The Indian Panorama

Month: December 2012

  • Mom Kills Boy for Not Memorizing Quran

    Mom Kills Boy for Not Memorizing Quran

    LONDON (TIP): An Indian-origin mother who beat her son “like a dog” for not being able to memorize passages of the Quran, has been found guilty by a British court of murdering him and setting his body on fire to hide evidence. Sara Ege, 33, a mathematics graduate from India, was found guilty at Cardiff crown court on Wednesday of beating her son Yaseen Ege to death at their home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, in July 2010 and setting fire to his body. She was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice at the court. Sentence was adjourned, the BBC reported. Sara also claimed at one point she believed the stick she used on her son had an evil spirit in it.

    The boy’s father, Yousuf Ege, 38, was acquitted of causing Yaseen’s death by failing to protect him, the Daily Telegraph reported. It was initially thought Yaseen had died in the blaze at the family home but tests later revealed he had died hours earlier. Sara had pleaded not guilty to murder and claimed her husband was responsible for Yaseen’s death. Sara said she feared her husband would kill her and target her family unless she confessed to the murder. That confession, made to police days after the death of her son, was captured on video and played to the jury during the five-week trial. During the hour-long footage, university graduate Ege described how the young boy collapsed after she had beaten him while still murmuring extracts of the Quran.

    Sara said back then that she decided to burn his body and ran downstairs to get a lighter and a bottle of barbecue gel. In police interviews she also confessed to beating her son for no reason and that her anger often led to her being out of control.

  • Mud Throwing at UK Mission Upsets India

    Mud Throwing at UK Mission Upsets India

    LONDON (TIP): The Indian high commission in London is considering lodging a firm protest with the British foreign office about yet another failure on the part of the London metropolitan police to provide protection to its premises. Earlier in the day, a group of unruly protesters armed with horns, megaphones and pots and pans descended on the entrance of the diplomatic mission, depositing a substantial quantity of mud at the main entrance of the building so as to block access. They demanded the Indian government debar mining at Niyamgiri in Odisha, India.

    Soon after the incident, Indian diplomats summoned the London metropolitan police’s diplomatic protection force to express its “displeasure” and seek an explanation. The police said they are looking at video footage to identify the trouble makers. The high commission’s security officers are assisting them in this task. An organization calling itself Foil Vedanta, quoted an activist named Samarendra Das as saying, “Vedanta should be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and taken to court here in Britain.” Vedanta could not be reached for a comment.

  • UK Police Make Child Sex Abuse Arrest

    UK Police Make Child Sex Abuse Arrest

    LONDON: British police say they have arrested a man in his 60s in connection to the broad investigation into child sex abuse spurred by the Jimmy Savile case. The man has not been identified. Police said the man from Surrey, south of London, was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of sexual offenses and is being questioned at a central London police station. Savile was a BBC entertainer who has in recent months been accused of serial sexual abuse of underage girls. He died last year.

  • TV Anchor Shot Dead in Russia

    TV Anchor Shot Dead in Russia

    MOSCOW (TIP): A television news presenter aged 28 was shot dead in a city centre in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, the latest deadly attack against a journalist in the region, officials said on Thursday. Meanwhile a senior regional transportation official in the same region barely escaped an attempt on his life, authorities said. The two incidents occurred within several hours of each other Wednesday in the city of Nalchik, the regional centre of the Kabardino- Balkaria region, although it was not clear whether they were linked.

    The 28-year-old journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev was gunned down on Wednesday evening at about 9pm (1700 GMT) as he was returning from work, the regional interior ministry said. Gekkiyev was a news presenter at the regional branch of state channel VGTRK, but shocked colleagues said he never covered any controversial subjects that could offend anyone. Unknown assailants shot him three times, and the journalist died on the spot, said the Moscow-based Investigative Committee. “The investigation considers … this brazen crime was a warning to other journalists who are reporting on the results of the fight against the bandit underground groups operating in the region,” the committee said. Gekkiyev’s employer said it was cancelling all of its entertainment and news programmes to mourn him. “Today there will be no news on our channel,” the head of the regional branch Lyudmila Kazancheva said in a special segment dedicated to Gekkiyev that broadcast his smiling photographs.

    “He was young, talented, intelligent and beautiful. He is no longer with us,” she said in a shaky voice. VGTRK’s federal news report shown in Moscow said Gekkiyev’s assailants apparently made sure he worked for the news program before opening fire. “Two men approached him and asked: ‘Are you the television presenter?’” a woman introduced by the VGTRK channel as Gekkiyev’s relative said, quoting a witness of the murder. He answered affirmatively, and the men shot him with an automatic gun, the woman said. Several hundred people gathered at the young man’s funeral in his native village, it said, showing crowds of people mourning and praying in the countryside.

