot only one of the most loved Indian artistsinternationally, but also among the mostrespected for his modest and inspiringlifestyle. The Sufi music icon says that folkmusic, has its place secure

years?KK: Over the years, more than

music, how music is received andappreciated has changed.

A lot of music lovers have be-come passive listeners, withmany means of getting music,some legitimate and some not,have come up. Fans need to getenergetic in supporting the mu-sic and artist. I see some evi-dence of that happening, but wehave long way to go.Ritu: What is your message toyoungsters?

KK: I wish my fans all the bestand invite them to come to myshow in large numbers. When theyare satiated with the music, theywill be able to make progress inlife, as music soothes the soul andpropels one towards success.


The Niagara Falls Parks Com-mission decided to illuminate theFalls with Indian Tri Color for 15minutes on the night of India's In-dependence Day - August 15 -perhaps for the first time in the his-tory, according to RAJMAAIPresident Dr. Shashi Shah.

"The Indian Tricolor was illu-

minated vertically as the ParksCommission had no provision toilluminate horizontally. In 1997 and1998, new fixtures replaced theoutdated lamps and fixtures at theIllumination Tower, doubling theintensity of the lights on the Fallswithout doubling the hydro bills.

Currently a total of 21 xenonlights, each with a 76-cm (30 in)diameter, are used to illuminate theFalls in a rainbow of colors. Eigh-teen are located at the IlluminationTower, beside the Queen VictoriaPlace and three are located below

Indian Tricolor lightsup Niagara Falls

street level in the gorge oppositethe American Falls. Each of thexenon spotlights produces morethan 390 million peak beams andhave a brilliance of 250 millioncandlepower. The grand sponsorof the celebrations was Dr SaminSharma, world-renowned cardiacsurgeon of New York City.

The physicians discussed howto pitch in help the State ofRajasthan in providing best medi-

cal care, opening and training oftrauma centers across the state,continuing medical education pro-grams, opening of book banks, toname a few.

Noted Bollywood singerKailash Kher entertained theguests and authentic Rajasthanicuisine was served. Dr RaviJahagirdhar, President of AAPI, DrAjeet Singhvi, Chair, Board ofTrustees of AAPI, Dr Om Gandaand Prof. P.C.Dandiya attendedthe convention as honoredguests.

The illuminated Niagara Falls


Technology in the classroom - Does it help?MANASI MAHESHWARI

Recently, schools all overCalifornia have started is-suing laptops or tablets to

students as teaching tools to takenotes in class and do homework.Are such devices actually benefi-cial or detrimental to learning?There are arguments for bothsides of the discussion, but in myopinion, the daily use of technol-ogy for individual students in theclassroom is not very helpful tothem.

While I agree that it is impor-tant to have access to computersto supplement learning and do

assignments, I believe such tech-nology is not necessary in theconfines of a classroom. It hasbeen shown that students whotype out their notes usually takelonger and more comprehensivenotes because they can get downinformation faster than those whohandwrite their notes. While thisseems like it would be beneficial,studies show that students whowrite notes on paper are requiredto summarize and make connec-tions while writing so they can getall the information down. Thismakes them much more likely to

retain and understand informationthan those who just copy down alecture verbatim.

Another downside to technol-ogy during class time is the likeli-

hood of distraction. When a stu-dent is encountered with thechoice of either listening to andtaking notes on a long, perhapstedious lecture or secretly playinggames on their tablet, they arelikely to choose the latter. Evenwithout any intention to do so,

students can easily lose track ofwhat they're supposed to be do-ing when they have such easyaccess to so many distractions.

However, if it is necessary forschool to implement technologyuse in class, it's important to haveregulations to moderate and deterinappropriate use in the classroomso students can still have an ac-ceptable learning environment.While technology is obviously aninherent part of the modern worldand learning how to use it is nec-essary, having students use theirlaptops and tablets during class(not including classes devoted tolearning about the use of technol-ogy) is more harmful than helpful.

25 India Post September 5, 2014www.indiapost.com

TechBizTech News (L -R) Anand

Chandrasekaran,

Chief Product

Officer of Bharti

Airtel with Director-

Consumer Business,

Srinivasan Gopalan

and Devraj Sanyal,

Managing Director of

Universal Music &

EMI Music for the

South Asia, at the

launch of mobile

application Wynk

music in New Delhi

on September 2

5.7% Q1 growth has generated hugepositive sentiment: Modi

TOKYO: Encouraged by eco-nomic growth of 5.7 per cent in thefirst quarter, 2014-15, Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi has said it hasgenerated a "huge positive senti-ment" while exhorting Japanesebusinessmen to invest in India.

Highlighting the achievementsof the 100 days of his government,Modi said one of the major initia-tives of the new regime was fur-ther opening of the FDI ruleswhich too was being widely ap-preciated by the investors.

Modi said this while address-ing the a luncheon meeting hostedby Nippon Kiedanren - the Japa-nese Chamber of Commerce andIndustry, and the Japan-IndiaBusiness Cooperation Committeehere.

"The GDP growth of 5.7 per centin the first quarter of 2014-15 hasgenerated a huge positive senti-ment," he said.

Improved performance of min-ing, manufacturing and servicessector pushed India's economicgrowth rate to two-and-half-yearhigh of 5.7 per cent in the April-June quarter and the governmentexpects the trend to continue inthe remaining fiscal.

India's economy had recordeda subdued growth of 4.7 per centin the April-June quarter of the lastfiscal, 2013-14.

The previous high was re-corded at 6 per cent in the Octo-ber- December quarter of 2011-12.

Modi further said that the clear

mandates received by the govern-ments of both India and Japan, andthe political stability they hadgenerated, would deliver a strongpush to bilateral ties.

In order to encourage Japaneseinvestments, a special manage-ment team would be set up directly

under the Prime Minister's Office.He said two nominees selected

by Japan would also be part of thedecision-making team whichevaluates business proposals andassured Japanese businessmenand investors of policy- drivendecisions to eliminate delays. -PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a business luncheon hosted by Japan Business

Federation in Tokyo on September 1

Chidambaram claims credit for high Q1 growth NEW DELHI: Former Fi-

nance Minister P Chidambaramhas said the high growth thatIndian economy has logged inthe first quarter of the currentfiscal was on account of theUnited Progressive Alliancepolicies and the new govern-ment must give it the due credit.

"Can the Modi governmentname one measure that wasimplemented after May 26 thatyielded results by June 30?They cannot. Hence the creditfor Q1 belongs entirely to theUPA government. The NDAshould stop being churlish andgive credit where it is due," saidthe senior Congress leader.

Improved performance ofmining, manufacturing and ser-vices sectors pushed the

country's economic growth rate totwo-and-half year high of 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014-15.

Earlier, Chidambaram had saidthe 5.7 per cent growth rate vindi-

cates position of the previous UPAgovernment that the decline inGDP had been halted in the middleof 2013-14 as well as its forecastthat the upturn will take place in

the beginning of 2014-15.He had said a number of

steps were taken by the UPAgovernment to revive manufac-turing (reduction of excise duty),

electricity (coallinkages) andmining sectors,he said.

Besides, anumber of re-forms were un-dertaken in thefinancial ser-vices sector andthese are thelead performingsectors of theeconomy as perthe latest CSOdata, he had said.-PTI

P Chidambaram

Chidambaram hadsaid the 5.7 percent growth ratevindicates positionof the previousUPA governmentthat the decline inGDP had beenhalted in themiddle of 2013-14

Wipro to doubleheadcount to140 in Oman

NEW DELHI: Country's thirdlargest software services firmWipro has said it plans to doubleits headcount to 140 people overthe next 18 months in Muscat tomeet increasing business require-ments in the Gulf region.

Established in 2011 in Oman,Wipro Gulf LLC has been growingrapidly over the last three years,delivering critical projects acrossoil and gas, aviation, engineering,banks and government sectors,Wipro said.

"Buoyed by the rising demandfor services, Wipro plans todouble the headcount over thenext 12-18 months," Wipro said ina statement.

Wipro Oman currently employs70 professionals and has providedservices to more than 25 clientsacross sectors.-PTI

Nike to openits own storesin India

NEW DELHI: Sportswear firmNike has applied for permission toopen company-owned stores toretail its products in the country, agovernment notification said.

As per the Department of In-dustrial Production and Promotion(DIPP) website's notification, onAugust 29, Nike applied for 100per cent FDI in single brand retail.

The application has been madeby Nike to retail its products, in-cluding footwear, apparel, equip-ments and related accessories inIndia, notification added.

However, when contacted Nikespokesperson said: "Nike wel-comes the government's decisionon foreign direct investment insingle brand retail in India. Nikecurrently operates its businesshere through local distributors andretail partners. This model workswell for us and we may considerexploring opening Nike ownedstores in the future." -PTI

Italian court acceptsFinmeccannicarequest

NEW DELHI: Facing a CentralBureau of Investigation probe inIndia, defense firm Finmeccannicahas claimed that an Italian courthearing the VVIP chopper scamhas accepted its "request for mon-etary measures" in the caseagainst its subsidiary companyAgustaWestland and accordinglyimposed fines of over Rs 62 croreon it. -PTI

26 India Post TechBiz Post September 5, 2014

www.indiapost.com

Nippon, Reliance Group launchIndia funds for Japan investors

TOKYO/MUMBAI: With PrimeMinister Narendra Modi seekinggreater investment flow from Ja-pan into India, financial servicesgiant Nippon Life has announcedtwo dedicated funds in partner-ship with Anil Ambani-led Reli-ance Group to facilitate Japaneseinvestments into Indian markets.

Besides, Nippon Life also reit-erated its commitment to a part-nership with the Indian businessconglomerate for setting up 'Reli-ance Bank' under an appropriatecategory of licenses to be issuedby the Reserve Bank of India.

The announcements - includ-ing for launch of one equity andanother bond fund - coincide withModi's first official visit to Japanas Prime Minister, during which heinvited Japanese investments intoIndia and said that the business-men from the two countries cangive a direction to world economy.

Welcoming Modi on his Japanvisit, Nippon and Reliance Groupsaid in a joint statement that thetwo groups would actively expandtheir collaboration and contributetowards strengthening of Indo-Japan relations.

"The Prime Minister's visit toJapan reinforces the strategic fo-cus of global partnership betweenIndia and Japan.

"As a good role model of busi-ness partnership between Indianand Japanese corporations, Reli-ance Group and NLI Group willactively further expand their col-laboration, which will contributetowards strengthening the rela-tions between India and Japan,"Reliance Group Managing Direc-tor Amitabh Jhunjhunwala said.

Nippon Life Insurance (NLI)President Yoshinobu Tsutsui said,

"Reliance Capital is planning toset up its own bank which will ca-ter to individual customers andsmall and medium enterprises allover India.

"NLI is also participating in this

bank project as part of strategicbusiness alliance with a view toimprove the financial infrastruc-ture and contribute towards eco-

nomic growth of India."Among the two new mutual

funds announced for Japaneseretail investors, India Equity Se-lection Fund would allow Japaneseinvestors to "directly invest in In-dian companies with long termpotential".

Besides, the Short Term IndianBond Fund would allow investorsfrom Japan to directly invest inIndian government securities andcorporate bonds.

Nippon Life Insurance, a For-tune 100 company and the fifthlargest private life insurer in theworld with revenue of USD 65 bil-lion and profit of USD 5 billion, isthe biggest foreign direct inves-tor in Indian asset managementand life insurance sector till date.

The Japanese insurer has 26 percent stake each in Reliance Capi-tal Asset Management (RCAM)and Reliance Life Insurance Com-pany (RLIC), both part of RelianceCapital, the financial services armof Reliance Group. -PTI

Nippon Life Insur-ance, a Fortune 100company and thefifth largest privatelife insurer in theworld with revenue ofUSD 65 billion andprofit of USD 5 billion,is the biggest foreigndirect investor

SBI-Japan bank in$152-mn credit deal

MUMBAI: State Bank of India(SBI) has signed a loan agreementwith the Japan Bank of Interna-tional Cooperation (JBIC) toset up an export credit linein two currencies worthUSD 152 million.

The total amount in theexport credit line consists of13.5 billion yen and USD 21million, a release said, add-

ing the loan is co-financed withthe Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi(BTMU).

This credit line will be utilizedby Meja Urja Nigam to finance theprocurement of steam turbine gen-erators from Japan's Toshiba Corpand its Indian subsidiary to con-struct a super critical pressurecoal-fired power plant (660 mwx2units) in Meja, Uttar Pradesh, therelease said.

The plant is an equal joint ven-ture between NTPC, a Central PSU,and UP Rajya Vidyut UtpadanNigam.

The agreement was signed bySBI Chairperson ArundhatiBhattacharya and JBIC GovernorHiroshi Watanabe in Tokyo, wherePrime Minister Narendra Modi ison a state visit.

Commenting on the develop-ment Bhattacharya said, "India hasa strong appetite for infrastructuraldevelopment and I see a greaterrole for JBIC in supporting Indiancommercial banks and infrastruc-ture companies." -PTI

Economy rebounding, inflationmoderating: 100 days

NEW DELHI: Encouraged bymarked improvement in theGross domestic product (GDP)numbers, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley has said growthrate would accelerate further onback of improvement in inves-tor confidence and moderationin inflation.

With government takingquick decisions to relax ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) normsand push infrastructure invest-ment, he said the manufactur-ing curve has turned and ser-vices sector is looking up.

"All I can say is the govern-ment is very clear whether it issocial sector schemes, or othersignificant decisions, surely wewill be moving in right direction.I am optimistic that as more andmore decisions in this directioncomes, we will be able to helpthe economy to grow a littlefaster," Jaitleysaid, while ad-dressing his firstpress conferenceto mark 100 days ofthe NDA govern-ment in office.

Reflecting im-provement in theeconomy, the GDPgrowth rate in theApril-June quarterof 2014-15 im-proved to 5.7 percent, the highest innearly two-and-half years. TheGDP growth rate remained sub-five per cent in the last two con-secutive fiscals.

"In the first quarter (April-June), a 5.7 per cent growth rateis encouraging. With the long-term impact of all the new initia-tives setting in, I am sure theimpact in the coming quarterswill be much larger," he said.

Listing decisions taken infirst three months in office,Jaitley said FDI restrictions indefense and railways have beeneased, decision making has-tened, special mechanism cre-ated to resolve tax dispute and

steps taken to increase invest-ment in manufacturing and in-frastructure.

"The new government wasclear about the direction inwhich it was to move. Wewanted to expand economic ac-tivity, hasten decision making,easing doing business in coun-

try, open up sig-nificant sectors,expedite decisionmaking, whilemaintaining thesocial sector ex-penditures in mostareas," he added.

On futureagenda, the Minis-ter said the gov-ernment wouldsoon roll out dis-investment plan,push Goods andServices Tax (GST)

and try to get the insurance billthrough in the ensuing WinterSession of Parliament.

Jaitley said he was "moreconfident" now of achieving thefiscal deficit target of 4.1 per centof Gross domestic product(GDP) in the current fiscal, evenas the deficit in July end hadcrossed 61 per cent of Budgetestimates.

The Minister said that soonafter the National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) took over, hehad outlined government's pri-orities which included contain-

ing inflation, restarting thegrowth cycle, rebuilding the in-vestment cycle and keeping fis-cal deficit at acceptable levels.

Observing that the LokSabha election results itselfchanged the mood, Jaitley said,it was "after 30 years you had asingle party majority in Parlia-ment and therefore decisionmaking, including economic de-cision making, became easier."

Unlike the previous UPAgovernment, he said there wereno internal issues and all stepstaken by the Finance Ministryhad the support of the PrimeMinister and his office.-PTI

Jaitley said he was "moreconfident" now of achievingthe fiscal deficit target of 4.1per cent of Gross domesticproduct (GDP) in the currentfiscal, even as the deficit inJuly end had crossed 61 percent of Budget estimates.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

27India PostTechBiz PostSeptember 5, 2014

www.indiapost.com

America is our emergingmarket: Mahindra

NEW DELHI: With an aim to beone of the most admired corpora-tions by 2020-21, the Mahindragroup is looking at its successfultractors business, where it issynergizing automotive technol-ogy with farm equipment, to takethe lead.

Already the world's largest trac-tor manufacturer by volumes, theUSD 16.5-billion home-grownmultinational is seeking to en-hance its presence in the westernmarket like the US.

"The glamorous side is SUVsbut frankly the tractor side iswhere we are number one in theworld. Our brand is making globalheadway faster on tractors thanauto," Mahindra Group Chairmanand MD Anand Mahindra told PTIin an interview.

Highlighting the progress thatthe group has made in the farmequipment sector, he said the lat-est tractor Arjun Novo was an ex-ample of it.

