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Will India delays harminvestments?

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YES 67% NO 33%

Certified by “CIRCULATION VERIFICATION COUNCIL Readership 117,765”

CONTENTSBollywood ---------------------- 28-29

Classifieds ------------------------- 47

Community Post -------------- 16-27

Date Book -------------------------- 30

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

HealthScience Post --------- 31-34

Horoscope ------------------------- 52

Immigration Post ------------- 43-45

Life Style ----------------------- 48-50

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

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

Real Estate -------------------- 36-38

TechBiz Post ------------------- 12-14

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 39-42

Top Stories

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‘War is the resultof silence ofthe majority’

Details on page 6

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FBI joins searchfor missingPIO student

Details on page 5

WINNING SMILES: Navneet Kaur Dhillon (C) winner of Pond's Femina Miss India contest, Sobhita Dhulipala (R)

first runner-up and Zoya Afroz,second runner-up, after the crowning in Mumbai on March 24

(Details on page 48)

E-POSTAL ORDERFACILITY FOR NRIs

Boost to seeking India RTI informationWASHINGTON: Indians living abroad, especially those

in the US have welcomed the launch of the electronic postalorder, which they say would go a long way for them seek-ing information from the Indian Government and otherstate governments under the Right to Information Act.

A number of Indians living in the US said that RTI hasnow become accessible to the Indian citizens living abroadafter the Postal Department recently launched Indian

postal order in electronic format (eIPO)."With eIPO, I now have the ability to discern con-

flicting information about governance in India in thenews by going directly to the source - the government,"Vishal Kudchadkar, a volunteer with the non-profit As-sociation for India's Development (AID) in Los Ange-les, told PTI.

Obama namesRanee toCouncil of Arts

Sunil Tripathi

India, US toteam up forMoon missions

USINPAC urgesreview of US,India relations

10 millionIndians want tomove to US

Protest againstWharton snubto Modi

India is notMittal’s priorityfor investment

Sri Sri Ravishankar

Will Italy return the marinesto India?

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April 5, 20132

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Bollywood:New moonwalkerSonakshi Sinha turned into an item girlfor "Himmatwala" enacting the famous"Moonwalk" step of Michael Jackson.

1Cover Story:eIPOs launched

16Community:Sri Sri in Bay Area

43Immigration:Skilled immigrationCEOs of some of America's top tech com-panies have written to Obama to allowmore high-skilled immigration.

48Life Style:

Navneet Kaur Dhillon (20), the daughterof an army officer from Patiala, wascrowned Pond's Femina Miss India.

12Techbiz:

Yahoo! is buying mobile news reader appSummly from the London teenager 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio who invented it.

39Travel:GangotriJust the perfect destination to breathe ina serene and pious atmosphere, Gangotrihas charm to attract people from all over.

Teen prodigy

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar launched a campaignto create stress-free, violence-free commu-nities in the Bay Area on March 24.

RTI has become accessible to NRIs/PIOsafter the Postal Department launchedIndian postal order in electronic format.

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There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do."This is a famous quote of John Steinbeck in his classic novel Grapes ofWrath.

When you study ethics, they teach you this line to understand the concept ofsubjectivism. Text books apart, more and more people in contemporary realityare moving towards subjectivism - that is of course, considering that the conceptof ethics itself is alive.

Subjectivism does not see just black or white in what ought to be moralconduct. It says, moral judgments are dependent on the feelings and attitudes ofthe persons who think about such things.

So, the question is: How can we blame people if moral truths are alwayssubjective? If moral statements have no objective truth, then how can we blamepeople for behaving in a way that "is wrong", i.e. if "murder is wrong" has noobjective truth, then how can we justify punishing people for murder?

Key to this argument is "the majority view." If the majority feels it's right,maybe it is; and if the majority feels it's wrong, then maybe it is.

Ok, before you wonder where I am going with all this, my philosophizingstems from the current happenings back in India with regard to the SupremeCourt sentencing of actor Sanjay Dutt in connection with the illegal possession ofarms in a case that was linked to the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in whichhundreds of people were killed.

So now, think of where the majority view in India seems to be going in judgingDutt, the Supreme Court judgment notwithstanding…? There's a huge chorus offederal ministers, senior politicians, elected representatives, film industry biggies,and his fans of course, who think of him as the overgrown kid who did wrong,but didn't mean to.

Actually, I think, it is moral relativism that is at play here and not so muchsubjectivism. Relativists believe there are no hard and fast rules on what is rightand wrong on which values are set. Well now, doesn't that suit us all? It definitelysuits Sanjay Dutt.

India PostApril 5, 2013 5

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Cover/Top Stories

Electronic postal order facility for NRIsBoost to seeking India RTI information

WASHINGTON: Indians livingabroad, especially those in the UShave welcomed the launch of theelectronic postal order, which theysay would go a long way for themseeking information from the In-dian Government and other stategovernments under the Right toInformation Act.

A number of Indians living inthe US said that RTI has now be-come accessible to the Indian citi-zens living abroad after the PostalDepartment recently launched In-dian postal order in electronic for-mat (eIPO).

"With eIPO, I now have theability to discern conflicting infor-mation about governance in In-dia in the news by going directlyto the source - the government,"Vishal Kudchadkar, a volunteer

with the non-profit Associationfor India's Development (AID) inLos Angeles, told PTI.

"In the last seven years, wehave tried all possibleworkarounds to exercise our rightto know. Now, our participation innation building has become tadeasier!," he said.

For the past several years, thevolunteers of AID have been run-ning from pillar to post both at theIndian missions in the UnitedStates and with government agen-cies back home seeking informa-tion under RTI.

However, the inability to payin Indian currency from overseaswas coming a major hindrance intheir move.

"It has been seven long yearssince we started this campaign for

our right to information. It hasbeen a difficult journey and dur-ing this time we have had to de-pend on friends in India to file RTIson our behalf," said ArunGopalan, a volunteer with Asso-ciation for India's Development,Greater Washington Metro areachapter.

"Their non-availability meant amissed opportunity. That will nolonger be the case with this neweIPO. It would be ideal if the listof email id of PIOs is also avail-able on this portal and the infor-mation exchange is completelydigitized, but we will take this fornow," Gopalan said.

Balaji Janakiraman Iyer said thelaunch of eIPO would make theRight to Information more acces-sible to all Indian citizens living

abroad."Couple of years ago, I had la-

mented that the implementation ofthe RTI Act made an NRI like mefeel like a second class citizen be-cause of something as trivial as thelack of a facility to make the pay-ment for the RTI filing fee," he said.

"Thanks to the tireless effortsof RTI activists in India andabroad as well as the willing sup-port of government officials, withthe launch of the eIPO, we havefinally enabled Indian citizensabroad to exercise their right toinformation on an equal footingto that of resident Indians.

"While the convenience factoris obvious, the more far reachingimpact would be the sense of em-powerment NRIs are going to feelin nation building," Iyer said. -PTI

FBI joins search for missing PIO student

"Their non-availabilitymeant a missedopportunity. That willno longer be thecase with this neweIPO. It would beideal if the list ofemail id of PIOs isalso available on thisportal and the infor-mation exchange iscompletely digitized,but we will takethis for now,"Gopalan said

India, US to team up for futureMoon, Mars missions

WASHINGTON: The FBI hasjoined a search for 22-year-old Indian-American Sunil Tripathi, an under-graduate Brown University studentwho went missing on March 16.

The police of Providence,Rhode Island, has launched amassive search operation to findTripathi. His friends have not onlybeen doing their own search, put-

ting up posters across the city, buthave also launched a Facebookpage to find him. Lead investigatordetective Mark Sacco said "no solidleads" have been found so far.

Tripathi's cellphone, creditcard, ID and other personal thingswere found in his room.

According to the FacebookPage set up by family, Tripathi

who went missing from his AngellStreet residence is 6'0, 130pounds, with brown eyes andshort brown hair. "Sunil has beenstruggling with depression sincehe took a leave of absence fromBrown last year. A note sugges-tive of suicidal intent left behindhas his family extremely worried," the family said.-PTI

WASHINGTON: India and theUS have agreed to cooperate onfuture missions to the Moon andMars after successful collabora-tion in Chandrayaan-1 lunar mis-sion.

"Building on NASA's collabo-ration in India's highly success-ful Chandrayaan-1 lunar missionin 2008, NASA and ISRO agreedto explore further cooperativespace exploration work,including future mis-sions to the Moon andMars.

"To this end theworking group agreedto continue discus-sions in planetary sci-ence and Heliophysicsto identify areas of po-tential cooperation,"Indian Space ResearchOrganization (ISRO) and NationalAeronautical and Space Admin-istration (NASA) said in a jointstatement.

"The value of bilateral coop-eration was well reflected, for in-stance, through the inclusion oftwo NASA instruments on the

successful Chandrayaan-1 lunarmission, which led to significantdiscoveries about lunar surfacecharacteristics," NASA Adminis-trator Charles Bolden said at thefourth US-India Civil Space JointWorking Group meeting here.

According to the statement,existing cooperation, in the use ofUS and Indian earth observationsatellite data, has produced infor-

mation yielding a broad range ofsocietal benefits including im-proved weather and monsoonforecasting, disaster managementand response, improved agricul-tural and natural resource use andbetter understanding of climatechange. -PTI

"The value of bilateral coop-eration was well reflected,for instance, through theinclusion of two NASA instru-ments on the successfulChandrayaan-1lunar mission”

USINPAC urges review of US-India relationsIndia Post News Service

WASHINGTON DC: USINPAC(US India Political Action Commit-tee) Chairman Sanjay Puri testifiedbefore the House Committee onForeign Relations and passion-ately advocated to give top prior-ity to Education, STEM Teacherexchange and export of gas toease India's energy difficulty. He

also recommended US working di-rectly with progressive states inIndia to increase trade and coop-eration.

Earlier, Congressman and Rank-ing Member of the Committee Eni

Faleomavaega (D-AS), a strongadvocate of US-India engagementpushed for strengthening the re-lationship between two countries.He said, "To deepen the U.S.-In-dia relationship - which must bedeepened if it is to become a de-fining partnership of the 21st cen-tury - I do believe it is to our ben-efit to focus on economic coop-eration, energy security and edu-

cation".Puri had been invited as an ex-

pert witness on the House Com-mittee on Foreign Relations on itshearing "The rebalance to Asia:why South Asia matters".

USINPAC has been active in pro-moting Nuclear, Defense, Educa-tion, and trade relations betweenUSA and India for the past de-cade.

Puri cited education as "thelong-term solution required forthe U.S.-India partnership tothrive." He articulated how Indianeducation was a market opportu-nity of over $50 billion as Indianeeded over 500 universities and33,000 colleges in the next eightyears. Also, Indian CEOs edu-cated in the US are more active inthe US-India relationship.

Chairman Puri drew attentionof the members of the Committeeto "a tremendous shortage ofSTEM teachers at the K-12 level"in the US and proposed to fill itwith the huge pool of such teach-ers from India. He explained howit could create "our own pool ofSTEM experts for the future".

Puri expressed a hope thatUSA will allow exports of gas toIndia saying, "it would do threethings: increase economic oppor-tunity in the U.S. through exports,

Puri cited education as "the long-term solu-tion required for the U.S.-India partnership tothrive." He articulated how Indian educationwas a market opportunity of over $50 billionas India needed over 500 universities and33,000 colleges in the next eight years

reduce India's energy dependenceon the Middle East and thirdlybuild a more strategic relationshipwith India given the country's tre-mendous need for energy inde-pendence".

Puri further called upon the US

to engage in direct conversationswith Indian States and buildstrong economic and cultural tieswith them as it can help the USget away from the policy paraly-sis that sometimes affects NewDelhi.


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Top Stories

10 million Indianswant to move to US

WASHINGTON: More than100 million people from across theworld, including 10 million fromIndia, would like to move perma-nently to the US, which remainsthe most popular global destina-

tion, according to a latest opinionpoll.

Potential migrants who wouldlike to move to the US are logi-cally the most likely to come fromsome of the most populous coun-tries in the world, the Gallup pollsaid.

The poll said that 19 millionChinese would like to move to theUS, followed by 13 million fromNigeria, 10 million from India andsix million each from Brazil andBangladesh.

However, other populouscountries such as Iran and Paki-stan do not have large groups ofpeople who say that they wouldlike to move to the US perma-nently.

Instead, Pakistanis most desireto relocate to Saudi Arabia and theUK, and Iranians would prefer tomove to Jordan or Lebanon.

This is not surprising, as Irani-ans and Pakistanis have some ofthe lowest US leadership approvalratings in the world.

Gallup said the percentage ofpeople in each country, whowould like to move to the US per-manently is perhaps more inter-esting.

A staggering 37 per cent ofLiberians say that they would liketo relocate to the US permanently.

One in four adults or more inSierra Leone, the Dominican Re-public, and Haiti would also liketo move to the US permanently.

Three countries with the high-est percentages of people whowould like to relocate to the USpermanently are in Africa, sevenare in Central America and theCaribbean, with the remainingcountry, Cambodia, in Asia.

Gallup said about 13 per centof the world's adults -- or about630 million people -- say theywould like to leave their countryand move somewhere else perma-nently.

For roughly 138 million people,that somewhere else would be theUS -- the number one desired des-tination for potential migrants, thepoll said.

The UK, Canada, and Francealso rank among the top choicesfor potential migrants, it said. -PTI

Indian Americans protest againstWharton snub to Modi

WASHINGTON: A group ofIndian-Americans held a peacefulprotest march in Pennsylvaniaagainst the decision of WhartonIndia Economic Forum (WIEF) towithdraw an invitation to Gujarat

Chief Minister Narendra Modi.Under the banner of "Ameri-

cans for Free Speech," the Indian-Americans chanted slogans like"We want Modi" and displayedhis pictures on posters and ban-ners.

Most of the protesters who hadarrived from New York and NewJersey marched down severalblocks to hold a demonstration infront of the WIEF event, whichheld its day-long conference on

the India's economic develop-ment.

Several speakers addressedthe protesters gathered across thestreet from Harrison Auditoriumat the University of Pennsylvania,where the conference was held.

"Members of the press weredenied entrance to the confer-ence," The Daily Pennsylvaniareported, putting the number ofprotesters at 200.

Opposing the decision ofWIEF to cancel its invita-tion to Modi after threeUniversity of Pennsylvaniaprofessors protestedagainst it, Narain Kataria ofthe Indian American Intel-lectuals Forum alleged thatWIEF had attacked the"freedom of speech" andcalled it an "inappropriateinterference" into the In-dian political process.

Later in a memorandumsubmitted to the Universityof Pennsylvania PresidentDr Amy Gutmann, the pro-testers said they were "sad-dened and outraged to seethis great university beingbullied by a mere three En-glish and Social Work ac-

tivist professors" of Indic origin."The principal issues here are

freedom of speech and right todissent. Sadly, both of these havebeen brutally trampled on atUPenn by this action," the memo-randum stated.-PTI

Rajaratnam's brother pleads notguilty to charges in US

NEW YORK: The youngerbrother of jailed hedge fund man-ager Raj Rajaratnam has pleadednot guilty at a US court to chargesof conspiring in an insidertrading scheme to cheat onWall Street and earn nearlyUSD 1.2 million illegally.

Rengam Rajaratnam, 42,brother "pleaded notguilty" before a New Yorkcourt, where he was pro-duced a day after his arrestat the John F Kennedy Air-port on arrival from Brazil.

Rajaratnam, was indictedby the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation and US Secu-rities and Exchange Commis-sion (SEC) on charges ofinsider trading.

A former portfolio man-ager at the hedge fund man-agement firm Galleon Group,Rengam is the youngerbrother of Raj Rajaratnamwho in October 2011, wassentenced to 11 years inprison and fined a total criminaland civil penalty of over USD 150

million after being convicted in amassive insider trading case, thelargest in the US history.

In a statement, his lawyer said

that Rengam Rajaratnam, volun-tarily surrendered after returning

from Brazil to clear his name."After reading about his indict-

ment, Mr Rajaratnam immediatelyvolunteered to return from Brazil,

where he had been living andworking for the past year, in order

to defend himself," the attorneys,David Tobin and Vinoo Varghese,said in the statement.

The indictments alleged thatRajaratnam conspired with hisbrother, Galleon founder RajRajaratnam, to trade on the basisof material, non-public informa-tion concerning Clearwire Corpand Advanced Micro Devices Inc(AMD) in 2008, earning nearlyUSD 1.2 million in profits in theaggregate.

In a separate complaint, SECalleged that from 2006 to 2008,Rengan Rajaratnam repeatedlyreceived inside information fromhis brother and reaped more thanUSD 3 million in illicit gains forhimself and hedge funds that hemanaged at Galleon and SednaCapital Management, a hedgefund advisory firm that he co-founded.

Last year, former Goldman Direc-tor Rajat Gupta, the poster boy ofIndians at the Wall Street, was alsofound guilty of illegally tipping offhis friend Raj Rajaratnam of confi-dential market information. -PTI

Rengam Rajaratnam


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Top Stories

China to buy Russian fighters,submarines

BEIJING: China has agreed tobuy two dozen fighter jets andfour submarines from Russia, statemedia reported, the country's firstlarge-scale weapons technologypurchases from Moscow in a de-cade.

The agreement to buy the 24Su-35 fighters and four Lada-class submarines was signedjust before President XiJinping's weekend visit toRussia, said the People'sDaily, the CommunistParty organ, citings t a t e

television.The report, which did not give

a value for the purchases, said itwas the first time in 10 years Chinahad bought "large military tech-nological equipment" from Rus-sia.

The deal comes as Beijing ex-pands its military reach -- it com-missioned its first aircraft carrier

last year -- and is embroiled in abitter territorial row with Japanover disputed islands in the EastChina Sea.

Two of the submarines will bebuilt in Russia, with the other twoto be built in China.

"The Su-35 fighters can effec-tively reduce pressure on China'sair defense before Chinese-madestealth fighters come online," the

report said.China and Russia are expected

to co-operate further in develop-ing military technology, the reportsaid, including that for S-400 long-range anti-aircraft missiles, 117Slarge thrust engines, IL-476 largetransport aircraft and IL-78 aerialtankers.

China's defense ministry hadno immediate comment on the re-port. -AFP

China and Russia areexpected to co-operate further indeveloping militarytechnology, the re-port said, includingthat for S-400 long-range anti-aircraftmissiles, 117S largethrust engines, IL-476large transport air-craft and IL-78aerial tankers

India keen to reciprocateXi's desire to improve ties

DURBAN: Ahead of the firstmeeting between Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and ChinesePresident Xi Jinping, India hassent clear signals of reciprocatingChina's new leadership's desire toimprove ties without it being heldhostage by problems like theboundary issue.

Official sources saidthat India will not allowthe bilateral ties to beheld hostage by differ-ences on the boundaryissue, echoing theviews of new PresidentXi.

"We think we can bepositive. We talk toeach other about mutualconcerns. We havemanaged to show thatdespite differences, China isIndia's single largest bilateral tradepartner and are sure we have theability to work together," theysaid.

They point out to the fact thatthe two countries last year de-cided to have a military dialogue.The two sides have also decidednot to hurt each other's interests

in the region.Xi had propounded five pro-

posals for improving bilateral tieswith India. These included keep-ing aside differences on variousissues while improving mutualties and accommodation of eachother's concerns while dealingwith "core interests".

He had also suggested thatpeace and tranquility should bemaintained on the boundary pend-ing settlement of the issue.

Asked about the Chinese lead-ership using new phrases like"core interests", the sources saidIndia's core interests in the rela-tionship were open and transpar-ent.-PTI

“We have managed toshow that despite differ-ences, China is India'ssingle largest bilateral tradepartner and are sure wehave the ability to worktogether,"


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Top Stories

China, Pak conclude secretdeal on nuclear reactor

WASHINGTON: China hassecretly entered into an agree-ment with Pakistan to constructa third nuclear reactor atChashma in Punjab provincethat the Obama administrationsays will violate Beijing's prom-ises under an in-ternational anti-nuclear weap-ons accord, amedia reportsaid.

"Accordingto US intelli-gence and dip-lomatic offi-cials, the secretagreement forthe Chashma 3reactor wassigned inBeijing during the visit by a del-egation from the PakistanAtomic Energy Commissionfrom February 15 to 18," TheWashington Free Beacon re-ported.

The agreement calls for thestate-run China NationalNuclear Corporation (CNNC) toconstruct a 1,000-megawatt

power plant at Chashma, wheretwo earlier Chinese reactorswere built, the American websitesaid.

While there was no confirma-tion of the news story from Pa-kistan or China, The Washing-

ton Free Beacon quoted un-named State Department official,who said that such a Chinesemove would be in violation ofits international promise.

China, which joined NSG in2005, agreed not to sell addi-tional reactors to Pakistan be-yond the two reactors sold ear-lier.-PTI

Injury marks on body ofIndian prisoner in Pak

LAHORE: Four injuries, includ-ing a fracture, were found on thebody of Chambail Singh, an In-dian prisoner in Pakistan who diedafter he was allegedly assaultedby staff at a prison here, accord-ing to a preliminary autopsy re-port.

Authorities had constituted amedical board to perform an au-topsy on Singh's body about twomonths after his death. The au-topsy was done shortly beforethe body was sent to India onMarch 13.

The preliminary report statesthat traces of four injuries werefound on the body, including afracture of the right knee, an abra-sion of 1.5 cm to 2 cm on the leftknee joint, an abrasion over theupper lip and scars on the thigh,official sources told PTI.

A chemical examination to as-certain the exact cause of deathwill be conducted later, the sourcessaid.

Singh, said to be in his sixties,was declared dead on arrival bydoctors at the state-run Jinnah

Hospital on January 15.He was serving a five-year

prison term at Kot Lakhpat Jail foralleged involvement in espionage.

Tehseen Khan, a Christian law-yer who recently completed a 42-

month sentence for fraud at KotLakhpat Jail, claimed Singh diedafter being beaten by prison staff.

"On January 15, I saw some

three jail staff beating ChambailSingh over some issue. He wasbeaten severely and I think he diedbecause of this," Khan told PTIearlier.

Prison officials have refutedKhan's claim and said Singh diedof an apparent heart attack.

Kot Lakhpat Jail's AdditionalSuperintendent Ishtiaq Ahmedsaid Singh was taken to hospitalafter he developed chest painwhile having breakfast.

"We shifted him to Jinnah Hos-pital, where doctors pronouncedhim dead," he said.

Awais Shiekh, the counsel forIndian death row prisoner SarbajitSingh, told PTI that he would filea petition in court against the jailofficials after getting a copy of thepreliminary autopsy report.

Sheikh had earlier approachedthe Lahore High Court for an in-quiry into Singh's death but hisplea was turned down. "I will askthe court to find out the measuresput in place to protect other In-dian prisoners, including SarabjitSingh," Sheikh said.-PTI

Awais Shiekh, thecounsel for Indiandeath row prisonerSarbajit Singh, told PTIthat he would file apetition in courtagainst the jail offi-cials after getting acopy of the prelimi-nary autopsy report.Sheikh had earlierapproached theLahore High Court


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Bilawal leaves Pak after tiff with Zardari over PPP affairsISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Bilawal Bhutto

Zardari has left for Dubai after a tiff withhis father, President Asif Ali Zardari, overthe affairs of the PPP, leaving the party with-out its star campaigner for Pakistan's gen-eral election.

Bilawal, recently named patron-in-chiefof the Pakistan People's Party, developeddifferences with Zardari and his sister,Faryal Talpur, over the party's handling ofkey issues, including militant violence, sec-tarian attacks against Shias and the awardof party tickets for the polls scheduled forMay 11.

Two sources privy to the developmenttold PTI that Bilawal had made it clear tohis father that he felt the PPP had notstrongly taken up issues like the shootingof teenage rights activist Malala Yusufzaiby Taliban fighters last year and three dev-astating bomb attacks on Shias in Quettaand Karachi that killed nearly 250 people.

Bilawal was also upset with the PPP'shandling of issues that affect the youth,especially in the wake of efforts by otherparties like Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf to woo the youth ahead of the polls,the sources said.

The 24-year-old nominal chief of thePPP was an-gered by FaryalTalpur's refusalto award ticketsto certain candi-dates in Sindhprovince thathe had recom-mended, asource said.

" L a s tmonth, Bilawalhad recom-mended thenames of some 200 PPP workers and askedformer Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shahto give them jobs but Talpur had intervened,causing bad blood between them," thesource said.

Bilawal discussed these matters with his

father and sought authority to take deci-sions in party matters.

But Zardari sided with his sister, whoplays a key role in the PPP's affairs, thesource said.

"When Zardari told him that he wouldbe handed over the command of the party

after he is groomed politically, Bilawal gotupset and left for Dubai," a source said.

Matters got so heated on one occasionthat a source quoted Bilawal as saying: "IfI had to vote, even I wouldn't vote for thePPP." -PTI

The 24-year-old nominal chief of the PPP wasangered by Faryal Talpur's refusal to awardtickets to certain candidates in Sindh prov-ince that he had recommended, a sourcesaid."Last month, Bilawal had recommendedthe names of some 200 PPP workers andasked former Sindh Chief Minister Qaim AliShah to give them jobs but Talpur intervened

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

'Musharraf unlikely to havemuch impact on elections'

WASHINGTON: The White House hassaid the return of Pervez Musharraf, theformer dictator of Pakistan, is an "internalmatter" of the country, even as a top USdiplomat in Islamabad said that the eventis unlikely to have much impact on the re-sults of the May 11 general polls.

"I don't see this as a terribly large orsignificant event. I could be surprised, but

I don't see this as terribly consequential,"the US Ambassador to Pakistan, RichardOlson, told a Washington audience whileresponding to questions on the return ofthe former Pak General, who ruled the coun-try for a decade.

Musharraf returned to Pakistan after afour year self-imposed exile, during whichhe spent most of his time in England and

Dubai and speaking tour in the UnitedStates.

"On the question of Musharraf, it's upto the Pakistanis to address the question.He may have some legal issues to address,and that's for him to address with the judi-ciary.

But my Pakistani friends tell me hedoesn't have a great deal of political sup-

port," Olson said inresponse to a ques-tion.

On Musharraf,Olson said, theUnited States doesnot have a position,a stand taken consis-tently by the ObamaAdministration.

"We've seen thenews that he's re-turned. It's really upto the people of Paki-stan to decide whotheir representativesshould be, and so wereally refer you to theGovernment of Paki-

stan," the State Department spokesperson,Patrick Ventrell, told reporters at a newsconference when asked about his return toPakistan.

"When it comes to Pakistani politics,we'll leave it to the people of Pakistan tomake decisions about their political leader-ship," the White House Deputy Press Sec-retary, Josh Earnest, told reporters.-PTI

Pervez Musharraf


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UAE freezone evokes interestduring India roadshow

Man who eyed terrortraining convicted in NYC

Pak on cusp of granting MFNstatus to India: Olson

DUBAI: UAE's leading freezone, Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza),has said a large number of Indiancompanies from food, oil and gas,metal and healthcare sectorshave expressed interest in set-ting up their regional offices andother facilities in Dubai.

Jafza's five-day Roadshow,held from March 11-15, rein-forced the free zone's status asthe most favored business andlogistics hub for theMiddle East regionamong Indian busi-nesses and insti tu-tional investors, it saidin a statement.

These companies areinterested in either estab-lishing their footprint inthe Middle East or wantto further strengthentheir presence in the re-gion, it added.

"Keen interest of Indian com-panies in Jafza and Dubai re-flects not only the close commer-cial ties the two sides enjoy butalso huge business opportuni-ties the resource-rich MiddleEast region offers to Indian in-vestors.

"The combined investment of

Middle East economies on infra-structure development is esti-mated to exceed USD 4 trillion inthe next 10 years. This offershuge opportunities to not onlylarge Indian multinationals butalso to Indian SMEs, who arewell known for their entrepre-neurship and expertise," DeputyCEO of Jafza Ibrahim MohamedAl Janahi said.

Jafza Roadshow covered New

Delhi and Mumbai. The seminarwas attended by a significantnumber of prominent Indianbusinesses and trade promo-tional bodies such as the Fed-eration of Indian Exporters Or-ganization and Agriculture andProcessed Food Products ExportDevelopment Authority. -PTI

These companies are inter-ested in either establishingtheir footprint in the MiddleEast or want to furtherstrengthen their presencein the region, it added

NEW YORK: A New Yorker hasbeen convicted of lying to the FBIabout plans to team up with theTaliban or al-Qaeda.

A jury found Abdel HameedShehadeh guilty in federal courtin Brooklyn.

Friends of Shehadeh testifiedthat he spoke of wanting to diewaging violent jihad abroadagainst the US military. They saidthe former Staten Island resident

had hoped to attend a terroristtraining camp in Pakistan.

The defendant first drew theattention of the FBI in 2008 whenhe bought a one-way plane ticketto Islamabad.

Prosecutors said he later liedby saying he was going to get re-ligious training.

He faces up to 21 years inprison at sentencing. No date hasbeen set. -AP

Obama nominates Indian-American to Council of ArtsWASHINGTON: US President

Barack Obama has nominated In-dian-American RaneeRamaswamy, a Bharatanatayamexponent, to the prestigious Na-tional Council of the Arts for a fiveyear term.

Ramaswamy founded theRagamala Music and Dance The-atre in Minneapolis, Minnesota in1992 and has been popularizingthis classical Indian dance formin America.

The White House said Obamahas sent her nomination, alongwith others, to the Senate for itsapproval.

"Ranee Ramaswamy, of Minne-sota, to be a Member of the Na-tional Council on the Arts for aterm expiring September 3, 2018,vice Miguel Campaneria, term ex-pired," it said.