    Two of Gekkiyev’s former colleagues at the channel were threatened by militants in February, according to the Glasnost Defence Foundation. On Thursday morning assailants also targeted the regional deputy transportation minister Vladislav Dyachenko, whose car exploded when he was getting into it to go to work at around 9am, regional police said. The bomb that targeted his car contained about 200 grammes of TNT hidden in an empty beer can, police said in a statement. Dyachenko was only lightly wounded, and his driver was unharmed. The North Caucasus sees near daily attacks that officials blame on militants seeking to establish an Islamic state across the region. In the past, Kabardino-Balkaria has been less affected by the violence than Chechnya and Dagestan, where a prominent opposition journalist, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, was murdered last December.

  • The Mother of All Insider Trading Cases – Mathew Martoma

    The Mother of All Insider Trading Cases – Mathew Martoma

    Unlike Rajat Gupta, who worked his way into positions of trust and received material nonpublic information, Mathew Martoma stands accused to being smart enough to target Dr. Sidney Gilman, an 80 year old neurologist chairing the experimental medicine’s trials committee, and then to successfully financially “seduce” Dr. Gilman to disgorge valuable confidential information. Anyone who has seen the captivating movie, The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford knows how stock-valuable new medicine trials are. Guess Mathew Martoma may be an inspired movie-goer. That Dr. Gilman is cooperating with USA Preet Bharara’s Office and has signed a Non- Prosecution Agreement and will pay almost $250,000 means Mathew Martoma’s constitutional presumptive innocence may not be of the durable variety.

    The larger question is will Charlie Stillman, Martoma’s lawyer, mimic another great lawyer who fought the government on behalf of a nearsaint, or force Martoma to hold up an objective mirror to his facts and then find the ways and means to bring to an early end the mother of all insider trading trials to a quicker end, and have “smiles and chuckles” aborted in favor of a less painful future. One thing is for sure: the jury will be quite interested in seeing proof of Mathew Martoma personally getting $9 million extra and causing trades, as alleged, and over a quarter billion dollars profit by trading on confidential information. Lastly, Steve Cohen will surely pray that Mathew Martoma asks Rajat Gupta for advice on legal strategies. This prosecution is the most worthy of all, as it seeks to expose the alleged marriage between uncommon smarts being used for illegal greed. This case, more than Rajaratnam or Gupta trials, will enhance public confidence in our capital markets and maybe, just maybe, Wall Street will once and for all reject the false title of Master of the Universe, as even an atheist is offended to see Main Street sacrificed on the alter of illegal greed on Wall Street. What we do know is that the Sheriff of Wall Street, USA Bharara, will dethrone all self-proclaimed “masters” with the Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution.”

    Complete story
    After Raj Ratnam and Rajat Gupta, another Inside Trading story with new dramatis personae -Mathew Martoma, Dr. Gilman and Steven A. Cohen has emerged. Another bombshell dropped on Tuesday, November 20th in the sprawling insider trading investigation being run out of Preet Bharara’s office. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York unveiled an indictment against former SAC Capital portfolio manager Mathew Martoma accusing him of trading on inside information. According to the government, the illegal tips allowed SAC Capital to reap profits and avoid losses of $276 million, making it the largest insider trading case ever. The conduct alleged in the indictment is nothing short of shocking and egregious.

    It is alleged that Martoma sold massive amounts of Elan (NYSE: ELN) and Wyeth shares in the days leading up to the release of key drug data for the two companies in July 2008. The stock sales came after the trader was tipped off that the drug in question, an Alzheimer’s treatment known as bapineuzumab, was not as effective as had been expected. Even more shocking, the government alleges that the illegal information came from an octogenarian doctor who served as the chairman of the safety monitoring committee overseeing the clinical trial. Martoma, 38, who was a trader for an affiliated SAC Capital hedge fund known as CR Intrinsic, is the sixth current or former SAC employee implicated in insider trading violations. He has been charged with conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud. He allegedly cultivated a relationship with a renowned University of Michigan neurologist named Dr. Sidney Gilman, 80, who subsequently provided Martoma with highly lucrative inside information.

    The two were introduced to one another through a so-called “expert networking” firm. According to Bharara, over the course of around 42 consultations at $1,000 an hour, Martoma convinced Gilman to share information on the drug trial he was working on. Furthermore, the two reportedly became friends and Gilman treated Martoma like a colleague and pupil. On Gilman’s advice, Martoma built up a large stake in both Elan and Wyeth, which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Billionaire trading legend and SAC Capital founder Steve Cohen also acquired large stakes in the companies based on Martoma’s recommendation. The pivotal drug data which would substantially effect the price of the two stocks was set to be presented by Dr. Gilman on July 29, 2008. Prior to the presentation, Dr. Gilman was provided with an encrypted 24-page PowerPoint document which revealed that the drug’s efficacy was well below expectations. In fact, the data showed that bapineuzumab failed to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients in the clinical trials. According to the Feds, Gilman subsequently spoke with Martoma for around 1 hour and 45 minutes and actually sent the PowerPoint presentation to the trader along with the password needed to access it. Gilman has been charged civilly by the SEC, but has entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the government and is not named in the criminal indictment. He is cooperating with the Feds.