"Our goal was to say we aresecond to none in technology. Wedon't want to be value for moneytractor that is beating out JohnDere and all...This product has in-corporated auto technology in thetractor. If you look at electronics,suspension, ergonomics...thestate-of-the-art knowledge ofR&D we had in auto has come into(it)," Mahindra said.

The new tractor is the first prod-uct to be rolled out since PawanGoenka took charge of headingboth tractor and auto businesses

of the group and also after RajanWadhera leading the group's trac-tor and automobiles R&D, headded.

"Mahindra group is really get-ting its act together of synergy in

auto technology. This product(tractor) has gone to a differentlevel," he said.

Commenting on the expansionof the tractor business in devel-oped markets, Mahindra said: "Icall America our emerging market;they find it very amusing when Isaid that. The fastest growth wehave got in the last year and a halfis in America. We have grown in35-40 per cent."

The main competitors there areJohn Dere and New Holland andin the segment Mahindra oper-ates, its market share now hasreached 10 per cent, he added.

In the last fiscal the group had

sold a total of 2,67,635 tractors, up20 per cent from the previous year.

In the April-July period this fis-cal, the company's total tractorsales were down by 1 per cent to91,962 units from 93,046 in the year-

ago period.Speaking on

the group's am-b i t i o n s ,Mahindra saidit was to be-come one of themost admiredcorporations orbrands by2020-21 butstated thegroup has notset any finan-cial goals.

"When youset the righttargets, aspira-

tions and you work efficiently anddiligently, the numbers happen.We never set financialtargets...(but) we have a verystrong co-created aspirations...Ifwe do become one of the mostadmired corporations or brands by2020-21, it cannot happen withoutyour financial results," Mahindrasaid. -PTI

Mahindra Group Chairman and MD Anand Mahindra

4 of Indian-origin among25 gen-next economists

WASHINGTON: Four Indian-origin economists from the US fea-ture among the IMF's list of 25 topglobal financial experts under theage of 45 who will have a majorinfluence on the understanding ofthe global economy in the comingdecades.

Raj Chetty and Gita Gopinathfrom Harvard University, ParagPathak from the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT)and Amit Seru figure inthe list by top Interna-tional Monetary Fundpublication 'Financeand Development'.

Published in the Sep-tember issue of themonthly journal, the listis based on feedback re-ceived by global econo-mists, journal editorsand its readers who were asked toname economists under 45 who willhave the most influence in the com-ing decades on the understandingof the global economy.

Indian-American Chetty, 35,who received his PhD at 23, com-bines empirical evidence and eco-nomic theory to research how toimprove government policy deci-sions in areas such as tax policy,unemployment insurance, educa-

tion, and equality of opportunity.Gopinath, 42, American and In-

dian, also from the Harvard, stud-ies international macroeconomicsand trade with a focus on sover-eign debt, the response of inter-national prices to exchange ratemovements, and the rapid shiftsin relative value among world cur-rencies.

From MIT, 34-year-old Pathakplayed a role in applying engineer-

ing approaches tomicroeconomics. His research fo-cuses on market design, educationand urban economics.

Forty-year-old Seru, an Indianfrom the University of Chicago, re-searches financial intermediationand regulation as well as issuesrelated to corporate finance, in-cluding resource allocation withinand between firms, and organiza-tional incentives. -PTI

Published in the Septemberissue of the monthly journal,the list is based on feed-back received by globaleconomists

12 Indian firms in Forbes'50 best in Asia-Pacific

NEW YORK: TataConsultancy Services (TCS),HCL Technologies and HDFCBank are among the 50 best pub-lic companies in Asia-Pacific ac-cording to a compilation byForbes, which ranked India sec-ond behind China as home to the"world's next growth engines".

The Forbes 2014 'honor rollof the Fabulous 50' lists best ofAsia-Pacific's biggest publiclytraded companies.

China has 16 companies onthe list, more than any othercountry, a distinction it has en-joyed for the last three years.However, the number of Chinesecompanies on the list has gonedown from 20 last year on theback of slow economic growthin the country.

India trails China with 12 com-

panies on the list, the samenumber as last year.

The Indian companies on thelist are Asian Paints, Axis Bank,HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank,Lupin, Mahindra and Mahindra,Mothersome Sumi Systems, SunPharma, TCS, Tata Motors, TechMahindra and Titan.

HDFC Bank, India's second-largest private sector bank, hasmade the list eight times, more thanany other company since Forbesstarted the compilation in 2005.

TCS makes it to the list forthe seventh time while TechMahindra, the country's fifth-largest IT player, debuts on thelist after net profits soared 112per cent to touch USD 500 mil-lion. Indian conglomerate ITCfailed to make it to the list thisyear.-PTI

www.indiapost.comIndia Post

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS

1 Galliyan: Ek Villian

2 Banjaara: Ek Villian

3 Saturday Saturday: Humpty

Sharma Ki Dulhania

4 Caller Tune: Humshakals

5 Fugly Fugly Kya Hai: Fugly

6 Aaj Phir Tumpe: Hate Story 2

7 Samjhawan: Humpty Sharma

Ki Dulhania

8 Raat Bhar: Heropanti

9 Johnny Johnny: Its Entertainment

10 Humdard: Ek Villain

28 September 5, 2014

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who will be seen performing stunts in his upcoming film 'Happy NewYear', says he does all the heroic things on screenfor his children Aryan and Suhana. "I have two

children who tell me I should do more stunts so I listen tothem more than I listen to her (wife Gauri). I like doing it. Ihave fun. I feel if I don't do something challenging then Iam succumbing to that injury," Shah Rukh said in an inter-view.

The 48-year-old actor is also prone to injuries."I have made myself stronger to overcome the shoul-

der, back injury. As an actor it is important physically, emo-

tionally, mentally to be always challenged and try to dothe best I can. The stunt (in Happy New Year) is difficultgoing down the building… But it's on a wire… It is safebut scary," he said.

The Chennai Express star is in a profession where hehas to be away from family most of the time but he doestry to make up for it by going on holidays and being withthem when he is not working.

"The day I don't shoot, I am at home. I have becomemore reclusive... I have become more unsocial now. I getbored going to parties. But we have to go for work, launchevents etc," he said.

Anushka Sharma has denied she is getting marriedto cricketer Virat Kohli. After BCCI declared thatVirat and Anushka are getting married soon, there

were reports of Virat and Anushka's impending wedding.Anushka's representative has denied the speculation.

"There are several stories online about AnushkaSharma's impending wedding. However I would like to setthe record straight that there is absolutely no truth tothese rumors and I would like to request you to refrainfrom conjecturing about the same," her representative said.

Anushka was allowed to stay with Virat Kohli in therecently held England series and it cemented the reportthat the duo are seeing each other and contemplatingwedding. On various occasions, the couple was spottedtogether. Virat was also clicked several times outsideAnushka's residence.

They got to know each other better during the shoot-ing of a shampoo commercial. The duo instantly hit it offand are going strong till date.

Anushka was allowed to staywith Virat Kohli in the recentlyheld England series and itcemented the report that the duoare seeing each other andcontemplating wedding

India Post 29September 5, 2014

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

Shahid Kapoor's sister Sanah Kapoor isall set to follow the footsteps of herbrother. She will make her Bollywood

debut with Shahid and Alia Bhatt's starrer,'Shandaar' to be directed by Vikas Bahl. Sanahwill play Alia's sister in the film. Pankaj Kapoorwill be playing their father.

'Shandaar' is a movie based on a lavish des-tination wedding and it is slated to go on floorin London, UK.

Sanah is very keen to act in film. She hasjust completed an acting course from the Lee

Stratsberg Theatre &Film Institute,New York.Sanah isS u p r i y aPathak andP a n k a jK a p o o r ' sdaughter.

There are manyyummy mummies who al-

ways make heads turnin the film world butthere is one hot mamawho gets hotter with age.Yes, the sexy and theoriginal item girl inBollywood - MalaikaArora Khan. After deliv-ering her son, she's doneitem songs like 'Munni' in'Dabangg' and walkedthe ramp for designerslike Anju Modi and it'shard to believe that sheis mother to a kid.

Perhaps her lifelongdedication to gym andyoga and strict diet keepsher in excellent shape. Inone of her interviews shehad confessed, "You'llnever see me eating rub-bish. I watch what I eat."Recently she was spot-ted at a power women fi-esta transfixing everyonewith her angelic andtoned body. She has thesexiest back ever. Also,the supreme confidenceshe oozes while posingfor pictures - no close-upcan be ever bad for thisvoluptuous lass.

Some called her 'moody', some called her 'choosy' - actorKareena Kapoor Khan has been on the wrong side ofcriticism ever since reports of her rejecting six films in

five months surfaced. None of it, however, bothers the 33-year-old.

Amused, she asks, "I believe in freedom of speech; peopleare free to talk or write whatever they want, but I don't under-

stand, why are they dissecting mycareer?"

In the recent past,Kareena rejected

films includingGoliyon Ki

Raasleela - RamLeela (2013)and Queen,which eventu-ally turnedout to be blockbusters. Sheeven said no to Karan Johar'sShhuddhi, Zoya Akhtar's DilDhadakne Do and SujoyGhosh's Durga Rani Singh.

"It's an actor's preroga-tive what film he or shewants to be a part of ... it'sokay if I didn't do a certain

film, I have absolutelyno regrets. The good

thing is I am do-ing what Iwant to do,and peopleare lovingm ywork ,"s a y sKareena,u n -abashed.

"I believe in freedom of speech; peopleare free to talk or write whatever theywant, but I don't understand, why arethey dissecting my career?"


September 5, 201430

AIRWING TRAVELS INC.New York(Hicksville)

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www.indiapost.com32 India Post September 5, 2014

Health ScienceHealth Line

Details on Page 35

Tomato-richdiet may ward

off prostatecancer

Doctors say new heart failuredrug shows big promise

A new study reports one ofthe biggest potential advances against heart fail-

ure in more than a decade - a first-of-a-kind, experimental drug thatlowered the chances of death orhospitalization by about 20 per-cent.

Doctors say the Novartis drug- which doesn't have a name yet -seems like one of those rare, break-through therapies that couldquickly change care for more thanhalf of the 6 million Americans and24 million people worldwide withheart failure.

``This is a new day'' for pa-tients, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, car-diology chief at NorthwesternUniversity in Chicago and a formerAmerican Heart Associationpresident.

``It's been at least a decadesince we've had a breakthroughof this magnitude,'' said Yancy,who had no role in the study.

It involved nearly 8,500 peoplein 47 countries and was the larg-est experiment ever done in heartfailure. It was paid for, designedand partly run by Novartis, basedin Basel, Switzerland. Indepen-

dent monitors stopped the studyin April, seven months earlier thanplanned, when it was clear thedrug was better than an older onethat is standard now.

During the 27-month study, theNovartis drug cut the chances of

dying of heart-related causes by20 percent and for any reason by16 percent, compared to the olderdrug. It also reduced the risk ofbeing hospitalized for heart fail-ure by 21 percent.

``We are really excited,'' said onestudy leader, Dr. Milton Packer ofUT Southwestern Medical Centerin Dallas. The benefit ``exceededour original expectations.''

Results were disclosed at aEuropean Society of Cardiologyconference in Barcelona and pub-lished online by the New EnglandJournal of Medicine.

Novartis will seek approval forthe drug - for now called LCZ696 -

by the end of this year in theUnited States and early next yearin Europe

Heart failure is the top reasonolder people are hospitalized, anda leading cause of death. It devel-ops when the heart muscle weak-ens over time and can no longerpump effectively, often becauseof damage from a heart attack.Fluid can back up into the lungs

and leave people gasping forbreath.

The people in this study werealready taking three to five medi-cines to control the condition.One medicine often used is anACE inhibitor, and the studytested one of these - enalapril, soldas Vasotec and in generic form -against the Novartis drug.

The new drug is a twice-a-daypill combination of two medicinesthat block the effects of sub-stances that harm the heart whilealso preserving ones that helpprotect it. One of the medicinesalso dilates blood vessels and al-lows the heart to pump more ef-fectively.

In the study, 26.5 percent onthe older drug, enalapril, died ofheart-related causes or were hos-pitalized for heart failure versusless than 22 percent of those onthe Novartis drug. Quality of lifealso was better with the experi-mental drug.

``We now have a way of stabi-lizing and managing their diseasewhich is better than what wecould offer them before,'' Packersaid. -AP

Vardhan asks docs to devote time in villagesNEW DELHI: Asking them to

"think out of the box" to addressnation's health issues, UnionMinister Harsh Vardhan hasmade an appeal to all specializeddoctors to spend at least a shortduration of time in rendering ser-vices to patients in villages andhilly areas of the country.

"Even after 67 years of Inde-pendence, health for every In-dian is still a distant dream. But,I believe if we can put our heartand soul to it, we can achieveit...And, therefore I appeal to alldoctors, in every specialty todevote at least some time insmall villages, where access tospecialized medical services isnot easy," he said.

The Health Minister, who wasspeaking at the launch of WorldSimulation Society here, alsourged the doctors to "use and

revive the ancient wisdom of In-dia" in solving medical problems.

"It is time for us to think out ofthe box, think afresh and have anew dream. And, I think that we

have the intellectual acumen tofind out new solutions for thehealth issues that is still holding

us back," he said."I am not asking doctors to

leave their practice here and go toa village. But, an arrangementcould be worked out whereby let's

say, doctors couldvisit a village or ahill town voluntar-ily or during a va-cation, where theboarding and lodg-ing could be ar-ranged locally," hesaid.

The ministeralso said that thegovernment wasplanning to soonstart a series ofprograms andworkshops, aimed

at raising awareness about eradi-cating "preventable deaths".

"Here, everyone has been talk-

ing about treatment and not pre-vention. And, through a seriesof activities and workshops, in-volving various health officialsand different departments, wewill be very focused on preven-tion of diseases, early diagnosisof preventable diseases," hesaid.

"Efforts are already on to up-grade district hospitals, turn hos-pitals into super-specialty hos-pitals, open AIIMS-like institu-tions and new AIIMS in variouscities across the country," headded.

The World Simulation Soci-ety aims at raising awarenessabout creating simulated medi-cal environments throughdummy patients, to prepare doc-tors and others for conditionssuch as trauma and emergency.-PTI

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

Himachal to plant45 lakh medicinalplants

SHIMLA: The state forest de-partment would plant 45 lakh me-dicinal plants and herbs acrossHimachal Pradesh, state healthminister Kaul Singh said here.

Presiding over the VanMahotsav organized by the stateRed Cross Society at Raj Bhawan,Singh said that a provision of Rs126 crore has been made for affor-estation, fencing of forests andsurvival of plants while Rs threecrore would be spent on planta-tion of medicinal herbs and plants.

Singh, who planted a saplingof "sandalwood" said that a tar-get of bringing 17,500 hectare ofarea under plantation had beenfixed and five lakh students fromover 3000 schools had been in-volved in the afforestation cam-paign.

The minister called upon NGOsto come forward for planting sap-lings and preserving the environ-ment of the state which is a pre-requisite need for healthy ambi-ance. -PTI

Health & wellnessmall to come upin Jaipur

JAIPUR: Bollywood actressand Padma Bhushan AwardeeSharmila Tagore has said India'sfirst health and wellness mallwould come up in Jaipur in thenext two years.

The health and fitness mall, tobe built at a cost of Rs 110 to 120cr, is specially designed where allverticals of doctors, chemists,path labs, ayurveda, homeopathy,gym, swimming pool, joggingtrack, spa, food court and everything one can think of in terms ofhealth and wellness would beavailable at one point, Tagore,who is also ambassador of GTMBuilders and Promoters, told apress conference here.

When asked how she keeps fit,Tagore smiled and said, "Sleep-ing on time, eating on time, exer-cise become a daily routine of mylife."

Actress Soha Ali Khan, whoaccompanied her mother, said,"Mental health is important aswell as physical. It (mall) is a one-stop shop for every one. I want itto be a great success, and that itcomes to more cities."

Speaking on the occasion,GTM Group's CEO Tushar Kumarsaid initially there is no tie-upwith any government and theproject would be a first in India,specially in Jaipur, for every classof society, specially middle classpeople.-PTI

India PostHealth Science Post 33

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September 5, 2014

Health law factors into governor's, Senate racesLITTLE ROCK, Ark.: Demo-

crats Mark Pryor and Mike Rosstook different positions on thepresident's federal health over-haul plan when it came beforeCongress four years ago. But, run-ning in the two hottest races inArkansas this fall, both find them-selves under attack on the issueand attempting to navigatearound it as they struggle to pre-vent a complete Republican take-over of the state's top offices.