The National Council on the

Arts advises the Chairman of theNational Endowment for the Arts,who also chairs the Council, onagency policies and programs. Itreviews and makes recommenda-tions to the Chairman on applica-tions for grants, funding guide-lines, and leadership initiatives.

According to her bio postedon her website, since 1984,Ramaswamy has been a discipleof Alarmel Valli, one of India'sgreatest living masters.

Ranee has worked with cel-ebrated artistssuch as poet

Robert Bly, jazzm u s i c i a n

Howard Levyand legendarycomposer/ violin-ist LSubramaniam.

Among her many grants andfellowships are 13 McKnight Art-ist Fellowships, a Bush Fellow-ship, and an Artist ExplorationFund grant from Arts Interna-tional. Her work is supported bythe National Endowment for theArts, the National Dance Project,

and the Japan Foundation.In 2011, she was chosen as the

McKnight Foundation Distin-guished Artist. Ranee and co-Ar-tistic Director AparnaRamaswamy were named the 2011'Artist of the Year' by the Minne-apolis Star Tribune.-PTI

Ranee Ramaswamy

Among her many grants and fellowships are13 McKnight Artist Fellowships, a BushFellowship, and an Artist Exploration Fundgrant from Arts International

WASHINGTON: Observingthat Pakistanis are very much infavor of enhanced economic rela-tionship with India, a top Ameri-can diplomat stationed inIslamabad has said the country ison the cusp of granting the mostfavored nation status to its east-ern neighbor.

"I think that there's beenprogress in the relation-ship between Pakistan andIndia, and as you know,we're on the cusp of Paki-stan granting most favorednation status to India. Mysense is that most Paki-stanis are actually verymuch in favor of an en-hanced economic relation-ship with India," the USAmbassador to Pakistan,Richard Olson, told aWashington audience.

Responding to ques-tions in his appearancebefore a Washingtonthink-tank, Olson said theUS would like to see en-ergy co-operation betweenAfghanistan, Pakistan andIndia.

"I think, from the perspectiveof the US government, what wewould like to see is for the energysupply to run through Afghani-stan and through Pakistan to theIndian market," he said, in an ap-parent reference to the gas pipe-line from the Central Asian coun-tries to the massive Indian mar-ket.

However, Olson maintained thestand of Obama Administrationthat the Iran Pakistan gas pipe-

line is sanctionable under the IranAct.

"I think our position is prettywell-known on Iran in general.We've had a duty to warn our Pa-kistani friends that the pipelinethat's under consideration is likelyto be sanctionable under US law.One thing is that Iran has provedto be a less than reliable partner

on many such energy projectswith other countries," he argued.

As such, the US official hopedthat Pakistan will take this asfriendly advice from the US, whichhas been very highly supportiveof its energy needs.

Olson, in response to anotherquestion, said though over of latethe Pakistani Army and securityforces have been focused on in-surgency on its western frontier,the anxiety about it eastern front

remains."The Pakistani military and the

Pakistani government has beenvery focused over the past fewyears on the insurgencies, on thethreat along the western borderin the Federally AdministeredTribal Areas, and they're focus-ing large amounts of resourcesthere. But I think any military plan-

ner will obviously be looking at avariety of things and be lookingat conventional threats as well,"he said.

"I think that the Pakistanis havebeen paying attention to devel-opments on the eastern side. Ourgoal is to make sure that the situ-ation is stable and we actuallyhave confidence in the Pakistanistewardship of their nuclear ma-terials," Olson said in response toa question. -PTI

Richard Olson


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Telugu associations observe Women's DayAsian Media USA

CHICAGO: The Telugu Asso-ciation of Greater Chicago (TAGC)and American Telugu Association(ATA) organized InternationalWomen's Day on March 23 at theHoliday Inn in Mount Prospect, anorth side suburb of Chicago, withover 100 women of Telugu originparticipating in this unique event.

The event helped raise aware-ness about issues such aswomen's health, cultural identityand parenting issues, challengesfacing women in corporateAmerica, women as entrepreneursand Indian cooking. A food drivewas conducted as a part of thisevent. Mrs Malathi Damarajuacted as Master of Ceremony forthe event.

The organizers presented aslide show paying tribute to all thewomen leaders of the world, suchas Indira Gandhi, Mother Theresa,Pratibha Patil, Hillary Clinton,Madam Curie, Helen Keller, IndiraNooyi, Serena Williams, KalpanaChawla, Mamata Baneerjee andSonia Gandhi.

The workshops followed theslide show touching upon sub-jects like Health is Wealth, Both

Conference Organizing Committee (L to R) Vandana Reddy, Bhargavi Nettem, Sunitha Matta, Jyothi Madhavaram, Nandini Kondapalli, Sujatha Appalaneni,

Sirisha Garapaty, Kiran Nuthulapaty, Kiran Mattey, Malathi Damaraju and Padma Madireddy

Sides of the Coin - Parenting Thenand Now, Climbing the CorporateLadder, Women as Entrepreneursand Indian Cooking

The organizers of the eventalso did a food drive for charityinitiated by Padma Madireddy.They collected about 20 boxes of

food and donated to charity. Ascrumptious Andhra dinner wasserved to all the women in atten-dance which beautifullycomplimented the spirit of wom-anhood. The evening ended withmusic and dancing which wasenjoyed by all.

TAGC headquartered in Chi-cago seeks creating awarenessand promotion of Telugu heri-tage and culture in the mid-westregion. ATA founded in 1990with main purpose to assist andpromote literary, cultural, educa-tional, religious, social, eco-

nomic, health and communityactivities of the people of Teluguorigin as well as to promote ex-change programs for students,scientists, and professionals ofTelugu origin between the UnitedStates of America, Canada, Indiaand other countries.

Sanskrit mantras to open Holocaust'Day of Remembrance'

India Post News Service

NEVADA: Hindu mantras willopen the "Day of Remembrance"at University of Nevada-Reno(UNR) on April 7 in remembranceof lives lost or altered by Holo-caust and genocides around theworld.

Rajan Zed, President of Uni-versal Society of Hinduism, willdeliver this invocation from Rig-Veda, the oldest scripture of theworld still in common use, besideslines from Upanishads andBhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord),both ancient Hindu scriptures.Zed plans to start and end theprayer with "Om", the mysticalsyllable containing the universe,which in Hinduism is used to in-troduce and conclude religiouswork.

History teaches us that geno-cide can be prevented if peoplecare enough to act. Our choicesin response to hatred truly domatter and together we can helpfulfill the promise of "NeverAgain", event announcementsays.

Organized by Osher LifelongLearning Institute (OLLI) of UNRin partnership with the UNR In-terfaith Students Club, it will have

Dr Robert Krell, Emeritus Psychia-try Professor of University of Brit-ish Columbia and Holocaust sur-vivor who was born in Nether-lands, as keynote speaker.

Dr Krell has treated Holocaustsurvivors and their families as wellas Dutch survivors of Japanese

concentration camps. He foundedVancouver Holocaust EducationCentre, which teaches 20,000 stu-dents annually.

OLLI at UNR, a diverse com-munity of independent thinkerswhich serves adults over age 50,

"fosters intellectual stimulationand personal developmentthrough academic pursuits". JoeColeman is President of its Board.UNR Interfaith Students Club,with Daniel R. Sanchez as presi-dent, aims to "cultivate social co-hesion among people of different

religions". UNR, founded in 1874and which has over 18,000 stu-dents, is known for helping to cre-ate the world's most accurateatomic clock and is home to oneof the largest earthquake-simula-tion labs.

University of Nevada

Pakistan is the great unknownsfor the US: Allen

WASHINGTON: As the UnitedStates gears up for withdrawingits forces from Afghanistan by2014, Pakistan and its safe havensin the border areaspose a great chal-lenge to the US, aformer top Americangeneral based inKabul has said.

"I think one of thegreat unknowns forus is Pakistan," Gen(rtd) John Allen, whotill February wasCommander of USand NATO forces inAfghanistan told aWashington audi-ence when asked onthe US challenges inAfghanistan.

"It still remainsthe border area andthe insurgency - on both sides,frankly, of the border - remains, Ithink, one of the principal ob-stacles and one of the principalpotential sources of downturn forthe campaign," Allen said in re-sponse to a question.

Noting that the US relationshipwith Pakistan is complex, Allen atthe same time said there is prom-ise there that he had not seen be-fore.

"Conversations at a bilaterallevel have turned out to be prom-ising, the potential for Afghansand Pakistanis to share both

school seats, to exchange visi-tors," he said.

"We now have a Pakistanibrigadier in the headquarters ofISAF," Allen said, listing thisamong the positive indicators.

According to the former USgeneral, the Pakistani forces havebeen engaged in significantcounterinsurgency operations inthe Federally Administered TribalAreas.-PTI

John Allen

12 India Post April 5, 2013www.indiapost.com

TechBizTech News

India’s first aviation varsity to beset up in Rae Bareli

NEW DELHI: The first aviationuniversity in the country will comeup at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradeshand its academic session wouldbegin in July next year.

This was decided at a meetingCongress Vice President RahulGandhi had with Minister of Statefor Civil Aviation K C Venugopaland top officials here.

The National Aviation Univer-sity (NAU) would train technicalpersonnel, including engineers,and impart all aviation-relatedskills to its students.

There would be a requirementof close to three million trainedpersonnel in the Indian aviationsector over the next decade, ac-cording to independent estimates.

The foundation stone is likelyto be laid in June and the NAUwould start functioning at theIndira Gandhi Rashtriya UdaanAcademy (IGRUA) at Fursatganj

in Rae Bareli from July next year,the Minister told PTI after thehour-long meet.

Rae Bareli is the Lok Sabha con-stituency of Congress Presidentand UPA Chairperson Sonia

Gandhi.Rs 80 crore has already been

sanctioned for the purpose and"we have requested the UP gov-ernment to allot more land for the

university," Venugopal said. Thetotal project outlay for the firstfive-year period is Rs 202 crore.

"A detailed project report hasalready been prepared and sent tothe Planning Commission for in-

Rs 80 crore has already been sanctioned forthe purpose and "we have requested the UPgovernment to allot more land for the univer-sity," Venugopal said. The total project outlayfor the first five-year period is Rs 202 crore

principle approval. A legislation toset up the NAU has been sent tothe Union Law Ministry forvetting. We intend to bring thisBill very soon," he said.

Venugopal said collaborationwith such institutions in other coun-tries was also being looked at to makeNAU a world- class facility, thoughnothing has yet been finalized.

Once approval is granted by thePlanning Commission, proposalswould be moved for approval of theCabinet Committee on EconomicAffairs, official sources said.

They said the Airports Author-ity of India was preparing the ar-chitectural plans for academic andhostel blocks for NAU at theIGRUA complex. -PTI

Yahoo! buys app from British teenSAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! has

announced plans to buy mobilenews reader app Summly from theLondon teenager who invented it,likely transforming him into one ofthe world's youngest self-mademultimillionaires.

The company did not disclosethe terms of the deal it struck with17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, but theLondon Evening Standard saidYahoo! would pay between USD30-60 million.

"We're excited to share thatwe're acquiring Summly, a mobileproduct company founded with avision to simplify the way we getinformation, making it faster, easierand more concise," Yahoo! said ina statement.

"At the age of 15, NickD'Aloisio created the Summly appat his home in London. It startedwith an insight - that we live in aworld of constant information andneed new ways to simplify howwe find the stories that are impor-

tant to us, at a glance."Yahoo! said most ar-

ticles and web pageswere formatted forbrowsing with mouseclicks and that "the abil-ity to skim them on aphone or a tablet can bea real challenge - wewant easier ways toidentify what's impor-tant to us."

The California firmsaid that "Nick and theSummly team are joining Yahoo!in the coming weeks."

D'Aloisio said in a tweet:"@Summly has signed an agree-ment to be acquired by Yahoo!!Excited for the next chapter of

The Evening Standard said the Wimbledonyouth, who would become one of the world'syoungest technology millionaires, claims tohave created the app as a hobby.

Nick D'Aloisio

Social networkingexisted muchbefore Internet

WASHINGTON: Modern-daysocial networks like Facebook andTwitter may help you stay moreconnected, but a new study hasfound that such long-distancenetworks existed even before theadvent of Internet.

Researchers studied thou-sands of ceramic and obsidian ar-tifacts from 1200-1450 AD to learnabout the growth, collapse andchange of social networks in thelate pre-Hispanic Southwest.

The study led by University ofArizona anthropologist BarbaraMills, sheds light on the transfor-mation of social networks andshows that people of that periodwere able to maintain surprisinglylong-distance relationships withnothing more than their feet toconnect them.

They found that early socialnetworks do not appear to havebeen as restricted as expected bysettlements' physical distancefrom one another.

Researchers found that similartypes of painted pottery were be-ing created and used in villagesas far as 250 kilometres apart, sug-gesting people were maintainingrelationships across relativelylarge geographic expanses. -PTI

Videocon eyespan-Indiaoperation

NEW DELHI: VideoconMobile Services, which haspermits to operate in sevencircles out of the country's to-tal 22 circles, has plans to ex-pand services pan-India in aphased manner.

"Videocon had been a na-tional player and had domi-nance in the market place.However, it lost momentumpost the 2G license cancella-tion. We plan to have a na-tional presence again, howeverin a phased manner," VideoconMobile Services CEO and Di-rector Arvind Bali told PTI.

Videocon's 21 licenses wereamong the 122 permitsquashed by the Supreme Courtorder on February 2, 2012. Ithad acquired permits to oper-ate across all circles in 2008.

The company, which re-cently won spectrum in sixcircles for Rs 2,221.44 crore,operates in four circles ofPunjab, Haryana, MadhyaPradesh and Gujarat, atpresent. It aims to add about 6million subscribers in 2013-14.

Sebi plansaction againstnon-compliant firms

KOLKATA: Market watchdogSEBI has said strong action wouldbe taken against companies thatare not complying with minimum25 per cent public shareholdingnorms.

"SEBI has been insisting on aminimum shareholding of 25 percent by the public. There are 200non-PSU companies which werenot complying with the guideline,"SEBI Chairman U K Sinha said at aCII interaction here.

Sinha said that out of the 200,trading has been suspended in 37companies, while 51 companiesare taking no measures to complywith the guideline.

"The deadline for complyingwith the guideline falls on June2013," he said.

"Those who do not follow haveto suffer," Sinha said.

Stating that growth of theeconomy had been largely drivenby bank finance, Sinha said SEBIwould shortly introduce guide-lines for developing the corpo-rate bond market so that theywere actively traded in the stockmarkets.

Interest of the FIIs would havealso to be developed in the corpo-rate bond market, he said. -PTI

Cont’d on page 13

The Chairman of BAE Systems, Dick Olver offering prayers during an event

to handover a mobile hospital van to Smile Foundation, an NGO and

Baptist hospital in Bengaluru

Summly! Thanks to all who havesupported me."

The Evening Standard said theWimbledon youth, who would be-come one of the world's youngesttechnology millionaires, claims tohave created the app as a hobby.

"I didn't realize it was possible

to make money out of it," he wasquoted as saying.

About the new inflow of cash,the youth said: "I like shoes, I willbuy a new pair of Nike trainers andI'll probably get a new computer,

but at the moment I just want tosave and bank it. I don't have manyliving expenses."

Former Google executiveMarissa Mayer took over at Ya-hoo! in July 2012 as part of effortsby the struggling Internet searchpioneer to reinvent itself. -AFP

13India PostTechBiz PostApril 5, 2013

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India's MVAS market todouble to $ 9.5 billion

BANGALORE: Helped by ris-ing penetration of handsets,India's Mobile Value Added Solu-tion (MVAS) market is expected to

a l -most double to USD 9.5 billion by2015 compared to last year, a re-port by IT major Wipro said.

India's MVAS market is esti-mated at USD 4.9 billion in 2012, ajoint report by Wipro Technolo-gies, the global IT consulting andoutsourcing arm of Wipro Ltd, andInternet and Mobile Associationof India (IAMAI) said.

The report, 'Future Thought ofBusiness (FTOB): MVAS', addedthat MVAS market will grow at acompound annual growth rate of25 per cent between 2012 and 2015to reach USD 9.5 billion in 2015 froman estimated USD 4.9 billion in 2012.

"...an expected MVAS revolu-tion in India is being made pos-sible by the dramatic growth in mo-bile device penetration and mobilenetwork capacity and this marketoffers abundant opportunities forgrowth to all industry partici-pants" Wipro Technologies SeniorVP and Global Head (Media and

Telecom) Ayan Mukerji said.However, the basic informa-

tional mobile services are set todecline in India, he added.

The report findings are basedon evaluations of over 450 con-sumers and providers of MVAS in

India in order to iden-tify the major drivers

and barriers of theIndian MVAS mar-ket and provide in-sights that willhelp to grow thismarket.

Domestic mo-bile operators couldfocus on providing

better network andconnectivity and globaloperators could increasetheir base by testing newVAS offerings in the In-dian market, the report said

on the opportunities for differ-ent participants in the Indian MVASmarket, the report said.

Content and VAS technologycould focus on the consumer ex-perience and developing person-alized content and original equip-ment manufacturers could inno-vate with lost cost smart phones

and mobile devices to drive pen-etration, it added.

The research focused on themEducation, mEntertainment,mFinance and mHealth applicationareas and found that there is pentup market demand from consum-ers for sophisticated mobile ser-vices in India.

The report said to realize themarket's full potential, the indus-try requires a collaborative effortacross mobile network operators,telecom equipment vendors andmobile service content providers.

“So far, this market has beenhampered by a lack of services in-novation," said Dr Subho Ray,President, IAMAI.

The research findings revealthat mEntertainment is the largestcontributor to operator MVASrevenues and provides key oppor-tunities in localized vernacularcontent, on-demand music andvideo content and live TV showsand events.

On the other hand, mEducationcan play a key role in expandingthe reach and quality of educationin India, through Interactive En-glish Language Learning Services,Competitive Examination Prepara-tion Solutions, Tutor-on-call andVocational training.

mHealth has the potential toimprove healthcare access andaffordability in India, especiallythrough Remote Diagnostics,Chronic Disease Management andMaternal Care, the report said.

Mobile phones will also play a

key role in extending financial ser-vices to 40 per cent of India'spopulation who are unbanked.

mFinance through Mobile Wal-let Services, Mobile RemittanceServices and Business Correspon-dence Model Based Services willcontribute to MVAS revenues, thereport said. -PTI

The research findings reveal that mEntertainmentis the largest contributor to operator MVASrevenues and provides key opportunities inlocalized vernacular content, on-demandmusic and video content and live TV showsand events. On the other hand, mEducationcan play a key role in expanding the reachand quality of education in India

Engg students prefer IT,Google: Nielsen

NEW DELHI: The InformationTechnology sector is the most pre-ferred choice for India's engineer-ing students, with Google,Microsoft and Infosys emergingas the top three most desired em-ployers among them, according toa survey by market insights andinformation provider Nielsen.

As per the Nielsen's CampusTrack Technology School survey2012, the Class of 2013 is lookingat a starting salary of over Rs 11lakh per annum, a 20 per cent rise

from the previous batch, where theaverage expected starting salarywas Rs 9.3 lakh.

"The IT story in India is goingstrong, and with the increasingfocus on personal technology, thesector and its different specializa-tions are still favored by stu-dents," Nielsen India ExecutiveDirector Dinesh Kapoor said in astatement.

There is also a resurgence ofinterest in core sectors like powerand energy that has been ob-served which is also a good indi-cator for the economy, he added.

According to the survey, thetop five preferences of engineer-ing students were IT Services (35per cent), followed by IT products(28 per cent), energy (21 per cent),

automobile and ancillary sector (20per cent) and IT semiconductor(19 per cent).

Some of the other sectors thatwere highlighted are telecom (18percent), power (18 per cent) andmanagement consultancy (17 percent), it added.

The survey took responses ofover 2,500 students in July

August 2012 across in 73 tech-nology colleges in India to mea-sure and monitor their attitudesand perceptions towards career

preferences and po-tential recruiters.

As far as em-ployer of choicewas concernedamong the engi-neering students,Google topped thelist, with Microsoftin 2nd and Infosys3rd, the survey said.

T A T AConsultancy Ser-

vices was placed 4th and IBMcame 5th. Social networkingwebsite Facebook featured atnumber 6, followed by recruitersin the core sectors of energy andpower -- BHEL (7th), L&T (8th) andNTPC (10th).

When it came to salaries, thecurrent students had higher ex-pectations.

"Students today are very fo-cused from the moment they entercollege, and have a view on theirlong term goals and career aspira-tions. With the increasing optionsnow available, aspirants want togo beyond the immediate bound-aries of their courses, and exploreopportunities that might not havebeen available to them some yearsago," Kapoor said.-PTI

Bali said the company's imme-diate priority is to roll out servicesin three other circles of Bihar, UPEast and UP West.

Bali said that once operationsget into full swing in these circles"in about two years", it will startlooking for operations in other re-gions.

"As a strategy, we shall look atpicking selective licenses, say a

corridor and roll-out, and insteadof bidding for all circles in one go,we shall look at combination ofcircles that form a corridor, for ex-ample South corridor could be ournext opportunity area," Baliadded.

He said the time line for expan-sion will depend on the timing forspectrum auction and the mannerin which government decided toallocate spectrum as well.

He said that the company will

look provide both 2G and 4G ser-vices at 15-20 per cent less ratescompared to price offered in mar-ket.

"In peak hours we will use tech-nology to provide 4G services onwhich people may get data speed(Internet) of up to 9 Megabit persecond (MBPS) and in lean period,say during night, we may use morespectrum that can give peoplespeed of up to 21 MBPS," Bali said.-PTI

Videocon eyes pan-India operation in phased mannerCont’d from page 12

14 India Post TechBiz Post April 5, 2013

www.indiapost.com

Govt clears Airasia, Tata JVproposal for passenger airlines

NEW DELHI: Government ofIndia has cleared Malaysian bud-get carrier AirAsia's proposal tostart a passenger airline in India inpartnership with the Tata Groupwith an investment of Rs 81 crore.

The proposal was cleared bythe Foreign Investment PromotionBoard (FIPB), Finance Ministrysaid in a statement.

AirAsia recently said it would

set up a 49:30:21 joint venture withthe Tata Sons and TelestraTradeplace of Indian investorArun Bhatia to launch a new In-dian airline.

Asked whether AirAsia andTatas have approached his Min-istry, Civil Aviation Minister AjitSingh said: "No, they have notsubmitted any application as

yet."To further questions, he said

there were "some concerns ...some procedural issues" with re-gard to the proposed airline.

"We will look into it quickly.But all that will depend on howfast they provide us the informa-tion regarding safety, aircraft, pi-lots and airworthiness of aircraft.Any clearance will depend on

how fast they give all this infor-mation which will be required bythe DGCA (to grant them a flyingpermit)," the Minister said.

The FIPB clearance wasgranted in accordance with thepolicy which allows up to 49 percent FDI by a foreign carrier inan Indian airline company.

AirAsia is the first foreign air-

line to set up a joint venture inthe Indian passenger airlinesegment after liberalization ofthe FDI policy in the sector lastSeptember.

Following the FIPB clear-ance, the AirAsia joint venturewould now have to approachaviation regulator DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) for further clearances

and a scheduled air operator'spermit.

AirAsia Group CEO TonyFernandes recently said thenew airline would be based inChennai and in the initial phasewould concentrate on destina-tions in south India and wouldalso focus on providing connec-tivity to small towns. -PTI

India is not my top priorityfor investment: Mittal

AHMEDABAD: Unhappy overdelay in getting clearances for hisprojects, the world's largeststeelmaker L N Mittal has said In-dia was not his top priority for in-vestment.

Speaking to newsmen on thesidelines of convocation of IndianInstitute of Management,

Ahmedabad (IIM-A), where hewas the chief guest, Mittal said "Ido not want to give you anytimeline about my Indian projects...experienced so much of delay."

".. India is not in my top prior-ity for investment, it is top priorityas a country but not a top priorityfor investment," Mittal said.

ArcelorMittal, the steel giantbelonging to L N Mittal, had inkedan MoU with Orissa governmentin December 2006 to set up a 12mtpa steel plant in Keonjhar dis-trict at an investment of Rs 40,000

crore but it has been facing delay.Another project of the com-

pany in Jharkhand is also facingdelay.

Meanwhile, sharing his globaloutlook on steel, Mittal said thatdespite the European steel de-mand being down by 30 per cent,emerging countries like India and

China as also Africa will continueto do well.

According to him, global steeldemand would continue to growat around 3.5 per cent.

"In spite of the fact that Euro-pean steel demand is down by 30per cent... there are many coun-tries around the world like Ameri-can region, emerging markets likeIndia, China, Africa, all these coun-tries will continue to grow," Mittalsaid adding globally the demandfor steel would continue to growat 3 to 3.5 per cent. -PTI

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Lakshmi Mittal arrives

to attend the annual convocation of IIM-A

Aakash is alive and kicking: SibalNEW DELHI: A day after Hu-

man and Resource Development(HRD) Minister Pallam Raju ex-pressed concerns over future of

Aakash, IT and Telecom MinisterKapil Sibal said the project for thelow-cost computing device is"alive and kicking" and work is onfor its third and fourth versions.

"I don't want to comment on a

distinguished colleague of mine. Ionly know that as far as we areconcerned Aakash is alive andkicking. For me, it will provide the

platform forthe futureand not justfor childrenbut for allcitizens ofIndia," Sibalsaid in re-sponse toqueries onreports ofu n c e r t a i nfuture ofAakash atN a t i o n a lE d i t o r sConference.

H u m a nResource Development MinisterM M Pallam Raju had earlier saidthat production of Aakash is a chal-lenge.

Production is where the failurehas come in, he had said, adding

that if the production had hap-pened on time students wouldhave had access to the device.

The Aakash project was Sibal'sbrainchild when he was the HRDMinister. The idea is to provide low-cost computing device at subsi-dized rate to students so that theycan access Internet for educationalpurposes. Canadian companyDataWind had bagged a contractto produce the first and secondversions of the Aakash tablet.

Sibal said the HRD Ministrytalked about their contract withDatawind.

"Now, Datawind may have ormay have not complied with theterms of contract. That is betweenthem (the HRD Ministry) andDatawind and they can decidewhat they want to decide...Thathas nothing to do with me," Sibalsaid.

The first version of Aakash wasrolled out in October 2011 and laterin 2012 the second version waslaunched. -PTI

Kapil Sibal

'Challenge of using techto channelize people'

NEW DELHI: The challengebefore government is using tech-nology to channel desire of peopleto participate in governance,Telecom Secretary RChandrashekhar said here.

Speaking at Skoch Summit here,he said there have been trends ofcitizens wanting to get involvedin governance and in specific aswell as generic issues which af-fect the social fabric of the coun-try.

"If you look at technology ....the advent of social mediafacebook, twitter, prevalence ofmobile value added services andso on. They have a profound rela-tionship as we have witnessed

across the world. Look at the kindof mass mobilization that is beingdone which is quintessentially aninstrument of politics....," he said.

Mass mobilization using thetools of technology is a well rec-ognized global phenomenon, forbetter or for worse, he added.

He also cited the example ofArab Spring "where people usingmobilization in the medium tobring in democracy" and Londonriots and "some other eventswithin our own country nearerhome".

"What happens is in the natureof these events; sometimes theseevents have short self-life andtend to taper off.” -PTI

www.indiapost.com April 5, 2013

COMMUNITYACROSS AMERICA

Details on page 2416 India Post

Desi News If God can makeinfinite forms,

He can also takea form

Details on page 24

Details on page 23

Details on page 23

War is the result of silence ofmajority of the good: Sri Sri

VIDYA SETHURAMAN


SAN JOSE, CA: In the BayArea, a campaign to create stress-free, violence-free communitieswas initiated in early February. ALaunch Event was held on Sun-day, March 24 at 4pm at the SanJose Convention Center, whereArt of Living Founder Sri Sri RaviShankar gave the keynote addressinspiring the campaigners to takeaction to combat violence aroundthem through acts of non-violence.

Guest speakers included Dr

James Doty, Founder of Stanford'sCenter for Compassion and Altru-ism Research and Education(CCARE) and Dave Cortese, Su-pervisor, County of Santa Clara.Speakers spoke at length on theimportance of compassionate ser-vice to build communities free ofviolence and stress.

The mission of this campaignis to lead a sustainable Bay Area-wide grassroots movement that brings together thousands of in-dividuals from schools, non-profitorganizations, corporations and

the government in a collaborativeeffort to build a stress-free andviolence-free society.

The Campaign has been en-dorsed by Ro Khanna, formerDeputy Assistant Secretary ofCommerce in Obama Administra-tion and Vivek Paul, ex-CEO Wiproand a VC in Bay Area, as Ambas-sadors. Ash Kalra, CouncilmemberSan Jose; Raj Salwan,Councilmember Fremont; CoreyGin, Leadership and Employee En-richment Program (LEEP), Califor-nia State University East Bay arewholeheartedly championing the

cause. Manycommunityl e a d e r s ,Mayors ofCuper t ino ,F r e m o n t ,M i l p i t a s ,Sunnyvale,city officials,and activists,participatedat the eventwhich was at-tended byover 8000

people from all over the Bay Area.David Cortese currently serves

the Santa Clara County Board ofSupervisors, representing District3 including Milpitas and parts ofSunnyvale and San Jose. He isthe Supervisor of 'The CorazonProject' to get at risk, gang affili-ated teenagers to help fight thecycle of violence within their ownneighborhoods through methodsand acts of non-violence in hopesto stop the violence that contin-ues to plague their community. Hespoke about the work carried out

by his team and how they wereresponsible for bringing back over1000 guns from the community in3 years.

scends to the community. He saidhaving connected with 1000friends in Facebook doesn't meanwe are connected emotionally with

them. Kindness allows species tosurvive, compassion is from heartwere the key points reiterated byhim in the event.