    At this point, Martoma and Cohen, who is referred to as “Portfolio Manager A” in the indictment held a roughly $700 million position in the two stocks. Specifically, the firm had acquired around $365 million in Elan shares and $335 million in Wyeth shares. This was a very substantial position, even for SAC Capital. Even more significant is the fact that the drug data was expected to be a binary outcome – either good or bad – with a dramatic move in the stock price in either direction. Suffice it to say, that even in the hedge fund world, this kind of bet was seen as bizarre and risky. In fact, other SAC traders had expressed concern over the size of the position given the unpredictable nature of clinical drug trials. When Martoma saw the leaked data, he realized he was in trouble. When the information became public, his and Cohen’s positions would be buried.

    Upon learning the news, Martoma allegedly emailed Cohen, asking “Is there a good time to catch up with you this morning? It’s important.” Subsequently, the two spoke for around 20 minutes on a Sunday. The following day, Cohen instructed his head trader to begin liquidating the fund’s position in Elan and Wyeth and “to do so in a way as to not alert anyone else, inside or outside of the hedge fund.” The indictment does not specify the nature of the discussion between Martoma and Cohen other than to say that Martoma expressed that he was no longer comfortable with the positions. Cohen has not been charged and it is unclear if he was aware of the nature of Martoma’s information. That certainly will be a question that the Feds will want answered and it is likely that they are pressuring Martoma to flip on his former boss if Cohen did indeed know about his inside source. In any event, after the conversation between Cohen and Martoma, SAC Capital began executing a very large liquidation order in Elan and Wyeth shares using dark pools and trading algorithms. Dark pools are trading venues where large investors can execute trades anonymously away from the exchanges.

    The platforms do not identify the brokers and institutions who are trading on the system and orders are hidden until a transaction is completed. Trading algorithms break up large orders into smaller chunks and then efficiently hunt for liquidity to execute against. The purpose of these tools is to cloak the trading activity of large investors such as SAC Capital so that other market participants cannot sniff out their orders and front-run them. “This was executed quietly and effectively over a 4-day period through algos and dark pools and booked into two firm accounts that have very limited viewing access,” the head trader wrote to Cohen on July 27, 2008. “The process clearly stopped leakage of info from either in or outside the firm and in my viewpoint clearly saved us some slippage.”

    While the liquidation of $700 million in stock just days ahead of the release of key drug data might have raised some red flags, what SAC did next was truly shocking. The firm, on the advice of Martoma, began shorting Elan and Wyeth. Portfolios managed by SAC subsequently went from being $700 million long Elan and Wyeth to around $260 million short in the matter of days. Prior to the July 29 announcement, the firm was short 4.5 million Elan shares and 3.3 million Wyeth shares. According to the government, the reasoning for the flip-flop is pretty obvious – Martoma knew exactly what was going to happen. This type of trading activity by itself is extremely suspicious. In fact, the government’s case, is the absolute best explanation for it. Selling or trimming the positions ahead of the trial data would have been understandable. Selling $700 million in shares and then going short to the tune of $260 million basically overnight, on the other hand, looks suspicious.

    Its amazing that Martoma even attempted this. When the data was released on July 29, both Elan and Wyeth plunged. Readers should pull up a chart of Elan, in particular. The stock fell 42 percent on the news and has never recovered. Wyeth lost 12 percent. SAC Capital and Mathew Martoma’s portfolio made millions off of the bearish positions that were allegedly established with insider information. In the short-term, the whole thing turned out unbelievably well for Mathew Martoma. At the age of 34, he reaped a $9.38 million bonus for the year. Subsequently, however, Martoma lost money for the firm in 2009 and 2010. In May 2010, he was terminated on the recommendation of a SAC Capital employee who called him a “one-trick pony with Elan” in an email.

    Despite losing his job, the trader was, by all accounts, living the good life prior to Tuesday morning when the FBI came knocking at 6:30 in the morning. After leaving SAC, Martoma secured a job at Boston-based hedge fund Sirios Capital, although it is unclear if he is currently still employed. The government caught up with him at his $2 million Boca Raton home which he shares with his wife, who is a pediatrician. The Mediterranean-style house is equipped with a luxurious pool and even an elevator, according to the New York Post which called it a “country club estate.” The couple even has a foundation which was funded with nearly $1 million. Basically, it seems like Martoma was living on Easy Street after his big score at SAC.

    Now, he faces a potential 20-year sentence in Federal prison and will be pondering his future while out on a rather steep $5 million bail. In the wake of the charges, Martoma’s lawyer immediately went on the defensive. “Mathew Martoma was an exceptional portfolio manager who succeeded through hard work and the dogged pursuit of information in the public domain,” his attorney, Charles Stillman, said in an emailed statement. “What happened today is only the beginning of a process that we are confident will lead to Mr. Martoma’s full exoneration.”