Pryor, running for re-election tothe Senate, and Ross, a formercongressman running for gover-nor, are facing Republican oppo-nents who are running on an anti`Òbamacare'' message. BothDemocrats are trying to embracepart - but not all - of a law that isgenerally unpopular in Arkansasbut that is extending insurance tothousands of residents who didn'thave any.

`Ì think the challenge for theDemocrats in both races is to fo-cus on the specifics, the particu-lars and try to get away from thegeneric label, which remainspretty unpopular, even toxic here,''said Hal Bass, a political scienceprofessor at Ouachita BaptistUniversity.

For Pryor, a two-term senatorwho voted for the health care law,that's meant pointing out certainbenefits of the measure withoutmentioning it by name. For Ross,

the Democrats' gubernatorialnominee who voted against theoverhaul and called for its repeal,that's meant vowing to continuethe state's compromise plan to ex-pand Medicaid under the law.

The races are among the mostexpensive and closely watched inthe nation. Pryor is being chal-lenged by freshman U.S. Rep.Tom Cotton in a race that could

help determine which party con-trols the Senate next year. Ross isrunning against former congress-man Asa Hutchinson. Pryor's seatand the governorship are two offour statewide offices still held byDemocrats.

Though candidates in bothraces have raised other issues,blasting the health overhaul hasbeen a common theme for Repub-licans as they've steadily gainedpower in the state over the pasttwo elections. Cotton regularlybrings up Pryor's vote for thehealth care law, and Hutchinsoncriticizes Ross for voting for aversion of health reform legisla-tion in committee before votingagainst the bill that was signedinto law.

Pryor last month began airingan ad where he touts the benefitsof the health care law - withoutnaming it - and says his battle witha rare form of cancer 18 years agoinfluenced him.

``No one should be fighting aninsurance company while you'refighting for your life,'' Pryor saysin the ad. ``That's why I helpedpass a law that prevents insurancecompanies from canceling yourpolicy if you get sick, or deny cov-

erage for pre-existing conditions.''Ross has been running partly

on a promise to keep alive thestate's ̀ `private option'' Medicaidexpansion, which is using federal

funds to purchase private insur-ance for the poor. More than183,000 people are enrolled in theprogram, which was crafted as analternative to the Medicaid expan-sion called for under the health law.

`Às a Christian, I think it's theright thing to do and I'm going todo my best as governor to con-tinue to fund it,'' Ross told agroup of Delta leaders earlier this

summer.According to a Gallup survey

released last month, the share ofuninsured residents in Arkansasdropped about 10 percentagepoints - from 22.5 percent in 2013,to 12.4 percent in the middle ofthis year.

Cotton and Hutchinson haveregularly skewered the health carelaw in speeches and ads as an ex-ample of government overreach.But they've also tried to treadcarefully around popular parts ofthe law, especially the ``privateoption.''

Hutchinson, for his part, hasstopped short of saying whetherhe'd support continuing that pro-gram next year and says he wantsto review its progress.

``We know that Obamacare'snot working. It's fatally flawed andthe Legislature dealt with this thebest they could,'' Hutchinson saidearlier this year.

Cotton also calls for the healthlaw's repeal, but has been carefulto say that he wants to addressthe same problems the overhaul'sbackers say it solves, such as con-sumers being unable to get insur-ance because of pre-existing con-ditions. -AP

Mike Ross Mark Pryor

India Post Health Science Post34

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September 5, 2014

Heart exercises also benefit brainTORONTO: Exercising to im-

prove your cardiovascularstrength may protect from cogni-tive impairment as you age, ac-cording to a new study.

Researchers at the Universityof Montreal and its affiliatedInstitut universitaire de geratrie deMontreal Research Centre stud-ied 31 young people between theages of 18 and 30 and 54 olderparticipants aged between 55 and75.

"Our body's arteries stiffenwith age, and the vessel harden-ing is believed to begin in theaorta, the main vessel coming outof the heart, before reaching thebrain," said Claudine Gauthier,first author of the study.

"Indeed, the hardening maycontribute to cognitive changesthat occur during a similar timeframe.

"We found that older adultswhose aortas were in a better con-dition and who had greater aero-bic fitness performed better on acognitive test.

"We therefore think that thepreservation of vessel elasticitymay be one of the mechanismsthat enables exercise to slow cog-nitive ageing," Gauthier said.

The researchers compared the

older participants within their peergroup and against the youngergroup who obviously have notbegun the ageing processes inquestion.

None of the participants hadphysical or mental health issuesthat might influence the studyoutcome.

Their fitness was tested by ex-hausting the participants on aworkout machine and determiningtheir maximum oxygen intake overa 30 second period. Their cogni-tive abilities were assessed withthe Stroop task.

The Stroop task is a scientifi-cally validated test that involvesasking someone to identify the inkcolor of a color word that is

printed in a different color.A person who is able to cor-

rectly name the color of the wordwithout being distracted by thereflex to read it has greater cogni-tive agility.

The participants undertookthree MRI scans: one to evaluatethe blood flow to the brain, one tomeasure their brain activity asthey performed the Stroop task,and one to actually look at thephysical state of their aorta.

The researchers were inter-ested in the brain's blood flow, aspoorer cardiovascular health isassociated with a faster pulsewave, at each heartbeat which inturn could cause damage to thebrain's smaller blood vessels.

The results demonstrated age-related declines in executive func-tion, aortic elasticity and cardio-respiratory fitness, a link betweenvascular health and brain func-tion, and a positive associationbetween aerobic fitness and brainfunction.

"The link between fitness andbrain function may be mediatedthrough preserved cerebrovascu-lar reactivity in periventricularwatershed areas that are also as-sociated with cardiorespiratoryfitness," Gauthier said. -PTI

The researchers wereinterested in thebrain's blood flow, aspoorer cardiovascu-lar health is associ-ated with a fasterpulse wave, at eachheartbeat

New drug may treat common anemiaWASHINGTON: An experi-

mental drug designed to helpregulate the blood's iron supplyshows promise as a viable firsttreatment for anemia of inflamma-tion, scientists say.

Anemia is a condition that oc-curs when red blood cells are inshort supply or do not functionproperly.

When an individual has ane-mia, the body does not get enoughoxygen, since there are fewer redblood cells to carry the iron-richprotein hemoglobin that helpsdistribute oxygen throughout thebody.

The most common form of ane-mia in the hospital setting is ane-mia of inflammation, which occurswhen the body's immune responseis activated during illness or in-fection.

When the body fights a dis-ease, it deploys an inflammatoryresponse that triggers increasedsecretion of a hormone calledhepcidin that reduces the amountof iron available in the blood-stream.

As iron is needed for the pro-duction of red blood cells in thebone marrow, many patients de-velop anemia.

The only current treatmentstrategy for anemia of inflamma-tion involves targeting the under-

lying disease or infection.As the principal regulator of

iron, hepcidin has become a tar-get for researchers developingnovel therapies for blood disor-ders.

One hepcidin inhibitor, calledlexaptepid pegol (lexaptepid), hasdemonstrated efficacy in treatinganemia of inflammation in animalstudies.

Lexaptepid inactivateshepcidin, thereby maintaining thetransport of iron to the blood-stream.

In order to evaluatelexaptepid's potential in humans,investigators induced a safe andtemporary model of anemia of in-flammation in 24 healthy maleadults and randomized them toreceive lexaptepid or placebo.

Volunteers received a low doseof Escherichia coli (E coli) endot-oxin to induce controlled inflam-mation and received either

lexaptepid or placebo 30 minuteslater.

After nine hours, iron in theblood stream had decreased in theplacebo group, whereas this de-crease could be prevented bytreatment with lexaptepid.

In addition to determiningwhether lexaptepid interfered withhepcidin production, researchersalso sought to determine whetherthe drug influenced the immuneresponse.

All volunteers experiencedsimilar flu-like symptoms, in-

creased body tempera-ture and white blood cellcount, and higher con-centrations of inflamma-tory and signaling pro-teins, demonstrating toinvestigators thatlexaptepid did not inter-fere with the immune re-sponse process.

"It is quite encourag-ing that lexaptepid helped main-tain appropriate levels of iron inthe bloodstream of healthy vol-unteers without compromising theimmune response," said leadstudy author Lucas van Eijk, ofRadboud University MedicalCenter in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

The study is published inBlood, the Journal of the Ameri-can Society of Hematology. -PTI

USFDA grants QIDP statusto two Wockhardt drugs

NEW DELHI: Drug makerWockhardt says that two of itsanti-infective drugs have receivedQualified Infectious Disease Prod-uct (QIDP) status from the UShealth regulator.

Two drugs - WCK 771 andWCK 2349 - have received QIDPstatus, which allows fast-track re-

view of the drug application bythe US Food and Drug Adminis-tration (USFDA), Wockhardt saidin a statement.

This is the first instance of anIndian pharmaceutical companyreceiving QIDP status, it added.

Commenting on the develop-ment, Wockhardt Founder Chair-man and Group CEO Dr HabilKhorakiwala said, "This is indeeda proud moment for us. Not onlydoes the status allow for fast- trackreview of our drug application, italso grants a five- year extensionto the drug patents in the USA,which is a major support for thecommercial aspect of the drug."

These drugs will be enteringtheir global Phase-3 clinical trialsearly next year, he added.

QIDP status is granted to drugswhich act against pathogenswhich have a high degree of unmetneed in their treatment and areidentified by the Centre for Dis-ease Control, USA, a top US gov-

ernment health and safety body.WCK 771 is an intravenous (IV)

drug while WCK 2349 is a solidoral tablet.

Both act against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus(MRSA), which causes a range ofdiseases from skin infection to se-vere respiratory infections.

"In case of severe infectionslike Hospital Acquired Pneumonia(HAP), current medical cure has avery limited reach, causing a highunmet need and mortality. Both ofthese drugs are effective againstMRSA and have shown potentialin treatment of HAP," it added. -PTI

Centre to expedite issueof soil health cards

NEW DELHI: Aiming to issuesoil health cards to all farmers innext three years, the Centre hascome out with uniform norms toexpedite the process of testingsoil nutrients in irrigated andrainfed areas.

As per official data, only 5.69crore soil health cards have been

issued to farmers till last fiscal.Highlighting the importance of

soil testing to achieve higher farmproduction, Agriculture MinisterRadha Mohan Singh has writtento the state governments seekingtheir views on new norms at theearliest.

For irrigated areas, the Centrehas proposed testing of NPK (Ni-

trogen, Phosphorous, and Potash)nutrients in the soil based on land-holding, while micro nutrients ina sample grid of 10 hectares, asper the draft norms.

For rainfed areas, both NPKand micro nutrients are proposedto be tested in a sample grip of 10hectares.

That apart, the Centre hasproposed norms for settingup of soil testing labs for ev-ery 50,000 acres of irrigatedland and 1.5 lakh acres ofrainfed land.

The state governmentshave been suggested to makeuse of funds under theRashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) for setting up of newlabs and issue of soil healthcards.

This has been done asfunds under the National Missionfor Sustainable Agriculture(NMSA) would not be sufficientto create the required number oflabs.

Currently, financial assistancefor creation of new soil testinglaboratories and strengthening ofexisting soil testing laboratories isbeing provided under NMSA. -PTI


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September 5, 2014

Cigarette substitutes poserisk due to over-use

WASHINGTON: Alternatives to conven-tional smoking such as e-cigarettes may stillpose a risk to human health due to over-use, a new research has warned.

Cigarette smoking is the leading causeof preventable death worldwide, research-ers said. In order to overcome this addic-tion, many people resort to nicotine replace-

ment therapies.A recent literature review by research-

ers at the University of Miami (UM) sug-gest that small dosages of nicotine foundin cigarette substitutes could be harmful tohuman musculoskeletal system, due tooveruse.

The researchers investigated and sum-marized the last five years of studies, onthe effect of nicotine on wound and skel-etal healing processes in humans.

The report suggests that more informa-tion is needed on the potential effect ofcigarette substitutes like Electronic ciga-rettes (E-cigarettes), which are fairly newto the market and not regulated by the USFood and Drug Administration (FDA).

"E-cigarettes are marketed as safe alter-

natives to cigarette smoking, however theharms associated with their overuse havenot yet been widely investigated," saidHerman S Cheung, James L Night Profes-sor in the UM College of Engineering, andsenior author of the report.

"We hope to increase awareness andpromote further investigations into this

field," said Cheung.The findings show that

nicotine can be beneficial atlow dosages. For example,exposure to low dosages ofnicotine promotes collagenproduction and skin woundrepair.

Yet at higher dosagescells involved in the woundand skeletal healing pro-cesses actually become in-effective. That's why over-

use of nicotine-replacement, which stillcontain small amounts of nicotine, canpresent a health risk. However, what con-stitutes a low or high dosage depends onthe cell type.

"Not all cells respond to nicotine in thesame manner.

What could be a low dosage for one is ahigh dosage for another," said Carlos MCarballosa, doctoral student in the Depart-ment of Biomedical Engineering at the UMCollege of Engineering and primary authorof this review.

"The effects are to some extent, revers-ible, once exposure to nicotine stops," saidCarballosa.

The findings were published in the Glo-bal Journal of Medical Research. -PTI

Tomato-rich diet may wardoff prostate cancer

LONDON: Men who eat over 10 portionsa week of tomatoes have an 18 per cent lowerrisk of developing prostate cancer, accord-ing to a new research.

Prostate cancer is the second most com-mon cancer in men worldwide. Rates arehigher in developed countries,which some experts believe islinked to a Westernized diet andlifestyle.

To assess if following dietaryand lifestyle recommendationsreduces risk of prostate cancer,researchers at the Universities ofBristol, Cambridge and Oxfordlooked at the diets and lifestyleof 1,806 men aged between 50 and69 with prostate cancer and com-pared with 12,005 cancer-freemen.

The study, published in the medical jour-nal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers andPrevention, is the first study of its kind todevelop a prostate cancer 'dietary index'which consists of dietary components - se-lenium, calcium and foods rich in lycopene.

Men who had optimal intake of thesethree dietary components had a lower riskof prostate cancer.

Tomatoes and its products - such as to-mato juice and baked beans - were shown tobe most beneficial, with an 18 per cent re-

duction in risk found in men eating over10 portions a week.

This is thought to be due to lycopene,an antioxidant which fights off toxins thatcan cause DNA and cell damage.

"Our findings suggest that tomatoes

may be important in prostate cancer pre-vention. However, further studies need tobe conducted to confirm our findings, es-pecially through human trials," saidVanessa Er, from the School of Social andCommunity Medicine at the University ofBristol, who led the research.

The researchers also looked at the rec-ommendations on physical activity, dietand body weight for cancer preventionpublished by the World Cancer ResearchFund (WCRF) and the American Institutefor Cancer Research (AICR). -PTI

Ebola takes toll of healthworkers in WAfrica

LAGOS: Nigeria has confirmed a freshcase of Ebola in a doctor whose husbanddied from the virus, adding to a growinglist of health care workers in West Africahit by the epidemic.

The woman's husband was also a doc-tor and died in the city of Port Harcourt onAugust 22 after treating a patient who hadcontact with a Liberian man who broughtthe virus to Nigeria in late July.

She was in stable condition at an isola-tion unit in the financial capital, Lagos, saidSampson Parker, the health commissionerof Rivers State, of which Port Harcourt isthe capital.

Nigeria's medics have paid a heavy pricein the outbreak, of the six people who havedied from the disease in Africa's most popu-lous nation, two have been doctors and twoothers nurses.

Another doctor and a pharmacist wereput into isolation at a unit outside PortHarcourt, Parker said.

"They have not been confirmed (as hav-ing Ebola) and we are awaiting the result ofinvestigation," he told a news conference.

The World Health Organization hasvoiced concern about the number of healthcare workers hit by the Ebola outbreak:more than 120 health workers have died andover 240 others infected so far.

The disease has killed a total of 1,552people and infected 3,062 as of August 26,according to WHO figures.

In Guinea, where 430 people have diedin all, nurses told AFP they lacked basicmedical equipment to treat patients and hadeven bought items such as gloves and pro-tective clothing themselves.

In Senegal, doctors were treating ayoung Guinean man who became thecountry's first confirmed case of the dis-ease. He was said to be in a "satisfactory"condition in hospital.

The case lends credence to fears thatthe hemorrhagic fever, for which there iscurrently no vaccine, is spreading rapidly.

At current infection rates, it could takesix to nine months and at least USD 490million to bring under control, by which timeover 20,000 people could be affected, theWHO has warned. -AFP


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September 5, 2014

New tool maps how drugabuse affects brain

WASHINGTON: Scientists have devel-oped a laser-based imaging tool to map howdrug abuse disrupts blood flow to the brain.

A new method for measuring and imag-ing how quickly blood flows in the braincould help doctors and researchers betterunderstand how drug abuse affects thebrain, which may aid in improving brain-cancer surgery and tissue engineering, and

lead to better treatment options for recov-ering drug addicts.