In his keynote address Sri SriRavishankar explained to thecrowd how to get connected withour neighbors and involve our-selves in their joy and sorrow. Hesaid war is the result of silence ofmajority of many good people.Voice of non-violence and sanityshould be heard loud and clear. He

spoke of hisdream on be-ing a "GlobalFamily" withno discrimina-tion of race,color or sex.

Recent in-human inci-dents inUnited Statesand India havemade him workagainst the is-sue of crime

and violence.Dr James Doty spoke on howpeace starts from oneself and tran-

Sri Sri Ravishankarexplained to thecrowd how to getconnected with ourneighbors and in-volve ourselves intheir joy and sorrow

Cont’d on page 19

NRI legal services:A boon forbeleaguered NRIsRAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Corrupt elementsteaming up with street mafias andpolitical thugs in India have beenquite active aggressively grab-bing landed property, a good num-ber of time illegally and thru unau-thorized methods in order to cashin on the real estate boom in re-cent years. Non Resident Indians(NRIs) are among the biggest vic-tims, among others, since most ofthe time they are away from theirland or property.

Anil Narang from Indiana andDharam Paul in Canada (nameschanged) found to their dismaywhile going to Madhya Pradeshand Punjab that their ancestralland had been swallowed by un-authorized tenants and was lit-tered with ramshackle houses andhuts. When they tried to get theirproperty back thru legal channelsthey faced lot of hurdles besidesthreats from street mafias.

Most popular &'Unique' kidsentertainmentVIDYA SETHURAMAN


SANTA CLARA, CA: MostUnique Parties & Ponies is thejolly magic party center whereideas are inspired, created, up-dated and renewed. This is whereMost Unique's "get it all" wasfounded and has flourished fortwenty years! Like no other partycompany, it brings a completeparty package to your home, park,school, camp, parade, festival, cor-porate event or anywhere.

Wells Fargo to lend$55 bn to women-owned businessesIndia Post News Service

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: WellsFargo & Company, America's No.1 small business lender and a lead-

ing lender towomen and di-verse ownedbusinesses, hasannounced acommitment tolend a cumula-

tive total of $55 billion to women-owned businesses in the U.S. bythe year 2020, updating its lend-ing commitment first establishedin 1995.

India Post 17April 5, 2013 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Maha Shivaratri celebration in Fremont TempleAll pics: Neelu Kapoor

April 5, 2013India Post18 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Maa Karunamayi Amma visits Fremont Hindu TempleAll pics: Neelu Kapoor


He reiterated on a no-arms society andasked people to come out of the virtual worldand communicate in person which wouldhelp remove the sense of insecurity in thesociety.

Since its initiation in early February, theStress Free, Violence Free Campaign hasseen over 11,000 acts of non-violence byover 3000 campaigners all across the BayArea. Non-profit organizations such as In-ternational Association for Human Values(IAHV), the Center for Compassion and Al-truism Research and Education (CCARE),Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence,Carry the Vision, Silicon Valley FACES, EverForward Club, Vision Literacy, Stillheart In-stitute, Peninsula JewishCommunity Center, havejoined hands for the coali-tion, and many more arejoining every day.

Major Silicon Valley cor-porations are not only help-ing spread the word aboutthe campaign but also en-couraging their employeesto join the campaign. Someare offering to sponsor the tickets to attendthe launch event. Among the companies thathave partnered are Brocade, Intel, Symantec,Bloom Energy, Cisco, Applied Materials, Ju-niper Networks and Nvidia.

Over 300 volunteers are working to makethis dream come true in the Bay Area. Anumber of pre-launch events have takenplace. On March 9, there was a conferencein Fremont for a "Safe and Peaceful Fre-mont", which was attended by many localofficials including Interim Chief RichardLucero of Fremont Police Department,Councilmember Raj Salwan, non-profit or-ganizations (Rodney Clark of SAVE andGayathri Sundar of Narika), school boardmembers (Desrie Campbell and Lily Mei ofFUSD), and citizens. They all agreed thatauthorities alone couldn't create a safer en-vironment. It has to be done through a col-laboration of all citizens of the city.

The campaign aims to lead a sustainablegrassroots movement that brings together

War is the result of silence ofmajority of the good: Sri Sri

thousands of individuals, non-profit orga-nizations, corporations, and the governmentin a collaborative effort to build a stress-free, violence-free community.

"We want to create a community whereevery member feels connected to a greaterwhole, and is empowered to create positivechange around them," said Sridhar SuriDasika, a software engineer and a volun-teer with the Art of Living Foundation whois also Campaign Manager, Bay Area. "Wewill do this by engaging everyday peopleinto compassionate action, inspiring themto stand together as a collective force ofchange, in turn creating waves of positivechange in the community," he added.About Art of LivingFoundation:

The Art of Living Foundation is a non-profit 501(c) (3) educational and humanitar-ian organization founded by spiritual leaderand humanitarian Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. SriSri's initiatives have benefited more than30 million people worldwide.

The Foundation is one of the UN's larg-est volunteer-based NGOs, and works inspecial consultative status with the UN'sEconomic and Social Council, participat-ing in a variety of committees and activi-ties relating to health, education, sustain-able development, conflict resolution, anddisaster relief.About Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarianleader, spiritual teacher and an ambassa-dor of peace. His vision of a stress-free,violence-free society has united millionsof people the world over through serviceprojects and the courses of The Art of Liv-ing.

Cont’d from page 16

He reiterated on a no-arms societyand asked people to come out of thevirtual world and communicate inperson which would help remove thesense of insecurity in the society

Second phase of San Jose Gurudwara completedVIDYA SETHURAMAN


SAN JOSE, CA: Sikhism is a monotheis-tic religion founded in the 15th century byGuru Nanak. The essence of Sikh teachingis summed up by Guru Nanak as "Realiza-tion of Truth is higher than all else. Higherstill is truthful living". Gurudwara is Guru'sadobe, it is a place of worship in Sikhismwhere the holy Sikh scripture "Sri GuruGranth Sahib" is respectfully placed undera canopy on an elevated platform with apresiding presence.

Sikhs have been living in the UnitedStates for well over one hundred years. Sikhpopulation of San Jose grew exponentially

and this led to the establishment ofgurudwaras to meet the religious needs ofthe growing community.

Jit SinghBainiwal, TejaSingh, and latePyara SinghObhi along withthe other dedi-cated sevadarsfrom the commu-nity founded theSikh GurudwaraSan Jose in 1984.The first func-tion of Sikh cen-ter San Jose was

in 1985 at Aborn Road. In 1994, Gurudwaramade an offer to purchase 40 acres of landon the Quimby Hills. This construction over-came lot of hurdles and was cleared by thecourt in 1998.

In August 2004, the Gurudwara formallymoved to the location at Murrillo Avenue,

not only in elegance and style, but also fora big community. The second phase of con-struction started in 2007 and it was openedon April 10, 2011. It not only establishes apermanent Sikh presence in San Jose, butalso fulfills the dreams of thousands of Sikhswho had been working tireless to realize

their dream. The first phasewas completed in 2004 withthe entire infrastructure for 12million dollars. The secondphase has now been com-pleted with the cost of 20 mil-lion dollars. Bhupinder SinghDhillon along with the currentcommittee members thankedall of the Sadh Sangat sup-port to make this the mostbeautiful gurudwara in theworld.

Cont’d on page 20


Khalsa School, San Jose wasstarted in 1989. The schoolteaches Punjabi and Sikh religiousscriptures to over 625 students ofage 3 to 15. The school operateswith over 150 volunteers inculcat-ing the culture, language and his-tory to the future generations. DrGurinder Pal Singh andPushpinder Kaur were involved inplanning, administration and cur-riculum for the Khalsa School.

The program is scheduled ev-ery Sunday from 1-3 pm. They of-fer kirtan classes coupled withharmonium and tabla teachings.The Khalsa School participates inspeech and kirtan competition atlocal, zonal, state and international

level. They conduct annual sportsevent for kids of all ages. Somevolunteers offer coaching for SAT

program for high school students.The motto of Khalsa School is"Spread the love, Peaceful co-ex-istence", which is the need of hourfor the community.

Free medical services are beingoffered by volunteer organizationsevery Sunday. Last week the ser-vices were rendered by BhagatPuran Singh health initiative stu-dents from UC Berkeley. BhagatPuran Singh Health Initiative wasstarted by a few students from UCDavis and Sac State in an effort toprovide basic healthcare screen-ing and general health/nutritionadvice to underserved and ne-glected communities.

They provide basic healthcarescreening and general health/nu-trition advice, healthcare advice tofight heart disease and diabetes,health knowledge to preventchronic disease. A permanentclinic "Guru Harkrishan Free Medi-cal Clinic" is in the works and willopen in the near future.

Langar is the common kitchenwhere food is served in agurudwara to all the visitors with-out distinction of background forfree. Langar is open to Sikhs andnon-Sikhs alike. San JoseGurudwara is equipped with mod-ern kitchen amenities and servesthe best in class food to all visit-

ing the holy shrine. On a Sunday,the Gurudwara serves food to over5000 people.

The Gurudwara performs Sikhweddings on Saturdays. They dohigh quality live streaming of theweddings which can be accessedby family members of the bride andgroom. This gives an opportunityfor family members living far awayin India or other parts to witnessthe happenings.

Guru Nanak rejected the castesystem and the division of anypeople on the basis of religion,birth, power or wealth and thisgurudwara is helping the commu-nity to spread love.

Second phase of San Jose Gurudwara completedCont’d from page 19

Assembly panel okays Bill on Sikhism in EducationIndia Post News Service

YUBA CITY, CA: A bill intro-duced in the California assemblylast month to seek introduction ofSikhism in higher education cur-riculum has been approved by theassembly appropriation commit-tee.

The bill, called ACR 20, was in-troduced by Assemblyman DanLogue of Yuba City on Feb 20. Itwas co-sponsored by Assembly-man Henry T. Perea.

The bill aimed at recognizingthe contribution of Sikhs in vari-ous fields as well as Sikh tenets ofegalitarianism, equality of women,and tolerance of other religions.

Assemblyman Dan Logue pre-sented the bill to the appropria-tions committee of the Assemblyon March 19. Mayor RubyDhaliwal of San Jaoquin, Dr JasbirSingh Kang of Yuba City and ProfOnkar Singh Bindra of Sacramentogave powerful testimonies in sup-port of the bill.

After hearing them, Committeemembers unanimously approvedthe bill to proceed it to the full as-sembly for vote.

Introducing the bill in February,Assemblyman Dan Logue hadsaid, "I am a proud supporter of

the Sikh community of which mydistrict has the largest communityin the United States in the Yuba-Sutter area. It's about time that theCalifornia State University (CSU)and the University of California(UC) system recognize the impor-tance that Sikhism has as theworld's fifth largest religion."

Prof Onkar Bindra and membersof the Sikh community in Califor-nia had lobbied hard for the bill.

Many organizations, includingthe Punjabi American HeritageSociety of Yuba City and the SikhCouncil of Central Valley, alsowhole-heartedly backed the ef-forts of Assemblyman Logue and

Prof Bindra.Prominent Sikhs

who threw their sup-port behind these ef-forts included DidarSingh Bains,Hardeep Kaur Singh,Gurjatinder SinghRandhawa, SiriPritamKaur Khalsa,Matlesh K Ghuman,Harjit K Bajwa,Charanjit S Bath,Pashura SinghDhillon, Nahar SHeer, Pal SinghBindra, Miky SinghHothi and many oth-ers. Lisa Kaplan ofNatoma School Dis-trict wrote a letter ofsupport.

California is thefirst place in the USwhere Indian immi-grants, mostly from

Punjab, landed more than a hun-dred years ago. And Yuba City isthe first place in the US where thecommunity formed its major clus-ter.

Today, there are over 15,000Punjabis, mostly Sikhs, in YubaCity which has a population ofover 65,000.

California is the firstplace in the US whereIndian immigrants,mostly from Punjab,landed more than ahundred years ago

Assemblyman Dan Logue with prominent Sikh leaders including D Jasbir Kang, Sarb Johl and Dhillon


Not all fats are harmfulCHITRA THAKUR

The war between the goodand the bad is always on.It is essential to know

about them and their use forhealthy living. When given thequestion, what do you know aboutfat; nine out of ten people say Iknow that it's "Bad" for you. Butthat answer is only half correct,just like carbohydrates, not all fatsare created equal.

Fat is a major source of energyfor the body and aids in the ab-sorption of vitamins A,D, E, and K and caro-tenoids. Both animal-and plant-derived foodproducts contain fat,and when eaten in mod-eration, fat is importantfor proper growth, de-velopment, and mainte-nance of good health.

As a food ingredient,fat provides taste, con-sistency and stabilityand helps you feel full. In addi-tion, parents should be aware thatfats are an especially importantsource of calories and nutrientsfor infants and toddlers (up to 2years of age), who have the high-est energy needs per unit of bodyweight of any age group.

The major groups of dietary fatare Unsaturated,(monounsaturated and polyun-saturated) Saturated Trans Fatsand cholesterol. Unsaturated fatsare beneficial when consumed inmoderation, saturated and transfats are not. Saturated fat and transfats raise LDL cholesterol levelsin the blood. Dietary cholesterolalso contributes to heart disease.Therefore, it is advisable tochoose foods low in saturated fat,trans fat and cholesterol as part ofa healthful diet.

Trans fatty acids(hidden fats):

Trans fatty acids are vegetableoils that are partially-hydroge-nated, a process that changes liq-uid oil to a hard fat margarine,Dalda etc. Trans fatty acids arefound in baked goods, fast foods,greasy snack foods (such as movietheatre popcorn or potato chips)and deep fried foods void of nu-trients, and processed foods.Trans fatty acids are the most con-sumed artificial chemical.

Trans fatty acids are known toboost "bad" cholesterol levels(LDL) as do Saturated fats, but

they are more harmful becausethey also lower good cholesterol(HDL). That will increase your riskfor CHD (Coronary Heart Dis-ease).Saturated fats:

Saturated fats such as thosefound in meat at least have theessential nutrients such as proteinand iron, in contrast to trans fattyacids. Eating too many foods richin saturated fats has been associ-

ated with the development of de-generative diseases, includingheart disease and even cancer.

The Real FatPolyunsaturated fats are con-

sidered as essential fats. There aretwo types of essential polyun-saturated fats - Omega-3 andOmega-6.

Omega-3s (and Omega-6s) aretermed essential fatty acids(EFAs) because they are essentialto life and good health. However,the body cannot make them on itsown. For this reason, omega-3smust be obtained from food, thusmaking outside sources of thesefats "essential." At least 30% ofour daily caloric intake shouldcome from good fat.

Omega-3sNutritionists have

come to recognize theimportance of balancingOmega-3 fatty acids withOmega-6 fatty acids inthe diet. Because mostpeople on a typical west-

ern diet consume far more omega-6-rich foods (including cereals, whole-grain bread, baked goods, friedfoods, margarine, and others), theratio is out of balance for almosteveryone. This means for mostAmericans the emphasis now needsto be on increasing omega-3s tomake the ratio more even.

Health Benefits ofOmega 3:

It improves appearance (hair,skin and nails); improves hearthealth; reduces hypertension; im-prove rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,Raynaud's disease, and other au-

toimmune diseases; improves de-pression and symptoms of othermental health problems. It alsoaids in cancer prevention and can-cer support.

DHA is an omega-3 fatty acidand the building block of humanbrain and eye tissue. Your brainrelies on DHA to function opti-mally and is also important forheart health.

Dietary SourcesOmega-6 Fats:

Omega-6 Fats are included inmost whole grains (barley, corn,rice, wheat); most raw fresh nutsand seeds (almonds, peanuts,pumpkin, sunflower); oils (saf-flower, the richest natural source;sesame, hemp, walnut, wheatgerm. Evening Primrose, soy, sun-

flower) and animal products (beef,chicken, pork).Omega-3 Fats:

Omega-3 Fats are found in leafygreen vegetables (broccoli, kale,spinach); beans (lima, navy, pinto,soybeans); some nuts (walnuts,Brazil nuts, flax, hemp); some oils(walnuts, canola, and flax); fish,

As a food ingredient, fatprovides taste, consistencyand stability and helps youfeel full. In addition, parentsshould be aware that fatsare an especially importantsource of calories and nutri-ents for infants and toddlers

Saturated fat and trans fatsraise LDL cholesterol levelsin the blood. Dietarycholesterol also contributesto heart disease

Cont’d on page 22


preferably fatty cold watertype (salmon, anchovy, sardine,herring, mackerel, rainbow trout,swordfish, and fresh tuna) andgrass-fed, free range animalproducts (beef, buffalo, chicken,eggs and lamb).

Fat Recommenda-tions:

Limit fat to 20 percent to 35percent of your daily calories.Emphasize fats from healthiersources such as nuts and olive,canola and peanut oils. Mini-mize polyunsaturated except forOmega 3s

Saturated Fat:Limit yourdaily intake of saturated fat tono more than10 percent of yourtotal calories. For most women,this means no more than 20grams a day, and for most menthis means no more than 24grams a day.

Trans Fats: It should be theleast consumed fat, almost0%.According to the NationalHeart, Lung, and Blood Insti-tute of the National Institutesof Health, more than 12.5 mil-lion Americans have CoronaryHeart Disease (CHD), and morethan 500,000 die each year. Thatmakes CHD one of the leadingcauses of death in the UnitedStates.What is Trans Fat?

Basically, trans fat is madewhen manufacturers add hydro-gen to vegetable oil - a processcalled hydrogenation. Hydro-genation increases the shelf lifeand flavor stability of foods

Not all fats are harmfulCont’d from page 21 containing these fats. Trans fat

can be found in vegetableshortenings, some margarines,crackers, cookies, snack foods,and other foods made with or friedin partially hydrogenated oils.

Unlike other fats, the majorityof trans fat is formed when foodmanufacturers turn liquid oils intosolid fats like shortening and hardmargarine. A small amount of transfat is found naturally, primarily indairy products, some meat, andother animal based foods.

Trans fat, like saturated fat anddietary cholesterol, raises the LDL

cholesterol that increases yourrisk for CHD. Americans consumeon average 4 to 5 times as muchsaturated fat as trans fat in theirdiets. Although saturated fat is themain dietary culprit that raisesLDL, trans fat and dietary choles-terol also contribute significantly.

How can you use the label tomake heart-healthy food choices?

The Nutrition Facts panel canhelp you choose foods lower insaturated fat, trans fat, and cho-

lesterol. Compare similar foodsand choose the food with the lowercombined saturated and trans fatsand the lower amount of choles-terol. Although the updated Nu-trition Facts panel will list theamount of trans fat in a product, itwill not show a Percent Daily Value(%DV).

While scientific reports haveconfirmed the relationship be-tween trans fat and an increasedrisk of CHD, none has provided areference value for trans fat or anyother information that the FDAbelieves is sufficient to establisha Daily Reference Value or a %DV.

There is, however, a %DVshown for saturated fat and cho-lesterol. To choose foods low insaturated fat and cholesterol, usethe general rule of thumb that 5percent of the Daily Value or lessis low and 20 percent or more ishigh. You can also use the %DVto make dietary trade-offs withother foods throughout the day.

You don't have to give up a fa-vorite food to eat a healthy diet.When a food you like is high insaturated fat or cholesterol, bal-ance it with foods that are low insaturated fat and cholesterol atother times of the day.Do dietary supplements containTrans Fat?

Do not be surprised! Some di-etary supplements that may con-tain saturated fat, trans fat, andcholesterol include energy and nu-trition bars.

Fat Tips: Here are some practi-cal tips you can use every day tokeep your consumption of satu-rated fat, Trans fat, and cholesterollow while consuming a nutrition-

ally adequate diet.Check the Nutrition Facts panel

to compare foods because theserving sizes are generally consis-tent in similar types of foods.Choose foods lower in saturatedfat, Trans fat, and cholesterol. Forsaturated fat and cholesterol, keepin mind that 5 percent of the dailyvalue (%DV) or less is low and 20percent or more is high. (There isno %DV for Trans fat.)

Choose alternative fats. Re-place saturated and Trans fats inyour diet with monounsaturatedand polyunsaturated fats. These

fats do not raise LDL cholesterollevels and have health benefitswhen eaten in moderation. Sourcesof monounsaturated fats includeolive and canola oils. Sources ofpolyunsaturated fats include soy-bean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil andfoods like nuts and fish.

Choose vegetable oils (exceptcoconut and palm kernel oils) andsoft margarines (liquid, tub, orspray) more often because theamounts of saturated fat, trans fat,

Unlike other fats, themajority of trans fat isformed when foodmanufacturers turnliquid oils into solidfats like shorteningand hard margarine.A small amount oftrans fat is foundnaturally

You don't have togive up a favoritefood to eat a healthydiet. When a foodyou like is high insaturated fat or cho-lesterol, balance itwith foods that arelow in saturated fatand cholesterol atother times of the day

and cholesterol are lower thanthe amounts in solidshortenings, hard margarines,and animal fats, including but-ter.

Consider fish. Most fish arelower in saturated fat than meat.Some fish, such as mackerel, sar-dines, and salmon, containomega-3 fatty acids, which arebeing studied to determine ifthey offer protection againstheart disease. Choose leanmeats, such as poultry withoutthe skin and not fried and leanbeef and pork, not fried, with vis-ible fat trimmed.

Ask before you order wheneating out. A good tip to remem-ber is to ask which fats are beingused in the preparation of yourfood when eating or orderingout.

Watch calories. Don't befooled! Fats are high in calories.All sources of fat contain 9 calo-ries per gram, making fat the mostconcentrated source of calories.By comparison, carbohydratesand protein have only 4 caloriesper gram.To keep your intake of satu-rated fat, Trans fat, and choles-terol low:

Look at the Nutrition Factspanel when comparing products.Choose foods low in the com-bined amount of saturated fatand trans fat and low in choles-terol as part of a nutritionallyadequate diet.

Substitute alternative fats thatare higher in mono and polyun-saturated fats like olive oil,canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil,and sunflower oil.

Indian descent Yhip honored as role model for young womenIndia Post News Service

ROSEMEAD, CA: "Work hard,decide what you want and workto get there." That's the advicechemist Kathleen Yhip givesyoung girls who are interested incareers in the science, technology,

engineering and math (STEM)fields.

Yhip, the technical assistant tothe site vice president at South-ern California Edison (SCE)'s SanOnofre Nuclear Generating Sta-

tion, tells girls not to wait for per-mission to succeed in the STEMfields. That advice has held truefor Yhip who has worked at theSan Onofre nuclear power plantsince 1984, starting as a chemistrytechnician.

Since then, Yhip has risen

through the ranks as a chemistryengineer and the chemistry envi-ronmental engineering supervisor,a position she held from 1987 to1992. Prior to her current role, Yhipwas a senior project manager in

nuclear regulatory affairs for thenuclear plant from 1992 to 2008,responsible for developing tech-nical positions and compliancewith environmental requirements.Along the way, she has been in-volved with the Nuclear EnergyInstitute, the Electric Power andResearch Institute, the HealthPhysics Society and the AmericanNuclear Society.

As SCE celebrates Women'sHistory Month in March and Di-versity Month in April, Yhip isbeing honored as a role model foryoung women.

"Kathleen Yhip is an outstand-ing role model for young womenwho dream of success in theSTEM fields," said Doug Bauder,SCE vice president and stationmanager. "She reminds us thatwomen can reach the pinnacle ofscientific achievement and excel in

fields that have been traditionallymale-dominated."

During her career at the SanOnofre nuclear plant, Yhip hasworked with representatives from

103 other U.S. nuclear plants, shar-ing experiences on strategic plan-ning, business planning and haz-ard response and with variousstate and federal entities on policy

issues."We are constantly learn-

ing new things and develop-ing ways to improve our-selves and our industry," saidYhip. "The ability to learn andchallenge myself keeps memotivated."

Yhip has always given backto local nonprofit organiza-tions, making time to volun-teer on the board of the Gayand Lesbian Community Ser-vices Center of OrangeCounty. She is also active inthe breast cancer fight as avolunteer for Susan G. Komenfor the Cure Orange County.

Said Doug Bauder, SCE vice president andstation manager, "She reminds us thatwomen can reach the pinnacle of scientificachievement and excel in fields that havebeen traditionally male-dominated”

Kathleen Yhip Cont’d on page 23


Of Chinese and Indian descent,Yhip was born in the Bahamas toparents from Guyana. Her parentspushed her to study the sciences,encouraging extra homework as-signments. "They set the patternfor my life," said Yhip. She latergraduated from the Florida Insti-tute of Technology.

Yhip remains thankful to hermentors. "Nuclear power plantsare a male-dominated workplace,but there have been a lot ofchanges since 1980," she said. "Iam lucky to have a manager who

mentored women and facilitatedour professional growth."

While Yhip admits that her fo-cus for 2013 will be improving herwork and home life balance, shesays having the encouragement offamily has been critical to her suc-cess.

For girls looking to follow in herfootsteps in the field of nuclearenergy, Yhip says maintaining thehighest level of integrity is crucial.

"Establish your own standardsand stick to them," she said. "Anddon't be afraid to ask questions.Don't let anyone tell you that youcan't or you shouldn't."

Indian descent Yhip honored asrole model for young women


Akal Takhat panel condemnsRochester Gurudwara's Kirpan ban

Wells Fargo to lend $55 bn towomen-owned businesses


A seven-member committeeappointed by the AkalTakhat recommended last

month that the five jathedars dis-cipline the trustees of theGurudwara of Rochester for peti-tioning a New York court to im-pose a ban on Kirpans.

"The Judge approved theKirpan ban after the (board oftrustees) showed that it is a dan-gerous weapon," said SatpalSingh Khalsa, coordinator of thecommittee, in a Feb. 15 letter toJathedar Gurbachan Singh.

He took particular aim at thehead trustee, Santokh Badesha,who does not keep his Kesh norcarry a Kirpan but gave affidavitsin court that he is an AmritdhariSikh, court documents state.

"His statements and affidavits areblasphemous and sacrilegious tothe Sikh religion," Khalsa said. "Myhumble recommendations, after dis-

cussing the matter with our commit-tee members, is that (Badesha),along with his team members, mustbe brought to the book so that noother Sikh dares to insult the Sikhreligion, its democratic values, bap-tized Khalsa Panth, the Sikh way oflife and the core principles and foun-dations of our Sikh faith."

The consequences of impos-ing any restriction - by agurudwara - are significant notonly in the United States but allover the world, committee mem-bers said. Sikhs are regularly in-volved in court cases for the rightto wear Kirpans, whether it is infederal buildings, court houses,airports or schools.

"If we argue that a Kirpan is anarticle of faith and we should beallowed to wear it, it becomes moredifficult to defend (our position) ifa gurudwara itself has banned it,"said Satpal Singh, a committeemember. He is not related to SatpalSingh Khalsa.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA: WellsFargo & Company, America's No.1 small business lender and a lead-ing lender to women and diverseowned businesses, has an-nounced a commitment to lend acumulative total of $55 billion towomen-owned businesses in theU.S. by the year 2020, updating itslending commitment first estab-lished in 1995.

March was National Women'sHistory Month and Wells Fargohas a rich history of working withwomen business owners and pro-viding them access to capital andfinancial services. Since introduc-ing the women's lending commit-ment 18 years ago, Wells Fargo hasprovided more than $38 billion incapital to women business own-ers. Today, approximately 30 per-cent of businesses in the U.S. areowned by women, according tothe National Women's BusinessCouncil.

"Women-owned businesses

are among America's fastest grow-ing segments, and we want to helpwomen grow their businesses,stay competitive, contribute to theeconomy and create jobs," saidTerry Lachenbruch, small business

division manager, Greater Bay arearegion, Wells Fargo. "Wells Fargois honored to support women-owned businesses and help ourcustomers succeed financially."

Wells Fargo's first lending com-mitment in 1995 established a goal

to lend $1 billion to women busi-ness owners over three years. Fu-eled by the continued growth ofwomen business owners, the goalwas increased, most recently in2003.

In addition to the cumulativelending goal, Wells Fargo sup-ports numerous outreach effortsto build relationships with womenbusiness owners and help them tosucceed financially. Wells Fargois a proud supporter of the Na-tional Association of Women Busi-ness Owners (NAWBO) and theWomen Presidents' Organization,as well as several other organiza-tions focused on the education,growth and advancement ofwomen business owners.

Wells Fargo provides the fullarray of financial products andservices to satisfy all of the finan-cial needs of women-owned busi-nesses, such as banking, businessloans and lines of credit, creditcards, payroll, merchant services,insurance, retirement planning,and online resources.

In addition to thecumulative lendinggoal, Wells Fargosupports numerousoutreach efforts tobuild relationshipswith women businessowners and helpthem to succeedfinancially

NRI legal services: A boon for beleaguered NRIsRAMESH SOPARAWALA


CHICAGO: Corrupt elementsteaming up with street mafias andpolitical thugs in India have beenquite active aggressively grab-bing landed property, a good num-ber of time illegally and thru unau-thorized methods in order to cashin on the real estate boom in re-cent years. Non Resident Indians(NRIs) are among the biggest vic-tims, among others, since most ofthe time they are away from theirland or property.

Anil Narang from Indiana andDharam Paul in Canada (nameschanged) found to their dismaywhile going to Madhya Pradesh

and Punjab that their ancestralland had been swallowed by un-authorized tenants and was lit-tered with ramshackle houses and

huts. When they tried to get theirproperty back thru legal channelsthey faced lot of hurdles besidesthreats from street mafias.