  • Fossilized raindrops hold clues to early Earth

    Fossilized raindrops hold clues to early Earth

    LONDON (TIP): Researchers are using the imprints of raindrops preserved in a 2.7 billion-year-old rock to figure out what the atmosphere was like on the early Earth. Scientists used the depressions that the drops left to calculate how fast they were going as they impacted the ground.

    It allowed them to determine the density of air in ancient times, the BBC News reported. This ‘palaeobarometry’ approach will help constrain the models that try to simulate conditions in Archaean times. About 2.7 billion years ago, the Earth spun much faster, the Moon was closer and the Sun was much weaker . There were no animals or plants in existence as the air was simply not breathable. “There was probably quite a bit of nitrogen in the atmosphere but no oxygen,” said Sanjoy Som from Nasa ‘s Ames Research Center. Som said the “fossil raindrops” were discovered in Ventersdorp in the North West Province of South Africa in the 1980s. They consist of lots of pits in the surface of a rock that started out as volcanic ash-fall. The pits should reveal something about ancient air pressure.

  • Two Indian Americans and an Indo Canadian Among Forbes’ Top 15 Education Innovators

    Two Indian Americans and an Indo Canadian Among Forbes’ Top 15 Education Innovators

    NEW YORK (TIP): Sal Khan, the Indian American founder of Khan Academy, the revolutionary online education platform, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Anant Agarwal have been named by Forbes magazine among the 15 “classroom revolutionaries” who are using innovative technologies to reinvent education for students and teachers globally. The Forbes list names 15 education innovators who are “harnessing a slew of disruptive technologies to change everything from the way we teach grade school math to how we train the next generation of teachers.”

    The CEO of Canada-based Datawind, the maker of India’s lowcost tablet Aakash, Suneet Singh Tuli, also figures in the list. The publication said Tuli, 44, is the “mastermind” behind the world’s cheapest tablet computer Aakash, “which has the potential to revolutionize educational access in the developing world.” The 36-year-old M.I.T. and Harvard alumnus has so far created 3400 videos, mostly science and math tutorials, that have been watched by more than 200 million people. Khan Academy’s YouTube channel has more than 400,000 subscribers. The 53-year-old Agarwal, a professor of computer science at MIT, is also the president of edX, the new combined online offerings of Harvard, MIT, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas.

    Over 400,000 are currently enrolled in the education program. “We’ve created dramatic access to learning for students worldwide. By reinventing online learning, we can dramatically improve what we do on campus,” the Indian American professor who took over as head of edX in May this year, said. “EdX continues to up the ante by increasing partners, classes (seven to dozens for spring 2013) and innovations, such as virtual laboratories,” Forbes added. Datawind had won the tender in 2010 to supply 100,000 Aakash tablets for a price of around $49 per unit. A new version of the tablet PC, featuring one Ghz processor, fourhour battery time, capacitive screen and Android 4.0 operating system, was recently launched in India and at the United Nations.

  • Woman Arrested for Threatening Indian American Governor Haley

    Woman Arrested for Threatening Indian American Governor Haley

    NEW YORK (TIP): Jennifer Phillips, a parent volunteer at Liberty Elementary School in Texas was arrested on Tuesday, December 4 for making threats against Indian American Governor Nikki Haley. The Governor was scheduled to visit the school at 10 am and a couple of hours prior to her visit Philips spoke to a staff member about harming Haley. Liberty Middle School Principal Lowell Haynes said, “I felt like it was something that I needed to notify law enforcement and let them handle it from there. It’s not up to me to decide if there’s intent there. I felt like that’s their job let them investigate and decide just turn it over to them”, reports Live5news (source WYFF).

    According to police report the volunteer said to a counselor at the school, “I am going to smuggle a gun in and kill this governor.”Philip, who has been charged with threatening a public representative, was arrested even before Haley reached the venue. When asked about the incident, Haley said, “When you make decisions, you make some people happy and you make some people upset and there are some people who take it a little bit further and that is part of my job is to deal with it, but I know that I have a good team around me and I know that they are taking care of me so we deal with it the best we can.””It doesn’t slow me down. It doesn’t stop me,” Haley said. “If I got concerned every time there was a threat I would not move.”

  • Suspect Arrested in Fatal Push of Man onto NY Subway Track

    Suspect Arrested in Fatal Push of Man onto NY Subway Track

    Mohammed Jaffer NEW YORK (TIP): A New York man was charged with murder and denied bail on Wednesday, December 5 for pushing a subway rider onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train in a tragedy that has traumatized witnesses and raised questions about why nobody rushed to the victim’s aid. Naeem Davis, 30, was charged with one count of second degree murder and one count of second degree murder with depraved indifference, New York City police said. He was ordered held without bail pending a second court appearance on December 11th, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lynn Kottler said at a hearing late on Wednesday.