Researchers from Stony Brook Univer-sity in New York, and the US National In-stitutes of Health, demonstrated their tech-nique by using a laser-based method ofmeasuring how cocaine disrupts blood flow

in the brains of mice.The resulting images are the first of their

kind that directly and clearly document sucheffects, according to co-author YingtianPan, associate professor in the Departmentof Biomedical Engineering at Stony BrookUniversity.

"We show that quantitative flow imag-ing can provide a lot of useful physiologi-cal and functional information that wehaven't had access to before," he said.

Drugs such as cocaine can cause aneu-rysm - like bleeding and strokes, but theexact details of what happens to thebrain's blood vessels have remained elu-sive - partly because current imaging toolsare limited in what they can see, Pan said.

But using their new and improved meth-ods, the team was able to observe exactlyhow cocaine affects the tiny blood ves-sels in a mouse's brain.

The images show that after 30 days ofchronic cocaine injection or even after justrepeated acute injection of cocaine, there'sa dramatic drop in blood flow speed.

The researchers were, for the first time,able to identify cocaine-inducedmicroischemia, when blood flow is shutdown - a precursor to a stroke. -PTI

Govt planning InnovationHealth Fund

NEW DELHI: With the need to makinghealth care affordable and accessible to all,Union Health Secretary Lov Verma has saidthe Government is considering to set up an'Innovation Health Fund' under the nationalhealth policy.

"New systems will be put in place in theNational Health Policy and the Governmentmay even consider setting up an Innova-tion Health Fund," he said at 'FICCI Heal2014' function here.

Verma also urged the industry to com-pile best practices and innovations of theindustry and submit it to the Ministry forconsideration.

Speaking on various innovations in thehealth sector, he said that the color codedlinen in hospitals is a simple method of dif-ferentiating various linen, hence reducingthe risk of cross-infection.

The coding should be followed by hos-pitals right up to district level health carecenters, he suggested.

"Ayush is another initiative of the Gov-ernment which has the potential but hasnot been utilized to its full capacity till now.There is great scope for popularizing alter-native medicine and mainstreaming it withgeneral medicine," he said.

The Secretary also dwelt on the impor-tance of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)and appreciated FICCI for supporting thegovernment in this initiative.

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, RegionalDirector-SEARO, World Health Organiza-tion (WHO), emphasized the need for inno-vation to make health care affordable andaccessible to all.

"There is the need for innovations indeveloping new drugs, vaccines and diag-nostics. Then there is the 'Health Systems'innovation need such as the use of tech-nologies such as mobile phones by healthworkers for patient referrals, event report-ing and disease surveillance.

"Similarly, further innovation is needed

in tele-health for tele-consultations andtheir scale up is quite clear. And finally thereis need for 'Household' level innovationsthat should bring better health to peopleby themselves and their community effortsbut supported by innovative approachesthat are sustainable," she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr A DidarSingh, Secretary General, FICCI said, "Wepropose to create a virtual pooling of in-dustry CSR funds by creating IISH (IndianIndustry in Solidarity for Health) Kosh tochannels funds into priority area in healthcare identified by the government." -PTI

"Ayush is another initiativeof the Government whichhas the potential but hasnot been utilized to its fullcapacity till now. There isgreat scope for populariz-ing alternative medicineand mainstreaming it withgeneral medicine"

India among top 3 in Asiamedical tourism

MUMBAI: India is placed among thetop three medical tourism destinations inAsia, mainly due to the low cost of treat-ment, quality healthcare infrastructure andavailability of highly-skilled doctors, saysa study.

"Within Asia, India, Thailand andSingapore are the three countries that re-ceive maximum medical tourists owing tolow cost of treatment, quality healthcareinfrastructure, and availability of highly-skilled doctors.

"These three countries together ac-counted for about 60 per cent of the totalAsian revenue in 2012," the report Medi-cal Value Travel in India by KPMG andFICCI said.

The research was conducted in Indiaand other Asian countries and interviewedpublic sector stakeholders and domesticcompany heads or CEOs of renowned hos-pitals between July and August 2014.

Estimated at USD 78.6 billion as of 2012,the sector has emerged as one of the larg-est sectors in India and is poised to growat an annual rate of 15 per cent to reach

about USD 158.2 billion by 2017, it said.It pointed out that Asian countries have

introduced various marketing strategies toattract medical tourists.

In the past few years, Asia has takenthe lead as one of the most preferred des-tination for medical value travel.

Primary growth levers in this regard in-clude low priced treatment options, avail-ability of variety of treatments, improvedinfrastructure in terms of healthcare facili-ties and attractive locations for spendingtime after treatment.

While Thailand positions itself as a dualpurpose destination for both medical andeconomic holiday with an attractive loca-tion, Singapore promotes itself as a desti-nation for fine quality in medical treatment.

India is known mostly for its cost-ef-fective medical treatments along with highstandards in cardiology, orthopedics,nephrology, oncology and neuro surgery,it said.

The country is also known for its alter-native treatment options such as yoga andayurveda, it said. -PTI

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Real Estate38

Realty Tidbits

PE investment in real estate tocross Rs 12,000 crore

NEW DELHI: Private equity in-vestment in real estate sectorjumped over two-fold to Rs 4,100crore in the first six months of 2014and is likely to cross Rs 12,000crore by end of the year.

According to a report by prop-erty consultant Cushman &Wakefield, the PE investment in thesector was Rs 6,450 crore in 2013.

The consultant noted that thereis an increase in interest globallyin committing funds for Indian realestate through private equity. Thefunds are being raised mainly forhousing projects and leased officepurchases.

"Private Equity (PE) investmentin real estate in India is likely toexceed Rs 12,000 crore (aboutUSD 2 billion) by the end of 2014,"C&W said.

The first six months witnessedPE investments in realty sector ofabout Rs 4,100 crore, and the con-sultant expects it to be about Rs7,900 crore in the second half.

"The total investment in firsthalf of 2014 was more than doublethe investment in the first half of2013 at Rs 1,650 crore. This is alsothe highest levels of investmentsin the first half of the year sinceH1 2009," C&W said.

Of the total PE inflows in thefirst half, housing segment ac-counted for nearly 60 per cent atRs 2,357 crore. Office assets con-tributed Rs 1,435 crore and retailRs 300 crore.

"In the residential asset class,private equity funds are now be-ing viewed favorably by develop-

ers as PE money is being used forde-risking projects and as strate-gic long term partnerships for fur-ther expansion and development,"C&W said.

Total number of deals in the first

half of 2014 increased to 28 com-pared to 13 in the year-ago period.Average deal size increased by 16per cent to Rs 146 crore.

Bengaluru witnessed the high-

est levels of transaction activityin the first half with investmentsof Rs 2,005 crore, a sharp increasefrom Rs 103 crore in the year-agoperiod.

Mumbai received a PE invest-

ment of Rs 1,140 crore, while trans-action volumes in NCR and Punewere recorded at Rs 580 crore andRs 167 crore, respectively, duringH1 2014.

C&W Executive Managing Di-rector South Asia Sanjay Dutt said:"Clarity in the governance processand the advent of a stable gov-ernment with BJP winning elec-tions with a thumping majority atthe centre will be critical to thestability of the investment mar-ket."

Stating that PE investment islargely towards commercial officespace with high occupancies orfor residential projects as con-struction capital, Dutt said thistrend is expected to continue forthe rest of the year.

"There is high liquidity beingcommitted from both domestic andoffshore investors," C&W said.

Many sovereign and pensionfunds are also committing fundsto Indian real estate, like All Pen-sions Group, Abu Dhabi Invest-ment Authority, Qatar InvestmentAuthority, Canada Pension PlanInvestment Board, State GeneralReserve Fund of Oman and GIC ofSingapore, through fund manag-ers. -PTI

REITs will help in reviving core sectorsKOCHI: Sebi's decision to al-

low setting up of Real Estate In-vestment Trusts (REITs) is ex-pected to go a long way in re-viving the core sec-tor of the economy,including the vitalcement and steelsectors, a senior of-ficial of the marketregulator has said.

Addressing aconference orga-nized by CII here,Ananta Barua, Ex-ecutive Director,Sebi said, "the RealEstate InvestmentTrust is a conceptthat has been prevailing aroundthe world in different forms.The entity should have mini-mum capitalization of Rs 500crore".

"Initially, we were planning

to put the minimum capital baseof Rs 1,000 crore. However, aftera series of discussions, we de-cided to bring it down to Rs 500

crore", he said.He said the Trust could invest

in multiple properties and func-tion on the lines of Mutual funds.Investors could pick up unitswith a minimum face value of Rs 1

lakh. These units would belisted on stock exchanges andtraded like stocks or mutualfunds. "These units would be

highly liquid and investors couldbenefit from capital apprecia-tion," he added.

The trusts could invest in asingle property or multiple prop-erties, he said. -PTI

He said the Trustcould invest in mul-tiple properties andfunction on the linesof Mutual funds.Investors could pickup units with aminimum facevalue of Rs 1 lakh

Rural ministry fordoubling allocationto villagers

NEW DELHI: The Union RuralDevelopment Ministry has sug-gested doubling the amount of fi-nancial assistance offered to vil-lagers to build homes saying thecurrent allocation of Rs 70,000 was"insufficient".

A paper on National GraminAwaas Mission (GRAM) preparedby the ministry on housing saidthe amount should be Rs 1.5 lakh.

"At present the unit assistanceis found to be insufficient. Unitassistance needs to be increasedto Rs 1.5 lakh or so in plain areasor a little higher in difficult /hillyareas with the toilet becoming anintegral part of the house," saysthe discussion on GRAM, a re-christened version of Indira AwasYojana.

At present, unit assistance isRs 70,000 (Rs 75,000 in difficultareas).-PTI

DLF asked to payRs 4.5 lakhto client

NEW DELHI: A real estate firmhas been directed to pay over Rs4.5 lakh to a woman after beingfound guilty of wrongly takingaround Rs 1.5 lakh from her on thebasis of forged papers by a con-sumer forum here which said it wasa clear case of "extortion" and"cheating".

The New Delhi Consumer Dis-putes Redressal Forum, presidedby C K Chaturvedi, asked DLF NewGurgaon Homes Developers PvtLtd to pay Rs 4,49,720 with inter-est to Delhi resident Shilpi Gaurand said the case attracted "crimi-nal liability" and "investigation".

Gaur had booked an apartmentin the firm's upcoming project 'NewTown Height' in Gurgaon in 2008,by paying over Rs 28 lakh but af-ter she learnt that no constructionwas going on at the site, shesought the refund.

Though the money was re-funded by the firm, it deducted Rs1,49,720 as brokerage amount.-PTI

Ohio official warns ofdriveway paving scams

COLUMBUS, Ohio: Ohio's attorney general saysresidents should be on the lookout for driveway pav-ing and contractor scams.

Attorney General Mike DeWine's office reports ithas received more than 60 complaints involving asphalt,concrete or paving since June. In half of the complaints,consumers reported the transactions began with a door-to-door visit.-AP

39India PostSeptember 5, 2014

www.indiapost.com

Real Estate Post

Blighted homes to become French immersion housingARNAUDVILLE, La.: A project

called Les Deux Mondes - twoworlds - is slowly coming to life inArnaudville.

The project will provide guestcottages to visitors and studentscoming into the area as part ofArnaudville's French immersionprogram. It is the brainchild ofTony Adrian of Leonville and MattHenrich of Sunset.

A narrow street behindRussell's Food Center was alreadyhome to four rundown propertiesand the pair have brought in threemore.

They don't look like much now.Workers are still adding roofs tothe two of the structures.

But Adrian said they should beready for occupancy by Jan. 1.

``This was a distressed area foryears,'' said Adrian, who said thefour existing houses had becomehome to squatters and vagrants.

`Ì'm told there was a lot of drugactivity and general rowdinessgoing on,'' he said. ``People saythey were afraid to even come outof their houses.''

The squatters had also turnedthe area that borders Bayou Techeinto a trash dump.

``We have already removed fourdump-truck loads of trash,'' Adriansaid, pointing to piles of trashwaiting to be carried away.

He said he and his businesspartner are working with design-ers from Baton Rouge to restorethe houses, all of which date fromthe 1920s or before, and turn them

into a showplace of whichArnaudville can be proud.

Adrian said he and Henrich arefollowers of the philosophy es-poused by Eddie Cazayoux, former

director of the University ofLouisiana's School of Architectureand now head of EnvironMentalDesign in Lafayette.

``He is all about sustainable ar-chitecture,'' Adrian said. ̀ `His phi-losophy is, Don't tear it down - fixit up and build on it.''

Adrian knows the benefits ofthat philosophy firsthand. He andhis wife, Marie Bossard, live in aCazayoux-designed house that re-quires no electrical lines.

That is exactly what he andHenrich plan to do with thesehouses. ``These are all still struc-turally sound,'' he said.

The pair will not just restore thebuildings but also enhance, in-

stalling solar panels so they willdraw only minimally on local utili-ties.

``They will be extremely wellinsulated and energy efficient,''Adrian said.

He added that the pair, who metcasually a few years ago at one ofthe events hosted by Arnaudville'sNUNUs Arts and Culture Collec-tive, makes a good fit.

``We are both environmental-ists. I have the construction andrestoration experience and Matthas some experience as a landlord,''Adrian said. ̀ Ì knew Matt wantedto put his money into somethingtangible. This is an opportunity forus to invest in the community. Ican't think of a better communityto invest in.''

He said the pair is serious aboutthat investment. It's contractingwith local carpenters and buyingas many fixtures and building sup-plies as they can from localsources. One element that at-

tracted the pair to the site was isborder along the bayou, now partof a national paddling trail.

Adrian and Henrich haveworked out an arrangement with

local business owners who canrent kayaks to visitors and bi-cycles to visiting students so theywon't need to use cars.

In addition to working with de-signers, they are also cooperatingwith the state's Department ofWildlife and Fisheries to upgradethe bayou area.

They have brought in tons offill dirt to turn the land betweenthe houses and the bayou into aminiature garden, with traditionalplants, trees and bushes with flow-ers and fruit.

Ardian said that is important,because each house will get a newporch facing the bayou.

``That is the way it used to bedone. We are designing these tolook like houses used to look inthe 1920s and '30s. We want thisto remind people of the past,''Adrian said.

Although most of the cottageswill be available to rent individu-ally, he said, he plans to outfit oneof the larger ones with multiplebeds _ perfect for visiting studentgroups that take part in the town'sFrench immersion program.-AP

He said he and hisbusiness partner areworking with design-ers from Baton Rougeto restore the houses,all of which datefrom the 1920s orbefore, and turn theminto a showplace ofwhich Arnaudvillecan be proud

Panel rejects new fee forsolar homes in Utah

`We are both envi-ronmentalists. I havethe construction andrestoration experi-ence and Matt hassome experience asa landlord,'' Adriansaid. ̀ Ì knew Mattwanted to puthis money intosomething

SALT LAKE CITY: Advocatesof renewable energy are hailing therejection of Rocky MountainPower's request for a new fee forresidential rooftop solar panels inUtah.

They're calling the Utah PublicService Commission's decision avictory for clean air and energy aswell as consumer choice.

Rocky Mountain wanted tocharge residential customers withsolar panels a $4.65 monthly fee tocover its distribution costs of en-ergy for times when solar is notputting power in the grid.

But the commission ruled theutility failed to prove the fee wasjustified.

``What a bright day for Utah'sfuture,'' said Sarah Wright, execu-tive director of Utah Clean Energy.``This order protects energychoice in Utah, and recognizes thepotential solar has to benefit allUtahns.''

The utility hopes the commis-

sion revisits the issue, RockyMountain spokesman DaveEskelsen said. The company ar-gues such residential customersare not paying their fair share ofits fixed costs to maintain thepower system.

`Ìt is a little disappointing thatthe commission did not take atleast an interim step,'' he told TheSalt Lake Tribune. ``We under-stand that emotions are runninghigh. We look forward to partici-pating in the accumulation of moreinformation.''

Only Arizona and Georgia cur-rently charge residential rooftopsolar customers a monthly fee tohelp cover a utility's fixed costs,the Desert News reported.

At the same time, the commis-sion approved a 1.9 percent rateincrease for all residential custom-ers that will boost monthly billsby an average of $1.76. The in-crease is expected to net the util-ity $35 million in the next year.-AP

India Post40 September 5, 2014www.indiapost.com

Kota is an inviting tourist destination on the banks of the Chambal Riverand is one of the most dynamic and picturesque cities in the state ofRajasthan. Historians put the date of establishing Kota in the 12th century as a part of Malwa Plateau. The basic foundation of the Kota citywas laid in 1264 AD after the Rajputs took over the place from a local

tribal chief. With grandeur, rich heritage and history, Kota rulers were known for theirlegendary deeds and wars fought with Mughal emperors.