To their dismay, they alsofound it was not easy for them toget competent attorneys wellversed in laws of the land and withcourage to face the wrath ofmafias backed by corrupt politi-cal clouts.

Comes then Nidhi Singh, ayoung practicing attorney inPunjab who picked up the cudgelback in 2000 to take up the casesof hapless victims, mostly NRIs,from across the globe, and pitchlegal battles to thrash these de-mons in their dens.

In less than a decade, Nidhi 'slaw firm, NRI Legal Servicesheadquartered in Chandigarh,won confidence and accoladesfrom its clients world-wide and

has now blossomed into a fullfledged facility providing host ofservices - Land Search ,Transferof Land & Property, Partition of

Land and Property , Check IllegalTransfer / Sale/Occupation re-lated issues ,Landlord / TenantDisputes ,Real Estate / Buying &Selling of property ,Successioncertificates/Will/POA - withtwelve attorneys at its head of-fice and 300 plus associate attor-neys working for it across thecountry

Huge success and a greatsurge in business induced NidhiSingh to branch out abroad. Thelaw firm is probably the first onefrom India to have overseas fa-cilities. It had already marked itspresence in UK, Canada and Aus-tralia and has now come to theUS too.

Chicago office officials Dahyabahi Prajapati and Vijay Puniyani

Nidhi Singh, founder NRI Legal Services now turned Mindsprings (India)

Cont’d on page 25


Most popular & 'Unique' kids entertainmentVIDYA SETHURAMAN


SANTA CLARA, CA: Most Unique Par-ties & Ponies is the jolly magic party centerwhere ideas are inspired, created, updatedand renewed. This is where Most Unique's"get it all" was founded and has flourishedfor twenty years! Like no other party com-

pany, it brings a complete partypackage to your home, park,school, camp, parade, festival,corporate event or anywhere.

Imagine a humorous kidfriendly magic show, that amaz-ingly produces two or three ofour adorable trained pets, abunny, a dove, a guinea pig.

Or a whole pet-ting zoo. Thethrill of a realm i n i a t u r ehorse for pet-ting, andponycart rides!E v e r y o n ewants bubbles and safefacepaint that washes offwith water.

Kids love the 'Unique'balloon animals, hats andswords, and the fun andlively games it brings. Andwhat about the humorousand sometimes educational

puppet shows? They keep writing and re-cording them, with music, sound effectsand…naturally, kids silliness.

For giggles sake, there are the mascotcostumes? Over two hundred charactersdwell in their warehouse, including heroes,princesses, clowns, magicians, tigers, bears,monkeys and many popular TV and moviestars…with quality big heads, fat clean bod-

ies, feet and gloves.With Unique you get it all - magic,

facepaint, balloons, bubbles, puppets, twocharacters (one with a human face, the otherwith big head) and games.

If God can make infinite forms,He can also take a form

SWAMI MUKUNDANANDA

Spiritual practices all over the worldcommonly describe the qualities ofGod as all powerful, almighty, omni-

present, divine etc. But there are conflict-ing views on the form that God possesses.

While some practices are based on the con-cept of a formless God, others preach aboutGod in personal form.

Moreover, most people today are over-whelmed by the large number of forms ofGod described in Hinduism. Though thisspeaks great volumes about the depth ofthis religion, which was originally called the'sanatan dharma' or the 'eternal religion' inVedas, people find it bewildering and mis-

understand the concept of Supreme Abso-lute Truth as stated in the Vedas and scrip-tures.

In this article Swami Mukundananda hasclarified some very basic doubts that people

have regarding the form ofGod. He says there is oneSupreme God, and he is all-powerful. He has createdthis world around us, whichis full of shapes and forms.If God can make a world withinfinite forms, He also hasthe ability to take on a formhimself. If we say that hecannot have a form, then wedo not accept him as the all-powerful God. And if we ad-mit that he is all-powerful,then we must also acceptthat he possesses the powerto manifest in a personalform.

At the same time, God isalso formless. He exists ev-erywhere in the world. Forhim to be all-pervading, it isnecessary that he shouldalso be formless.

Hence, the Vedas statethat there are both aspectsto God's personality:

Dvevavabrahmanoroope…(ChandogyaUpanishad)

"God is formless and All-pervading, buthe also manifests in a personal form." Inthe Vedic tradition, we are fortunate that wehave descriptions of the personal forms ofGod, such as Shree Krishna, Shree Ram,Lord Shiv, Lord Vishnu, etc.

Swami Mukundananda

Cont’d on page 26


It launched its office in Skokie-Chicago recently with two frontranking real estate business per-sons - Dahyabhai Prajapati andVijay Puniyani - in charge. It al-ready has chalked out plans go-ing to New York, New Jersey andAtlanta. "We will be there and inthe West coast in the course ofnext six to eight months," beamedVijay Puniyani confidently.

Nidhi Singh, the founder NRILegal Services with a doctorate inhistory and a law degree under herbelt, has excellent interpersonalskills and the ability to establish

and effective working relationswith people in multi-cultural envi-ronment. In a talk to this paper shesaid that NRI Legal Services isuniquely positioned as a legal man-agement company to help NRIswith monitoring, supervising, rep-resenting them for both in-courtand out of court work, to protecttheir land and properties in India."

"We are not a restrictive lawfirm but operate on a much moreflexible platform obviating the

need for our clients to be person-ally present in India. Our experi-enced team of 300 plus lawyersacross the country ensure a com-plete circle of protection penetrat-

ing almost every part of rural andurban India."

NRI Legal Services, whichturned Mindsprings (India) Pri-vate Limited in 2006, basks underits reputation of transparency anda great degree of success. NidhiSingh said that the rate of successis "nearly ninety percent as wewould not touch a case which haspoor chance of success legally oris timed out by circumstances be-yond control." Another reason for

success is that "we quote a par-ticular fee before accepting a briefand we stick by it gain or loss andthis lends to a great transparencyin our dealings."

NRI legal services: A boon for beleaguered NRIs

She further observed that alltheir offices overseas in India andabroad are well equipped with topof the art technology that includesintegration of voice communica-tion through VOIP and videoconferencing. The overseas of-fices are also directly linked upwith their offices in India and theonline case management systemmakes all information available tothe clients fast and quick.

"Our mission is to ensure thatno matter in which part of Indiathe property is located or legal is-sue is pending in the court, ourteam will always be able to coordi-nate, supervise, monitor and re-port all progress and updates toour clients," she pointed out.Another thing that she assertedwas that no matter what "we willfight only thru legal channels andwould not indulge in hanky panky

or muscle business."Vijay Puniyani of Chicago of-

fice said that he would not havevouched for the company had henot visited the Chandigarh officeor had talks with some of thecompany's clients in UK andCanada. "The service provided byNRI Legal Services headed byNidhi Singh is a real boon to manya beleaguered NRI and I have nohesitation in saying that we willhave the same measure of successthat the company has achieved inIndia," he said.

Dahyabhai Prajapati, besidesbeing a real estate magnate, hasextensive involvement in commu-nity organizations like Manav SevaMandir. He asserted that NRIs doneed a reliable platform in India forprotecting their property and prop-erty rights. "Our company will meetthis need fully," he added.


Attorneys meet at NRI Legal Service office

Staff at work in office

Chicago leader recognized for communal harmonyHARISH RAO

Members of Sarva Dharma Parishad Left to Right: Haji Maqsood Ahmed, Chairman, City Improvement Council; Sister Kanti of the Convent School; Sher Rajput

(wearing honor turban and shawl); Mahant Shree Somgiri Jee Maharaj; J. Kalla, Rajasthan Congress Party Chief; Moulana Abdul Wahid;

Sardar Inder Singh, Chief of Gurduwara Sahib.

Sher Mohammad Rajput with turban

and Plaque

CHICAGO: A front ranking In-dian community leader and an of-fice bearer of Indo American Cen-ter and Trustee East-West Uni-versity Chicago, SherMohammed Rajput has baggedthe distinct recognition fromSarva Dharma Sabha Rajasthanfor his efforts in promoting com-

munal harmony and interfaithdialogues.

Rajput was given the title ofAmbassador of Interfaith Har-mony award at a well attendedevent recently in Bikaner with aplaque, ceremonial honor turbanand shawl. Rajput's daughter,Rachel M. Rajput, of San Fran-

cisco, who was visiting Indiawith her father, also attended theevent. "Sarv Dharam Sabha", agrand council consists of thefour major religious faiths ofRajasthan - Christian, HinduMuslim and Sikh

In a talk to this paper, SherMohammed said that he was In-

dian first and had deep commit-ment to promoting harmonyamong followers of all religions.He was honored to receive thisaward and had written to theGujarat government that hewould strive his best to promotecommunal amity in the State.

He commended CM Narendra

Modi for his recent efforts to winback trust from the minority com-munity and felt that Gujarat couldturn out to be a shining examplefor communal peace for thewhole of India.


Question: The ancient scripturesdescribe that "The bliss of thepersonal form of God is exceed-ingly sweeter than that of theformless Brahman." How is thistrue? Please elaborate.

Swami Mukundananda: Con-sider an example to understandthis point. Let us say that a womanis carrying a baby in her womb.Although she has not seen herbaby as yet, she is happy at thethought that soon she will becomea mother. After a few months, thebaby is born and starts growingup. The mother holds her two year-old baby in her lap with great love.Now, ask that mother, "The joy youare experiencing from your babynow, is it the same as the joy yougot when the baby was in yourwomb."

The mother will say, "What areyou saying? That was ninemonths of pain. This is real bliss. Ican see my little daughter, hug her,hear her childish chatter, see herinnocent pastimes and serve her.When she was in the womb, it wasjust a feeling that I have a baby."

Similarly, those who worshipthe formless Brahman cannot seetheir Lord; they cannot witnesshis sweet leelas; they cannot hearthe enchanting sound of his flute,or feel the love of His embrace.They can only experience him intheir minds.

But the worshippers of God inhis form as Bhagavan are able tosee the divine form of his BelovedLord, participate in his sweet pas-times, and serve him to theirheart's content. They experience

all the sweetness of the names,forms, qualities, pastimes, abodesand associates of God.

Hence, the highest Bliss of Godis attained from His personal formas Bhagavan. This is calledpremanand, or divine love bliss.It is innumerable times sweeterthan brahmanand, the bliss of theformless Brahman.

Q: Why does the Bhagavad Geetasay that worshipping the Form-less is very difficult for the em-bodied soul?

SM: Since eternity, we havebeen habituated to interacting withpeople and things possessing

If God can make infinite forms, He can also take a formforms, shapes, attributes, etc. Soour mind is naturally accustomedto forms. If we engage in medita-tion on the formless brahman, it isagainst our nature.

If you were asked to observe alight for six hours and contemplateon it, you would probably not beable to do so. Instead, if you wereasked to see a wonderful drama,with a great story, attractive ac-tors and lots of action, you wouldthoroughly enjoy it, and easily sitthrough the entire session.

Similarly, Shree Krishna says:Kleshodhikatarasteshamavakt-asaktachetasam …(BhagavadGita)

"For the embodied soul it is verydifficult to meditate on theunembodied Brahman; the path ofworshipping the formlessBrahmanis full of difficulties."

Since our mind is drawn to-wards sweetness, it is easily at-tracted to the bliss of the personalform of God. This is calledpremanand. In this, we can alsotake advantage of all the nectar-ine descriptions of the lovingleelas of God, which have beendescribed in the scriptures, forturning our mind towards Him.Q: In Hinduism, we have manyGods - Krishna, Ram, Shiv,Vishnu, Durga, etc. Are they alldifferent Gods? And if so, aresome of them bigger than the oth-ers?

SM: The answer to this ques-tion is that these are not differentGods; they are different forms ofthe same Supreme Lord.

We too have many personali-ties. When a man goes to office,he is dressed formally. When he

takes a walk in the park, he isdressed semi-formally. And whenhe is at home, he is dressed veryinformally. His wife does not be-come confused, thinking, "I hadmarried one man. How come I havethree husbands?" She knows verywell that these are three differentappearances of her one husband.Similarly, Krishna, Ram, Shiv,Vishnu, etc. are all different formsof the same one God. We shouldnot consider any one of these asbigger or smaller than the others.This is stated in the Vedas:Ekamsantambahudhaykalpyanti

"The Absolute Truth is one but

it has been described in a varietyof ways by the Saints."

While comparing the exampleof a worldly person with God, wemust also note the difference. Aworldly person is not all-power-ful; he cannot exist in all threeplaces at the same time. However,God is supremely powerful. Hecan manifest in as many forms asHe wishes and exist in all of themsimultaneously. Hence, he eter-nally exists in the forms of Krishna,Ram, Shiv, Vishnu, etc. The truedevotee respects all these formsof God, although doing devotionto any one of them.Q: If there are so many forms ofGod that we can choose to medi-tate on, how does one decidewhich God to worship?

SM: Although Ram, Durga,Krishna, Shiva, Hanuman etc areall different forms of the one Su-preme Lord, yet it is advisable tofocus your devotion on a singleform. There is a Hindi saying:Eksadhe sab sadhe, sab sadhe

sab jaay"If you focus all your attention

on a single activity, you will suc-ceed in it. But if you try to suc-ceed in multifarious things at thesame time, you will fail in all ofthem." With the same logic, if youtry to love all the forms of God,you will end up loving none. Butif you focus your mind in devo-tion to one form, you will developlove for all of them. So you mustchoose one form to worship, whichis called "Ishta Dev", or thedevotee's chosen form of God fordevotion.

Now in deciding your IshtaDev, you must consider whichform of God is attractive to themind. If your Ishta Dev has a beau-tiful form and wonderful pastimesyou will find it much easier to medi-tate on Him.

By hearing and chanting thosepastimes (leelas), devotees in-crease their love for God. Fromboth these viewpoints, devotionto Shree Ram and Shree Krishnais both sweet and easy. Hence,they are also the most popularIshtaDevs in India. Their sweetpastimes are lovingly sung andremembered in temples and housesin every part of the country.

Amongst them, Shree Krishnamanifests four special nectars,above and beyond any other Ava-tar of God:

1. Exceptionally attractiveform (His famous three-fold bend-ing form with a flute on his lips).

2. Amazing sweetness ofhis flute that attracts even LordShankar.

3. The sweetest childhoodpastimes that enchant the mind.

4. Loving leelas that revealhow God forgets his almightinessbecause of the love of his devo-tees.

For all these reasons, it ishighly recommended to makeShree Krishna and his divine con-sort, Shree Radha Rani, as yourIshta Dev. However, if you decideto choose any other forms of God,that is also fine.Q: What about the celestialdevatas such as Indra, Varun,Kuber, Agni, Vayu, etc? What istheir status in comparison to theSupreme God?

SM: These devatas live in thehigher planes of existence withinthis material world, called swarg.The devatas are not God; they aresouls like all of us. They occupyspecific posts in the administra-tion of the world.

Consider the Federal govern-ment of a country. There is a Sec-retary of State, Finance Secretary,Industries Secretary, AgricultureSecretary, and so on. These areposts, and chosen people occupythose posts for a limited tenure.At the end of the tenure, the gov-ernment changes, and all the post-holders change too. The posts of


With the same logic, if you try to love all theforms of God, you will end up loving none.But if you focus your mind in devotion to oneform, you will develop love for all of them.So you must choose one form to worship,which is called "Ishta Dev", or the devotee'schosen form of God for devotion

If you were asked to observe a light for sixhours and contemplate on it, you wouldprobably not be able to do so. Instead, if youwere asked to see a wonderful drama, with agreat story, attractive actors and lots of ac-tion, you would thoroughly enjoy it, and eas-ily sit through the entire session

Secretary of State etc do not ceaseto exist, but the persons holdingthe posts change.

Similarly, in the governance ofthe world, there are posts such asAgniDev (the god of fire), VayuDev (the god of the wind), VarunDev (the god of the ocean),IndraDev (the king of the celestialgods), etc. Souls selected by vir-tue of their deeds in past lives oc-cupy these seats for a certainamount of time. Then they are re-moved from their positions andothers occupy these seats. Hence,souls get these posts of AgniDev,Vayu Dev, IndraDev, Varun Dev,etc only temporarily.

We cannot compare them to theSupreme Lord who is the all-pow-erful, eternal creator, maintainerand annihilator of the world. Thisdistinction should be borne inmind between the various formsof Bhagavan, or God, and the ce-lestial gods, or devatas.

Many people worship the ce-lestial gods for material rewards.However, we must remember thatthese devatas cannot grant eitherliberation from material bondageor God-realization. Even if theydo bestow material benefits, it isonly by the powers they have re-ceived from God. Thus, ShreeKrishna says in the Bhagavad Gitathat people who worship the ce-lestial gods are less intelligent.Those who are situated in knowl-edge worship the Supreme Lord.

Swami Mukundananda is aworld renowned spiritual teacherfrom India, and is the senior dis-ciple of Jagadguru ShreeKripalujiMaharaj and founder ofJK Yog. He has received his de-

grees in engineering from worldrenowned institutes in India, IITand IIM. He has inspired peopleall over the world on the path ofspirituality, holistic health, yoga,meditation, service to society andGod realization. This year,Swamiji will be conductingweeklong programs in 30+ citiesof USA from April onwards. Formore information visit: http://www.jkyog.org/ or contact:[email protected]

To attend Swamiji's Yoga, Medi-tation and Spiritual Discourses inUSA, see the schedule for your city:www.jkyog.org/2013

The highest Bliss ofGod is attained fromHis personal form asBhagavan. This iscalled premanand,or divine love bliss.It is innumerabletimes sweeter thanbrahmanand, thebliss of the formlessBrahman


State Dept honors IndianProfessor in Tulsa

MARIA GENAY-SHOOK

UIC Indian students presentgreat cultural show

TULSA, OK: Dr. Anil K. Kaul,an Associate Professor of obstet-rics and gynecology and directorof clinical laborato-ries at OklahomaState University Cen-ter for Health and Sci-ences, recently re-ceived the Expedition-ary Service Awardfrom the UnitedStates Department ofState.

The service awardis presented to em-ployees in the USState Departmentwho serve in desig-nated field locations.Dr Kaul, who servedas a senior health ad-visor in Iraq for theUS Department ofState, received theaward for providingsuccessful service inan arduous and diffi-cult field location. The award in-cluded a certificate signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintonand a lapel pin.

"This award is presented ingrateful recognition of your com-mitted service in extraordinary andarduous conditions during yourfield assignment in Iraq," Clintonwrote on the certificate. "In spiteof your constant danger and diffi-

culty, your contribution to recon-struction, stability and peace re-flect great credit on yourself and

on the US Department of State."Kaul earned his degree from

Madras Medical College of Ma-dras University and dental degreefrom King Georges Medical Col-lege, both in India. He had hisMaster's in public health adminis-tration from the University of Min-nesota School of Public Health.Kaul joined the faculty at OSUCenter for Health Sciences in 2007.

Recognition certificate from US State Dept

Dr Anil Kaul

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: Students from theIndian Students Association (ISA)recently hosted a sold out, dy-namic Cultural Show showcasingdance styles prevailing across In-dia besides a variety of culturaldance mixes with Bollywoodsongs. It was India Night FlameFair Awards 2013 at University ofIllinois Forum in Chicago.

This year, the show's theme wasTribute to renowned Bollywoodlegend filmmaker late YashChopra. The show featured actssuch as the Nrutya Kalashree,Brownwashed Part II, Pyaar Mein

Twist 3,F r e s h t a c u l a r ,Raag N' Roll, Min-istry of Bhangra,UIC Bhangra,ISA BoardDance, ChicagoDhamaal, UICDange Raas andNazaara.

The audito-rium was bustlingwith excited par-ents and friendsof the performersand invitees.Many studentparticipants be-longed to differ-ent Chicago uni-versities likeDePaul and hencethere was a cross

city ethnic mix in the audience.The students emceeing the

event did a remarkable job enter-taining the crowd with hilarioussketches interspersed betweenprogram items. There were five Co-MCs who shared the podium mak-ing the audience laugh, and bringtears of joy.

Monika and Axita did an excel-lent job while presenting vote ofthanks.

ISA Board: Lisa Patel (Co-Presi-dent), Shani Chibber (Co-Presi-

dent), Krishna Modi (Sec-retary), Axita Patel (CulturalChair), Monika Sharma(Cultural Chair), AmiShishodia (Social Chair),Bansri Thakkar (SocialChair), Selwyn Varghese(Publicity Chair), NikeshShah (Publicity Chair),Shivam Thakkar (Public Re-lations), Shivani Patel(Community Outreach), JayShah (Webmaster), ParthShah (Freshman Rep),Neema Patel (FreshmanRep), Jay Patel (FreshmanRep) and Alex Oommen(Treasurer).

Masters of Ceremony Shivam Thakkar, Selwyn Varghese, Jay Shah, Dhruv

Patel, and Sahaj Shah

Axita Patel and

Jay Patel take

front stage as

they dance to

the classic

songs of Yash

Raj films during

the ISA Board

Dance

Lead dancer Aahlad Vadrevu shows off his team's choreography as Chicago

Dhamaal takes over the stage

Chicago Dhamaal

amazes the crowd

with their stunning

dance moves and

synchronization

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS

1 Meethi Boliyaan: Kai Po Che!

2 Manjha: Kai Po Che!

3 Aake Tere Kareeb:

Ammaa Ki Boli

4 Shubhaarambh: Kai Po Che!

5 Mat Aazma Re: Murder 3

6 Saajna: I Me Aur Main

7 Kaise Bataaoon: 3G

8 Surmayee: Ammaa Ki Boli

9 Naino Mein Sapna:

Himmatwala

10 Dhak Dhak: Nautanki SaalaSonakshi Sinha seems to have found new passion in dancing. She left all of us inawe when she matched step to step with India's best dancer Prabhu Deva in themovie "OMG: Oh my God!".

She turned into a item girl for the movie "Himmatwala" with the song "Thank Godits Friday". And for this song, Sonakshi learnt the famous "Moonwalk" step of leg-endary singer/dancer Michael Jackson. Incidentally this step was shown by directorSajid Khan.

Sources say Sajid Khan, himself got on the dance floor to teach Sonakshi the'Moonwalk'. He saw that the way Sonakshi was doing the step was a little differentthan how it should be. So he went on the dance floor and had some fun on the dancefloor and also taught Sonakshi. Actually Sajid himself is a great dancer and during hiscollege days, he performed this Moonwalk step in lots of dance competitions.

It seems that genes of his sister and star choreographer Farah Khan have rubbedon to Sajid Khan. He said, "The song has a retro feel to it, that is why I decided toinclude the famous step of that era. Sonakshi is a fabulous dancer and she showed itin the song. I was barely of help".

The chemistry between former 'it' couple of B-Town RanbirKapoor and Deepika Padukone at the launch of their upcoming film's trailer confirmed that their return on screen

would be an exciting one.They were launching the first promo of Yeh Jawaani Hai

Deewani, directed by Ayan Mukerji and produced by Karan Johar,in Mumbai.

Ranbir came to Deepika's rescue when she faltered on a ques-tion about her tattoo. Deepika had inked 'RK' on her nape whilethey were courting and promoting their 2008 film Bachna AeHaseeno. When asked if she would do something similar while

With Priyanka's Babli Badmaashand Sunny Leone's Laila be-ing talk of the town, the lead-

ing actress of the film Kangana Ranautis feeling sidelined.

So much so, that the actor even re-fused to be a part of the music launch ofthe film, Shootout at Wadala.

A leading publication quoted an in-dustry insider as saying, "Kangana feelsshe's being kept away despite playingthe female lead and Manya Surve's(played by John Abraham) love interestafter PC (with Babli Badmaash) andSunny Leone (with Laila) took centrestage at the film's recent music launch.She's upset about the developments anddoesn't want to promote the film.

Ekta even explained to her that shehas an important part to play in the pro-motions, but she just doesn't see rea-son, upsetting Ekta and Sanjay.

promoting YHD, Ranbir re-torted: "Getting a tattoodone for promotions is re-ally silly. I don't think actorsin Bollywood, do things

only for promotion and marketing. We also have our personal lifeand you should respect that."

"Deepika is a very pretty actress and it is not difficult to actbeing in love with her. Since our first film, I have seen that shehas grown a lot as an actor," Ranbir said.

Deepika too praised Ranbir. "I have never seen him preparefor a role. However difficult the scene, he is perfect. Looking athim now, I feel proud," she said.

However, Deepika brushed off talks about them getting backtogether as she said every possible thing had been thought ofbefore they agreed to work together.

April 05, 2013India Post www.indiapost.com28

HimmatwaliIndia Post 29April 05, 2013

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

Tamanna made her Bollywood debut in the year2005 with Chand Sa Roshan Chehra. The ac-tress then headed southwards.

The 23-year-old will soon be seen opposite AjayDevgn in the remake of the 1980s hit flick, Himmatwala.She will be playing Sridevi's part in the film.

On being compared to Sridevi, Tamanna says, "Themovie made Sridevi an icon in that era and no one canrecreate that magic. But my role too has substanceand I have tried my level best to do justice to it. Also Iam a huge fan of Srideviji so this role will be my tributeto her."

Tamanna had an awesome time shooting with AjayDevgn. Talking about her on screen romance with the43-year-old, she says, "As actors when we are on afilm set we play the character, irrespective of our age.That is how we are tuned to think so there is no agebarrier. I was as comfortable doing a romantic sceneas any other scene."

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old has bagged anotherBollywood project, a comedy flick oppositeAkshay Kumar.

Queen of

Ranbir Kapoor is the latest star to have joined the longlist of actors with a tattoo. The 30-year-old has inked'Awaara' on his wrist in Devanagari script.

During the first trailer launch of Ranbir Kapoor and DeepikaPadukone's upcoming film Yeh Jawaani Hai

Deewani, Ranbir's tattoo was clearly visible.Awaara was the name of Ranbir's grand-

father Raj Kapoor's hit 1951 film.Earlier, Bollywood celebrities like

Saif Ali Khan got his now wifeKareena Kapoor's name tattooed

on his arm, Sanjay Dutt and AjayDevgn got Lord Shiva inked,

Akshay Kumar got his firstson's name, Hrithik Roshanand wife Sussanne got anidentical tattoo which rep-resents epidermal love.

Awaara Tattoo

Bipasha Basu hates to be known as the 'face ofhorror genre', but at the same time she is gladthat she has been able to make it popular in

Bollywood.Bipasha hopes that her upcoming supernatural

thriller Aatma opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui, directedby Suparn Verma, will strike a chord with the audience.

Bipasha stressed how horror as a genre hasn't beenproperly explored in Bollywood.

Having starred in films such as Raaz, Rakht, Raaz3 and the latest Aatma, the actor enjoys working in

these films. "Horror films evoke a certain kindof emotion in the audi-ence. As viewers, youwill have an expression

coupled with excite-ment. One can be scared,

choked with emotion, can cryor laugh, but one can never fall

asleep in between while watching acrisp horror film," Bipasha said.

"Raaz 3 managed to gross Rs.94 crore, whichis huge money for a film made on a modest bud-get. The film was enjoyed by both the massesand the classes, which goes on to prove that theaudience is looking forward to watching films inthis genre," she added.