    Monday’s incident – captured in dramatic photographs with the train bearing down on the hapless victim — has struck a nerve among riders of the subway used by over 5 million riders a day who are often jostled by strangers on crowded platforms. Davis was accused of pushing Ki-Suck Han, 58, onto the tracks as a southbound train pulled into the 49th Street station. He was due to appear in New York State Supreme Court later on Wednesday or Thursday. Davis was first brought in for questioning on Tuesday, during which he “implicated himself in the incident,” according to Police Department spokesman Paul Browne. Amateur video showed Davis and Han arguing moments before Han was shoved. “He attacked me first,” Davis told reporters as officers escorted him to jail on Wednesday.

    “He grabbed me.” A reporter for PIX11 television news, which captured Davis’ comments, asked if he intended to kill Han, and Davis responded, “No.” Manhattan prosecutor James Lin said at a court hearing that Davis “has admitted to lifting off his feet and pushing off the wall behind him to add more force” to the fatal thrust. Han’s family recalled him as a caring father who came to the United States from South Korea 25 years ago in search of a better life. “My dad was always someone who wanted to pursue the American dream. He really enforced my education and he was just always there for me. It’s just devastating that he’s gone and I’m still in disbelief,” Ashley Han, a 20-year-old college student, told reporters. Speaking softly in Korean with her head bowed, Han’s wife thanked supporters and asked the media for privacy. “We are now grieving because we’ve lost a husband and a father,” Serim Han said.

    PHOTO STIRS CONTROVERSY The news photographer whose pictures of Han in the path of the train unleashed a maelstrom of criticism said he was too far from the victim to offer help. R. Umar Abbasi, a freelance photographer for the tabloid New York Post, said he rapidly shot dozens of frames so that his flash might alert the motorman and that he himself was too far away to help. Seconds later the train struck and killed Han. “My condolences to the family, and if I could have, I would have pulled Mr. Han out,” Abbasi said on NBC’s “Today” show. Under the headline “DOOMED,” it showed Han trying to pull himself from the tracks and looking into the lights of the oncoming train.

    In a first-person account published in the Post, Abbasi said the incident “was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen, to watch that man dying there.” “The sad part is, there were people who were close to the victim, who watched and didn’t do anything,” he said. “You can see it in the pictures.” The motorman, Terrence Legree, was treated for shock after the incident, the New York Daily News reported. Legree, who could see Han from his seat at the head of the train, told the Daily News he noticed people on the platform waving their arms to warn him and said he slammed on the emergency brake when he saw Han on the roadbed. Legree said he was feeling “all kinds of emotions from ‘Why is this happening’ to ‘Why was that guy down there’ to ‘What happened?’”

    New York City Comptroller John Liu condemns New York Post for Dec. 4 front-page cover photo of Ki-Suck Han New York City Comptroller John Liu condemned New York Post for carrying on the front page on December 4 the lurid photograph of a helpless, struggling to save his life Ki-Suck Han.
    “As a New Yorker and a human being, I am outraged that the New York Post chose to plaster on its front page a dehumanizing photo of Ki-Suck Han in the last desperate seconds before he was crushed to death by a subway train. The distress the publication of this photo has caused Han’s widow and daughter, who buried Han Thursday morning, is heartrending. “The New York Post, of course, has the First Amendment right to publish what it wishes. But as New Yorkers we have an equal right to register our disgust and dismay at The Post’s editorial judgment.

    This horrific image of a man’s impending doom hurt his family and blighted our City. It disgraced the cover of the publication that proudly calls itself the nation’s oldest continually published daily. “In order to make amends for this egregious editorial decision, The Post should apologize to the Han family and donate substantially to the fund established for his disabled widow and student daughter.”

  • VOYAGER 1 EXPLORES UNKNOWN REGION

    VOYAGER 1 EXPLORES UNKNOWN REGION

    LOS ANGELES (TIP): The unstoppable Voyager 1 spacecraft has sailed into a new realm of the solar system that scientists did not know existed. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, have been speeding away from the Sun toward interstellar space, or the space between stars.

    Over the summer, Voyager 1, which is farther along in its journey, crossed into this new region where the effects from the outside can be felt. “We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space,” said chief scientist Ed Stone of the Nasa jet propulsion laboratory, which manages the spacecraft. Stone presented Voyager 1’s latest location at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

    Voyager 1 is on track to become the first manmade object to exit the solar system. Exactly when that day will come is unknown, partly because there’s no precedent. Stone estimated Voyager 1 still has two to three years to travel before reaching the boundary that separates the solar system from the rest of space. Scientists were surprised to discover the unexpected region at the fringes of the solar system. For the past year, the team has seen tantalizing clues that heralded a new space environment.

    The amount of high-energy cosmic rays streaming in from outside the solar system spiked. Meanwhile, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside the solar system briefly dropped. Because there was no change in the direction of the magnetic field lines, scientists were confident that Voyager 1 had not yet broken through. They have dubbed this new zone a kind of “magnetic highway.” The Voyagers launched 35 years ago on a mission to tour the outer planets. Though Voyager 2 – currently 9 billion miles from the Sun – launched first , Voyager 1 is closer to leaving solar system behind.