A monument of Rajput culture and gallantry, Kota is renowned for its splendidheritage. Kota's coat of arms was highly accomplished for its marvelous design, whichis displayed in museums in Kota. The coat design was a masterpiece with wingedGaruda as the base. Attractive temples with many legendary stories behind, historicalforts and imposing palaces with Rajput architectural styles are all housed in thelandscape of Kota.

Modern Kota is an industrial town with most modern and luxurious amnesties. Themajor attractions in Kota are the ancient temples. One of the great temples in thelocality is Kansua temple enshrining Lord Shiva with a unique feature of four faces.One of the best museums in Rajasthan is located in Kota and is a place most visited bytourists viewing the ancient and historical artifacts of Rajasthan. Animated miniaturepaintings are marvelous attractions of this museum.

Kota is famous for textile weaving, impressive handicrafts, cosmetic items, oilseedand cotton milling, distilleries and dairy products. Famous Doria Saris originated fromthe weaving mills of Kota and it is the only place where one can get best of these saris.Metal handicrafts are specialty items of Kota's skilled artists. Kota is also very popu-lar for the Victorian style buildings adapted from the British. Cont’d on page 42

Abheda Mahal

City Palace

India PostSeptember 5, 2014 41Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Wi-fi hot spots in cities,tourist centers soon

NEW DELHI: The Departmentof Telecom (DoT) is working on amechanism to provide wi-fi hotspots in cities with population ofover 10 lakh and in tourist centers.

The DoT has held meetings re-cently with telecom operators forthe scheme. It has not been de-cided if the service will be free orchargeable, sources said.

"We are planning to provide wi-

fi hot spots in cities with a popula-tion of over 1 million and in touristcenters.

Meetings have been held withtelcos regarding the same but weare yet to take a call if it will be afree or chargeable service," thesource added.

The scheme is part of Digital In-dia program, which has been ap-proved by the government. Theprogram comprises various projectsworth about Rs 1 lakh crore to trans-form the country into a digitally em-

powered knowledge economy.The program includes projects

that aim to ensure that governmentservices are available to citizenselectronically and people get ben-efit of the latest information andcommunication technology.

The program will be imple-mented in phases from the currentyear till 2018.

The vision of government un-

der Digital India project includescreation of ICT infrastructure likehigh speed Internet at grampanchayat level, on demand avail-ability of government services likehealth, education etc, and digitalempowerment of citizens speciallythrough digital literacy.

The program will be monitoredby a committee headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and theCabinet Committee on EconomicAffairs (CCEA) will accord ap-proval for projects. -PTI

Foreign tourist arrivals inKerala rise by 8 pc

JAIPUR: Over 8.58 lakh foreigntourists visited Kerala in 2013,marking a growth of 8.12 per centfrom last year, a top Kerala Tour-ism official said here.

Foreign tourist arrivals went upfrom over 7.94 lakh in 2012 to over8.58 lakh in 2013 registering an in-crease of 8.12 per cent, T VAnupama, Additional Director(General), Kerala Tourism, told re-porters during a press conferencehere.

"Foreign exchange earnings re-ceived by the tourism industry inthe state went from Rs 4,571.69

crore in 2012 to Rs.5560.77crore in 2013," she

said.The domestic tourist arrivals

also registered a 7.75 per cent varia-tion with arrival going up from10.07 cr in 2012 to 10.08 cr in 2013,she said, adding, Kerala gets over5 lakh tourists from Rajasthan

alone every year.She also informed reporters that

Kerala and United National WorldTourism Organization (UNWTO)have signed an MOU for "spiceroute revival project" to promotethe two millennia-old spice routethat links the south western coastof India to Europe through tour-ism.

The Muziris Heritage Site(MHS) stretches across from themunicipality of North Paravur inErnakulum district to that ofKodungallor in Thrissur district.

Project's objective is to promoteawareness and understanding ofthe cultural distinctiveness and di-versity of Muziris. More than 25museums will be there to showcasethe Muziris Heritage, she said.

"Kerala Tourism has also comeout with a unique nature basedsoft-adventure holiday programNatventure," she said. -PTI

St Xavier exposition onIndia's tourism calendar

PANAJI: The sacred expositionof relics of St Francis Xavier to beheld in Goa this year-end will be apart of the Indian Tourism calen-dar, Union Minister Shripad Naiksaid here.

"The exposition of the relics issupported by us. We will provideall the possible financial help forthe event," Naik told reportershere.

He said the event would be pro-moted in a big way and it would bepart of the Tourism Ministry's cam-paign. "We will promote the eventin the country and also abroad,"Naik added.

The decennial exposition will becelebrated from November 22, 2014to January 4, 2015 at Old Goa, ninekms away from here.

Pope's Ambassador to IndiaArchbishop Salvatore Pennacchiowill be present for the concludingmass of the once-a decade celebra-tion.

Francis Xavier, a Basque, wasborn in Spain on April 7, 1506, andarrived in Goa on May 6, 1542. Hedied in December 1552 and wasfirst laid to rest in PortugueseMalacca. Later his body wasmoved to the Portuguese colonyat Goa, today a popular touristenclave, and installed in the Ba-silica of Bom Jesus.

The basilica holds the relics ofthe saint. Every 10 years, the rel-ics are moved in solemn proces-sion to the nearby Se Cathedralwhere they are available for publicveneration for 44 days.-PTI

Group trips across Grand Canyonwill need permit

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.: Groups ofhikers and runners who want todo grueling excursions across theGrand Canyon will soon need apermit -a move officials say will cutback on overcrowding, litter andsafety issues at the popular tour-ist attraction in Arizona.

The permit requirement beginson Sept. 15 and involves any groupthat publicly advertises a trip fromrim to rim.

The trips take visitors 21 milesover steep, rocky and winding ter-rain, with elevation changes of afew thousand feet and temperaturevariances of more than 20 degrees.

The park has no limit on thenumber of one-day permits it willissue. The $175 fee will help parkofficials educate visitors about trailetiquette and free up rangers torespond to life-threatening inju-ries, Grand Canyon spokeswomanMaureen Oltrogge said.

She said people have aban-doned gear, left litter on trails andcrowded restrooms near the Colo-rado River, sometimes with littleregard for fellow visitors.

``People might not be thinkingabout the impact to others,'' shesaid. ``Everyone comes to thecanyon generally with a differentidea of how they're going to ex-perience it.''

The permit requirement comesas Grand Canyon National Park isrevising its backcountry manage-ment plan and will be in place untilthat plan is issued sometime next

year.Each group can obtain

a single permit each dayfor up to 30 people. Atleast one member must becertified in wilderness oremergency medical re-sponse and CPR, andthere must be general li-ability insurance.

The rim-to-rim excur-sions are most popular inMay and October, and of-ficials said hikers and run-

ners must be able to complete themwithin 24 hours. The traffic onBright Angel, South Kaibab andNorth Kaibab trails can include asmany as 600 hikers and runnersheaded across the canyon.-AP

India Post September 5, 201442 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

KOTAMonument of Rajputculture and gallantryCont’d from page 40

ATTRACTIONSCity Palace: A confabulation of

Mughal and Rajasthani architec-ture and art, City Palace is themonument for the glorious royalpast of the Kota city. City Palaceis a fantastic landmark in Kota at-tracting thousands of visitors ev-ery year. The palace is adornedwith imposing wall paintings, mir-

ror walls, mirror ceilings, hangingilluminated lights and floral deco-rations. Breathtaking marble floor-ings and walls and stylish fash-ioned entrance, all these make CityPalace a memorable location. Theattractive garden around the pal-ace adds to the beauty of the Pal-ace.

Chambal Gardens: ChambalGarden, a beautiful garden in thebackdrop of Chambal River, is amuch sought picnic spot in Kota.The garden located at Amar Niwason the softy landscape of ChambalRiver encloses a well maintained

pond, a habitat for crocodiles. Asuspension bridge facilitating thecrossing of the bridge is very at-tractive.

Kishore Sagar: Kishore Sagaris an artificial picturesque lake dat-ing back to 1346 constructed bythe Bundi Prince Dehra Deh. It islocated by the side of attractiveBrij Vilas palace museum. A cutepalace named as Jagmandir is lo-

cated at the heart of the museum.The enchanting palace is a redsandstone monument of the gran-deur days of Kota. Reflections ofthe exquisite palace walls anddomes in the azure water of theKishore Sagar Lake are breathtak-ing.

Alnea: On the banks of RiverAlnea is a location near Kota notedfor its pre-historic carvings. Manyenthusiastic travelers interested inarcheological sites never miss theopportunity to visit Alnea. Histo-rians and archeologists confirmthat the carvings, especially onrocks, in Alnea are of pre-historicage. The carvings are based onancient legendary stories and us-ing the ancient sharp tools madeout of rocks and stones.

Kaithoon: Kaithoon is re-nowned for the specialized de-signer hand woven saris named asKota Doria saris. These saris arehand woven with real gold threads.Textile weaving rules this place.The majestic dress materials fromKaithoon are of high quality cot-ton fabrics. These are made ex-quisite and richer by designer fash-ions and embroidery with real goldand silver threads.Best time to visit is fromSeptember to March.

HOW TO REACHBy Train: Kota railhead lying

in the main line of Delhi-Mumbairoute is well connected to all ma-jor cities in India. Passenger, ex-press and super fast train servicesare available from Kota to othercities.

By Air: Sanganer Airport lo-cated in Jaipur is nearly 245 kmfrom the city Kota. Jaipur airport

is connected to metro citiesMumbai and Delhi.

By Bus: State buses ofRajasthan Road Transport Corpo-ration connect Kota (Bundi road

bus station) to all other cities inRajasthan. Kota is connected bybus to Udaipur (240 km), Ajmer (230km), Bikaner (450 km) and Jaipur(250 km).

Chambal River

Boating

at

Chambal

Garden

Royal Cenotaphs

Kota Railway station

India PostSeptember 5, 2014 43Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

In first, memorial will be open on night of 9/11NEW YORK: The Sept. 11 me-

morial plaza will be open on thenight of the attacks' anniversarythis year; the first time the generalpublic will be able to visit groundzero on the commemoration date.

The plaza will be closed to thepublic during the remembranceceremony and much of the rest ofthe day, but it will open from 6 p.m.to midnight for those who want topay respects and view one of themost evocative observances - thetwin beams called the Tribute inLight - from an especially ̀ `mean-ingful vantage point,'' memorialPresident Joe Daniels said in anemail to victims' families.

A symbolic shift for a site thatwas inaccessible to the public foryears after the attacks, the planreflects its increasing openness asmore gets rebuilt.

The memorial plaza, with itsmassive reflecting pools etchedwith the names of the dead, openedin 2011. But to control crowds amidconstruction elsewhere on theWorld Trade Center property, tick-ets and security screening wererequired until this spring. Since the

In this Sept. 10, 2013 file photo, the Tribute in Light rises above buildings during a test in New York

first appeared on March 11, 2002, tomark the six months that had passedsince the attacks. It has become amoving, quietly powerful element ofthe anniversaries since.

It shines from a roof near thetrade center, traditionally from sun-set to dawn. Formed from 88 pow-erful bulbs positioned into twosquares that echo the fallen TwinTowers, the light memorial reachesfour miles skyward, according tothe Municipal Art Society, a non-profit group that orchestrates the$500,000-a-year project.

The museum will be closed tothe public throughout the day.

The private anniversary cer-emony will be held on the plaza inthe morning, a tribute that has cen-tered on reading of the names ofthe nearly 3,000 people killed inNew York, at the Pentagon andnear Shanksville, Pennsylvania, inthe 2001 attacks, as well as recog-nizing the six people killed in the1993 trade center bombing.

`Òf course, remembering thosewe lost is something we do eachand every day,'' Daniels noted inhis message. -AP

ticketed, underground memorialmuseum opened in May, open ac-cess has been allowed during daysand evenings at the plaza, whichjoins the streetscape of lower Man-

hattan even as it serves as a placeof remembrance protected by po-lice and security guards. Museumofficials said that security mea-sures would be in place for the

public hours on Sept. 11 but thatthey couldn't disclose details.

The night hours on Sept. 11 willprovide visitors a solemn setting forlooking at the Tribute in Light, which

Volunteer campground hosts important to Ohio parks

Tourism ministry wantstaxes cut on its productsPANAJI: Union Tourism Min-

istry has appealed to the FinanceMinistry to lower taxation on tour-ism products and related services,which will result in increasing foot-falls in the country, Union Tour-ism Minister said here.

"We have requested the Fi-nance Ministry that the taxationon the tourism products and re-lated services should be loweredso that we can attract more visi-tors to the country," Union Tour-ism Minister Shripad Naik told PTI.

He said that the services liketourist taxis, hotel tariff should

have lower taxes, which will makedestinations cheaper compared tointernational rivals.

"The tax rebate can be offeredto hotels so that they will have lowtariffs. We have also asked the min-istry to consider cutting down thevisa fees. We have 100 US dollarsas Visa fee while Sri Lanka chargesonly 25 US dollars. We need to bringvisa fee at par with other world des-tinations," Naik said.

He said that the Finance Minis-try has in-principle agreed to lookinto the demand and lower the Visacharges. -PTI

COLUMBUS, Ohio: When theysay they love kids, Jim and JudyFroehlich mean it.

The couple from Sunbury havenine children and 32 grandchildren,yet, after his retirement from thetrucking business four years ago,they had more free time than theypreferred.

``When your kids grow up andmove away,'' Mrs. Froehlich said,``you don't have as much to doand don't see as many people.''

So they bought a 27-foot trailerand volunteered to become camp-ground hosts at nearby DelawareState Park.

Which explains how, on a re-cent Saturday morning, Mrs.Froehlich found herself near acampground shower house, sur-rounded by a pack of 12 rambunc-tious children. They played withthe Froehlichs' dog, Maddy, andtold Mrs. Froehlich about theirplans to attend the Ohio State Fairthat day.

Nearby, Mr. Froehlich, 73, wascleaning up after a morning of sell-ing coffee and doughnuts to camp-ers - a weekly ritual much like thecraft program that Mrs. Froehlich,66, oversees on Saturday after-noons.

The couple are two of about 350campground hosts at 60 Ohio parkcampgrounds who voluntarily dothis (and much more) in exchangefor a free camping spot.

Many hosts serve for months

at a time, often for the entire peakcamping season - generally fromMemorial Day through late Sep-tember. The Froehlichs usuallymove their camper to the park inMay and leave in October.

`Ìt's a big commitment,'' Mrs.Froehlich said. ``You do have tolove camping; that's for sure.''

She camped often when herkids were young (both Jim andJudy were married previously).

Host duties vary a bit from parkto park, but the heart of the job iscustomer service. Because theylive at the campgrounds, hosts arean important resource for camperswith issues or questions that arisewhen full-time park staff membersaren't available.

``We think of them as ambassa-dors,'' said Heidi Hetzel-Evans,who oversees all volunteers forthe Ohio State Parks division.``They are a liaison between visi-tors and staff.''

As such, hosts serve as jacks-of-all-trades. They clean up camp-sites between visitors - picking

cigarette butts and beer cans outof fire rings. They fix flat bicycletires, help set up tents or cast outsnakes.

`Ì'm the snake man,'' said JerryBoyle, a host at Mount GileadState Park in Morrow County.``When there's a snake in a cabin,I come and get them out. I'd say ithappens about once a week.''

Many hosts, Hetzel-Evans said,live near the campgrounds where

they volunteer, camped there in thepast and decided to join the pro-gram upon retirement. Most butnot all are retired.

At Delaware, Butch and JustineStrohm of Plymouth, in HuronCounty, became hosts 12 yearsago, and both still work full time -Justine, 55, in the Plymouth schooldistrict and Butch, 58, as a third-shift steelworker.

The Strohms camped at Dela-ware for years and developed afriendship with a host. When anopening for a host came up, theystepped up.

``We enjoy meeting people,'' Mr.

Strohm said. ̀ `You watch people'skids grow up. There were tripletgirls here; we got to know themover the years and were invited totheir (high-school) graduation.

``The regular campers, they allknow us.''

Indeed, when John Hankins andhis family go to the Delawaregrounds, they head for the loopwhere the Strohms are hosts.

Hankins, 64, of Marengo inMorrow County, said he and wifeRetta, 63, camp at Delaware for aweek every month in the summer.His grandsons ages 10 and 11seek out the Strohms as soon as

they arrive.``You bond with them and ac-

tually build a relationship withthem, almost like family,'' Hankinssaid. ̀ Àll the other camper hostsare nice, but we just got attachedto Butch and Justine.''

Although they aren't requiredto, many hosts also help the parksfinancially.