HORROR

Himmatwali

April 5, 201330 India Post

www.indiapost.com

DatebookNORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

Sat April 27 to Fri May 3

Discourses by Swami

Mukundananda• Bhagavad Geeta for Everyday

LivingVenue: Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, 420-450Persian Drive, Sunnyvale CA 94089Time: 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

• Essence of SpiritualityVenue: Fremont Hindu Temple, 3676 DelawareDrive, Fremont, CA 94538Time : Sat: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Sun:12:00 pm to 1:00 pm, Mon, Wed, Thu,Fri: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm, Tue: 8:15 pm to9:15 pmPrasadam: Prasadam will be served after theprogram May 4th (Sat) to May 10

• Regular On-going Bal-

mukund ClassVenue: 3839, Heriatage Terrace #232, Fremont,CAContact: 510-794-3368,Email: [email protected]

• Regular On-going Satsang:Contact: 408-594-8197Email: [email protected],510-573-2288Email: [email protected]

ATLANTA

Upcoming

Sat Apr 6• Bollywood 15.01 Spring BeatsVenue: Twisted Taco Perimeter, 4505 AshfordDunwoody Rd, Atlanta, GA 30346Time: 9:00 pmContact: 770-339-0991

Friday Apr 19• Sunidhi Chauhan & Ali Zafar's

Krazy live in AtlantaVenue: Atlanta Civic Center, 395, PiedmontAve, NE, Atlanta, GA 30308Time: 8:30 pmContact: 404-576-8909

Fri Apr 26• Paresh Rawal in Double RollVenue: GWCC in Sidney Marcus Auditorium,285 Andrew Young International Blvd, NW,Atlanta, GA 30313Time: 8:45 pmContact: 404-786-7860

Sun Apr 7• Celebrating 100 years of

Bollywood with 'Preeti Jhangiani’Venue: Valencia High School, 500 N BradfordAve, Placentia, CA 92870Time: 4:00 pmContact: 714-368-3424

Sat Apr 13• 'Paada Vaa Un Paadalai' (PVUP)Venue: TBA, 100 West 1st Street, Los Ange-les, CA 90012Time: 4:00 pmContact: 949 733 3150

Sat Apr 20• Krazy 2Venue: Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, 777 ChickHearn Ct, Los Angeles, CA 90015Time: 7:30 pmContact: 714-584-7466

• J K Yog, Chicago - Swami

MukundanandaChicago Satsang Information:J K Yog Satsang and Bal Mukund Hindi Classesare held every 2nd and 4rth Sunday of Month330pm-530pm @ Clarion Inn/Waterford Ban-quets, Board Room, 933 South Riverside Drive,Elmhurst, IL 60126Contact: Ajay & Arti Chandhok @ 630-561-4807 -Website: www.jkyog.org

Chicago Children's Bal Mukund CharacterBuilding Program and Hindi LiteracyClasses- Bal Mukund Classes are held every1st and 3rd Sunday of Month 11am-1pm @Vogelei Center, 650 W. Higgins Road,Hoffmann Estates, IL 60192 (Next to NissanDealership)Contact: Ajay & Arti Chandhok @ 630-561-4807 - Website: www.jkyog.org/bal-mukund

Two superhit Gujarati plays arecoming to Chicago1. Eak Bejane Nadta Rahiye Date March 22, 2013 Venue: Jain Center, Bartlett, IL2. GujjuBhai Ni Golmaal Date: March 29, 2013 Venue: Jain Center, Bartlett, IL

• Shreejidwar Community

EventsVenue: Vaishnav Samaj of Midwest, 440 WFullerton Ave., Addision, IL - 60101Time: Holi-Rasiya-Rangotsav: Sun Mar 24,Shree Mahaprabhuji Pragatyosav: Sun May 5,Haveli Patotsav: Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun/ Jul4/5/6/7Nandmahotsav: Sat Aug 31Sharad Poonam/Rasotsav Garba: Sat Oct 18Annakut Mahotsav: Sat Nov 9Tulsi Vivah: Sat Nov 16Tavasmi & Kirtan Classes every other Sun-d a y …Satsang Every Saturday & Sunday AfterSandhya DarshanSakha Mandal 3rd SundayContact: 630-543-38-71

ILLINOIS

Upcoming

WASHINGTON DCUpcoming

Fri Apr 5• Gujjubhai Ni GolmaalVenue: Union County Performing Arts Cen-ter, 1601 Irving Street , Rahway, NJ 07065Time: 8:00 pmContact: 13479896104

Sat Apr 13• Bong Konection 2013: Bengali

New Years EveVenue: Fire N' Ice, 85 Lafayette Rd, Fords, NJ08863Time: 8:00 pmContact: 973-462-1695

Sun Apr 14• Varli Kids Food Festival 2013Venue: Hyatt at Headquarters Plaza, 3 Speed-well Ave, Morristown, NJ 07960Time: 12:00 pmContact: 612-220-3617

NEW JERSEYUpcoming

NEW YORKUpcoming

Sat Apr 13• Indian Speed Dating - Meet 15

Desi Dates In One NightVenue: K lounge, 30 W 52nd St, New York,NY 10019Time: 6:00 pmContact: 9173248022

Sun May 5• Masters of Indian MusicVenue: Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at95th Street, New York, NY 10025Time: 7:00 pmContact: 212-545-7536

Fri May 10• Soorya Festival New YorkVenue: Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Avenueof the Americas, New York, NY 10020Time: 6:00 pmContact: 832 643 9131

Fri Apr 12• Adnan Sami - Live in concert

Venue: Warner The-atre, 513 13th St NW,Washington, DC20004Time: 8:00 pmContact: 202-596-2784

www.indiapost.com31 India Post April 5, 2013

Health ScienceHealth Line

Fewer people are dying of tuberculosisin South-East Asia


NEW DELHI: Significantlyfewer people are dying of tuber-culosis today in South-East Asiacompared with 1990, according tothe World Health Organization. Thedeath rate due to the disease hasdecreased by more than 40% in thepast 13 years.

This achievement is attributed togreater public awareness of TB, anincreased number of cases beingdetected, and more people havingaccess to adequate treatment be-cause of the sustained efforts byMember States, assisted by WHO.On World TB Day 2013, WHO hascalled on Member States to "StopTB in South-East Asia - zero deathto zero infection."

Emphasizing that tuberculosiselimination is a social and publichealth responsibility, Dr SamleePlianbangchang, Regional Direc-tor, WHO South-East Asia Region,said, "To successfully eliminateTB, we must pay attention to theunderlying causes of the spreadof the disease, such as poverty,the environment, and nutrition."

He added, "Expanding servicesto billions of people, of diverselanguages and cultures, facedwith rapid urbanization and large

population displacements in manycountries is a major task. TB de-tection and treatment facilitiesmust be made accessible and af-fordable to the hard-to-reach andunreached populations at the pri-mary health centers."

As access to TB care has ex-panded substantially, the numberof people with TB, or the TB

prevalence rate, has also declinedby a fourth in the Region comparedwith 1990. All 11 Member countriesof the Region have adopted theWHO Stop TB Strategy.

More than 88% known TB patientshave been successfully treated. Fivecountries have had a bigger treatmentsuccess rate: Bangladesh (92%),Bhutan (90%), Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea (90%), Indonesia(90%), and Nepal (90%).

Good performance by countriesin implementing DOTS (directlyobserved treatment, short-

course), the cornerstone for ensur-ing TB is successfully treated, hasled to relatively low levels ofmultidrug resistant TB in newlydetected cases.

Advances in diagnostics arealso contributing to success in TBcontrol. Six countries in this Re-gion - Bangladesh, India, Indone-sia, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand

- have introduced Xpert MTB/RIIF, a system that detects the dis-ease, including TB that is resis-tant to the antibiotic rifampicin,rapidly, within 100 minutes. Rapiddetection of TB enables healthproviders to ensure patients gettreated quickly and appropriately,and prevents its spread.

However, absolute numbers arestill high. There were an estimated5 million TB patients in 2011 in theRegion, with 3.5 million new cases.Half a million people died of TB thatyear. There were also an estimated

90 000 cases of multidrug-resistant(MDR) TB in 2011. This is nearly athird of the estimated number ofpeople with MDR-TB in the world.This is mainly due to the large andgrowing population in this Region.

Substantial challenges remain.An estimated one third of TB casescontinues to remain unreported.Such cases are of concern as theyunknowingly help spread the dis-ease in the community and pose aserious risk of drug-resistant TB.

This makes successful treat-ment difficult, and leads to highTB mortality. There is a need toincrease technical and managerialcapacity within national programs,provide additional funding for TBprograms, extend community-based care, and develop new toolsand improve laboratory capacityto better diagnose and more effec-tively treat patients and stopmultidrug resistant TB.

TB elimination cannot beachieved by the health sectoralone. It requires coordinated ef-forts by other sectors, such asenvironment, infection control,water and sanitation. With ad-equate resources and dedicatedefforts, it is possible to "Stop TBin South-East Asia - zero death tozero infection" in this generation.

Gujarat hosts seminar on medical tourism

Cause for Downsyndromefound

WASHINGTON: Extra chromo-some inherited in Down syndrome- chromosome 21 - alters brain andbody development, a study hasfound.

Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Insti-tute (Sanford-Burnham) have newevidence that points to a proteincalled sorting nexin 27, or SNX27.

SNX27 production is inhibitedby a molecule encoded on chro-mosome 21.

The study shows that SNX27is reduced in human Down syn-drome brains.

The extra copy of chromosome21 means a person with Downsyndrome produces less SNX27protein, which in turn disruptsbrain function.

What`s more, the researchersshowed that restoring SNX27 inDown syndrome mice improvescognitive function and behavior.

"In the brain, SNX27 keeps cer-tain receptors on the cell surface-receptors that are necessary forneurons to fire properly," HuaxiXu, Ph.D., professor in Sanford-Burnham`s Del E. Webb Neuro-science, Aging and Stem Cell Re-search Center and senior authorof the study, said.

"So, in Down syndrome, webelieve lack of SNX27 is at leastpartly to blame for developmentaland cognitive defects," Xu said.

The study is published in thejournal Nature Medicine.

RUCHIT SHAH

AHMEDABAD, Gujarat:Gujarat Chambers of Commerceand Industry (GCCI) NRG Cen-ter and Gujarat State NRG Foun-dation, jointly organized a Semi-nar on Medical Tourism at SardarPatel Institute of Public Admin-istration (SPIPA) in Ahmedabadrecently.

Among the participants wereGCCI President PrakashbhaiBhagwati, Sr. Vice PresidentShankerbhai Patel, Hon. Secre-taries and Executive Committeemembers Jayendrabhai Tanna,Narsinghbhai Agrawal, RohitShah, Ashish Guru, Bipin Shah,Himanshu Vyas, Nilesh Desaiand Gujarat Government officialsN. P. Lavingia, Joint Secretary,

TB elimination cannot be achieved by thehealth sector alone. It requires coordinatedefforts by other sectors, such as environment,infection control, water and sanitation.With adequate resources and dedicatedefforts, it is possible

Panel objects toproposed ruralhealthcare course

NEW DELHI: In a major setbackto government's effort to improverural health infrastructure, a Par-liamentary Committee has opposedintroduction of an undergraduatecommunity health course to cre-ate a new pool of healthcare pro-fessionals. Details on Page 34

Medical Seminar participants: Arvind Agarwal, IAS, Principal Secretary (NRI), addresses the gathering; On the dais

from left: Dr Satish Patel, M.S. FRCS, Sarthak Orthopaedic Hospital, Dr. Bharat Barai, Oncologist Chicago, USA,

Shankerbhai Patel, Sr. Vice President, GCCI, Prakashbhai Bhagawati, President, GCCI, Amb.K. H. Patel,

Chairman, GCCI, NRG Committee/ NRG Centre, Dr. Kandarp Parikh, M.S., Shyam Urosurgical Hospital,

and Dr. Bharat Gadhavi, M.S. CEO & Medical Director, HCG HospitalsCont'd on Page 32

World's first digitalbrain to studymental disorders

A South African neuroscientistis building the world's first digi-

tal brain in order to uncover newinformation on mental disorders.

"What we are developing is anew foundation, a new instrument- a telescope - that will allow oneto look deep into the brain, offer-ing a more systematical approachto any disease," Professor HenryMarkram told the Sunday Times.

He has been given a 12 billionSouth African rand grant from theEuropean Union for the projectwhich is being created in asupercomputer at the Swiss Fed-eral Institute for Technology inLausanne, Switzerland, News 24reported.

Markram - who has an autisticson - said he believed the projectwould "help us find new ways totreat autism.

More than 200 researchers willwork under Markram on theproject which is expected to takeabout 10 years to complete. Itshould also shed new light on dis-orders like Alzheimer's Disease.

India Post Health Science Post32

www.indiapost.com

April 5, 2013

Delhi outlay for health up by 33 per centNEW DELHI: Vowing to make Delhi the

"health and well-being capital" of the coun-try, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has setaside a plan outlay of Rs 2,490 crore for thehealth sector in the budget for 2013-14.

The outlay is an increase of 33 per centup as compared to Rs 1,872 allocated in2012-13

In the budget, Dikshit proposed to bringlarge section of lower and middle incomegroup people under the ambit of "DelhiArogay Kosh" scheme.

Under the new proposal, the income limitto get financial benefit under the schemewould be increased from the existing Rstwo to Rs three lakh per annum. Financialassistance under the scheme will be pro-vided to patients having income of Rs 3lakh per annum. The patients who get as-sistance under the scheme are those need-ing organ transplants and cardiac interven-tions, cancer treatment.

Dikshit also announced schemes tostrengthen Centralized Accident andTrauma Services (CATS) to speed-up trans-portation of critically ill patients needingemergency medical care to health facilities.

The budget had proposed procure-ment of 100 new ambulances, whichwould expand the existing fleet of am-bulances to 251.

Dikshit announced commencement ofconstruction of seven new hospitals andnine new dispensaries in the coming year.

As of now, Delhi government runs 38

hospitals, including five super-specialityfacilities, and 509 dispensaries.

In order to ensure safe blood transfu-sion in hospitals, Dikshit announced thatNucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT)facility would be introduced in bloodbanks of government hospitals, which

would ensure accurate screening of do-nated blood.

The CM also proposed to establish sixadditional Mobile Medical Units (MMU)for the North-East district with central as-sistance under National Rural Health Mis-sion (NRHM).

The government has set target to screenaround nine lakh school students for gen-eral check-up under the Chacha NehruSehal Yojana in 2013-14.

Dikshit said de-worming program will becarried out to benefit 34 lakh children.

Declaring 2013 as the Year of Awarenessfor prevention and early detection of dia-betes and hypertension, she also an-nounced to set up Tobacco Cessation Clin-ics in all districts of Delhi.

The fiscal deficit has been pegged at Rs1,268 crore for the year 2013-14 against Rs2,912 crore in 2012-13.

For the transport sector, Dikshit allo-cated Rs 3,876 crore for various projects,including purchase of 1,725 low floor andsemi low floor buses. The allocation for the

sector is 24.23 per cent of the total planoutlay and an increase of Rs 504 crore com-pared to last year.

She also announced giving 8,000 newpermits for autorickshaws which will beoperated by corporate entities on the linesof radio taxi service. The corporates wouldset up a call centre to provideautorickshaws on demand.

The Chief Minister said more than Rs1,500 crore would be spent on improvementand maintenance work of the roads, takenover by the government from the munici-pal corporation last year.

She said that government would procure625 low floor buses and 1,100 semi low floorbuses in the current year to strengthen thepublic transport infrastructure.

In the budget, Dikshit estimated to col-lect a total of Rs 30,454 crore from tax rev-enue in the financial year 2013-14 against atotal tax collection of Rs 26,150 crore in2012-13.

Talking about tax revenue, Dikshit saidgovernment expects to collect Rs 19,500crore from VAT, Rs 5,300 crore from stampsand registration fees, Rs 3,500 crore fromexcise tax, Rs 1,600 crore from taxes on motorvehicles and Rs 550 crore from luxury tax,entertainment tax and betting tax.

"The proposed total expenditure of Rs37,450 crore during 2013-14 is to be fi-nanced by Rs 30,454 crore from tax rev-enue, Rs 913 crore from non-tax revenue,capital receipts of Rs 4,113 crore and grant-in-aid of Rs 2,701 crore from the centralgovernment," she said.

The Chief Minister said the outstandingloan which was Rs 30,140 crore as on March31, 2011 will be reduced to Rs 28,888 croreas on March 31, 2013.

"Outstanding debt of Delhi is 7.89 percent of GSDP in 2012-13 which is the low-est among all the states in the country,"she said. -PTI

Talking about tax revenue, Dikshit said government expectsto collect Rs 19,500 crore from VAT, Rs 5,300 crore fromstamps and registration fees, Rs 3,500 crore from excisetax, Rs 1,600 crore from taxes on motor vehicles and Rs550 crore from luxury tax, entertainment tax and betting tax

NRI Dept. and D. G. Chaudhari, Manager,NRG Foundation. A former Ambassador andChairman GCCI NRG Center KH Patel and afront ranking oncologist and community ac-tivist Dr Bharat Barai from USA also at-tended and addressed the meet.

Addressing the Seminar as Chief Guest,Principal Secretary NRI Department, Gov-ernment of Gujarat and Chairman NRG Foun-dation, Arvind Agarwal, IAS, said that theState has promoted six NRG Centers inGujarat, and GCCI NRG Centre is the mostactive among them. He said seminars likethis one are not financially beneficial to theState unless better services are provided inpublic hospitals.

GCCI President Prakash Bhagvati saidthat more and more hospitals are receivinginternational accreditations and till date 28hospitals in Gujarat have got such accredi-tations. This shows how fast the medicalservices are improving in Gujarat. K H Patel,Chairman GCCI NRG Center, said that 6 mil-lion Gujaratis are spread in 110 countries ofthe world. The medical services in Gujaratare cheaper compared to many developedcountries.

Dr Satish Patel of Sarthak OrthopedicHospital said that Mexico, Thailand andSingapore are competing with India in pro-viding medical services. We require to im-prove paramedical and maintenance ser-vices to attract more patients from foreigncountries. Dr Kandarp Parikh of ShyamUrosurgical Hospital said that pick-up ser-

Gujarat hosts seminar onmedical tourism

vice direct from the airport, availability ofinterpreters and wi-fi services are also nec-essary for developing Medical Tourism.

Dr. Bharat Gadhavi, CEO and MedicalDirector of the HCG Hospitals, said that for-eign exchange earned from these servicesshould be tax free. The registration with thepolice is a cumbersome procedure andsometimes an entire day is wasted in such

formalities. Dr. Bharat Barai from Chicago,USA, said that the Licensing Procedureprevalent in USA for doctors should alsobe implemented in India. This will help inensuring that doctors are careful in provid-ing reliable services to all the patients, in-cluding those from abroad.

In short, doctors who addressed theSeminar were of the opinion that the highstandard of paramedical and maintenancestaff, cleanliness in hospitals, availabilityof interpretation services and more directflights joining foreign countries withAhmedabad are also required to attract for-eign patients as countries like Thailand,Singapore and Mexico have done.

Dr Satish Patel of SarthakOrthopedic Hospital saidthat Mexico, Thailand andSingapore are competingwith India in providingmedical services

Cont'd from Page 31

India Post 33Health Science Postwww.indiapost.com

April 5, 2013

Kartar Lalvani wins healthcarebusiness award

Blaming the previous LaborGovernment for immigra-tion system "mess," Maysaid that "the bright andbest students from India arewelcome to study in the UK"

LONDON: NRI entrepreneur KartarLalvani has been conferred with theHealthcare Businessman of the Year Award2013 at the Asian Business Awards cer-emony here.

The founder-chairman of Vitabiotics,UK's largest supplier of minerals and vita-min supplements to the retail trade, receivedthe honor from UK's Home SecretaryTheresa May at a ceremony here.

The Asian Business Awards, com-mended Lalvani, a chemist by training, for"creating Vitabiotics in the 1970s and over-seeing the company's remarkable growth tobecome the UK's largest supplier of miner-als and vitamin supplements to the retailtrade."

"The company is at the forefront of sci-

entific developments in key sectors, includ-ing nutrition and women's health, and ex-ports to over 100 countries," it added.

Amit Bhatia, chief of the Swordfish groupof companies and son-in-law of steel tycoonLakshmi Mittal, was declared the YoungEntrepreneur of the Year 2013.

The Lifetime Achievement Award 2013went to Indian-origin entrepreneur SudhirChoudhrie.

Speaking on the occasion, the BritishHome Secretary said Indian students werewelcome to study in the UK.

Blaming the previous Labor Governmentfor immigration system "mess," May saidthat "the bright and best students from In-dia are welcome to study in the UK."

In a message, the British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron hailed the work done byAsian businessmen in the UK, adding thatawards "will be an opportunity to celebratethe enormous contribution that the Asiancommunity makes to the UK economy." -PTI

NRI entrepreneur Kartar Lalvani

Nausea drug can kill brain tumorsMELBOURNE: Scientists have discov-

ered that the growth of brain tumors can behalted by a drug currently used to help pa-tients recover from chemotherapy-inducednausea.

New research from the University ofAdelaide looked at the relationship betweenbrain tumors and a peptide associated withinflammation in the brain, called "substanceP". Substance P is commonly releasedthroughout the body by the nervous sys-tem, and contributes to tissue swelling fol-lowing injury. In the brain, levels of sub-stance P greatly increase after traumaticbrain injury and stroke.

"Researchers have known for some timethat levels of substance P are also greatlyincreased in different tumor types aroundthe body," said Dr Elizabeth Harford-Wright, a postdoctoral fellow in theUniversity's Adelaide Centre for Neuro-

science Research."We wanted to know if these elevated

levels of the peptide were also present inbrain tumor cells, and if so, whether ornot they were affecting tumor growth. Im-portantly, we wanted to see if we couldstop tumor growth by blocking substanceP," she said.

Harford-Wright found that levels of sub-stance P were greatly increased in brain tu-mor tissue. Knowing that substance P bindsto a receptor called NK1, she used an an-tagonist drug called Emend to stop sub-stance P binding to the receptor. Emend isalready used in cancer clinics to help pa-tients with chemotherapy-induced nausea.

"We were successful in blocking sub-stance P from binding to the NK1 receptor,which resulted in a reduction in brain tu-mor growth - and it also caused cell deathin the tumor cells," she said. -PTI

Too much salt in snacksposes health risks

WASHINGTON: Nearly 75 per cent ofcommercial pre-packaged meals and savorysnacks for toddlers in the US are high insodium which may pose long-term healthrisks, new research has warned.

In the first study to look at the sodiumcontent in US baby and toddler foods, re-searchers compared the sodium content perserving of 1,115 products for babies andtoddlers using data on major and privatelabel brands compiled by the US Centersfor Disease Control (CDC).

Baby food was categorized as intendedfor children less than one year old, and tod-dler food was categorized as intended forchildren between the ages of one and three.

A product was defined as high in so-dium if it had more than 210 mg of sodiumper serving.

The study found that toddler meals had

significantly higher amounts of sodiumthan baby meals, and the amount of so-dium in some of the toddler meals was ashigh as 630 mg per serving - about 40 percent of the 1,500 mg daily limit recommendedby the American Heart Association.

The foods with the most sodium weresavory snacks and meals for toddlers.

"Our concern is the possible long-termhealth risks of introducing high levels ofsodium in a child's diet, because high bloodpressure, as well as a preference for saltyfoods may develop early in life," said JoyceMaalouf, lead author of the study.

"The less sodium in an infant's ortoddler's diet, the less he or she may wantit when older," Maalouf said.

Consuming excessive amounts of sodiumhas been linked to the development of highblood pressure in scientific studies. -PTI

Panel objects to proposed rural healthcare course

NEW DELHI: In a major setbackto government's effort to improverural health infrastructure, a Par-liamentary Committee has opposedintroduction of an undergraduatecommunity health course to cre-ate a new pool of healthcare pro-fessionals.

The Committee has instead rec-ommended compulsory one-yearrural posting for fresh medical

graduates to meet the shortage ofdoctors in rural areas.

The government had proposedintroduction of a 3.5-year Bachelorof Rural Healthcare course, re-christened as BSc (CommunityHealth) course, from the currentsession to produce CommunityHealth Officers (CHOs) in ruralIndia which did not have adequatenumber of doctors.

"In view of the opinion of amajority of members opposing in-troduction of BSc (CommunityHealth) course, the Committee rec-ommended that the governmentshould not go ahead with the pro-posal for introduction of thecourse," the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee on Health andFamily Welfare said.

The panel, headed by BrajeshPathak, said the governmentshould continue its focus onstrengthening the existing healthcare infrastructure by increasingintake of MBBS doctors andmaking provision of one-yearcompulsory rural posting forthem after internship, whichwould help in providinghealthcare for rural people.

Health Minister Ghulam NabiAzad had recently stated in Par-liament that the proposed coursewas likely to be introduced in thestates willing to adopt it from aca-demic 2013-14.

Azad had also said that medi-cal bodies like the Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) have not wel-comed the proposal, but the gov-ernment is committed to introduce

It also recom-mended that morenursing graduatesmay be posted insub-centers andintake of nursinggraduates may beincreased in thenursing schools

the course, with inbuilt safe-guards, to address the seriousshortage of human resources inhealth sector in rural areas.

The panel recommended thatto improve healthcare infrastruc-ture in rural areas more medical

colleges should be opened to meetshortage of doctors.

It also recommended that morenursing graduates may be postedin sub-centers and intake of nurs-ing graduates may be increased inthe nursing schools.

The Committee in its 65th Re-port to Parliament further recom-

mended that to meet the immedi-ate demand, graduates and post-graduates in the AYUSH streammay be appointed.

"The Committee is, however,constrained to note that a verysubstantial portion of primaryhealthcare is provided by un-trained providers and often byquacks and there is acute short-age of healthcare professionals inrural areas.

"The Committee would, there-fore, like the Ministry to devoteits energies towards devising newstrategies to overcome this gigan-tic problem," the report said.

During its meetings, a majorityof the members were against in-troduction of the course on thegrounds that providing two differ-ent sets of health facilitators forurban and rural masses was notonly "ethically wrong" but also"unconstitutional".

Some members also raised seri-ous apprehensions on clinical com-petencies of graduates who wouldbe churned out of these schoolsand how the government wouldensure that such graduates wouldnot do private practice. -PTI

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad

Parkinson's drug makes olderpeople decisive

A drug widely used to treatParkinson's Disease canhelp reverse age-related

impairments in decision making insome older people, a new studyled by an Indian researcher hasfound.

The study by researchers atthe Wellcome Trust Centre forNeuroimaging also describeschanges in the patterns of brainactivity of adults in their seven-ties that help to explain why theyare worse at making decisionsthan younger people.

Poorer decision-making is anatural part of the ageing processthat stems from a decline in ourbrains' ability to learn from ourexperiences.

Part of the decision-makingprocess involves learning to pre-dict the likelihood of getting a re-ward from the choices that wemake.

An area of the brain called thenucleus accumbens is responsiblefor interpreting the difference be-tween the reward that we're ex-pecting to get from a decision andthe reward that is actually re-ceived.

These so called 'prediction er-rors', reported by a brain chemicalcalled dopamine, help us to learnfrom our actions and modify our

behavior to make better choicesthe next time.

Dr Rumana Chowdhury, wholed the study at the WellcomeTrust Centre for Neuroimagingat UCL, said: "We know thatdopamine decline is part of thenormal aging process so wewanted to see whether it had anyeffect on reward-based decisionmaking."

"We found that when we

treated older people who wereparticularly bad at making deci-sions with a drug that increasesdopamine in the brain, their abil-ity to learn from rewards im-proved to a level comparable tosomebody in their twenties andenabled them to make better de-cisions," she said.

The team used a combinationof behavioral testing and brainimaging techniques, to investi-gate the decision-making processin 32 healthy volunteers aged in

their early seventies comparedwith 22 volunteers in their mid-twenties.

Older participants were testedon and off L-DOPA, a drug thatincreases levels of dopamine inthe brain.

L-DOPA, more commonlyknown as Levodopa, is widelyused in the clinic to treatParkinson's.

The findings reveal that the

older adults who performedbest in the gambling game be-fore drugtreatment had greaterintegrity of their dopaminepathways.

Older adults who performedpoorly before drug treatment werenot able to adequately signal re-ward expectation in the brain - thiswas corrected by L-DOPA andtheir performance improved on thedrug.

The study is published in thejournal Nature Neuroscience.

An area of the brain called the nucleusaccumbens is responsible for interpreting thedifference between the reward that we'reexpecting to get from a decision and thereward that is actually received

Olive oil could hold key tobeating Alzheimer's

Scientists in America havefound that oleocanthal - acompound which gives ol-

ive oil its peppery "bite" - helpsto destroy the toxic proteins thatare thought to cause Alzheimer'sdisease.

The researchers believe thatthe naturally-occurring antioxi-dant could become a key ingredi-ent in powerful new drugs to fightdementia, the Daily Express re-ported.

They also suggested that aMediterranean diet could helppeople cut their risk of develop-ing Alzheimer's.

They noted that rates of thedisease and other forms of demen-tia are far lower in Mediterraneancountries, where extra-virgin oliveoil is a staple part of the diet.

High consumption ofoleocanthal is believed to help"shuttle out" destructive mol-ecules of the protein amyloid betafrom the brain.

The sticky protein forms harm-ful "plaques" which kill off nervecells and eventually stop one partof the brain talking to the other,causing devastating symptomssuch as memory loss and confu-sion.

Amyloid beta is thought tobuild up in the brain for at least adecade before the first outwardsigns of dementia are seen.

Finding ways of preventing itfrom forming plaques is seen asthe key to wiping out Alzheimer's.

In the latest study, scientiststested oleocanthal on mice andcells taken from them.

The compound was found toboost production of two proteinsand key enzymes critical in remov-ing amyloid beta from the brain

by stopping it from clinging on tonerve cells.

The researchers believe thattheir findings also apply to hu-mans.

"Extra virgin olive oil derivedoleocanthal associated with theconsumption of Mediterraneandiet has the potential to reducethe risk of Alzheimer's or relatedneurodegenerative dementias,"the paper quoted Dr AmalKaddoumi, of the University ofLouisiana as saying.

Rates of the diseaseand other forms ofdementia are farlower in Mediterra-nean countries,where extra-virginolive oil is a staplepart of the diet

India Post Health Science Post34

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Real Estate36

Realty Tidbits

Is now the time to buy a house?MARCIE GEFFNER

Low interest rates. Fallenhome prices. Rising rents.Is now the time to buy a

house? Owning is a more attractiveproposition than renting in many -perhaps even most - US cities.

It's more affordable to buy ahouse today than it has been inages. In fact, the National Asso-ciation of Realtors says houseswere the most affordable in 2012than they had ever been since thegroup began tracking the data in1970.

Today's high affordability com-bines two factors: low prices andlow interest rates, says LeslieAppleton-Young, chief economistfor the California Association ofRealtors in Los Angeles.

"This is a once-in-a-generationopportunity to buy real estate. Iemphasize that double bold andunderline," she says.

Still, some people in someplaces aren't able to buy a houseor don't want to becomehomeowners - at least not rightaway. They would rather rent.

"What's subduing that attrac-tiveness (of buying a house) a littlebit has to do with how many peoplehave bad credit, no credit, don'thave a down payment, don't havea job or don't want to undertake abig financial obligation, even if it'sa fire sale," Appleton-Young says.

She adds that renting appealsto people who have just started anew job or who are uncertainabout job security.

Rising rentsThere's a flip side: Rents are ris-

ing in some cities, partly becauseof increased demand for rentalhousing. Higher rent makes rent-ing a less appealing option, par-ticularly in places without controlson rent increases.

"The demand for rental hous-ing is greater in areas where we'vehad significant foreclosures be-

cause there are families that havelost their home and renting is theonly option," Appleton-Young ex-plains.

More renters might buy a houseas the economy improves and em-ployment strengthens, but that'snot expected to happen rightaway, says Jed Kolko, a housingeconomist in San Francisco.

"When you get a new job, youdon't buy a house the next day.You (wait until) you've saved adown payment and you're sureenough of your job security thatyou can make the commitment. Itwill take some time before recov-ery in the job market carries overfully to the housing market,"Kolko explains.