  • AIA President Ranju Batra Honored

    AIA President Ranju Batra Honored

    NEW YORK, NY (TIP): In a packed event, NYC Comptroller Liu, with NYS Assemblyman David Weprin, celebrated Diwali and honored Ranju Batra for her dedication and distinguished service to the community and New York City. Assemblyman David Weprin in his remarks acknowledged the community and identified Ranju & Ravi Batra as examples of the level of contribution that can be made.

    In her acceptance speech, Ranju said, “It is great to see our family friend Assemblyman David Weprin, Mrs. Sujata Thakur, Regional Director of India Tourism, Mr. Shiv Dass, Dr. Uma Mysorekar of Hindu Temple Society, Mr. Kathuria of Hindu Center, Mrs. Uma SenGupta, Past and future Presidents of the Association of Indians in America-NY Dr. Urmilesh Arya and Suneel Modi, friends, and fellow Committee members at today’s festivities. Thank you dear Comptroller John Liu. When you were chairman of the Transportation Committee of the City Council, your leadership made every New Yorker love Diwali because you voted to make it a parking holiday. Your support for so many communities has helped NY City feel like a neighborhood that belongs to all of us.

    I have had the joy of being a member of your Diwali Committee when you were in the City Council and now, while you are Comptroller of the City of New York. I want to thank you for your constant support for the Indian American Community. As you know, we just celebrated AIA’s Silver Diwali in October at the South St. Seaport, the largest such celebration in North America and as always, you were there. I am continuing to work closely with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney on my pet project: the issuance of a Diwali Stamp by the Postal Service. I am touched to receive this honor. I am happy that our dear friend Subhash Kapadia is also being honored tonight and I congratulate Dr. Devbala Ramanathan. And let me close by wishing everyone…. A Very Happy Diwali.”

  • 2012 Rising Stars of PR: Jason Kuruvilla

    2012 Rising Stars of PR: Jason Kuruvilla

    Special Assistant, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor
    NEW YORK (TIP): In his first role as a special assistant to the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, Jason Kuruvilla was able to turn complex economic data into palatable sound bites and easy-todeliver and digest talking points-a rarity among people in the world of economics. He then-with no media relations or communications background-joined the office of public affairs’ team.

    He led the effort to handle the logistics for and to develop the messaging around the release of the monthly employment situation report, more commonly known as the “job numbers.” This includes scheduling and coordinating more than 20 (in a single day) national television, radio and print interviews for the Secretary of Labor, and drafting talking points and statements.

    Kuruvilla also develops creative messaging for the Employment and Training Administration’s efforts to reduce “improper payments” with the Unemployment Insurance Programpayment made in error to recipients not eligible to receive benefit payments. Kuruvilla developed creative messaging tools, including fact sheets, backgrounders and brief videos, to better inform the media, key stakeholders and the general public.

  • Nasa to send new rover to Mars in 2020

    Nasa to send new rover to Mars in 2020

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Building on the success of Curiosity’s Red Planet landing, Nasa has announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars programme , including a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020.

    The announcement comes a day after Nasa released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life, the US space agency said. “The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration programme,” Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

    The plan to design and build a new Mars robotic science rover with a launch in 2020 comes only months after the agency announced InSight, which will launch in 2016, bringing a total of seven Nasa missions operating or being planned to study and explore the “Earth-like neighbor”.

  • Oak Creek, WI Investigation Report Released

    Oak Creek, WI Investigation Report Released

    UNITED SIKHS wants the attack to be labeled a hate crime NEW YORK (TIP):
    Teresa Carlson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Milwaukee office, announced on Tuesday, Nov 20. 2012 that the agency has finished its probe into the Oak Creek, Wisconsin shooting on August 5, 2012, that killed six Sikh worshippers and injured four individuals. The FBI concluded that the shooter, Wade Michael Page, acted alone. They found no evidence that he had help or was carrying out any orders from any white supremacist group. She went on to state that nothing in this attack suggests any ongoing threat to the Sikh community.

    The events that transpired on August 5, 2012 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin serve as a stark reminder that despite having coexisted in America for more than 100 years, the Sikh identity is not accepted. And it is this fact that should concern everyone. The shooting that occurred in Wisconsin shows us that we have allowed individuals such as Wade Michael Page, a “frustrated neo-naz i” who led a white supremacist music group, to steer the direction of America. He used his privilege as a white supremacist member of society to show America that diversity must be counteracted with violence, hate, and ethnic cleansing.