At Delaware, the proceedsfrom the coffee and doughnuts -$130 on the recent Saturday - anddonations at the afternoon craftprogram go into a fund that hasbeen used for park improve-ments.-AP

Hankins, 64, of Marengo in Morrow County,said he and wife Retta, 63, camp at Delawarefor a week every month in the summer. Hisgrandsons ages 10 and 11 seek out theStrohms as soon as they arrive.

44 India Post September 5, 2014www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationDetails on page 45

Many youngimmigrants

have benefitedthrough DACA

Obama's delay on immigrationcreates uncertainty

WASHINGTON: PresidentBarack Obama's possible delay intaking action on immigration hascreated uncertainty among advo-cates and lawmakers from bothparties, barely two months beforethe November national elections.

Democrats who were bracingfor the impact that Obama's long-awaited announcement wouldhave on their campaigns are nowrethinking aspects of their cam-paign strategy. Republicans whowere considering legislative at-tempts to block Obama must re-consider whether that's the bestuse of the few remaining workweeks before Election Day.

And immigration advocates,already frustrated by how long it'staken Obama to act, must decidewhether to pressure the Presidentpublicly to stop stalling or remainhopeful he'll give them a favorableoutcome in the end.

Obama in June said that by theend of the summer, he'd announcewhat steps he had decided to taketo fix the U.S. immigration systemin the absence of a legislative fixfrom Congress. But Obama backedaway from that deadline and theWhite House acknowledged it was

possible the decision would slippast the end of summer. It wasunclear whether any delay wouldbe a mere matter of weeks or couldpush the announcement past theNovember elections.

``The president is determined

to take the kinds of steps that areavailable to him,'' said WhiteHouse spokesman Josh Earnest.But he added he had no detailsabout when that would happen.

Reluctant to be seen as puttingon the brakes for political reasons,White House officials suggestedthat if the decision slips past sum-mer, it would be because of the situ-ation on the border, not the elec-tion.

For months, the Obama admin-istration has been working to stemthe surge of unaccompanied mi-nors crossing into the U.S. Thosenumbers have declined, but offi-

cials have said the numbers couldcreep back up as cooler tempera-tures arrive.

The White House has been coyabout what options Obama is con-sidering, but much of the focushas centered on steps Obamacould take to defer deportationsfor millions of people in the U.S.illegally, effectively granting thempermission to remain and work inthe U.S. Republicans say that'sbeyond Obama's authority andeven a few endangered Democratshave said Obama should look toCongress to take that step.

For Democrats, who are fight-ing most of their toughest racesthis year in conservative-leaningstates where Obama is unpopular,presidential action has been seenas a likely liability in the election,fueling Republican arguments thatObama is exceeding his authorityand that he and Democrats are re-fusing to enforce immigrationlaws. Chris Lehane, a California-based Democratic strategist, saidthe timing of Obama's action couldaffect whether voters enthusias-tic about immigration show up tovote.

Demonstrators are arrested outside the White House in Washington onThursday, Aug. 28, during a rally calling for President Barack Obama to stop

deportations of migrants in the country illegally and to make a decision onhow to provide relief for immigrant families. U.S. Park. Police said 145 people

were arrested.

Indian American indicted in visa fraudWASHINGTON: A 30-year-

old Indian American business-man has been indicted oncharges for exploiting a US visaprogram to fraudulently raiseapproximately USD 160 millionfrom nearly 290 Chinese nation-als who invested in the projectwhile seeking US residency.

Chicago-based Anshoo Sethi,who purported to be building aUSD 912 million hotel and con-vention center complex nearO'Hare International Airport, wascharged with eight counts of wirefraud and two counts of makingfalse statements in a 10-countindictment returned by a federalgrand jury.

The indictment filed before aChicago-court seeks forfeiture ofat least USD 11 million in admin-

istrative fees that Sethi allegedlycollected from Chinese investorsand expended as part of the fraudscheme.

Sethi, the founder and a man-aging member of A Chicago Con-vention Center LLC, misappropri-ated at least USD 320,000 of thefees to purchase luxury goods for

himself, his family, and friends, andfor an unrelated civil lawsuit settle-ment to fund a cosmetic surgerybusiness, and for other personal

expenses, according to the indict-ment.

The US Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC) suedSethi over the purported projectin early 2013 and the case wassettled earlier this year.

Approximately USD 147 million,which had been escrowed by

Sethi and frozen by the SEC, wasreturned to Chinese investors.

According to the indictment,Sethi solicited Chinese nationals

who were interested in obtain-ing EB-5 visas to invest USD500,000 each plus a USD 41,500administrative fee in A ChicagoConvention Center and the In-tercontinental Regional Center.

He said that the USD 500,000would be used for constructionof the complex and the USD41,500 would be used for admin-istrative and marketing ex-penses, the indictment alleges.

Under current US laws, for-eign nationals get green card orpermanent residency if they in-vest USD 1 million, or at leastUSD 500,000 in a domesticproject in a high unemploymentor rural area and their investmentwould create or preserve at least10 jobs for US workers.

The US Securities and Exchange Commis-sion (SEC) sued Sethi over the purportedproject in early 2013 and the case wassettled earlier this year.

Cont'd on Page 46

Cont'd on Page 46

Corpus Christinative tappedto run ICE

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas: ACorpus Christi native is poised tobecome the first Latina to headU.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement.

President Barack Obama hasannounced he was nominating 62-year-old U.S. district attorney Sa-rah R. Saldaña as assistant secre-tary of ICE. The division of theDepartment of Homeland Securityis tasked with responding to theinflux of unaccompanied childrencrossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that Saldaña is theyoungest of seven siblings. Hernomination requires Senate ap-proval.

She won Senate confirmation in2011 to become the first Latinaserving in her current post.

Previously, Saldaña was a fed-eral prosecutor in Dallas whoworked on the City Hall corrup-tion case that sent former DallasMayor Pro Tem Don Hill to federalprison for 18 years. -AP

El Salvador opensconsulate inSouth Texas

McALLEN, Texas: A Texas bor-der city at the center of the immi-gration surge has welcomed itsfourth foreign diplomatic office.

The government of El Salvadorinaugurated its new consulate inMcAllen here. It joins Honduras,Guatemala and Mexico in the city.

From October to July, 63,000unaccompanied children were ar-rested after entering the U.S. ille-gally, double the number from the

same period a year earlier. Another63,000 families - mothers or fatherswith young children - were arrestedduring that October-to-July pe-riod. Children from El Salvador ac-counted for about a quarter ofthose unaccompanied children.

Those arrests have slowed,however. Arrests of children trav-eling alone and children and par-ents traveling together dropped byabout half in July from the previ-ous month and the downwardtrend appears to have continuedin August. -AP

Consul Sandra Agreda greetsguests at the opening of the El

Salvador Consulate in McAllen. ElSalvador also has consulates in

Houston and Dallas.

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India Post 45September 5, 2014 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Many young immigrants have benefited through DACAMICHELLE S. VELASCO

August 15 marked the two-year anniversary of theimplementation of De-

ferred Action for Childhood Arriv-als (DACA) by the Department ofHomeland Security (DHS). Thepolicy was announced through amemorandum by then Secretary ofHomeland Security JanetNapolitano on June 15, 2012.

The Memo directed the headsof Customs and Border Protection(CBP), Citizenship and Immigra-tion Services (CIS), and Immigra-tion and Customs Enforcement

(ICE) to implement DHS's decisionto grant deferred action, and em-ployment authorization, to certaineligible individuals who enteredthe U.S. when they were youngerthan 16 years old.

Now, nearly two years havepassed since DHS began accept-ing applications for the programon August 15, 2012. DACA recipi-ents who were among the first toapply and receive DACA and em-ployment authorization must nowundergo the process of renewingtheir DACA.

ICE and USCIS released theirrenewal processes in February andearly June, respectively. ICE hadbegun issuing DACA to eligibleimmigrants in removal proceedingsprior to August 15, 2012, whenUSCIS began accepting applica-tions. To be eligible for DACArenewal, the recipient must (1) nothave departed from the U.S. on orafter August 15, 2012 without ad-vance parole; (2) have continu-ously resided in the U.S. since thefirst DACA approval; and (3) nothave been convicted of a felony,significant misdemeanor, or threeor more misdemeanors, and doesnot otherwise pose a threat to na-tional safety or public safety.

The renewal process for ICE-granted and USCIS-grantedDACA recipients is the same:

Complete and submit the fol-lowing forms:

• The new version of Form I-821D (6/4/2014 edition)

• Form I-765• Form I-765 Worksheet• Submit the $465 fee for the

employment authorization applica-tion

• Submit only new documentsinvolving removal proceedings orcriminal history that was not pre-viously provided to USCIS (Note:USCIS does not require previouslysubmitted documentation estab-lishing the applicant's DACA eli-gibility)

USCIS has advised DACA re-cipients to renew approximately120 days (4 months), but no morethan 150 days (5 months), beforetheir current DACA grant expires.USCIS also anticipates that in theevent it cannot process the sub-mitted applications before the ini-tial DACA expires, it might issueextensions of the initial DACA toprevent any lapse in time beforethe renewal is approved.

Since its implementation,DACA has been granted to over550,000 recipients, according to

USCIS statistics released onMarch 2014. DACA has providedmore than half a million young im-migrants security from removal anda means to work lawfully in the U.S.The DACA recipients, sometimesalso called Dreamers, can now liveopenly, work, and contribute totheir own and their families'wellbeing.

The economic and social reper-cussions of this have not yet beenfully studied or revealed, thoughthe American Immigration Coun-

cil recently published a study ofthe economic impact of DACA onthe recipients.

The study found that throughDACA, many young immigrantshave benefited economicallythrough such activities as obtain-ing new jobs, getting driver's li-censes, and opening bank ac-counts.

We can also imagine what hasbeen the psychological impact onthese young immigrants of com-ing out of hiding and being ableto be productive members ofAmerican society and the Ameri-can workforce.

They have experienced the ex-citement of receiving an approvalnotice and the much sought afterwork permit, then a valid SocialSecurity Number and card, andthen oftentimes a State Identifica-tion Document in the form of anID or driver's license.

Though it has undoubtedlybettered the lives of half a millionrecipients, DACA has been adouble-edged sword. While itprovides recipients protectionfrom removal from the U.S. and al-lows them to work legally, DACAis still far less than what theseyoung immigrants would have re-ceived from the government hadthe DREAM Act or Comprehen-sive Immigration Reform (CIR)passed in Congress.

The DREAM Act would havegranted a way for eligible young

immigrants to apply for permanentresidence, and therefore, lawfulstatus. S.744, the CIR bill passedby the U.S. Senate on June 27,2013, and that has since stalled inthe House of Representatives, in-cluded stipulations for the imple-mentation of the DREAM Act'sprovisions. In contrast, DACA isonly granted for two years, andDACA recipients must renew be-fore the expiration of their deferredaction and work permits. More-over, DACA recipients do not have

lawful status in the U.S. (althoughthey do not accrue unlawful pres-ence upon the grant of DACAsince they are still authorized toremain), and there is no direct path-way to permanent residency orU.S. citizenship.

One limitation that some DACArecipients face is getting a driver'slicense. Until recently, two states,Arizona and Nebraska, refused togrant driver's licenses to DACArecipients. The Ninth Circuit, onJuly 7, 2014, struck down Arizona'slaw that denied driver's licensesto DACA recipients. ArizonaDream Act Coalition v. Brewer, No.13-16248, WL 3029759 (9th Cir. July7, 2014). This much-maligned lawwas put in place as soon as DACAwas first announced in the sum-mer of 2012.

Governor Jan Brewer issuedExecutive Order 2012-06 "Re-Af-firming Intent of Arizona Law In

Response to the FederalGovernment's Deferred ActionProgram," August 15, 2012, direct-ing Arizona state agencies to de-sign rules to prevent DACA recipi-ents from becoming eligible toobtain state identification such asdriver's licenses.

Arizona's Department ofTransportation's Motor VehicleDecision changed its requirementsfor state identification eligibilitysuch that Employment Authoriza-tion Documents (EADs or workpermits) with the DACA categorycode of (c)(33) would not be ac-cepted as proof that the license orID applicant's presence was autho-rized in the U.S.

Five DACA recipients living inArizona, along with the ArizonaDream Act Coalition, filed suit tostop Arizona from enforcing itspolicy.

ICE and USCIS released their renewal pro-cesses in February and early June, respec-tively. ICE had begun issuing DACA to eli-gible immigrants in removal proceedingsprior to August 15, 2012

DACA has provided more than half a millionyoung immigrants security from removal anda means to work lawfully in the U.S. TheDACA recipients, sometimes also calledDreamers, can now live openly and work

Cont'd on Page 46

India Post46 September 5, 2014Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

The Ninth Circuit found thatthe law violated the Equal Protec-tion Clause and there was no ra-tional basis for the Arizonagovernment's policy. The decisionhinged on Arizona's refusal to ac-cept as proof of "authorized pres-ence" in the U.S. an EAD basedon DACA category (c)(33) workwhile they continued to acceptEADs based on (c)(9) and (c)(10)categories, which respectively cor-respond to applicants for adjust-ment of status and applicants forcancellation of removal.

The Ninth Circuit systemati-cally rejected each of Arizona'sarguments that it had a legitimatestate interest in upholding thepolicy. Initially the Court rejectedArizona's argument that (c) (9) and(c) (10) noncitizens could demon-strate authorized presence in theU.S. while (c) (33) could not.

Putting aside the nonsensicaluse of the term "authorized pres-ence" which holds no actual mean-ing in immigration law, Arizonaconflates the immigration con-

cepts of unlawful presence andunlawful status - two very differ-ent things. Unlawful presence isused in determining admissibilityunder the 3- and 10-year bars,while a noncitizen not in lawfulstatus may be authorized to stayin the U.S. The Court's clearly didnot make that mistake: "Employ-ment Authorization Documents

merely "tied" to the potential forrelief [i.e. (c) (9) and (c) (10) cat-egories] do not indicate that thedocument holder has current fed-erally authorized presence, as Ari-zona law expressly requires." Ari-zona Dream Act Coalition, at *9.

Many young immigrants havebenefited through DACA

`Àll of these elections are go-ing to be so laser-tight - 5,000votes one way or the other - thatat some level, what's out there atthe broader, national level at elec-tion time could push things overthe edge,'' Lehane said.

Obama's timing could affectcongressional action on a must-pass spending bill to fund gov-ernment operations into Decem-ber. Congress is expected to makethat its first order of businesswhen lawmakers return from theirsummer recess in early September.

A number of Republicans haveraised the possibility of using thatlegislation to block Obama fromexpanding deportation deferrals orgranting work permits to thosehere illegally. Such a move wouldset up a confrontation between theRepublican-controlled House ofRepresentatives and the Demo-cratic-controlled Senate that raisesthe specter of a government shut-down, which would likely beblamed on Republicans and couldhurt their prospects in November.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a FloridaRepublican, has been urgingObama not to act alone on immi-gration, and warned the president

in a letter that doing so would im-peril prospects for overhaulingimmigration laws after the election.Rubio's spokesman, Alex Conant,called the apparent delay a posi-tive sign and one he hoped Obamawould make permanent.

`Ìt appears that the WhiteHouse made a short-term politicalcalculation that this was bad forthem in the midterms,'' Conantsaid.

Immigration advocates weretaken aback by word of the po-tential delay, having been givenno advance warning by the White

House. Kica Matos of the Fair Im-migration Reform Movement saidthat after spending months keep-ing the pressure on Obama, thegroup had been shifting intopreparations for the announce-ment itself. Now, Matos said, ex-

hausted advocates will have tokeep up the pressure to ensureObama doesn't get cold feet andcall off the announcement alto-gether.

``They say they're going tomove forward, then somebodygoes boo and then they hide,''Matos said. -AP

Obama's delay on immigrationcreates uncertainty

Each Chinese national who in-vested USD 541,500 in the projectalso applied for an EB-5 visa withUS Citizenship and ImmigrationServices (USCIS), but no EB-5 vi-sas were actually granted to inves-tors through the convention cen-

ter project, federal investigativeagencies said.

The indictment alleges thatSethi falsely represented that theproject had executed franchiseagreements with established ho-tel brands, namely Hyatt,

Starwood, and IntercontinentalHotel Group, to operate at leastthree separate hotels at the com-plex, knowing at the time that nosuch agreements existed.

Sethi also allegedly falsely rep-resented that that the State of Illi-nois and the federal governmentwere investing funds and provid-ing tax credits for the project, in-cluding circulating a forged letterstating that the project qualifiedfor financing through the IllinoisFinance Authority.

He also falsely represented thatthe City of Chicago had agreed toprovide approximately USD 97 mil-lion through Tax Increment Fi-nancing and distributed a fakeagreement and a fake city ordi-nance as evidence that the projecthad been approved for TIF financ-ing, the indictment alleges.