More rentalsWhat's more, builders are put-

ting up new apartment buildingsto take advantage of the demand,and that could keep a lid on rentprices, though again, it's a delayedreaction.

Lenders stuck with too manyforeclosed houses, and investorswho've been buying up these

properties, also have plans to in-crease the supply of rental hous-ing. But again there's a glitch:Many of those homes aren't lo-cated in cities where the jobs are.

"Converting vacant foreclosedhomes to rentals doesn't help rent-ers who are suffering rising rentsin downtown New York or SanFrancisco because that's not

Anamudi sells6.54 lakh GodrejProp shares

MUMBAI: Anamudi Real Es-tates, one of the shareholders ofGodrej Properties, has offloaded6.54 lakh shares of the companyfor about Rs 34 crore.

According to information avail-able with the stock exchanges,Anamudi Real Estates Pvt Ltd sold6,54,880 shares of Godrej Proper-ties, real estate development armof the Godrej Group, through openmarket transaction.

Shares were sold at an averageprice of Rs 510.01, valuing the dealsize to Rs 33.39 crore.

However, the buyer of sharescould not ascertained.

As of December quarter,Anamudi Real Estates held 11.95lakh shares amounting to 1.53 percent stake in Godrej Properties.

In a separate bulk deal, HSBCGlobal Investment Funds sold 7.31lakh shares of Tribhovandas BhimjiZaveri Ltd for Rs 18.3 crore. -PTI

Jailed for buyingKasauli land onfake papers

SOLAN: Judicial Magistrate,First Class, Kasauli, GauravMahajan sentenced Delhi residentVam Dev to three years' rigorousimprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs10,000 for cheating by using a fakeHimachali agriculturist certificateto buy land in Kasauli tehsil.

The case has once again ex-posed how sale and purchase ofproperty in Kasauli tehsil is a flour-ishing trade where even field offi-cials of the Revenue Departmentact as facilitators.

Vam Dev of Punjabi Bagh inNew Delhi had procured a fakeagriculturist certificate and on thebasis of it purchased land in vari-ous parts of Kasauli tehsil in 2006.

His conspiracy was unearthedwhen the tehsildar of Kasauli re-ceived an anonymous complaintregarding the use of a fake Himachaliagriculturist certificate. An inquirywas conducted later by the policeand it established his guilt.

where the foreclosed homes tendto be," Kolko says.

Time in placeOne factor that hasn't changed

is that there are high transactioncosts when you buy a house. Con-sequently, the stay-put-or-move-soon question is crucial. For peoplewho plan to move within fiveyears, it "starts to make a lot lesssense" to buy a house, Kolko says.

"If you're in a stable job, but(in) an industry where peoplemove around often and you mighthave to move to another city inthree years, you might not wantto incur the costs of buying andowning a home," he says.

Housing markets are notoriouslylocal, so that's another factor thatcomplicates the decision to rent orbuy a house. Longer-term economicand housing fundamentals are im-portant determinants in the direc-tion of most markets - even more so,Kolko says, than the proportion offoreclosure-related home sales.-Courtesy Bankrate.com

“If you're in a stable job, but (in) an industrywhere people move around often and youmight have to move to another city in threeyears, you might not want to incur thecosts of buying and owning a home”

Realty playersseek more cutsin RBI rate

Details on page 38

India among top 20 realestate investment markets

NEW DELHI: India is ranked 20th in the list ofworld's top real estate investment markets withinvestment volume of USD 3.4 billion in 2012, prop-erty consultant Cushman & Wakefield said in itslatest report.

Details on page 38

India Post 37April 5, 2013 Real Estatewww.indiapost.com

The top 10 real estatetax deductions

SAM DEBORD

As the time to file incometaxes approaches, we needto take a new look at the

changing tax landscape forhomeowners. The dynamic atmo-sphere in Washington, D.C. has adifferent effect each year onwhich tax breaks are proposed,rescinded, changed, and extendedfor taxpayers who own a home.

Thanks to the efforts of manyreal estate industry groups includ-ing the National Association ofRealtors, many of the tax benefitsthat homeowners enjoy-whichwere on the chopping block overthe past few months-have beenprotected and extended throughthe 2013 tax season.

Disclaimer - This is only an in-formational summary of current taxissues in the news. If you need taxadvice, please contact a tax attor-ney or CPA

1. Mortgage Interest deduc-tion

The mortgage interest deduc-tion has always been the most-beloved tax benefit of home buy-ers in the U.S. New homeowners'monthly mortgage payments aremade up almost entirely by inter-est for the first few years. Theirability to deduct that interest canresult in a healthy reduction in taxliability. Affordability for first-timehome buyers is directly linked totheir ability to deduct the intereston their mortgage.

Homeowners who itemizetheir deductions can deduct theinterest paid on a mortgage witha balance of up to $1 million.While there is some movementto limit the total itemized deduc-tions for taxpayers with higherincomes (over $400,000), thecurrent deductions holds for alltax brackets. Americans savearound $100 million every yearby deducting mortgage intereston their tax returns.

2. Home Improvement LoanInterest Deduction

The interest on home equityloans used for "capital improve-ments" to a home can also be a taxdeduction. On loans with balancesof up to $100,000, the interest istax-deductible for a homeownerwho uses the loan to make im-provements to the home such asadding square footage, upgradingthe components of the home, orrepairing damage from a naturaldisaster. Maintenance items likechanging the carpet and paintinga home are usually not included

as capital improvement projects.3. Private Mortgage Insur-

ance (PMI) DeductionHomeowners who make a

down payment of less than 20%are usually paying some sort ofPrivate Mortgage Insurance.PMI (sometimes abbreviatedMIP or just MI), can be a fewdollars to hundreds of dollars permonth, and it is a large portion ofmany homeowners' mortgagepayments.

If your mortgage was origi-nated after Jan 1, 2007, and youhave PMI, it can be a tax deduc-tion. The deduction is phasedout, 10% per $1,000, for taxpayerswho have an adjusted gross in-come between $100,000-$109,000and those above that level do notqualify. The extension of this taxdeduction in 2013 was one ofmany last-second saves by realestate industry advocates.

4. Mortgage Points/Origina-tion Deduction

Homeowners who paid points

on their home purchase or refi-nance can often deduct thosepoints on their tax returns. Points,often called origination fees, areusually percentage-based feeswhich a lender charges to origi-nate a loan. A one percent fee ona $100,000 loan would be onepoint, or $1,000.

On a home purchase loan, tax-payers can deduct the entirety ofthe points that they paid in thesame year. On a refinance loan, thepoints must be deducted as anamortization over the life of theloan. Many taxpayers forget aboutthis amortized benefit over time,so it's important to keep goodrecords on the deduction of pointson a refinance.

5. Energy Efficiency Up-grades/Repairs Deduction

Homeowners can deduct thecost of the building materials usedfor energy efficiency upgrades totheir home. This is actually a tax

credit, one which is applied as adirect reduction of how much taxyou owe, not just a reduction inyour taxable income.

10 percent of the total bill forenergy-efficient materials can beused as a tax credit, up to a maxi-mum $500 credit. Insulation, doors,new roofs, and many other itemsqualify for the energy efficiencycredit. There are also individual lim-its for certain items, such as $150for furnaces, $200 for windows,and $300 for air conditioners andheat pumps.

6. Profit on Sale of Real Es-tate Deduction

If you've sold a home in thepast year, you're likely aware thatindividuals can claim up to$250,000 of profit from the sale tax-free, and married couples canclaim up to $500,000 tax-free. Ofcourse, there are some require-ments to escaping the capitalgains tax on this profit.

The home must be a primaryresidence. This means that youmust have lived in the home, asyour primary residence, for two ofthe past five years. You could rentit out for years one, three, and five,while living in it for years two andfour. In this way, a homeownercould potentially claim this taxbreak on multiple homes within afairly short time frame, but each tax-free sale must occur at least twoyears apart from the previous tax-free transaction.

7. Real Estate Selling Cost De-duction

For those lucky folks whoseprofits on the sale of their homemight exceed the $250k/$500k lim-its, there are still some ways to re-duce the tax burden. The costs ofselling the home can be significant,and those in themselves can beclaimed as tax deductions.

By adding up all of the feespaid at closing, capital improve-ments made to the home while youowned it, money spent to makerepairs to damaged property, andmarketing costs necessary to sellthe home, you can add a signifi-cant figure to the cost basis ofyour home.

This basically raises the origi-nal price you paid for the home.Your cost basis begins with theoriginal price of the home, andthen adds in the improvement andselling costs. When the new costbasis price is compared to yourselling price, it reduces your po-tentially-taxable profit on thehome significantly.

Cont’d on page 38

The home must be aprimary residence.This means that youmust have lived inthe home, as yourprimary residence,for two of the pastfive years

Indiabulls ties up with DohaBank for NRI deals

DUBAI: Indian realty majorIndiabulls Real Estate Ltd has tiedup with Doha Bank to offer its NRIcustomers exclusive deals onproperties in India.

Complimentary Home Loan eli-gibility checks, special offers onIndiabulls properties and exclusivepromotion for Doha Bank Indiancustomers will be part of the spe-cial offer.

The agreement offers mort-gage loans to its NRI custom-ers for acquiring properties inIndia, serving the growing de-mand from expatriate Indians forhome loans and property acqui-sition in Indiabulls' housingprojects.

"With the opening of an officein Dubai last year, company's fu-ture plans include opening of of-fices in other GCC countries in-cluding Qatar," said SantoshTandel, Regional Head - MENARegion, Indiabulls.

"We aim to connect more andprovide seamless servicethrough the arrangement. GulfNRIs have always contributedsignificantly in the Indian

economy whether it is remit-tances or investments in proper-ties," he said.

According to him, overall NRIsmake up for 25 per cent of its busi-ness plus NRIs in GCC countriesincluding Qatar are constantly

looking for appropriate propertyinvestment opportunities both forend use as well as investmentpurpose.

"With an approximate 20 percent of the Qatar's population com-prising of Indians, the need tohave a local representation cater-ing to this segment was vital," hesaid. -PTI

“With the opening ofan office in Dubailast year, company'sfuture plans includeopening of offices inother GCC countriesincluding Qatar”

Govt mulling tough real estateregulator: Maken

NEW DELHI: The Governmentplans to set up a tough regulatorfor the real estate sector with pro-visions for even jail term for thedeveloper for putting out mislead-ing advertisements about projects.

The proposed regulator willalso make it mandatory for devel-opers to launch projects only af-ter acquiring all the statutory clear-ances from relevant authorities,Minister for Housing and UrbanPoverty Alleviation Ajay Makensaid at the National Editors' Con-ference here.

He said all relevant clearancesfor real estate projects would haveto be submitted to the regulatorand also displayed on a websitebefore starting the construction.

Maken said a proposal for theReal Estate (Regulation and Devel-opment) Bill, which seeks to pro-vide a uniform regulatory environ-ment to the sector, will be broughtbefore the Union Cabinet soon.

"We plan to introduce the Billduring the Budget Session of Par-liament," he said.

The Bill has certain tough pro-vision to deter builders from put-ting out misleading advertise-ments related to the projects car-rying photographs of actual site.

Failure to do so for the first timewould attract a penalty which maybe up to 10 per cent of the projectcost and a repeat offence couldland the developer in jail, Makensaid. -PTI

India Post38 April 5, 2013Real Estatewww.indiapost.com

Realty players seek morecuts in RBI rate

NEW DELHI: Real estate play-ers and analysts have welcomedthe Reserve Bank's move to cutshort-term lending rates, but alsosaid that more such steps areneeded to bring growth back tothe sector.

Confederation of Real EstateDevelopers Associations of In-dia (CREDAI), however, termedRBI's repo rate reduction by"just" 25 basis points as a"missed opportunity" and urgedit to ease funding options in re-alty sector.

"One would have expected RBIto be realistic and appreciate thefact the real estate industry sup-ports hundreds of other industriesand hence plays a major role in re-juvenating the economy, hit by joblosses and dwindling invest-ments," CREDAI National Presi-dent Lalit Kumar Jain said.

The RBI should take steps toease funding for real estate sectorat much lower rates in the interestof millions of home seekers, andease Cash Reserve Ratio for banksto further enhance liquidity in thesystem, he added.

Jain said: "It is high time thatwe looked at enhancing growth byinfusing liquidity and going in forrate cut... We cannot hope to makehousing affordable for the masses

with such restrictive policies...thecontinued stubborn approach ofRBI is shocking."

Leading realty consultantCushman & Wakefield (C&W)said the apex bank has taken theright step to boost economicgrowth through reductions in

key interest rates, although thereduction of 25 basis points is asmall one.

"If this rate cut also translatesin further lowering of loan interestrates by banks for businesses andfor home buying consumers, thenwe can definitely expect to seesome momentum in a slow andanxious real estate market that wasleft largely disappointed by theUnion Budget," C&W Executive

Managing Director (South Asia)Sanjay Dutt said.

Welcoming the rate cut, CHDDevelopers Managing DirectorGaurav Mittal said the step isslated to be beneficial for both thebuyers as well as the developers,who have been struggling withcash crunch in recent times.

Real estate private equity firmFire Capital Chief Executive OfficerOm Chaudhry said reduction inlending rates will help the sectorwith low interest on home loans.

The 3C Company Director(Sales and Marketing) BrijeshBhanote said: "Since the begin-ning of year, the second time repocut clearly indicates the concernsof central bank to support the re-vival progression of Indianeconomy and to narrow the fiscaldeficit."

M3M India Director PankajBansal said a further reductionexpectation will give encouragingoutlook to the economy and thedevelopers can expect more inflowtowards equity market.

Realty research firm PropEquityChief Executive Officer SamirJasuja said the repo rate cut willhelp boost the real estate sector byproviding the home buyers an ac-cess to home loans at cheaper rates,thereby stimulating demand. -PTI

"Since the beginningof year, the secondtime repo cut clearlyindicates the con-cerns of central bankto support the revivalprogression of Indianeconomy and tonarrow the fiscaldeficit"

The top 10 real estate tax deductions8. Home Office DeductionThe home office tax deduction

is often cited as a deduction thatincreases your likelihood of be-ing audited. While the raw num-bers might add some credibilityto that perception, it's really theway a home office is deductedthat gets some taxpayers into au-dit purgatory.

This deduction, when used cor-rectly, is just as safe as any other.Homeowners deduct a percentageof their mortgage, utilities, and re-pair bills in direct proportion to theamount of their home that is dedi-cated office space.

There are a few hard and fastrules to live by when deductingthe costs of your home office. Thehome office must be your princi-pal place of business (the primaryoffice location where you get themajority of your work done). Itneeds to be exclusively used forbusiness (it can't be your kitchenby day and office by night). Youneed to be realistic with its sizeand use (unless you enjoy audits).

9. Property Tax DeductionNew homeowners often don't

know that their property taxes aredeductible. While it may soundstrange to have a tax-deductibletax, the overall effect is that youdon't pay income tax on moneythat was spent on property taxes.

Homeowners should be carefulto only deduct the amount of prop-erty tax actually paid to their localmunicipality for the year. This is not

necessarily the amount you paid toyour escrow account, and shouldnot include any other city/countyfees that might potentially be on thesame bill as your property taxes.

10. Loan Forgiveness Deduc-tion

The Mortgage Debt ForgivenessRelief Act of 2007 was created whenshort sales were becoming a newand growing part of the real estate

market. An underwater homeownermight convince their lender to agreeto a short sale of their home at$100,000, even though they owe$150,000 on their mortgage. Whilethe lender forgives the extra $50,000owed after the short sale, the gov-ernment views it as $50,000 in tax-able income (a gift from the lenderto the borrower).

The Debt Forgiveness Act tem-porarily relieved the taxpayer ofthat burden, but was set to expirethis year. Through much effort, itwas extended along with manyother homeowner tax relief mea-sures this year and homeownerscan continue to claim this tax re-lief in 2013.

Sam DeBord is a Realtor® andManaging Broker at ColdwellBanker Danforth & Associates.


Homeowners should be careful to only de-duct the amount of property tax actually paidto their local municipality for the year. This isnot necessarily the amount you paid to yourescrow account, and should not include anyother city/county fees

India among top 20 realestate investment markets

NEW DELHI: India is ranked20th in the list of world's top realestate investment markets withinvestment volume of USD 3.4 bil-lion in 2012, property consultantCushman & Wakefield said in itslatest report.

China was at the top positionwith investment of USD 304.1 bil-lion, followed by US (USD 267.1billion) and UK (USD 56.3 billion).

The consultant said the globalproperty investment market grewby 6 per cent in 2012 to USD 929billion and is expected to crossUSD 1 trillion mark in 2013, the firsttime since 2007.

"India was (20th) among the top20 real estate investment marketsglobally with investment volumeof Rs 19,000 crore (USD 3466 mil-lion) recorded in 2012," C&W saidin a statement.

The majority of the investmentin India were through institutionalsales (67 per cent) while remain-ing were through private equity(PE) investments (33 per cent).

"The market witnessed institu-tional sales (excluding apartments)of Rs 12,800 crore, concentratedin commercial development sitesand office segment includingstand-alone and pre-leased officebuildings," it added.

Investments in institutionalsales saw a decline of 37 per centover last year, but private equityinvestment in India rose by 7 percent in 2012 at Rs 6,200 crore.

Bengaluru saw the highest num-ber and value of private equity in-vestments at Rs 3,250 crore in 2012,posting more than double of invest-ment over last year, followed byMumbai with Rs 1,300 crore andNCR with Rs 700 crore investments.

"Investment in ready incomegenerating/operational office as-sets have gained strength over thelast few years due to lower risk and

steady cash flows associated withthis type of investment. With in-crease in number of high valuetransactions in this sector, themarket is moving towards a ma-ture phase," C&W South Asia Ex-ecutive Managing Director SanjayDutt said.

According to C&W latest re-port 'International Investment At-las', the global property invest-ment market recorded a modest 6per cent rise in activity during 2012with volumes reaching USD 929billion. -PTI

The majority of theinvestment in Indiawere through institu-tional sales (67 percent) while remain-ing were throughprivate equity

Advance India to developpremium houses

NEW DELHI: Real estate devel-oper Advance India Projects willinvest Rs 600 crore to developaround 600 premium residentialunits over the next 3-4 years inGurgaon.

"We have earmarked anamount of Rs 600 crore, which isspecific to the development of 'ThePeaceful Homes' project.

This investment entails creatinga dedicated resource outlay for thedevelopment of the project," Ad-vance India Projects Ltd (AIPL) Ex-ecutive Director Sanjay Sachdevatold PTI here.

The project 'The PeacefulHomes' is offering flats at a priceranging between Rs 1.3 crore andRs 2.5 crore.

The planned investment in-cludes the cost of the land for theproject, he added.

The company will develop theproject in about 16 acres of land.The construction work for devel-oping around 600 housing units

will be completed over the next 3-4 years.

On financing the planned in-vestment, the company said it willbe primarily done through cashflows from apartment sales to thecustomers.

"...they (customers) will be as-sisted with the banks tied up forthis project with company," it added.

Elaborating on the projects, thecompany said 'The PeacefulHomes' will offer 2, 3 and 4-BHKapartments along with penthouseswith sizes varying between 1,565sq ft and 2,925 sq ft.

The starting price of the flats willbe around Rs 1.3 crore and it willgo up to Rs 2.5 crore, AIPL said.

"With an impetus on developingthe residential property to providea vista of peaceful living to the con-sumers, the AIPL group seeks tobring in best-in-class feature sets tothe property which will set it apartfrom other development projects inits category," Sachdeva said. -PTI

India Post39 www.indiapost.com April 5, 2013

One of the main religious places among the fourChar Dham pilgrimage areas, Gangotri, situ-ated in Uttarkashi, is closely related to Ganga,

the river that we know as Ganges. The history ofGangotri dates back to centuries when according tomythology, Goddess Ganga transformed herself into ariver to dissolve the sins of King Bhagirath's forefa-thers, following his penance. In order to reduce theimpact of her fall, Lord Shiva gathered Ganga into hismatted locks and has ever since been associated withGoddess Ganga.

Ganga originates from the Gangotri glacier and isknown as Bhagirathi. The name Ganga picks up laterafter the river passes Devaprayag and merges into theriver Alaknanda.

Just the perfect destination to breathe in a sereneand pious atmosphere, Gangotri has the charm to at-

tract people from all over. The striking presence of thesnow-clad mountains in the vicinity and the pure crys-tal clear water of the Ganges flowing around add to thesanctity of the place. One feels close to God in thehigh altitude of Gangotri. Vegan food dominates theculture and is available in the local food joints ordhabas. Non-vegetarian food and alcoholic drinks area strict no-no.

Dodi TalAt an altitude of 3307 meters, Dodi Tal is a clear

lake nestled amidst thick dense forests. The lakesidehas accommodation in the form of a wonderful resthouse, a camp site and a log cabin. Dodi Tal is a veryfamous trekking site and any holiday package is in-complete without a trek to this area. Fishing may beallowed following permission from the Divisional For-est Officer.

Those planning to trek to Dodi Tal can take theroute which passes Agoda via Kalyani, and advances

Attractions

Cont’d on page 40

into thick forests for a distance of about 16 kms. Everystep that takes you higher and higher also exposesyou to the beauty of Mother Nature!

Ganges GlacierThe Gangotri Glacier, situated at a height of 4238

mts, moves along the Gangotri track starting fromChaukhamba and finally merging into the Gaumukh. Itis a known fact that the water of the Ganges is 100%pure in nature and contains absolutely no impurities.Even when kept for years, the water displays no changein properties; the various reasons that can be attrib-uted to this fact are its holiness, secretion of herbs orthe mineral content of water!

The Ganges or Gangotri glacier is an ideal trekker'spath that leads to various other spots such asNandanvan, Tapovan, and Gaumukh.

Kedar TalA crystal clear and transparent lake giving a feel of

the chill waters, Kedar Tal is a spectacular creation that

Ganga originates fromthe Gangotri glacier andis known as Bhagirathi.The name Ganga picksup later after the riverpasses Devaprayag andmerges into the riverAlaknanda

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India Post April 5, 201340 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Gangotri: Sacred place of descent of mythological GangaCont’d from page 39

lies at an altitude of 4425 mts abovesea level. This is the best place fora long trek.

The trek to Kedar Tal needs to

be directed through a local guide,and is not for the weaklings. To trekacross and cover the entire patchof 18 kms from Gangotri to KedarTal without any modern facilitieson the way is task for a dare devil.Ensure that you make the neces-sary arrangements well in advance

before you begin your trek.

Gangotri TempleThe Gangotri temple, dedi-

cated to Goddess Ganga, was

constructed on the banks ofBhagirathi by a Gorkha Com-mander Amar Singh Thapa, inearly 18th century. This templestands at an altitude of 3042m andemits a highly pious aura. Religiousrituals are in full swing in theGangotri temple with the Aarti cer-

emony performed by pujaris of theSemwal family.

Vishwanath TempleOne of the most famous temples

in Uttarkashi, Lord Vishwanathtemple bears a description in theKedar Khanda or Skanda Puran.The temple is 300 meters away fromthe local bus stand at Uttarkashi.This holy shrine has a Shivlingwhich is 60 cms tall and is 90 cmsin circumference.

The history of this temple datesback to centuries and it is believedto have been constructed byParashuram. The temple was reno-vated much later in 1857 by the wifeof Sudarshan Shah, MaharaniKhaneti. Lord Vishwanath templeis dedicated to Lord Shiva andpeople from all over the world makeit a point to visit this ancient temple.

HarsilSituated two kms away from

Dharali, on the highway towardsUttarkashi, Harsil is another pictur-esque village of scenic importance.Elevated at 2623 mts and stretchedat a distance of 72 kms fromUttarkashi, this hamlet is a splen-did attraction for nature lovers. Thespecialty of Harsil lies in the vastnumber of apple orchards spreadacross the village.

This place can prove to be asource of inspiration for all artists,be it poets, painters or writers. Younever know, Harsil may also instillcreativity in ordinary individuals!A memorable holiday is guaranteedfor those visiting Harsil.

ManeriSituated about 13 kms close to

Uttarkashi en route to Gangotri,Maneri is the latest entrant in thelist of tourist attractions aroundGangotri. The main attraction hereis the dam built across riverBhagirathi where the water is chan-neled to turbines through an 8 km

long tunnel built at Tiloth atUttarkashi.

If you plan to approach Manerifrom Gangotri, you have to travel ashort distance of 92 kms. A wiseridea would be to plan a trip to

Maneri after covering places in andaround Uttarkashi, on your wayback to Gangotri. The added attrac-tion to Maneri is the beautiful lakedeveloped as a result of the dam.

TapovanTapovan is a camping base for

those wishing to visit the Shivlingpeaks. Located at an altitude of

above 4460 mts above sea level,Tapovan is a beautiful meadow thatsurrounds the peaks. Enrichedwith lovely flowers, a climb to thismeadow sharpens the images ofthe surroundings peaks andranges. As you ascend towardsTapovan, the view of the Shivlingpeaks gets even better.

An ideal trekking route, theTapovan is visited by touristsfrom all over the globe to enjoythe experience of mountain climb-

An ideal trekkingroute, the Tapovan isvisited by tourists fromall over the globe toenjoy the experienceof mountain climbingand trekking. A com-bination of peaceand enthusiasm,spiced up with lots ofadventure makes thisplace special!

This place can proveto be a source ofinspiration for allartists, be it poets,painters or writers.You never know,Harsil may also instillcreativity in ordinaryindividuals! Amemorable holidayis guaranteed

ing and trekking. A combinationof peace and enthusiasm, spicedup with lots of adventure makesthis place special!

UttarkashiTravel a distance of 155 kms from

Rishikesh and you reachUttarkashi, one of the importantpilgrimage destinations of India.Uttarkashi is situated on the banksof river Bhagirathi at an altitude of1150 meters above sea level.Uttarkashi is a home to various fa-mous temples including LordVishwanath temple, Ekadash Rudratemple, Bhairav temple, Kuteti Devitemple and Gyaneshwar temple.Also situated close by is the NehruInstitute of Mountaineering.Uttarkashi is known to host theMagh Mela when people and pil-grims from all over the countrybring along their village deity totake a dip in the holy Bhagirathi.

How to ReachBy Air: Jolly Grant at Dehradun,

226 km away, is the nearest airport.Taxis, private cars, state roadtransport buses are available fromthe airport to Gangotri viaRishikesh.

By Rail: The nearest railway sta-tion is Rishikesh, which is well con-nected to Dehradun and Delhi.

By Road: There are daily busservices from Gangotri toRishikesh, Haridwar andDehradun. Jeeps and tempos areavailable from Rishikesh toGangotri.

India PostApril 5, 2013 41Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

JK Assembly appeals for safe passage of tourist seasonJAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir

Assembly has passed a unanimousresolution appealing to people ofthe state to ensure "safe" passageof current tourism season and notto allow harming of tourists andtourism infrastructure.

"Let the members of this Housebring a unanimous resolution cut-ting across the party affiliationsand appeal people for safe passageof tourism season... not to harmtourists, damage tourism infra-structure and transport carrying

including 38,000 foreign tourists,visited Ladakh during last season,he said.

The Centre has sanctioned 79tourism projects worth Rs 367crore for creation of varied touristrelated infrastructure facilities inthe state during last four yearsagainst which 62 projects havebeen completed, he said.

Three mega projects, includingRs 38.15 crore for Naagar Nagar,Srinagar to Watlab, Rs 16.92 crorefor Mubarak Mandi Heritage Con-

sioned during coming financialyear, he said.

The Minister said constructionof Rs 40 crore Mubarak Mandi-

Maha MayaShahbad Cable Carproject would be taken up soonafter receiving Forest, Wildlife andEnvironment clearances. He saidRopeways at Patnitop and ShivKhori would also be taken up after

clearing certain bottlenecks.The Minister said the revenue

of Jammu and Kashmir TourismDevelopment Corporation is ex-pected to touch Rs 36 crore duringthe current fiscal. -PTI

State Tourism Minister Gulam Ahmed Mir

The Centre has sanc-tioned 79 tourismprojects worth Rs 367crore for creation ofvaried tourist relatedinfrastructure facilitiesin the state during lastfour years againstwhich 62 projectshave beencompleted

tourists and pass it with thumpingof benches," state tourism minis-ter Gulam Ahmed Mir told the As-sembly.

Mir, senior Congress Ministerin the state, appealed to the peopleof Kashmir valley to ensure safepassage of the season starting fromApril this year.

The Minister said the state hasrecorded highest ever tourist influxin 2011 and 2012, with 13.11 lakhtourists, including 37,000 foreign-ers, and 6.21 lakh Amarnath yatrisvisiting Kashmir Valley during lasttourist season.

Over 1.03 crore pilgrims visitedMata Vaishno Devi while 1.40 lakh,

servation Project and Rs 22.43 crorefor Trans-Himaliyan Cultural Cen-tre Project Leh, are also underimplementation, he said.

The government has forwardedDPRs of Rs 150 crore to the Centrefor development of Sufi Circuit inKashmir, Spiritual Circuit in Jammuand Buddhist Circuit in Leh, whichin principle has been agreed to bythe Centre, the Minister said.

To promote adventure tourismin the state, second phase ofKongdoori-Marysholder Ski ChairLift Gulmarg has been commis-sioned at a cost of Rs 17.50 crore.Rs 6 crore Ropeway ProjectMakdoom Sahib would be commis-

India Post April 5, 201342 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Safety of tourists top priority, says ChiranjeeviNEW DELHI: Expressing an-

guish over the attempt to assault aBritish tourist in Agra, TourismMinister K Chiranjeevi has under-lined the need for ensuring safetyand security for tourists in thecountry.