    This is not the message that we want to send to the world, or to our children. The UNITED SIKHS said in a statement that whether Wade Michael page acted alone or at the direction of a white supremacist group, the fact that he took it upon himself to take innocent lives on that fatal day, reminds us of the lack of tolerance within our society. It is a well known fact that the Sikh community has been the target of attacks by extremists in the aftermath of 9/11. Threats from extremist groups has kept the fear of personal attacks alive within the Sikh community. Wisconsin massacre was that fear coming true. It is time our government took concrete measures to track previous attacks, take stern action and create awareness.

    No one is oblivious of the fact that the massacre was fueled by hate. We want FBI to acknowledge this fact, akin to the statement issued by Attorney general Eric Holder on August 10, 2012 where he called the attack a “hate crime”. Sen. Dick Durbin also labeled it as hate crime – “The recent shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was a tragic hate crime that played out on TV around the country,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who chaired the hearing for a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. “It was not the first tragedy based on hate, and, sadly, it won’t be the last,” Durbin said of the shooting. But it should cause all of us to redouble our efforts to combat the threat of domestic terrorism.” Unless this fact is acknowledged, measures cannot be taken to address it.

    UNITED SIKHS asks that the FBI label this as an act of hate and take real and constructive action to prevent future similar acts. Lets all do our part in creating this awareness and asking for justification and real actions to prevent such a heinous act ,that took six innocent lives with it, from happening again. We cannot afford to lose more innocent lives.

  • China plans to grow vegetables on moon

    China plans to grow vegetables on moon

    BEIJING (TIP): Chinese astronauts may grow fresh vegetables in extraterrestrial bases on moon or mars in the future to provide food and oxygen supplies to astronauts, an official said after a successful lab experiment.

    Deng Yibing, deputy director of the Beijing-based Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Center, said that the recent experiment focused on a dynamic balanced mechanism of oxygen , carbon dioxide, and water between people and plants in a closed system
    According to Deng, a cabin of 300 cubic meters was established to provide sustainable supplies of air, water and food for two participants during the experiment, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Four kinds of vegetables were grown, taking in carbon dioxide and providing oxygen for the two people living in the cabin. They could also harvest fresh vegetables for meals, Deng said. The experiment, the first of its kind in China, is extremely important for the long-term development of the country’s manned space programme, Deng added.

  • US House Leaders Demand Meeting on Fiscal Cliff, New Offer from Obama

    US House Leaders Demand Meeting on Fiscal Cliff, New Offer from Obama

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday said talks with President Barack Obama to resolve the fiscal cliff are deadlocked, and they demanded a meeting with the president to move the negotiations forward. “Nothing is going on,” in the talks, House majority leader Eric Cantor told reporters, following a meeting with fellow Republicans. “We ask the president to sit down with us.”

    Boehner presented a counter to Obama’s $1.6 trillion plan this week, including $800 billion in new revenue gained from closing unspecified tax loopholes on the wealthy. Obama’s proposal gains revenue in large party from raising tax rates on the wealthy. “I’ll be available at any moment to sit down with the president,” Speaker John Boehner told reporters.

  • French men not producing as much sperm, study finds

    French men not producing as much sperm, study finds

    PARIS (TIP): When it comes to sperm counts, French men aren’t what they used to be, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 1989 and 2005, the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average 35-year-old Frenchman’s semen fell from about 74 million to about 50 million – a decrease of roughly 32 per cent. “That’s certainly within the normal range, but if you think about it, if there continues to be a decrease, we would expect that we’ll get into that infertile range,” said Grace Centola, president of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology in Birmingham, Alabama.

    And the French aren’t the only ones who should be concerned, the researchers said. “A decline in male reproduction endpoints has been suspected for several decades and is still debated all around the world. Geographical differences have been observed between countries, and between areas inside countries,” said Joelle Le Moal from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire in France, who led the study. Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, Le Moal’s team said global analyses have found decreases in sperm counts, as did recent studies in Israel, India, New Zealand and Tunisia. Centola, who wasn’t involved with the new research, told Reuters Health she had also found similar results in a group of young sperm donors from Boston in the United States.

    For the new study, Le Moal’s team used a database of France’s 126 fertility clinics that recorded men’s semen samples from 1989 through 2005. They then narrowed their study to 26,600 samples provided by men whose female partners were later found to be infertile.

    That, they say, minimises the risk the men had a fertility problem. Over the 16-year period, the researchers found there was about a 2 per cent annual decrease in the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average man’s semen. “One would look at that and say it’s not all that much. It isn’t, but if it’s occurring on a yearly basis it can add up,” said Centola. “Clearly if this type of decrease continues, we’re going to find that we’re going to have young men that have low sperm counts,” she said.

  • IIM-A among top three in Asia- Pacific for B-school graduate employability: REPORT

    IIM-A among top three in Asia- Pacific for B-school graduate employability: REPORT

    Mumbai: A report by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) on the value of MBA programmes around the world in terms of graduate employability has shown Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad , is among the top three business schools in the Asia-Pacific region. IIM-A stands at second position in the region.