Sethi further falsely repre-sented that the USD 41,500 admin-istrative fee was fully refundableif the investors' EB-5 visas werenot approved, even though heknew that he had spent nearly allof the administrative fees collectedand did not have the resources torepay the investors.-PTI

Indian American indictedin visa fraud

Moreover, the Court found thatArizona's other four argumentsalso could not hold up against arational basis test. Arizona couldnot show it might have to issuelicenses to 80,000 unauthorizedimmigrants (less than 15,000 Ari-zona residents have applied forDACA). DACA recipients cannotaccess state or federal benefitsusing a driver's license alone.

Though the DACA programmight be canceled at any time andDACAs could lose their autho-rized stay, the same could occurto (c) (9) and (c) (10) noncitizenswhose corresponding applica-tions are denied.

Therefore, these argumentsalso do not pass the rational basistest. The Court went on and men-tioned that additionally, Arizona'spolicy "appears intended to ex-press animus toward DACA recipi-ents themselves, in part becauseof the federal government's policytoward them." Id. at *25. Thecourt pointedly stated: "Such ani-mus, however, is not a legitimatestate interest." Id.

To be continued

The Ninth Circuitsystematically re-jected each ofArizona's argumentsthat it had a legiti-mate state interest inupholding the policy

Bernalillo County changesimmigration-check policyALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: New

Mexico's most populous countyno longer will keep inmates in jailwhile their immigration status isbeing checked if there's no orderto keep them in custody for otherreasons once they've posted bail.

Bernalillo County officials saidthe new policy means the countywon't keep inmates confined at theMetropolitan Detention Centermerely on the basis of a requestfrom immigration authorities.

County Attorney Randy Autiosaid the policy change is a resultof court rulings around the coun-try, the Albuquerque Journal re-ported.

``We can't violate somebody'srights for the convenience of an-other agency,'' Autio said.

Autio said the county will stillnotify Immigration and CustomsEnforcement if there's been a re-lease order.

`Ìf this person is truly a dan-ger to the community, we want ICEto take action,'' he said.

County Commissioner WayneJohnson expressed concern aboutthe policy change. The county'sold practice was in place for yearswithout problems, he said.

Federal immigration authoritiesare overloaded, `ànd we're not

helping that situation potentially,''Johnson said. ``This just seemedlike a dangerous time to be chang-ing that policy.''

Commissioner Maggie HartStebbins said the change was cor-rect.

``Courts around the countyhave been ruling that these vol-untary ICE holds are unconstitu-tional,'' she said.

The New Mexico Associationof Counties has urged local jailsto consider their release policiesin light of the court decisions,Autio said.

Dona Ana County earlier thissummer made a policy change simi-lar to what Bernalillo County isdoing. -AP

County AttorneyRandy Autio said thepolicy change is aresult of court rulingsaround the country,the AlbuquerqueJournal reported.

Cont'd from Page 45Cont'd from Page 44

Sethi also allegedlyfalsely representedthat that the State ofIllinois and the fed-eral governmentwere investing fundsand providing taxcredits for the project

Cont'd from Page 44

Demonstrators outside the White House

www.indiapost.com September 5, 201447 India Post

PREETI VERMA LAL

founder of Pardada Paradadi School (PPES),released green and yellow balloons in thesky, hundreds wearing tees with Aao SathChale (Come, let's walk together), embla-zoned in white, ran through the sleepy vil-lage which was waking from Saturday slum-ber.

There was no dress code. Few girls woresalwar kurtas, a few women in saris, somemen had no shoes, some did not even knowwhat 'marathon' is. But when the loudspeak-

If you throw a dart on the world map, itprobably will not fall on a village calledBichola. Zoom a little, you'll findAnoopshahr. Zoom further and you'll

know that it falls within Bulandhshahr dis-trict of Uttar Pradesh. Now, scrape the skinof the feudal heartland. Within its everydaybanality, it packs a heavy dose of feudalismand rowdiness - it is a bane to be born a girl,not many dreams grow on its silken loam,poverty smothers joy, its mien so feral that

The half marathon wasorganized to promote girl

child education andcreate awareness about

health

men carry guns to protect themselves. Themost glaring is gender inequality in a bra-zenly macho world where, until recently, notmany dared challenge this hereditary feu-dal claptrap.

August 31, 2014. That one morning, onthe dusty streets of Bichola, during India'sfirst rural marathon (half marathon), girls,boys, amateur and professional runners ranto promote child education and raise aware-ness for health.

At 6 am, when Arjuna Awardee SunitaGodara, the 1992 Asian Marathon Championflagged the race and Virendra Sam Singh,

ers blared rang de basanti and chak de In-dia songs and strangers egged them onwith throaty bhaag milkha bhaag repeti-tively, the runners forgot their harsh reali-ties. And ran. Swiftly. Not merely to win.More importantly, to fly free like birds. Tobreak shackles of male/female stereotypes.To muster self confidence. To believe thatdreams are real. They can.

The half marathon was held under theaegis of PPES, which, since 2000, has beenworking towards improving the lives of ru-ral girls/women through education, employ-ment and empowerment.

Asian marathon champion Sunita Godara with Virendra Sam Singh, founder of PPES

Participants prepthemselves before

India's first rural halfmarathon

Mehroom, awinner, proudly

shows her medals

Cont'd on Page 49

Pics : Preeti Verma Lal

India Post

www.indiapost.com

49 September 5, 2014

Our ancient sages were engineers too!NEW DELHI: Ancient yogis

and sages were not just medicalhealers but also systems scientistsand systems engineers, who sawthe body and the universe as in-terconnected engineering system,says email inventor V A ShivaAyyadurai who has done pioneer-ing research in this field.

Last week, Ayyadurai presentedat Sages and Scientists Confer-ence in California his paper, whichvalidates scientific foundation ofAyurveda and Siddha.

The paper is being publishedin the International Journal of Sys-tems of Systems Engineering.

According to him Ayurveda andSiddha were designed to be pro-active to protect and strengthen thebody before illness set in.

"They are about living a properlifestyle," 50-year-old Ayyadurai,an MIT systems scientist, tech-nologist, entrepreneur and Chair-man and CEO of CytoSolve, Inc.,told PTI.

In 1978, Ayyadurai invented theworld's first email system at theage of 14 and was awarded thefirst US copyright for "email". It isthe 32th anniversary of email. OnAugust 30, 1982, the US govern-ment officially recognizedAyyadurai as the inventor of emailby awarding him the first US copy-right for email for his 1978 inven-tion.

He was inspired by his grand-

mother, who used to heal peoplein the traditional way, in undertak-ing the study on ancient medicine.

"People sought her help for allsorts of ailments. She would pre-

scribe personalized medicine,which included particular herbs,particular massage, and mantras. Isaw many people being healed byher, and as a child I was inspired

to become a healer," he says.Mumbai-born Ayyadurai, who

left with his family at the age ofseven to live in the US, came backto India in 2007 to study Indianmedicine with the aim of discover-ing the Rosetta Stone that con-nected the worlds of Ayurveda andSiddha with modern scientific prin-ciples.

"I discovered the foundationsof Ayurveda and Siddha, and moreimportantly I found that all ofWestern control systems engi-neering principles had actuallybeen discovered by the great an-cient Indian sages, 5,000 yearsago," he claims.

Ayyadurai observed that theterminology of Ayurveda andSiddha such as Vata, Pitta, Kapha,etc. have a direct one-to-one cor-relation to the terminology usedin control systems engineering.

Our ancient yogis and sageswere not just medical healers, butsystems scientists and systemsengineers, who saw the body andthe universe as an interconnectedengineering system, a system ofsystems that are governed by fun-damental engineering systemsprinciples," he says.

Ayyadurai's paper is entitled"The Control Systems Engineer-ing Foundation of Traditional In-dian Medicine: The Rosetta Stonefor Siddha and Ayurveda." "Thiswork uncovers the scientific foun-

dation of traditional systems ofIndian medicine: Siddha andAyurveda, from core principlesshared in modern control systemsengineering. The discovery pro-vides a much-needed integrativeframework to develop a systemsmedicine that overcomes the re-ductionism of modern healthcare,"he says.

The findings provide a much-needed integrative framework,across east and west, ancient andmodern, to develop a systemsmedicine that overcomes the re-ductionism of modern healthcare,says Ayyadurai.

His exposition presents thecore principles of Siddha andAyurveda in a cohesive mannerand their direct relationship to thenine concepts of controls systemsengineering.

Ayyadurai believes that thereis a need to take pro-active mea-sures to popularize Ayurveda andSiddha in India.

"Based on the current healthhabits, Indians are projected tohave 300 million diabetic patientsover the next 10-20 years. West-ern medicine was developed forcrisis and war, such as if you gotshot or wounded, to put the sol-dier back on the battlefield. Itworks well for catastrophic situa-tions, but it is absolutely ignorantabout prevention and lifestyle,"he says. -PTI

V A Shiva Ayyadurai

Stories of Indian fighter pilots from 1971 warNEW DELHI: The heroism, gal-

lantry, flying skills and unmovabledetermination displayed by Indianfighter pilots during the 1971 lib-eration war of Bangladesh is thesubject of a new book.

Recounted in third person byDhirendra S Jafa, Wing Com-mander (Retd.) Indian Air Force,"Death Wasn't Painful", broughtby Sage books, salutes the sacri-fices made by these fighter pilots,many of whom were taken prison-ers of war (POW) and spentmonths in Pakistani prisons beforereturning to India.

Jafa, who himself took part incountless bombing missions inerstwhile West Pakistan, wastaken a prisoner of war followingthe crash of his SU-7 fighterbomber aircraft near North Lahoreand was awarded Vir Chakra forthe unparalleled bravery dis-played in the battlefield.

He was lodged in the POWcamp of the Pakistani Air Force atRawalpindi, alongwith 11 otherIndian fighter pilots, all of whom

had their own stories of capture,beatings, torture and injuries totell.

The book, thus, is the tale ofthese 12 fighter pilots in enemycaptivity- their deprivations, theirlongings for home and families,their interactions with Pakistanimilitary officers and civilians isrecounted.

It also recounts their not so la-tent pride in being Indians and rep-resentatives of a victorious nation,their indomitable spirit of freedomand their everyday struggles withboredom and loss of hope, whilewaiting behind bars in the countrythey had just defeated in the war.

While depicting the intrepid lifeof fighter pilots in actual combat,the book also has an introspec-tive side where it portrays thesubtle and human reactions ofsoldiers when faced with the harshrealties of war- injuries, death, bro-ken families, alienation and grief.

The experiences of POWs arefinely drawn. A fighter pilot's lifein actual combat, where death is

but a glorious martyrdom, is juxta-posed withthe tepid,m o n o t o -nous anduninspiringlife ofp r i s o n ,w h e r ebrave, fear-less soldiersponder overthe inevita-bility and fu-tility of war.

In be-tween theserather philo-sophical, of-ten gloomymonologueson the prosand cons ofwar, there arep e r s o n a l -ized storiesof individualvelour anddetermina-

tion shown by Indian soldiers. Jafa and his compatriot's abil-ity to find humor, in most unlikelysituations is an added advantage,like the story of Flight LieutenantJawahar Lal Bhargava, "the ever-smiling, every-ready-with-advice,HF-24 pilot, who had after his cap-ture by villagers in a remote areain Sindh, successfully enjoyedtheir hospitality by carrying on asa downed Pakistani Pilot".

Or the immediate reaction ofFlight Lieutenant Harish Sinhji af-ter the news of his release to Indiafinally reached him: "Looks likeour countries have decided toplay poker with prisoners of war."

Then there are the inspiring sto-ries of Flight Lieutenant S SMalhotra, who was awarded VirChakra for downing a Mig-19 overPakistan's strongest Air-Base sta-tion Sargodha, and the story ofKala Sandhu, who was instructedby his peasant father either to winrecognition for his bravery inbattlefield or achieve martyrdom.

Cont'd on Page 49

India Post

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49September 5, 2014

In the chapter, 'The Breakout',Jafa recounts the story of FlightLieutenant Dilip Parulkar, HarishSinhji and Melvinder Singh Grewal,who made an epic escape from thePakistani prison, following on thefoot-trails of J Murray's "A hand-book for travelers in India, Burma,and Ceylon", published in 1906,but were recaptured just five milesshort of Afghanistan.

The chapter, 'The Great Home-coming' recounts the doubts, anddilemmas of these POWs and theirfrustrations with the Indian lead-ership for leaving the question ofKashmir open, despite compre-hensively defeating Pakistan.

"The long, purposeless incar-

ceration in enemy jail. Feelings ofabandonment and neglect by ourown countrymen. Long hours tothink and debate. Monologues,discussions and arguments.

"Anger and frustrations at hav-ing to fight over the same issue(Kashmir) again and again. Thenseeing the gains frittered away,again and again. At such cost, atsuch sacrifice of life and limb. Noth-ing to show in the end. No lastinggain for the country. No lastinghonor for the fighting man.

"All this interspersed withpeace. Peace worse than war,"writes Jafa, feeling betrayed thatthe gains made in the battlefieldon the back of soldiers lives wereceded to Pakistan during diplo-matic talks. -PTI

Dream run for rural ‘Betis’

Stories of Indian fighterpilots from 1971 war

Winners of the half marathon with the organizers

Cont'd from Page 47

Cont'd from Page 48

Promoted by Blackberrys, In-

dian Oil, D&B, supported by RunWith Foundation and impecca-bly organized by LokenderpalSingh of Axalta Coating Sys-tems, and Ankur Agarwal whoholds a doctoral degree in Com-puter Science and Applied Math-ematics, the half marathon hadnearly 1,000 participants ofwhich 75% were women.

So many drove through thepot-holed road into Bichola to

lend support, cheer and partici-pate. Among them was Justice(Retd.) Sat Paul Bangarh, Shishir

Gupta, an American Expressconsultant, Amit and Shalini,doctors from Delhi, Action

Aid campaignerwith Beti Zindabadbadges, Indian Oilofficials.

At 10 am, whenMehroom, 17, aClass XI student ofPPES walked up tothe podium to re-ceive the winner'smedal, drops ofsweat were caughtin her brow and herfeet still sore withthe run. Her eyes,however, wereladen with an un-seen grit. Mehroomhad not merely run5 kms, her dream of

becoming a nurse had taken agiant leap. And, on the dustyplayground of PPES, feudal-ism and gender inequality ranits last lap. Breathless and de-feated!

Lunch being served for PardadaPardadi School

Asian marathon championSunita Godara with a young

marathon participant

Students of Pardada PardadiSchool

September 5, 2014India Post

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Horoscope

Your Weekly FutureSEPTEMBER 5TH - SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2014

by Pandit Parashar

(March 21 to April 20)

Prayers performed by you or on your behalf will show almost

instant results. Help and guidance from a matured person should

not be ignored if you really want to succeed. You may put

worries aside and continue to enjoy life with family. This is the right

time to go for that important exam for students. You may successfully

recover some old money during the week.

(November 23 to December 22)

And you will continue to doge bullets. Problems will be followed

by excellent solutions. One of the major obstacle stopping

you from moving forward in career will be over with the help of

some one lot younger in you. You will be spending lots of money on a

child. You may change your plans to attend a religious ceremony on

last minute. Bank balance will continue to grow.

(May 21 to June 20)

You may finally see the letter you had been waiting for in mail.

Clearance received will lift roadblocks making way for big im

provement in career. Bank balance will continue to grow slow

and steady. You may develop taste for sweets but keep an eye on

quantity. There is absolutely no harm in playing few lottery ticket this

week. Let the past go if you want to move up in life.

(July 23 to August 22)

Your bold actions will cause panic in opponents mind. Gamble

you take will pay off in big way. Chance of getting money through

legal channel and lottery too strong. Long distance plan will

take final shape. Some of you may be seriously exploring a new oppor-

tunity recently offered but in another state. It is going to be another

rewarding week for people working as brokers.

(September 23 to October 22)

You will need more than your budget to meet your fresh commit-

ment and you may need to borrow more from another source. It

will be better to cut down on red meat or spicy food for some

time. Boss may assign additional load of work with deadline. You may

start calling people overseas more frequently. You can definitely rely

on big help from a well known person this week.

(April 21 to May 20)

Some of you will be relocating this week. Some money will go

on buying some nice decorative items for the house. Spouse if

career oriented will benefit from favorable planets. There will be

sudden and unexpected positive change in career this week. Diplo-

matic approach will get problems resolved quick. It will make some

one more mad if you do not react to their allegations.