Addressing the consultativecommittee of his Ministry here, hesaid safety and security of tour-ists are on top of his priority list.

He informed the members of thecommittee that he has immediatelyordered suspension of the three-star rating of the Agra hotel in-volved in the incident.

He also said the ministry hasissued a show-cause notice to thehotel for canceling its license.

Chiranjeevi spoke to Home Min-ister Sushilkumar Shinde and re-quested him to put in place a propersystem to ensure the safety andsecurity of tourists especiallywomen and children.

He also informed the committeethat he has started contacting per-sonally all chief ministers urgingthem to institute an adequate safety

mechanism for tourists in their re-spective states.

The tourism ministry has set atarget to double the foreign tour-

ist arrivals by 2016 taking 2011 asbase.

"This would mean that our for-eign tourist arrivals need to regis-ter a growth of 12 per cent per an-num.

"For the purpose, the focus ofmy ministry would be to improveexisting infrastructure, create new

infrastructure, broad base humanresource development, overcomeseasonality of Indian tourism bydeveloping niche tourism prod-ucts, expand the range of Indiantourism destinations by develop-ing lesser known destinations andundertake aggressive promotionaland marketing activities," he said.

Foreign tourist arrivals regis-tered a growth of 5.4 per cent andforeign exchange earnings regis-tered an impressive growth of 21.8per cent last year.

He said the growth registeredin terms of foreign tourist arrivalswas significant for our country es-pecially considering the fact thatworld tourist arrivals as a wholeincreased only by 3.8 per cent lastyear.

At the same time, he expressedhis concern over India's low sharein international tourist arrivals. Thecountry receives only 0.64 per cent

of international tourist arrivals.In order to increase India's share

in global tourism, Chiranjeevi said,"My effort is to make India as around the year destination - a des-tination for 365 days and for allseasons. For this purpose, we aredeveloping various niche productslike rural tourism, wellness andmedical tourism, eco and adventuretourism, golf and polo tourism, filmtourism, cuisine and shoppingtourism and cruise tourism."

He further said, "While tryingto concentrate on the growth offoreign tourist arrivals, we are notgoing to lose focus on domestictourism. In order to popularize andpromote domestic travel, the Min-istry has launched a new campaign'Go Beyond' which means go be-yond the obvious."

The campaign will help the min-istry develop lesser known desti-nations. -PTI

Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi

Kumarakom best ruraltourism project

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Kerala Tourism's rural model inKumarakom, linking local commu-nity to the hospitality industry, haswon the national award for bestrural tourism project.

"The National Award forKumarakom is recognition of thebest practices in responsible andeco-friendly tourism," said KeralaTourism Minister AP Anil Kumar.

"The recognition goes to thepeople of Kumarakom who made itsure that the project became a hugesuccess through their participa-tion," he said.

Kerala also bagged the honorsin three other categories at the Na-tional Tourism Awards for 2011-12,a Kerala Tourism release said.

The Best Wellness Centreaward went to SomatheeramAyurveda Resort in Chowara nearThiruvananthapuram while Pio-neer Personalized Holidays wonin the Best Approved Inbound

Tour Operator and Travel Agentcategory.

Kumarakom picked up twomore awards for Vivanta by Taj inthe Best Four Star Hotel categoryand Coconut Creek Farm and HomeStay, Kumarakom in Bed and Break-fast category.

Under the Kumarakom RuralTourism Project, the Kerala Tour-ism has forged partnerships withself-help network Kudumbashreeto sell fruits and vegetables to tour-ists in kiosks run by its units.

The National Tourismawards are given awayevery year by theUnion TourismMinistry tor e c o g n i z eexce l l enceand pioneer-ing initiativesin the tourismindustry. -PTI

The growth registeredin terms of foreigntourist arrivals wassignificant for ourcountry especiallyconsidering the factthat world touristarrivals as a wholeincreased only by3.8 per cent

Guj Tourism bags 3 national awards

Kerala Tourism revenue topsRs 21,000 cr-mark

MUMBAI: Kerala Tourism hassaid its revenue, both direct andindirect, jumped 11 per cent totouch Rs 21,125 crore in 2012 overRs 19,037 crore the year ago.

The state welcomed 7.94 lakhforeign tourists in the year, up from7.33 lakh in 2011, said Kerala Tour-ism Director Rani George in a state-ment here, adding that the numberof domestic travelers crossed the1-crore mark at 1.01 crore in the yearfrom 93.88 lakh in 2011.

The foreign exchange earningsalso went up from Rs 4,221.99 crorein 2011 to Rs 4,548 crore in 2012,the statement said, making it oneof the largest revenue heads for thestate, she said.

Kerala has become the numberone travel destination in theGoogle's search trends for Indiathis year. Munnar is also on thelist of top 10 domestic destinationson Google's Zeitgeist site showingsearch trends from around theworld, George said.

She attributed the rise in the

number of visitors to the success-ful partnership meets the depart-ment held in various cities likeBhubaneswar, Bhopal, Lucknow,Gurgaon, Nashik, Pune, Surat,Rajkot and Vishakhapatnam in the

year, apart from global destinationslike Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin,Frankfurt, Melbourne, Perth, Rome,Stuttgart, Sydney Warsaw andZurich. It also took part in manyglobal tourism expos. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Gujarat Tourismhas bagged three national tour-ism awards for best tourism film,innovative use of information andtechnology and another in thecategory of best states for com-prehensive development of tour-ism in the country.

In a statement released here,Gujarat government said its star tour-ism campaign, 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki'which features megastar AmitabhBachchan was decorated with theprestigious National Tourism Award2011-12 in the category of Award ofExcellence- Best Tourism Film.

The statement also saidGujarat was adjudged the thirdbest state in Comprehensive De-velopment of Tourism while Tour-ism Corporation of Gujarat Lim-ited also received the award forMost Innovative use of Informa-tion Technology. -PTI

43 India Post April 5, 2013www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationUS tech leaders ask Obama for

more skilled immigrationWASHINGTON: Chief execu-

tive officers of some of America'stop tech companies, includingGoogle, Facebook and Microsoft,have written to President BarackObama and lobbied the lawmak-ers to allow more high-skilled im-migration given their significantrole in the country's economy.

"One of the biggest economicchallenges facing our nation is theneed for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domesticand foreign, who can create jobsand immediately contribute to andimprove our economy," wrotemore than 100 technology execu-tives in a letter dated March 14.

"As leaders of technology com-panies from around the country, wewant to thank you for your sincereefforts in addressing high skilledimmigration and we urge that youand your colleagues enact reformlegislation this year," they said.

Among prominent signatoriesto the letter were RandalStephenson, Chairman and CEO,AT&T; KR Sridhar, CEO, BloomEnergy; John Donahoe, CEO,eBay; Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO,Facebook; Eric Schmidt, ExecutiveChairman, Google; Meg Whitman,President and CEO, Hewlett-Packard; Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel;Bradford L. Smith, General Coun-sel and EVP, Legal and CorporateAffairs, Microsoft; Bob Greifeld,

According to the US Bureau ofLabor Statistics, there are tens ofthousands of unfilled jobs requir-ing highly skilled individuals.

The letter said four high-techcompanies alone - IBM, Intel,Microsoft and Oracle - have com-bined 10,000 openings in theUnited States.

"Each one of these jobs has thepotential to create many others,directly and indirectly. Bipartisanlegislation currently introduced inthe Senate, such as The Immigra-tion Innovation Act of 2013, andthe Start-Up Visa Act, will encour-age innovation here in the US byallowing American companies andentrepreneurs to have access tothe talented workers they needwhile simultaneously investing inSTEM education here in the US,"the letter said.

"We know what it will take tokeep America in a position of glo-bal leadership. We know thatwhen America is leading, our eco-nomic growth follows to the ben-efit of our nation's workforce," ex-ecutives told Obama in the letter.

"We call on you to address theneed for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domesticand foreign, and to enact immigra-tion reform this year. We look for-ward to working with you and yourcolleagues in a bipartisan way aswe move forward in our commoninterest," the letter said. -PTI

UK curbs benefitsof health & homefor immigrants

LONDON: In a bid to cut downon immigration, British Prime Minis-ter David Cameron has announced astring of tough measures to over-turnthe country's "soft touch" image, re-stricting new immigrants' rights tounemployment, health benefits anda "home on arrival".

"Under the last government, im-migration in this country was toohigh and out of control. Put sim-ply, Britain was a soft touch," hesaid during his long-awaitedspeech on immigration.

"There are concerns, deeply held,that some people might be able tocome and take advantage of our gen-erosity without making a proper con-tribution to our country.

These concerns are not just le-gitimate; they are right and it is afundamental duty of every main-stream politician to address them.

We cannot have a culture ofsomething for nothing.

New migrants should not ex-pect to be given a home on ar-rival," he said during a keynoteaddress at University CampusSuffolk on the Ipswich Waterfront.

Under some of the latest measuresannounced, access to social housingwill be linked to new rigorous testsand changes to healthcare would beintroduced, with the UK getting "bet-ter at reciprocal charging" of foreigngovernments for treatment providedto non-working overseas nationals.

Unemployment benefits for non-UK nationals will cease at the endof six months from early next year,largely aimed at countering fears ofan influx of Romanians and Bulgar-ians once movement restrictions arelifted on the relatively new EuropeanUnion (EU) member-states at the endof this year. -PTI

CEO, NASDAQ OMX; Safra Catz,President and CFO, Oracle; andMarissa Mayer, CEO, Presidentand Director, Yahoo.

"Because our current immigra-tion system is outdated and inef-ficient, many high-skilled immi-grants who want to stay inAmerica are forced to leave be-cause they are unable to obtainpermanent visas," the letter said.

"Some do not bother to comein the first place. This is often dueto visa shortages, long waits for

green cards, and lack of mobility.We believe that numerical levelsand categories for high-skillednonimmigrant and immigrant visasshould be responsive to marketneeds and, where appropriate, in-clude mechanisms to fluctuatebased on objective standards.

In addition, spouses and chil-dren should not be countedagainst the cap of high-skilled im-migrant visas. There should not bea marriage or family penalty," theletter said.

India hands overpassenger infosystem to Maldives

MALE: India has handed overan Advance Passenger Informa-tion System (APIS) to Maldivesthat would allow authorities herein providing safe and efficient im-migration service to travelers to thecountry, whose main source offoreign revenue is tourism.

Maldivian authorities said thenew system installed at the Male'sIbrahim Nasir International Airportmarks a "giant step" forward in thecapability of the country's immi-gration to provide better serviceto the travelers.

The APIS will feed advance infor-mation on the passengers travelingto and from Maldives, to the BorderControl System in the country, foruse by the various enforcement agen-cies in the country like the immigra-tion, customs and police. -PTI

Obama calls forcomprehensiveimmigration reform

WASHINGTON: US PresidentBarack Obama has said it was timefor a comprehensive and sensiblereform to fix the country's brokenimmigration system in order to at-tract "the best and the brightest"the world has to offer.

Details on page 45

Randal Stephenson

Wrong assumptions behind visas overhaul billSHAH PEERALLY

In the year 2007, U.S. SenatorsChuck Grassley (R-IA) andDick Durbin (D-IL) introduced

what has been known as "The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and AbusePrevention Act of 2007" which wasintended at overhauling the pro-grams focused on the H-1B and L-1 visa. This was apparently donein order to give emphasis on thesituation where many Americanworkers are supposedly being de-prived of qualified jobs that areotherwise and unjustly being of-fered to foreign workers.

Readers may be reminded that

currently an H-1B visa programserves the purpose of allowingcompanies and universities in theUS to employ foreign workers,temporarily in the country. This ofcourse must be done providedthat the said employee has a de-gree equivalent to that of abachelor's degree in the U.S.

This program is applicable tothose who apply for the "specialtyoccupation" category by the U.S.Citizenship & Immigration Ser-vices. The L-1 visa program grantspermission to US companies totransfer certain employees from

their foreign facilities to the U.S.offices, for a maximum period ofseven years.

In a rather recent development,U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) intro-duced "The H-1B and L-1 VisaFraud and Abuse Prevention Actof 2007? to impose a fresh over-haul on the H-1B and L-1 visa pro-grams so as to give priority toAmerican workers. This is alsosupposedly an attempt at crack-ing down on unscrupulous em-ployers who have been deprivingqualified Americans of being em-

ployed in high-skill jobs.We take a look at exactly what

the arguments made by the Sena-tors are and how they will actuallybe working out if they are imple-mented-

1. According to the senators,the present form of the H-1B visaprogram has done nothing to pro-tect the American workers cause.

This is perhaps not the wholetruth. The demand for H1B work-ers are most often in the 'specialtyoccupation' sector where it is dif-ficult for the US employers to find

Cont'd on Page 44

John Donahoe

“Because our current immigration system isoutdated and inefficient, many high-skilledimmigrants who want to stay in America areforced to leave because they are unableto obtain permanent visas”

The status of internet proxy marriagesCYRUS D. MEHTA

A recent article in the NewYork Times entitled "YouMay Now Kiss the Com-

puter Screen" caught my interest.The article highlights a rise inmarriages over the internet, es-pecially through a video chatprogram Skype, among immi-grant communities. "The prac-tice is so new that some immi-gration authorities said theywere unaware it was happeningand did not provide extra scru-tiny to ensure these types ofmarriages were not being mis-used to secure citizenship," thearticle states.

A "Skype marriage" takes placein another country where it is le-gally registered while the otherparty participates via video in theUnited States. If the marriage isconsidered legally valid in the for-eign country, it will generally berecognized in the US.

On the other hand, such a mar-riage is considered a proxy mar-riage, and under §101(a)(35) of theImmigration and Nationality Act("INA"), if the parties were not ineach other's presence at a marriageceremony, there must be proof ofconsummation for such a marriageto be recognized under immigra-tion law.

This is true even in the case ofa couple who were previouslymarried and had consummatedtheir marriage through the birth ofthree children, and then divorced.They remarried through a proxymarriage that was valid in Italy, butsince there was no proof of con-summation following that mar-

riage, the visa petition filed onbehalf of the spouse was denied.See Matter of B-, 5 I&N Dec. 698(BIA 1954).

Thus, internet marriages, evenon the rise, will not be recognizedunder immigration law unless theparties establish that there wasconsummation. In addition, thereis a requirement that every mar-riage, proxy or not, be bona fideand not be entered into solely toobtain a green card. Indeed, INA§204(c) imposed a lifetime bar to anew petition being approved onbehalf of a beneficiary who waspreviously involved in marriagefraud.

The immigration authorities donot require definitive proof of con-summation, and proof of the twoparties being together physicallyafter the celebration of their proxymarriage, along with a statementaffirming consummation, ought tosuffice. In fact, non-proxy mar-riages do not require consumma-tion to satisfy the bona fide mar-riage test.

In Matter of Peterson, 12 I&NDec. 663 (BIA 1968), the fact thatan elderly couple lived in separatebedrooms and had not engagedin sexual intercourse did not pre-clude the demonstration of a bonafide marriage. Also, a marriagewould still be considered bona fideeven though it is no longer viablebecause the couple have sepa-rated as a result of marital discord.See Matter of McKee, 17 I&N Dec.332 (BIA 1980).

The advent of increasingly so-phisticated internet-based tech-

nologies have changed the waywe live and work, and the law hasyet to catch up. For example,telecommuting employees wereunheard of before the internet, andI have commented on how exist-ing H-1B visa rules defining aworksite have not been able tocope with this trend in LCAs inthe Age of Telecommuting.

Internet marriages are anotherexample of this trend, and thecouple in the NYT article, Ms.Chowdhury (who is in New York)and Mr. Ahmmed (who is inBangladesh), notwithstanding theunconventional nature of the cel-ebration appear to have enteredinto a bona fide marriage. The fol-lowing extract from the article isworth noting:

But for Ms. Chowdhury, 21, andMr. Ahmmed, 31, the giggling pairpretending to feed each otherwedding dessert by holdingforkfuls of cake to their computerscreens that day, it felt full of thegravity of any other wedding. Ms.Chowdhury noted that her aunthad married similarly, long before

the Internet age - by telephone.Peering from the screen of a

laptop, Mr. Ahmmed agreed. "Thisis my lawful wife," he said.

At the last word, his bridesquealed with joy.

Even if one argues that aSkype marriage may have all thetrappings of a marriage wherethe parties are physically in eachother's presence (and can alsobe intimate via video), it isdoubtful whether Congress willbe in a mood to change the lawto make it easier for such mar-riages to be recognized for immi-gration purposes.

There is too much of a concernfor fraud, and such proxy mar-riages could also involve forcedmarriages of women and childrenwithout their consent. They couldalso be used by sex traffickers tobring in women who then unwit-tingly find themselves involved insex work in the US.

Interestingly, the non-recogni-tion of a proxy marriage helpedsomeone to successfully claim hewas a US citizen and avoid depor-tation. In Moussa v. INS, 302 F.3d823 (8th Cir. 2009), the governmentcommenced removal proceedingsagainst Moussa based on severalcriminal convictions. Moussa, onthe other hand, claimed he becamea citizen at the time of his father'snaturalization and could not bedeported as a US citizen.

Moussa's claim depended onwhether his father was married tohis non-citizen mother or not atthe time of the father's naturaliza-tion. Under old INA §321 which

has since been repealed, bothparents had to be citizens if theywere married in order for Moussato have become a US citizen.However, if his father was notmarried to his mother, Moussacould claim derivative citizenshipthrough his father. The govern-ment claimed that the parentswere married as a result of a proxymarriage while Moussa's motherwas in Ethiopia and so he was nota citizen.

The Eight Circuit Court of Ap-peals agreed with Moussa thatsuch a marriage was not recog-nized under INA §101(a)(35) asthe parents had not consum-mated the marriage before his fa-ther was naturalized and he wasthus a citizen. As a result, Moussacould not be deported for hiscriminal convictions.

So long as §101(a)(35) remainson the books, notwithstanding therise of internet marriages, thosewishing to seek an immigrationbenefit from such marriages mustfirst be able to demonstrate thatthey commenced marital relationsafter such a marriage. Even if sucha marriage passes muster under§101(a)(35), unless the couplehave started cohabiting together,the immigration authorities arelikely to look at such marriagesmore suspiciously in determiningwhether such a marriage is bonafide or not.

There is too much ofa concern for fraud,and such proxy mar-riages could alsoinvolve forcedmarriages of womenand children withouttheir consent

India Post44 April 5, 2013Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

* Cyrus D Mehta, may be contactedat 212-425-0555 or

[email protected]

citizens who are eligible for suchpositions, especially when itcomes to fields such as STEM(Science Technology EngineeringMathematics). Contrary to whatanyone might suggest the fact re-mains that H1B cannot be obtainedon non-specialty occupations.This means that a person with regu-lar administrative abilities, withoutany special capacities cannot ob-tain an H1B visa.

2. It has been accused thatthere are many companies whichindulge in "job shops", whereinemployers supposedly hire a largenumbers of foreign workersthrough the H-1B visa program fora short duration for training pur-poses. These workers are thensent offshore to work.

This seems to be a ratherstrange accusation as it does notexplain why a company would go

Wrong assumptions behind visas overhaul billto the trouble of hiring people onH1B visa program and train themin the US when the same can train-ing can be provided in their ownnative countries where they wouldeventually work.

3. Another assumption is thatas of now, the Department of La-bor lacks sufficient oversight andinvestigative authority over the H-1B program.

This is perhaps not a true as-sumption because; the Depart-ment of Labor (DOL) has a strictview on the LCA (Labor ConditionApplication). Moreover, the DOLand the USCIS organize regularchecks to verify that the client'ssite where the position of the em-ployees are verified regularly. Per-haps it might be a better method ifthe USCIS and DOL focus only onthe fraud cases instead of spend-ing valuable time on issues suchas bad RFEs (Request for Evi-

dence). This might actually helpin the overall cause.

4. Experts are often of the opin-ion that employers use the currentL-1 program to evade restrictions

on the H-1B program. The causecited behind this is that the L-1program does not have an annualcap and does not include protec-tions for American workers. As a

result, efforts to reform the H-1Bprogram can e improved only if theL-1 program is also reformed.

The L1 program is for compa-nies which want to transfer anemployee from one company toanother. Such applications areusually limited because the con-ditions are not always met. More-over the L1 visas are restricted bothby the USCIS and the State Depart-ment therefore putting a cap on L1visa does not actually hold muchgood, on the other hand it mightactually hinder different companiesin their normal operations. The blan-ket visa might be an area that needsmore control though.

Based on these points, one isreally unsure about what purpose,the amendment of H1B and L1 vi-sas will actually serve and howmuch it would really benefit theUS employees. On the other handthis might have the reverse effect

of different companies openingbranches in different countries sothat they can operate under fewerrestrictions imposed on them.

The information above is the opin-ion of the author and should not beconstrued as legal information. Youshould not act or refrain to act solelyon the information provided.

Shah Peerally is an attorney li-censed in California practicing im-migration law and debt settlement.He has featured as an expert legalanalyst for many TV networks suchas NDTV, Times Now and SitarreeTV. Articles about Shah Peerallyand his work have appeared innewspapers such as San Jose Mer-cury News, Oakland Tribune, USFiji Times, Mauritius Le Quotidien,Movers & Shakers and otherprominent international newspa-pers. His work has been com-mended by Congress women NancyPelosi and Barbara Lee.

Cont'd from Page 43

The L1 program is forcompanies whichwant to transfer anemployee from onecompany to another.Such applicationsare usually limitedbecause the conditionsare not always met

Obama calls for comprehensive immigration reformWASHINGTON: US President

Barack Obama has said it was timefor a comprehensive and sensiblereform to fix the country's brokenimmigration system in order to at-tract "the best and the brightest"the world has to offer.

"Immigration makes us a stron-ger. It keeps us vibrant. It keepsus hungry. It keeps us prosperous.It is part of what makes this such adynamic country. And if we wantto keep attracting the best and thebrightest that the world has to of-fer, then we need to do a better jobof welcoming them," Obama saidat a naturalization ceremony for agroup of new US citizens at theWhite House.

"We've known for years thatour immigration system is broken,that we're not doing enough toharness the talent and ingenuityof all those who want to work hard

citizens.Obama pointed out that of late

there has been bipartisan efforttowards this.

"The good news is that we've

seen some real action in Congress.There are bipartisan groups inboth the House and the Senateworking to tackle this challenge,and I applaud them for that. Weare making progress, but we've gotto finish the job, because this is-sue is not new," he said.

"Everyone pretty much knowswhat's broken. Everybody knows

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India Post 45April 5, 2013 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

how to fix it. We've all proposedsolutions and we've got a lot ofwhite papers and studies," Obamasaid.

"And we've just got, at this

point, to work up the political cour-age to do what's required to bedone. So I expect a bill to be putforward. I expect the debate tobegin next month. I want to signthat bill into law as soon as pos-sible," he said.

The US President said that realreform means continuing tostrengthen the border security and

holding employers accountable."We know that real reform

means providing a responsiblepathway to earned citizenship forthe 11 million undocumented im-migrants who are currently livingin the shadows - a pathway thatincludes passing a backgroundcheck and paying taxes and a pen-alty, and learning English andthen, going to the back of the linebehind everyone else who is try-ing to come here legally," he said.

"We know that real reform re-quires modernizing the legal immi-gration system so that our citizensdon't have to wait years beforetheir loved ones are able to jointhem in America, and so that we'reattracting the highly skilled entre-preneurs and engineers that aregoing to help create good payingjobs and grow our economy,"Obama said. -PTI

and find a place here in America.And after avoiding the problem foryears, the time has come to fix itonce and for all. The time has comefor a comprehensive, sensible im-migration reform," Obama said inhis address to the new American

US President Barack Obama

"We know that real reform requires moderniz-ing the legal immigration system so that ourcitizens don't have to wait years before theirloved ones are able to join them in America”

H1-B visas could doubleunder Senate plan

WASHINGTON: The numberof H-1B visas issued by the UScould double under a proposedSenate immigration plan whichwould also remove the cap on thegreen card, a move likely to ben-efit Indian-American technologyprofessionals but not the Indiancompanies.

The Senate immigration planwould dramatically increase thenumber of high-skilled foreignworkers allowed into the countryand give permanent legal status toan unlimited number of studentswho earn graduate degrees from USuniversities in science, technology,engineering or math, WashingtonPost reported quoting people fa-miliar with the negotiations.

The plan, if passed by both thechambers of the US Congress -House of Representatives and theSenate - would meet one of themajor demands of top Americantechnology companies includingFacebook, Google and Microsoftwho argue that they are not ableto find enough qualified workersin the US.

Given that India has the maxi-mum qualified such professionalsin the world, Indian-Americantechnology professionals are likelyto benefit from this.

But Indian companies are un-

likely to benefit from this immigra-tion reform, if some of the legisla-tions introduced in the Congressare passed, including the onewhich was introduced by SenatorChick Grassley.

The Grassley resolutionamong other things ensures that

an H-1B application filed by anemployer that employs 50 or moreUS workers will not be acceptedunless the employer attests thatless than 50 per cent of theemployer's workforces are H-1Band L visa holders.

"The agreement would be amajor victory for the tech indus-try, which has backed an intenselobbying campaign on Capitol Hillin recent months arguing thatGoogle, Facebook, Microsoft andother companies are havingtrouble finding qualified workersbecause of visa limits," the dailysaid.

"The expansion of the visas,known as H1Bs, is one element oftalks among a bipartisan group ofeight senators, whose legislationis expected to serve as the basisfor a deal between Congress andthe White House to retool the im-migration system.

"The number of visas avail-able would approximately doublefrom the current limit of 65,000per year," The Washington Postsaid. -PTI

The plan, if passedby both the cham-bers of the US Con-gress - House ofRepresentatives andthe Senate - wouldmeet one of themajor demands oftop American tech-nology companies

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April 5, 2013

India Post 47

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ClassifiedsApril 5, 2013

NAME CHANGE

I, Minal Krishnamurti

Bendre wife of

Krishnamurti Bendre

(20990, Valley Green Dr.

Apt 656. Cupertino CA

95014 USA) have

changed my name to

MINAL BENDRE for

all the purposes vide

affidavit dated: Mar

21,2013 sworn before

Advocate and Notary A.

S. Desai, Dharwad.

NAME CHANGE

I, Disha Krishnamurti

Bendre daughter of

Krishnamurti Bendre

(20990, Valley Green Dr.

Apt 656. Cupertino CA

95014 USA) have

changed my name to

DISHA BENDRE for all

the purposes vide affidavit

dated: Mar 21,2013

sworn before Advocate

and Notary A. S. Desai,

Dharwad.

REQUIREMENTS: GOOD TYPING

AND COMPUTER SKILLSMUST BE ACCURATE AND HAVE A FOCUS OF

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JOB EXPERIENCE DOESNT MATTER AS ANY JOB

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www.indiapost.com48 India Post April 5, 2013

All that glittered at Pond's FeminaMiss India (PFMI) 2013 on SundayMarch 24 was gold indeed since it

was the golden jubilee (50th) year of thepageant.

Finally, Navneet Kaur Dhillon (20), thedaughter of an army officer from Patiala, wascrowned PFMI World 2013. After Army Pub-lic School, Ambala, she attended Patiala'sPunjabi University.

The first runners-up was SobhitaDhulipala of Visakhapatnam. The 20-year-old ex-student of Vishakha Valley Schoolcurrently studies at HR College, Mumbai.

The city is also the present home of ZoyaAfroz (18), who was the second runners-up.

Originally from Lucknow, the Land ofNawabs, Zoya, an actor, studied at R N ShahHigh School and then Mithibai College.

Faced with a rather morbid question ofwhat her one regret would be if she were todie the following day, Navneet gathered herwits quickly and said, "The only thing Iwould regret would be not having done asmuch for society as I would like to. Issuesof women's empowerment and child laborand other social evils are a big concern."

Amid cheers, Miss India 2000 PriyankaChopra told the three to appreciate thecrown. "It stays with you forever. It changesyou from who you could have been to whoyou are going to be," she said.

This year's pageant, held at Yashraj Stu-dios, Andheri, marked a double milestone,given that 2013 celebrates the centenary ofIndian cinema as well as the 50th year of theMiss India contest. In this span of time, In-dia has won 34 international titles - second

only to Venezuela. Host Manish Paulopened the evening with a nostalgic audio-visual tracing the golden history of the con-test. From Nutan, Meher Castelino Mistry,Persis Khambatta and Zeenat Aman, downto Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Senand Priyanka Chopra, the winners have donethe country proud.

The event started with host Manish Paulquoting an Urdu verse celebrating woman-hood. As the event's judges, Karan Johar,Asin, Shiamak Davar, Yuvraj Singh, RituKumar, Chitrangada Singh and JohnAbraham, entered, their fans rose andcheered.

And then, kitted out in black, ivory andflame, the contestants, aged 18-25, walkeddown the ramp and introduced themselves.They had come from all over the country -Assam's Dibrugarh to Orissa'sBhubaneswar, Patna to Pune, and the metrocities. Among them were models, actors andeven an aeronautical engineer and a yogatrainer.

Comedy trio Riteish Deshmukh, VivekOberoi and Aftab Shivdasani pretended togatecrash the event to ease the nerves ofthe women onstage. They performed a rib-ald act before moving on to a dance medley.

Miss India has long been known as apassport to cinema and there were no pre-tensions this time. All 23 finalists wore eth-nic Bharatanatyam costumes or ghagra-cholis and danced to a robust 'Radha terichunri' as if they were ready for the nextlogical step.

A special award called woman of sub-stance was given to Urmi Basu for her workin the field of prostitution and trafficking. Itwas presented by Miss India 2012 VanyaMishra.