(June 21 to July 22)

Opportunity will not be less than a financial jackpot. Specula-

tion and lottery will be profitable. Some of you may need to

have vision checked by a professional. There will be slight

delay in moving plans. Children will be a big source of happiness this

week. Avoid getting over excited with the changes and try to hold the

information in your heart only.

(August 23 to September 22)

Money wise things will start picking up all of a sudden. Hard-

work performed in the past will pay off and a big check will

arrive through mail. People in business will have many oppor-

tunities make money on side. You will make cautious attempt to buy a

franchise or running business. Handle all tools with slight care.

(October 23 to November 22)

Past performance will make you known as an authority in pro-

fessional circle. Some thing you read will bring drastic change

in your earlier religious beliefs. Mars in first will bring energy

back to extremes. Some of you may join or start going to a gym to get

back in shape. Opponents will start disappearing one by one. You

may ignore an offer that require you to compromise.

(December 22 to January 19)

You may give final shape to upcoming positive changes in career

and sign all documents and close the deal. You may be able to

dispose off a property also for big gains. Boss will finally agree

on your proposal and take necessary steps. Ideas expressed by spouse

are not bad, think. You may also get in touch with a trusted person to

clear some confusions in your mind.

(January 20 to February 18)

(February 19 to March 20)

Strong Mars in ninth will help you overcome imaginary fears oc-

cupying mind for quite some time. Long awaited change in ca

reer may ultimately take place this week. Confidence level will

be at peak. You will quickly recover from any illness. This is the right

time to go for that highly competitive exam.

And planets will bring the necessary changes causing excite-

ment in life and give you another reason to celebrate with fam

ily. help will come from some one famous and well connected

person. Spouse may buy some artistic items for the house. You may

again go out of your way to help a needy person. Big change in your

attitude will not get noticed and you will make more friends.

PANDIT PARASHAR, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA isalso available for individual consultations.He can be reached at: [email protected]

510-886-4370www.parashar.com

52 September 5, 2014India Post

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Philosophy

Spiritual growth is notaccumulation, but dissolution

Practicing Ahimsa, put upwith insults, rebukes, assaults

Using harsh words to beggars, servants or infe-riors is Himsa. Wounding the feelings of othersby gesture, expression, tone of voice and un-kind words is also Himsa

SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV

Every aspect of growth thatyou know always amountsto accumulation. Your body

is growing, that's accumulation.Your business is growing, that'saccumulation. Your family is grow-ing, that's accumulation. But whenyou talk of spiritual growth, it is abig deception because this is notabout accumulation. This is aboutdissolution.

Growing means dissolving, notacquiring. It is because of this con-tradiction that spirituality seems tobe so difficult. Throwing does nottake effort. Throwing needs mad-ness, but accumulation requiresenormous efforts.

You are accumulating, becausethe way you are right now is notsufficient. You need to add some-thing to yourself to feel a little bet-ter. Somebody thinks accumulat-ing money is crude, but accumu-lating artwork is better.

Somebody thinks accumulatingthings is crude, accumulatingpeople is better. Somebody thinksall these things are crude, accu-mulating knowledge is best.

Whether you gather stones orgods, it makes no difference. It isfundamentally coming from asense of insufficiency. Why spiri-tuality seems to be mind-bogglingis not because it is difficult, butbecause this growth will not hap-pen unless you dissolve or throw

SWAMI SIVANANDA

Only ordinary people thinkthat Ahimsa is not to hurtany living being physi-

cally. This is but the gross form ofAhimsa. The vow of Ahimsa is bro-ken even by showing contempt to-wards another man, by entertain-ing unreasonable dislike for orprejudice towards anybody, byfrowning at another man, by hat-ing another man, by abusing an-other man, by speaking ill of oth-ers, by backbiting or vilifying, byharboring thoughts of hatred, byuttering lies, or by ruining anotherman in any way whatsoever.

All harsh and rude speech isHimsa (violence or injury). Usingharsh words to beggars, servantsor inferiors is Himsa. Woundingthe feelings of others by gesture,expression, tone of voice and un-kind words is also Himsa. Slight-ing or showing deliberate discour-tesy to a person before others iswanton Himsa.

To approve of another's harshactions is indirect Himsa. To fail torelieve another's pain, or even toneglect to go to the person in dis-tress is a sort of Himsa. It is the sinof omission.

Avoid strictly all forms of harsh-ness, direct or indirect, positive ornegative, immediate or delayed.Practice Ahimsa in its purest form

and become divine. Ahimsa andDivinity are one.

If you practice Ahimsa, youshould put up with insults, re-bukes, criticisms and assaults also.You should never retaliate norwish to offend anybody even un-der extreme provocation.

You should not entertain anyevil thought against anybody. Youshould not harbor anger. You

should not curse. You should beprepared to lose joyfully even yourlife in the cause of Truth. The Ulti-mate Truth can be attained onlythrough Ahimsa.

Remember the noble actions ofgreat sages of yore. Jayadeva, theauthor of Gita-Govinda, gave largeand rich presents to his enemieswho cut off his hands, and ob-tained Mukti (liberation) for them

through his sincere prayers. Hesaid: "O my Lord! Thou hast givenMukti to Thy enemies, Ravana andKamsa. Why canst Thou not giveMukti to my enemies now?" Asaint or a sage possesses a mag-nanimous heart.

Pavahari Baba carried the bagof vessels and followed the thiefsaying: "O Thief Narayana! I neverknew that You visited my cottage.

Pray accept these things." Thethief was quite astonished. He leftoff his evil habit from that verysecond and became a disciple ofPavahari Baba.

Ahimsa is the acme of bravery.Ahimsa is not possible without fear-lessness. Non-violence cannot bepracticed by weak persons. Ahimsacannot be practiced by a man whois terribly afraid of death and has

Why spirituality seems to be mind-boggling isnot because it is difficult, but because this growthwill not happen unless you dissolve or throwaway everything that you have accumulated.

Swami Sivananda

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

away everything that you haveaccumulated.

Throwing away does not meanyou have to take the things fromhouse and throw them on thestreet. It is just that you don't ac-cumulate within yourself. If it is inthe house it is convenient, but theproblem is you are carrying it inyour head all the time. That is bur-densome, that is killing. If moneyis in the pocket, it makes life com-fortable, but if you carry it in your

head, it is perversion. It is takinglife in a million different ways.

So, throwing it away does notmean throwing them from wherethey are. It means don't make it apart of yourself. You use it, youenjoy it, you experience it, but youdon't try to make it a part of your-self.Questioner: Sadhguru, whatshould be the foremost quality ofa seeker?Sadhguru: If you are a genuine

seeker, that's all that is needed. Ifyour seeking is the only qualityyou have, that is definitely themost important thing. Most of theseekers are only off-and-on seek-ers. In 24 hours, how many of youare even conscious of your seek-ing, and how many moments?

"No, no, I have done so manyprograms. I even did 55 days ofHata Yoga." What you did yester-day is not the point. People think,"Sadhguru…no compassion in

him. It doesn't matter what we havedone, once again he is asking,'What have we done today?'" Be-cause if you are a seeker, what youwere yesterday doesn't mean any-thing to you. "What have youdone today?" is the whole thing.The psychological survives, nour-ishes and flourishes on the past.The existential is of the now.

Unless you are truly concernedabout what you are doing todayand how you are right now, how

can you still be a seeker? "No, Ihave been a seeker for 10 years." -That doesn't mean anything. Areyou a seeker now? Because theexistential is only now. The rest isall psychological.

I see a lot of past seekers. Theyhave been seekers for 25, 30 years- veterans. What to do with that?Only if someone is hungry now,you can serve them food, isn't it?If someone is alive now, you canfeed them. Somebody was - what

can you do with them? Are you aseeker now, right now? If you are,that is what means most to me be-cause only then can I do some-thing with you. If you are a pastseeker, we are just neighbors. If youare a seeker now, I have somethingto do with you right now.

Excerpted fromwww.ishafoundation.org. The57th birth anniversary ofSadhguru Jaggi Vasudev will becelebrated on 3 September.

no power of resistance and endur-ance. It is a shield, not of the ef-feminate, but of the potent. Ahimsais a quality of the strong. It is aweapon of the strong. When a manbeats you with a stick, you shouldnot entertain any thought of re-taliation or any unkind feeling to-wards the tormentor. Ahimsa is theperfection of forgiveness.

When thoughts of revenge and

hatred arise in the mind, try to con-trol the physical body and speechfirst. If you succeed in this by prac-tice for some months, the negativethoughts of revenge, having noscope for manifesting outside, willdie by themselves.

Excerpted from sivananda.org.The 127th birth anniversary ofSwami Sivananda will be cel-ebrated on September 8

All adversities are here tohelp you. They can be-come instruments of yourprogress.

- Swami Rama

We are what our thoughtshave made us; so takecare about what you think.Words are secondary.Thoughts live; they travelfar.

- Swami Vivekananda

There is no enemy out ofyour soul.The real en-emies live inside yourself,they are anger, proud,curvedness, greed,attachmentes and hate.

- Lord Mahavir

Life is really simple, butwe insist on making itcomplicated.

- Confucius

Love is composed of asingle soul inhabiting twobodies.

- Aristotle

Music is a moral law. Itgives soul to the universe,wings to the mind, flight tothe imagination, andcharm and gaiety to lifeand to everything.

- Plato

The key is to keep com-pany only with people whouplift you, whose pres-ence calls forth your best.

- Epictetus

54 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

September 5, 2014India Post

India PostPolicy changes

As should be expected, there are changes in governmentpolicies with a change in regime. Pundits in the media areprotesting day in and day out that the Modi government is

making changes in established policies. If these established poli-cies have not borne fruit for so many years, why should thesepolicies be persisted with? Even if the new policies also fail, wewould have learned a lesson and there would be scope for correc-tion. But where is the case for persisting with policies which havefailed all the time?

Take the case of the Hurriyat separatists being allowed to meetthe Pakistan envoy in the heart of India, the capital city of NewDelhi, every time there is an attempt at dialogue between India andPakistan. The Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, saythey have always been allowed to do so. That was the case underthe previous weak-kneed regime which could not make up its mindon anything and allowed things to dither. Instead of debating thisad nausea among ourselves, Pakistan should be asked how has itsengaging secessionists on Indian Territory helped in its dialogueprocess with India.

As former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal has forcefully arguedin a column in Indian Express, can Pakistan demonstrate that itspersistent counsel to the Hurriyat has advanced the cause of peacein Jammu and Kashmir? It is an affront to the sovereignty of Indiato have separatists talking freely with the very foreign governmentwhich has spawned this separatism.

If Pakistan is once again going through convulsions, part of thecredit can be given to Narendra Modi. Modi is feared in Pakistanand the Pak Army believes his tough stance could easily be trans-lated into strong retaliatory action if Pakistan tries another mis-chief. The Army is no longer in the supreme position it was underMusharaff and it is straining at the leash that Nawaz Sharif hassought to put over it. His gestures of peace to India and his accep-tance to attend Narendra Modi's swearing in ceremony was anath-ema to the army. It has hastened to take control through protestsorchestrated by it because it wants to be in control to deal with thecoming strong tactics of Modi. The new Indian government mightcall the bluff of Pakistan on its pretence of not interfering officiallyin the affairs of India and only allowing the non-state actors to goand create mayhem there.

In a speech during his visit to Kargil in Kashmir, Modi haddeclared openly that Pakistan had lost the strength of waging aconventional war against India and was therefore resorting to ter-rorism to destabilize India. There was no reaction from Pakistan tothis charge the truth of which is apparent to every Indian but it hasnot been openly expressed for fear of terrorists. Modi is the firstPM to openly announce this fact. Pak army is determined to desta-bilize India to take revenge for its defeat in 1971 Bangladesh warbut it cannot do so openly. Pressure has also been mounting fromIndia to take action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack.

It is the fear of Modi which is forcing the Pakistan army torecover the powers being denied to it ever since the ouster ofMusharraf. It wants to be in a position to deal with the perceivedthreat that is Modi. And the peace minded Nawaz Sharif is a hurdlein their mission.

Land acquisition for roads and infrastructure development isanother issue which is in for policy changes. The UPA II govern-ment in its last days passed a populous law increasing compensa-tion for land acquisition and also requiring a host of approvalsfrom the panchayat and other bodies. The construction of newroads is making no headway even under the new government be-cause of this law which will have to be changed as early as pos-sible.

The Islamic State Caliphate:A mirage of resurrection

VIJAY SHANKAR

The current turmoil inWest Asia may betraced to the aberrantimposition of a Western

order in the aftermath of the de-feat and collapse of the Ottomansand the eventual denial of the ideaof a Caliphate by its leadership.

The Caliphate, which hadlost its religious and civilizationalmagnetism, was substituted by amosaic of states that was man-dated more by the promise of co-lonial influence and economicprofit. This led to a situation when

the underlying antagonism andeconomic dispossession haveerupted in aggression and a yearn-ing for a return to the UniversalState.

The Islamic State (IS, varyinglycalled the ISIS or the ISIL) hasswept from Syria into Iraq in a mael-strom of destruction and has in ashort but bloody campaign laidwaste to the northern third of Iraq.No political Islam or civilizationalimpulse here, just rabid intolerance.

In its wake it has disrupted thecorrelation of political forces in theregion as the US seeks a quickblocking entente with Iran; Syriasees in the situation an opportu-nity to settle scores with the in-surgency raging within; Shia or-ganizations find common cause tooffset the IS; Sunni States carry acloaked bias towards the IS to theextent that a recent New YorkTimes report suggests funding byTurkey, Saudi and Qatar; terroristorganizations in Afghanistan andPakistan welcome the new leader-ship that has displaced al-Qaedaand Kurdistan has been cata-pulted to the forefront of opposi-tion to the IS.

As the fanatical outburst of xe-nophobia stretches south andeastward the IS' influence will in

due course manifest in the fertileJihadist breeding grounds of Af-ghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan today, as many per-ceptive analysts have noted, rep-resents a very dangerous condi-tion as its establishment nurturesfundamentalist and terrorist orga-nizations as instruments of theirmisshapen policies in Afghanistanand Kashmir.

The essence of Pakistan'srogue links will, unmistakably, se-duce the IS into the sub-continentunderscoring the distressing

probability of the IS extending itsreach into a nuclear arsenal. Theimpending withdrawal of USforces from the region will onlyserve to catalyze such a calami-tous scenario.

Sustaining the RichestTerrorist Group

Ideologically the IS is driven bylittle other than a deep rooted ma-levolence (towards the US in par-ticular) for the near quarter cen-tury of armed turmoil and sectar-ian carnage that has visited theregion without near term hopes forrestoration.

The fallout has been a demon-izing of plurality and a fierce rejec-tion of modernity. Resurgence ofthe banished Iraqi RepublicanGuard has provided muscle to themovement and the revival of theBaathist faction infused a muchneeded organizational frameworkto the IS.

The feeble capitulation of the350,000 US trained Iraqi securityforces stands testimony to thevigor of the enterprise. The sei-zure of over 400,000 pieces of smallarms, artillery munitions, the pil-laging of USD $430 million fromthe Central Bank of Mosul and thecreation of a self sustaining finan-

cial flow to fuel the movementwould suggest the work of trainedminds and the organizational pre-cision of professionals; besides italso makes the IS the richest mili-tant group in West Asia.

Timing of the fierce advent ofthe IS and its leadership of themovement to establish a new Ca-liphate is distinctly ominous. TheWest in a state of economic ex-haustion, militarily fatigued, geo-politically starved of ideas and fac-ing the prospects of a world orderbeing put in disarray by a revision-

ist China; neitherhas the stomachnor the resolveto block the on-slaught.

The onlycheck on theabuse of uncon-ventional andmaleficent powerhas always con-sisted in opposi-tion by an equallyformidable rival,or of a combina-tion of severalcountries form-ing a league ofdefense; unfor-tunately such analliance has notbeen formed.

Development of a StrategyWhen Toynbee suggested the

emergence of a Universal State hesaw in it disintegration of a civiliza-tion as it encountered disastrous'time of troubles', such as wars withinand without followed by the estab-lishment of a universal state-an em-pire in the throes of decay. Ultimatelythe universal state collapses.

The menacing feature of the Is-lamic State is that the end of a ruin-ous historical rhythm is synchro-nized today with the draw down ofan external enforcing dynamic andthe intolerable availability of weap-ons of mass destruction.

In such circumstances the prog-nosis can only be a universal ca-tastrophe unless a three prongedstrategy is put in place:

• Firstly arrest the rampage ofthe IS by a coalition of regionalforces under UN aegis.

• Secondly, choke the moneyflow both from patron States andthe IS' financial dealings by tar-geting beneficiaries.

• Thirdly, deny access to weap-ons of mass destruction throughrigorous guardianship of knownsources.

The writer is former Com-mander-in-Chief, StrategicForces Command of India and

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria


September 5, 2014


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