Amid cheers, MissIndia 2000 PriyankaChopra told thethree to appreciatethe crown. "It stays

with youforever. Itchanges you”

NEW DELHI: Miss India second runner up Zoya Afroz is actually notnew to glamour. The 18-year-old Mithibai college student, originally fromthe city of Lucknow, is actually an actress who was a popular child artiste.Zoya first featured in advertisements and later was spotted by Rajrshriproductions and went to play actress Neelam's daughter in 'Hum SaathSaath Hain'.

Zoya featured in 'Kuch Na Kaho'which had Aishwarya Rai andAbhishek Bachchan in the leadroles and also featured in TV series'Sonpari' before taking a break fromthe glamour world for studies. Inci-dentally, Zoya considers Aishwaryaher role model and always wantedto win the Miss India pageant.

The 18-year-old appeared in aPunjabi film called, 'Sadi Gali AayaKaro' in 2012 and has done com-mercials for brands like Coke andKFC. With the Miss India crownfirmly on her head, looks like wehave a new girl knocking on thedoors of Bollywood very soon.

Zoya Afroz was a popularchild artiste

The 18-year-oldMithibai collegestudent, originallyfrom the city ofLucknow, is actuallyan actress who wasa popular child ar-tiste. Zoya first fea-tured in advertise-ments and later wasspotted by Rajrshriproductions

Femina Miss India 2013 Winner Navneet Kaur (middle) 1st runner-up,

Sobhita Dhulipala (right) and Pond's Femina Miss India

2nd runner- up, Zoya Afroz

April 5, 2013 India Post

www.indiapost.com

49

Star with a heart of goldSupports families of future champions

Bollywood star and philan-thropist Akshay Kumar in-sists that the diversity in

sporting talent amongst India'syouth is the key to help propel thecountry forward. Akshay, whoregularly promotes martial arts,can relate to the need to stand outfrom the rest.

He asks that India's corporatesand those who are fortunate enoughshould help support India's poor-est youths and encourage them totake part in sports other than Cricket."Cricket...I want something else tocome out of this country. I just wantit to happen." Kumar said.

The actor has thoughtfullygiven some of his profits and timeto invest in a few families who areunable to provide the resourcesfor their sports passionate chil-dren. Akshay has taken it uponhimself to ensure that these tal-ented youngsters reach theirgoals and fulfil their potential.

Kumar added: "If all thecorporates support four to fivefamilies and give them all themoney they need, I think we cancome up with gold medals" Thesuperstar passionately said: "Sup-port these families, their childrenare made of something which canget us gold medals at Olympics."

It takes belief as well as moneyto ensure that these underprivi-leged communities nurture theirchildren's' innate talents andAkshay certainly delivers that levelof belief: "I support three familieswhose children are eight to nine

years old. I support them com-pletely - their father, mother... ev-erything, so that they can come upin the sports field. The children arevery interested in sports, so theycan come up and become greatsports persons." says Akshay.

Akshay Kumar proves yetagain that he is not just a leadingbig screen presence with over 20years in the Indian film industryand a host of 100 crore films un-der his belt, but that he also has aheart of gold.

"I support three fami-lies whose childrenare eight to nineyears old. I supportthem completely -their father, mother...everything, so thatthey can come up inthe sports field”

Naeem Khan of NYmakes India debut

World-renowned stylistNaeem Khan, who hasdressed the likes of US

First Lady Michelle Obama, singerBeyonce and actress PenelopeCruz, showcased his collection forthe first time in India at the LakmeFashion Week 2013.

Being held in Mumbai, the fash-ion fiesta is on a roll with a plethoraof celebrity showstoppers andfront-row personalities.

Day two ended with a fashioncoup of sorts with global star

Freida Pinto seated in the frontrow to cheer for Naeem. Sheplayed her part to the tee, dressedin a black and white knee-lengthnumber by the Indian-bornAmerican designer.

While the audience flocked toget a glimpse of her, Freida gra-ciously kept a low profile to ensureall the focus was on the designer.

Naeem's collection was a me-lange of glamorous evening wear,cocktail gowns and red carpetdresses. Models sashayed downthe runway in chic numbers with a

hint of shimmer and sequins. Thefiligree leaf work embellished redand green floor sweeping dresseshad just the right mix of sexy andred-carpet opulence. The collec-tion was inspired by traditionalweaves and textiles of the coun-try but the silhouettes were mod-ern and contemporary.

The designer was humbledwith the appreciation he received.While walking to the head ramp,he said, "I'm so happy to be here.

I was anxious thinking how Indi-ans will perceive my work."

Dsigner Rocky S presented atrendy collection of eveninggowns and dresses on Day two.The color black and fold domi-nated his creations and model-turned-actress Evelyn Sharma wasthe showstopper for the designersecond season in a row.

Naeem Khan

“I'm so happy to behere. I was anxiousthinking how Indianswill perceivemy work”

A model displays a flowing

multi-hued creation by

Indian-born American

designer Naeem Khan

April 5, 2013India Post

www.indiapost.com

50

IFFLA to honor two extraordinary womenIndia Post News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA: The In-dian Film Festival of Los Angeles(IFFLA) has announced its hon-orees for the Sixth Annual Indus-try Leadership Awards (ILA): vet-eran network and cable televisionexecutive Bela Bajaria, ExecutiveVice President, Universal Televi-sion, and one of India's mostsought-after producers on therise, Guneet Monga.

The Industry LeadershipAwards honor entertainment in-dustry professionals (US and In-dia-based) who have had a sig-nificant impact on the entertain-ment industry as it relates to In-dia and the Diaspora. The 2013Industry Leadership Awards willbe presented at a gala luncheonon Thursday, April 11 at the iconicentertainment venue, House ofBlues in West Hollywood.

"It is truly an honor and a mo-ment of pride for IFFLA and itsBoard of Directors, to bring aspotlight on two extraordinarywomen, leaders in their respectivefields; Bela Bajaria, persistent inher vision, and paving the wayfor rising leaders like GuneetMonga, who take it upon them-selves to change the game in theentertainment industry," saidIFFLA Chair Christina Marouda.

The keynote address will begiven by Andy Bird, Chairman ofWalt Disney International andformer ILA Honoree. Since join-ing The Walt Disney Company in2004, Bird has greatly expandedDisney presence around theworld. During his tenure, Disneyhas acquired UTV, one of India's

premier media and entertainmentcompanies reaching almost 250million consumers through film,television and interactive media.

IFFLA will also salute Christo-pher Gebhardt, EVP of ParticipantMedia and General Manager ofTAG, Participant's consulting andagency services division. Partici-pant is a leader in cinematic ac-

tivism with a philosophy that "astory well told can change theworld." Some of their films in-clude Lincoln, An InconvenientTruth, Waiting For "Superman"and The Best Exotic MarigoldHotel. TAG builds communicationstrategies and programs forbrands and foundations, and isabout to launch a new initiativeto bring their social action cam-paigns to India.

Actor and IFFLA TrusteeRupak Ginn will serve as MC.Ginn's credits include The Name-sake, Just Wright, Friends WithBenefits, and the role of Raj on

the USA Network hit series"Royal Pains."

Mindy Kaling ("The MindyProject") will be presenting BelaBajaria's award.

"It's an incredible honor to berecognized by IFFLA and I'm verygrateful," said Bajaria. "I've al-ways admired the work the orga-nization does and I am excited tobe a part of the festival, which

shines a spotlight on distinctvoices and focuses on talent infront of and behind the camerafrom the South Asian communityworldwide."

Said Monga, "I am honoredand grateful that such a presti-gious award is being bestowedon me. I sincerely thank the en-tire team of IFFLA for this. I seethis as a new milestone and hopeto continue doing my best. Iwould also thank my entire teamand specially Anurag for being myrock and support system, alwaysmaking a strong foundation andcarving a path of constantgrowth."

Bela Bajaria, a veteran networkand cable television executive,was named Executive Vice Presi-dent, Universal Television in Au-gust 2011. She oversees creativeprogramming for one of thecountry's largest and most suc-cessful television studios, whichis responsible for such hit seriesas "The Office," "Parks and Rec-

reation," "30 Rock," "Law & Or-der: Special Victims Unit,""Grimm," "Smash," "Bates Mo-tel," and "Parenthood." The stu-dio also produces new seriessuch as "The Mindy Project," "GoOn," "Chicago Fire," "Decep-tion," and "Guys with Kids."

Bajaria was previously the Se-nior Vice President of Cable Pro-gramming for CBS TV Studio andthe Senior Vice President of Mov-ies and Miniseries for the CBSNetwork. Upon creating the cable

division at CBS TV Studios in2007, she shepherded many cabledramas and comedies from pro-lific writer/directors, including adocu-comedy for Showtime thatwas produced by Glenn GordonCaron, "Common Law," and"Panic Boys" for Showtime.While at CBS, Bajaria also workedon numerous cable projects bynotable writers such as CarolMendelsohn, Julian Fellowes,Augusten Burroughs, AnthonyZuiker and James Ellroy.

Guneet Monga, CEO and Pro-ducer AKFPL and Sikhya Enter-tainment, was named one of thetop 12 women achievers in theGlobal Entertainment industry byThe Hollywood Reporter andamong the Top 50 Indians chang-ing India by India Today.

The Oscar nominated producerhas paved the way for Indian cin-ema globally, with three of her filmspremiering at the 2012 Cannes FilmFestival: Peddlers by Vasan Bala,and Gangs Of Wasseypur, Part 1and 2 by Anurag Kashyap.

Her credits include the Oscarnominated short film, Kavi, di-rected by Gregg Helvey, Aiyya,That Girl In Yellow Boots, andShaitan by Bejoy Nambiar. Shehas also co-produced Trishna byMichael Winterbottom. Monga'sforthcoming projects includeMonsoon Shootout by AmitKumar, Haraamkhor by ShlokSharma, Toba Tek Singh by PanNalin, and the Oscar winning di-rector Danis Tanovic's next ven-ture starring Emraan Hashmi.

During Bird’s tenure,Disney has acquiredUTV, one of India'spremier media andentertainment com-panies reachingalmost 250 millionconsumers throughfilm, television andinteractive media

Bela Bajaria Guneet Monga

Manoj Kumar given lifetimeachievement award

2014 Oscars show movedto March

Vidya Balan won the bestactress award for her performance in the film

Kahaani at the 8th Renault StarGuild Awards given in Yash RajStudio. Ranbir Kapoor won thebest actor award for his perfor-mance in Barfi.

Veteran singer LataMangeshkar received Nightingaleof the Century award. She wasasked by Salman Khan to sing oneline. She sang the song "naamgum jayega." Veteran actor ManojKumar was. Ramesh Sippy gavethe award to him. Manoj Kumarsaid that he will be happy to makea new film when Ramesh Sippymakes a film.

Superstar Salman Khan hostedthe awards night for the first time.

LOS ANGELES: Next year'sAcademy Awards ceremony - thehighlight of the annual movieawards season - will be held onMarch 2, a week later than normal,so as not to clash withthe Winter Olympics inRussia in February, or-ganizers said.

The Academy ofMotion Picture Artsand Sciences also an-nounced a Feb. 22 datefor the 2015 Oscar cer-emony and said bothawards shows will betelevised live as usualby ABC from the DolbyTheatre in Hollywood.

The Winter Olym-pics are to be held inSochi, Russia, from Feb. 7-23, forc-ing several of Hollywood's bigawards shows to shift their tradi-tional dates to avoid a clash with

blanket TV coverage of the games.The Screen Actors Guild

Awards, one of the key ceremo-nies ahead of the Oscars, has al-ready announced that its 2014 cer-

emony will move backfrom the end of Janu-ary to Jan. 18.

The Golden Globesceremony, Hollywood'ssecond biggest awardsshow, has for the past10 years taken place inBeverly Hills in mid-January but organizershave yet to announcea date for the 2014show.

The Academy ofMotion Picture Artsand Sciences, which

hands out the Oscars, has shiftedits awards ceremony in the past toavoid competition from the Win-ter Olympics.


www.indiapost.com

Horoscope52

Your Weekly FutureAPRIL 5TH - APRIL 11TH 2013

by Pandit Parashar

(March 21 to April 20)

Jupiter will bring financial relief. Money stuck for long can also

come this week. You may be able to get out of the project or a

property draining you out for long. People in power will extend help-

ing hand and will really deliver. You may also replace an old vehicle

with newer model. Issue involving a child will get quickly resolved to

satisfaction.

(November 23 to December 22)

Changes may start taking place at work. Some of you will be

offered opportunity little away from home. Pending issues with

government are about to be decided in your favor. You will be paying

more attention to spouse and try to entertain more often. Some of

you may decide to appear and start preparing for a highly competi-

tive exam.

(December 22 to January 19)

Expect some serious prosperity from now and on. Project you

had been working on will be accepted opening new doors. A new

member will be added in the family soon. You will also overcome few

difficulties in life. Mind will stay calm and you will make excellent

choices this week. Hard work and patience will yield rich rewards in

very near future.

(January 20 to February 18)

There will be big change on financial front. Suddenly you will feel

relieved. Expenses will stay under control and new opportunity

will bring in extra cash. You will be slowly planning a trip also. Do not

disclose your strategy to every one right away. Planets in third will

make you take some courageous steps to get out of rat race.

(February 19 to March 20)

You will spend lots of time on phone and writing emails. Commit

ments made long ago will keep draining you out financially. Health

will be better and you will be more confident about your actions.

Meetings will go very well and you will be given green signal also.

Spouse may not agree on everything but support you on major ones.

(May 21 to June 20)

Some of you may need to travel out of state for business purpose.

Listen to spouse carefully, the idea is not bad. Money wise you

will stay comfortable and meet all commitments on time. Strong

Venus can take you closer to an adventurous person. New job offer

will not be bad and you may be slightly reluctant to take the risk at

this point in life.

(July 23 to August 22)

Some of you may feel discontent with the changes at work and

start looking for a new and better environment. You will be taking

more interest in a child and try to resolve important issues. Some

one from a different culture will make an interesting offer. You may be

confused whether to go on a trip. It will be better to think twice before

actions.

(September 23 to October 22)

You will be spending lots of money on family. Some money will

also go towards a future trip. You may be suggested minor sur-

gery to overcome a health issue bothering for quite some time. Stick

your terms and soon the others will agree. Spouse may have some

unnecessary fears in mind, talking will really help calm things down.

(April 21 to May 20)

Right help is only a phone call away. Once again things will start

moving in right. You will receive useful tips and leads from a

matured and elderly person. Business will pick up suddenly and you

will be more optimistic about life. You may get out of a bad relation-

ship also. You will call few old friends and arrange a small party at

your place.

(June 21 to July 22)

Uncertainty will clear in career and you will escape the worst.

Jupiter's aspect on Saturn will bring an end to lots of anxiety and

bring peace in mind. Some of you will be shifted to another position at

job. Money wise you will continue to do fine and find time and resources

to entertain yourself. You will be in great demand at the get together.

(August 23 to September 22)

Business will pick up suddenly and things will be better at work.

Jupiter's transit in ninth brings an end to lots of uncertainty clouding

your mind in the past. You may visit a holy place or making some

contribution to a noble cause. Expect some last minute delay in

ongoing legal matters. Isn't it time to get in touch with old friends and

relatives.

(October 23 to November 22)

Deal will be good in short as well as long term. You will make new

friends and one of them will give you good leads. Sibling will call

to give you very good news. You will spend money on an upcoming

trip also. You will be tempted to take a big risk but something will

pull you back on last minute. You will relish your favorite items this

week.

Pandit Parashar, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA is also available for individualconsultations. He can be reached at: [email protected]

510-886-4370 website: www.parashar.com

India Post 53April 5, 2013

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Philosophy

NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

In sleep consciousness is dor-mant, when you get up con-sciousness says, 'I had a good

sleep'. You can give it any nameyou like - body, mind but it is anattribute that was dormant in sleep- it is not the senses telling you.

The food-body will alwayshave desires; beingness is the fra-grance of the same body. Prior toit I did not know myself; it was anexperienceless state, suddenly theeight clues (five elements andthree gunas) of experience andknowingness were fed lots of in-formation - birth, body and soforth, with all this I started suffer-ing. My Guru initiated me into aninquiry about myself.

Did I experience my birth andparents? I hadn't, so I rejected it.In the process I started investi-gating my own beingness, it wasa temporary state, so I have dis-posed it off. I am free from fearnow as I know this state will go. Ihave no fear of my beingness be-cause I will experience the same(the going of beingness).

Because of concepts I consid-ered myself a personality and dueto this conceptual state my truestate suffered. Just as I admonishyou, I listen to my friends, theirthoughts talk to me, even visionsappear, I tell them to shut up. I ad-monish thoughts and visions. Will

Investigate the cause oftrouble that is, beingness

Nisargadatta Maharaj

In the absence of beingness, what have Ibeen doing? My unborn children, what arethey doing? The same that I did prior to theappearance of this beingness

anybody quarrel with histhoughts? When these foreign oralien thoughts are kept aside, theSelf starts sprouting and impart-ing knowledge. Then it is the real-ized principle that prevails whichwas never created, but behaves asthough created.

Who observes or witnessesthen? 'I the Absolute.' If there areno thoughts then there is no fear,and then the Self sprouts. In the

absence of beingness, what haveI been doing? My unborn chil-dren, what are they doing? Thesame that I did prior to the appear-ance of this beingness.

World, mind and all are expan-sive, how did this calamity occurwith the arrival of beingness? So Imust investigate the cause of thetrouble that is, beingness. Thinkhow you came into this body com-plex instead of investigating theworld. The body falls down but

what happened to me? For thatprinciple for which you get no re-ply, is perfect, whatever answeryou get is wrong.

If I think of this world, whyshould I not inquire about prior toconsciousness? If I tackle thisquestion, I must investigate whatis this principle of 'I am'? I wouldprefer to play with that child notborn because eternal Parabramhanand unborn children are alike. You

want to have knowledge. What doyou mean by that? Hold on to thatprinciple which understands, rec-ognizes thoughts and be quiet.

For your sake, what are you?Investigate that. Forget who istorturing whom; stabilize in yourmost confidential being as 'youare'. What are you? Investigate.The problems of manifest worldcan be solved later. There is noright answer to 'who are you?' Noanswer is the most correct one;

any reply you get is not eternal.That eternal, unborn principle isnow talking which has been ac-cused of birth. 'I feel I am guilty'.

Whatever guilt you accept youhave to suffer. In a country notvisited a robbery occurs, the Po-lice arrest you here. If you acceptyou suffer, maybe a life term. I don'taccept the charge; I have not vis-ited that place. I am not a robber. Iplead that - 'my only guilt is that I

accept that I am born'. Give it up!The Absolute has no scope, it'sunborn. Prior to my appearance(beingness) it never occurred tome that I was, so where is thescope for feeling guilty either? Ifyou had wisdom, you would re-ject beingness.

Excerpted from 'I Am Unborn,Talks with Sri NisargadattaMaharaj.' The 116th birth anniver-sary of Sri Nisargadatta Maharajwill be observed on April 9

Douglas Harding

You are now psychologically ripe for thisgreat endeavor - which is coming to termswith your own death, and (much morethan that) having death itself as your goal

DOUGLAS HARDING

Long before we reach ourteens our ability to pick upa language has hugely de-

teriorated. At twenty or so ourtable tennis starts falling off, attwenty-five our figure skating andgymnastics, at thirty our footballor tennis.

However, our ability to playchess or run a business or make aspeech or write or paint or com-pose may well have been growingall the time and perhaps we've onlyjust begun to do philosophy in anydisciplined or creative fashion.

And so on, gaining skills andlosing skills all the way up to - well,up to what age? While there's stilllife there's still the question: 'Whatto do now' what's the right job forme, what do I enjoy most, at thistime of my life?

Which leads to: 'what - if any-thing- can I do as well now as in myfifties and sixties? Or even - is it pos-sible? - better than then, provided Ikeep up the needful practice? Inshort, what's appropriate now?'

It's not for nothing that, tradi-tionally, wisdom is expected tocome with age, that the Sage isgenerally pictured as an AncientSage, that the Wise Old Man isamong the more convincing ofJung's archetypes.

I'm certainly not suggestingthat enquiry into your essentialNature and destiny - into the greatquestions of life and death - is bestput off till hoary old age, whichhas all too obvious reasons forspecializing in such weighty (notto say heavy) matters. On the con-trary, the enquiry can't begin tooearly in life. What I am saying isthat - even if you've left it ratherlate - this is just the job for you to

pursue now, through old age tovery old age. It's exactly what youhave an excellent chance of becom-ing very good at indeed. And thisfor a variety of reasons.

It's likely you have now eitherrealized your ambitions and findyourself as unsatisfied as ever, orelse you have given them up asunrealistic or unachievable. In ei-ther case you are being helped to-wards that measure of detachment

which is just what's now needed.You have all the leisure free

from pressing duties and respon-sibilities, which you could wantfor this, the most engrossing ofall the enterprises of your life.

According to Carl Jung (and allthe evidence I have suggests he'sright) you are now psychologi-cally ripe for this great endeavor -which is coming to terms with yourown death, and (much more than

that) having death itself as yourgoal.

On the other hand, if you denyor actively resist your built-in needto devote much of the energies ofthe closing decades of your life tothat goal, you are likely to be un-happy for no outwardly discerniblereason, deeply afraid of what's tocome perhaps clinically sick.

You now have in the bag all theraw material all the loose pieces of

information, all the experience oflife you need in order to makesense of it. What more fitting tasktherefore - what more urgent duty- awaits you than this one: as-semble the jigsaw puzzle of yourlife till the master-design suddenlytakes shape: enabling you to lookback on the those once so poi-gnant and absorbing concerns astrivial in themselves, yet revealedas indispensable now they are

subordinated, to the great con-cerns: What's it all in aid of? What,above all, is my true identity, andtherefore my true role and fate?

Am I made of god and accord-ingly indestructible; or am I madeof the less hardwearing stuff andaccordingly soon for the cosmicdump where everything that is notGod ends up?

Excerpted from 'The LittleBook of Life and Death'

Coming to terms with yourown death

54 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

April 5, 2013India Post

Kashmir protests and thereturn of Fidayeen

ZAINAB AKHTER

Security was beefed up andput on high alert after the13 March Fidayeen attack.

Disguised as cricket-playingyouth, with lethal weapons hiddenin their sports kits, at least twoFidayeen unleashed a brazen at-tack at a CRPF camp in Srinagar'sBemina. In a second strike ten dayslater, militants attacked a BSF ve-hicle at Nowgam killing a borderguard and injuring two others.

Do these attacks signify thereturn of the Fidayeen and the re-vival of armed militancy in the Val-ley? Has the hanging of Afzal Gurugiven an impetus to violence?

The Beminaattack is themost auda-cious one inthe last threeyears. A curfewday was cho-sen to inflictmaximum dam-age on the se-curity forces.The attackershad surveyedthe targetedplace andchose a differ-ent modus op-erandi - dis-guised asyouth playingcricket, theya b r u p t l ystarted firingi n d i s c r i m i -nately at the CRPF personnel.

Five army men and two militantswere shot down and two othermilitants fled the scene. In theNowgam incident militants travel-ing on motorcycles fired automaticweapons at a BSF vehicle injuringthree army men. In the latest at-tack, a suspected militant shot acivilian and injured a CRPF per-sonnel in Sopore town on Sunday.

The fear factorThe attacks have revived fears

that militancy may return to theValley. The youth of the Valley tookto armed rebellion for the first timewhen Maqbool Bhatt (founder ofJKLF) was hanged in Tihar Jail in1984. In between, normalcy re-turned to the Valley. If the protestsof this time are studied, be it in2008 due to the Amaranath landrow or in 2010 due to killing ofyouths in the valley, it may be seenthat protesters resorted to onlystones and sticks while clashingwith the army.

Kashmir considers Afzal Guruas their leader of a stature close to

Maqbool Bhatt and his hanginghas once again brought back an-ger within the valley towards theGovernment of India especiallyamong the youth. A hospital inGMC, Srinagar and the area nearthe Allama Iqbal library in Kash-mir University are named after himas Afzal Guru Hospital and AfzalGuru Chowk respectively.

He has been bestowed the titleof Shaheed-e-Watan (martyr of thenation) and at Eidgah's Mazar-e-Shahuda (martyrs' graveyard) agrave yard for him with gravestoneinscribed with a demand for thereturn of Guru's mortal remains

has been put up just beside theother empty grave of MaqboolBhatt.

The separatist fractions of thevalley have come together underthe same banner to form an asso-ciation called MMM (MutahidaMajlise Mashawrat) and their maindemand from the Government ofIndia is the return of the mortalremains of Mohmmad Afzal Guruand Maqbool, both buried in Tiharjail. The MMM has been instru-mental in charting out protest cal-endars. There are days when sepa-rate protest calendars are beingsorted out for men and women.

Militant strikes: Whynow?

The valley of Kashmir has beenon the boil since the hanging ofAfzal Guru. Protests continue inthe state demanding the return ofGuru's body which is buried in thepremises of Tihar jail. The hang-ing of Guru has given the militantsa reason to make a comeback inthe valley. Srinagar gives the mili-tants publicity and they are able

to draw the attention of the wholeworld. According to the DirectorGeneral Police Ashok Prasad, themilitants were desperate to strikein Srinagar. "Militants want tostrike in Srinagar to gain publicity.Nobody comes to know aboutthem when they strike in a far flungarea. They want to strike inSrinagar to give an impression topeople that militancy is alive," hesaid.

Security has been beefed up inSrinagar in order to thwart anysuch attacks but whether this mea-sure can actually thwart the saidattacks is the question which lin-

gers. While handling the protest-ers on the streets, security forcesare ordered not to fire and are ad-vised to use teargas and other lessharmful methods to disperse thecrowd. In the Bemina case, too, thearmy was caught unarmed and theattack took them by surprise.

These attacks have reignitedthe debate of revocation of theAFSPA (Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act). Looking at the fastdeteriorating security situation inKashmir, one can say that AFSPAis here to stay for the time beingor it may even be strengthened tomeet up the security demands.Amid the protest calendars, life inKashmir has come to a halt andthe public has to face its brunt.

It would be tragic if, in their frus-tration with the failures of the gov-ernment, the youth were again topick up arms. All that can be hopedfor is that good sense will prevailand violent methods will be aban-doned. If not it is predicted thatthis time the armed rebellion willbe deadly.

The writer is Research Officer,IReS, IPCS

Soldiers take positions during an encounter with millitants near a CRPF camp

at Bemina in Srinagar

Twists & turnsIt is inevitable that the political arena will see many twists and

turns before the actual polling day in 2014. It may actuallybecome totally different from what appears possible today.

The interest in 2014 poll, still a year away, is tragic because thereis little faith in the present dispensation delivering anything. WhatMulayam Singh Yadav said about coalitions being here to stay isan obvious fact. That is why so many regional chieftains arealmost thinking of what to wear on coronation day. What theseambitious state bosses must fear is rebellion within their ownranks. There is the curious case of turncoat Beni Prasad Verma,Steel Minister in the UPA government at the Center and once aclose confidant of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Recently he heapedabuse at his former friend by calling him not only a "looter, agoonda" but also alleged he had "terrorist links." A livid Mulayamdemanded his sacking as minister. The UPA has not obliged al-though Sonia Gandhi has apologized on his behalf. It seems theUPA is encouraging Beni to go after his former boss. Becausesoon after, Beni Prasad launched another tirade against SamajwadiParty chief saying those "serving family interest" cannot be termedas socialists.

In this weird election politics, Beni Prasad seems to enjoy thesupport of Rahul Gandhi for making a foray for the Congress inUP. For its part, Yadavs of UP are threatening to pull the plug onthe UPA government to bring about an October election. Anotherinteresting move was Mulayam Singh praising L.K. Advani whichcan be seen as a signal to the Congress led UPA that he has hisoptions open for aligning with the NDA if the latter combinationhappens to come to power in 2014. The scenario could not havebeen more fluid.

Another major figure preparing for 2014 is the octogenarianDMK chief M. Karunanidhi whose politics has been wrecked byfeuding sons. The veteran has anointed his younger son, Stalinas his successor which fact is not like by his older son Alagiriwho was creating his own base as a union minister in the UPAgovernment. Sensing he could create trouble for Stalin, the DMKchief has sought to clip his wings by withdrawing support to theUPA government on the ostensible reason of the UPA being softon Sri Lanka over the issue of treatment of Tamils. Without aministry at the Center Alagiri would be less of a threat to Stalin.However this has created a split in the DMK as Alagiri continuesto show his displeasure over pullout from UPA.

Another regional boss, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, recently put upa show in Delhi proclaiming his version of development was abetter recipe for India than that of Narendra Modi. But by appeal-ing for special status for Bihar, Nitish has himself put a questionmark over of his model of development. If this model is so suc-cessful, why beg for special concessions from the Center? Also,his own coalition with the BJP at state level is under strain as hisdeputy chief minister Sushil Modi, who belongs to the BJP, hasbeen openly hooting for Narendra Modi.

Other regional chieftains who are waiting in the wings to bekingmakers in 2014 are Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, NaveenPatnaik of Orissa, Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu and even Mayawatiof UP. Since no present politician has a national image, a clubbingof small timers is likely at the Center who will end up pulling indifferent directions.

If this is the likely scenario for 2014, what is wrong with thepresent patchwork which is also a coalition?

Political analysts speculate that never before has the primeministership of India been so emasculated. If the Congress isunable to cobble together a majority, there is hope that a combi-nation will come to power with a regular prime minister who willcarry weight as the first among equals; who can himself createpolicy and implement it and also be accountable for it.

India Postwww.indiapost.com

April 5, 201356

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