    But, Indian business schools failed to feature among the top three schools across the world, in terms of subject specialisation. The report, looking into MBA graduate employability, has identified London Business School, INSEADFrance and Harvard Business School as the preferred choice of international recruiters. The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report provides an alternative to traditional MBA rankings, by highlighting the value of MBA programmes around the world, according to the qualification’s endconsumer, the MBA employer.

    The report points to a leading cluster of 39 ‘elite global’ business schools spread across North America (22), Europe (14) and Asia-Pacific (3). While in the US, 15 ‘elite global’ schools are unsurpassed, the report showed that only Harvard Business School boasts a comparable employer reputation to the London Business School and INSEAD-France. Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS, said, “This year’s report finds a record number of companies turning towards hiring MBAs, underlining the value of the qualification in today’s globalised economy.

    This edition of the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report reveals the graduates of Europe’s top business schools are increasingly in demand for their ability to lead and innovate in the workplace and for transferring best practice management skills to fast-growing emerging economies around the world.” While Europe and North America dominate in terms of overall employability and salaries, it was found candidates at Indian schools emerged as the world’s most academically qualified. “Average GMAT scores at Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad are the highest in the world, comfortably ahead of any of the top schools from Europe or the US,” said the QS release.

    Further, it showed that graduates from top European schools earned higher average salaries than their North American counterparts. Graduate salaries at Europe’s schools averaged $109,300 (Rs 59.5 lakh), compared to $101,100 (Rs 55 lakh) in North America. However, while Europe’s schools performed well for employability and graduate salaries, when it came to subject specialisation, the US schools dominated.

    For the study, 3,000-plus responses from employers of business school graduates were taken. The respondents were asked to identify the business schools they preferred to recruit from.

    Respondents also identified business schools they deemed to produce excellent hires in 10 areas of elective specialisation — finance, strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, information management, innovation, leadership, operations management, and international management.

  • Fruit, vegetable exports up 24% in 2011-12

    Fruit, vegetable exports up 24% in 2011-12

    NEW DELHI (TIP): The export of fruit and vegetables, including processed food items, have risen 24 per cent in value terms to Rs 8,241 crore in 2011-12 over Rs 6,638 crore in the previous year.

    This information was given by the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D. Purandeswari in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Exports of onions fell marginally to Rs 1,723 crore in 2011-12 against Rs 1,779 crore in the previous year. Fresh vegetables were up 43 per cent at Rs 1,299 crore (Rs 910 crore).

    Similarly, the shipments of fresh fruits were up 48 per cent at Rs 736 crore (Rs 496 crore). The exports of fresh grapes increased to Rs 603 crore (Rs 428 crore), while walnuts increased to Rs 231 crore (Rs 166 crore). The exports of fresh mangoes stood at Rs 210 crore (Rs 165 crore). The effect of growth in export of fruits and vegetables on the Indian market does not seem to be visible as the share of exports of fruits and vegetables were only 0.55 per cent and 1.24 per cent, respectively, of their total production in 2010-11, the Minister said.

  • Shriram EPC bags $230-million contract in Basra

    Shriram EPC bags $230-million contract in Basra

    CHENNAI (TIP): Shriram EPC Ltd has bagged a $230 million contract for setting up a storm water and sewer system in Basra, Iraq. The Rs 1,150- crore order will be carried out through a joint venture with the Mokul Group, a service provider with a global presence across diverse industries.

    According to a press release from Shriram EPC, the order involves setting up a basic sanitary system in Basra, including engineering, supply, installation of pipelines, pumping stations and road works.

    Shriram EPC will oversee the laying of over 240 km of sewer pipelines, 160 km of storm pipelines and 8 km of trunk sewer pipelines and road works in the next three years. T. Shivaraman, Managing Director and CEO, Shriram EPC said in the release, “this is our first order in the Middle East.

    It will result in sustained revenues over the three-year execution period. This is also one of the first major public infrastructure projects in southern Iraq which aims to improve basic infrastructure in the country. Successful execution of this contract would open up new opportunities for us in Iraq.” The contract adds to the order backlog of Rs 2,923 crore as of September 2012. Shriram EPC is a service provider of integrated design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services for power plants, renewable energy projects, process and metallurgical plants and municipal service sector projects.

  • Britain to Press EU Partners to Amend Syria Arms Embargo

    Britain to Press EU Partners to Amend Syria Arms Embargo

    LONDON (TIP): Britain will press its European partners next week to amend the arms embargo on Syria to allow them to provide weapons to rebels fighting the regime, Europe minister David Lidington said on Thursday. “Having successfully amended the EU arms embargo (and sanctions package) by setting a threemonth renewal period, we will make fresh arguments in support of amending the arms embargo ahead of the March 2013 deadline in a way that offers sufficient flexibility to increase practical support to the Syrian opposition,” Lidington said in a written statement to parliament.

    The statement outlined Britain’s expectations for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels starting on Monday. Britain has formally recognized a newly-formed opposition bloc as the sole representative of the Syrian people and has been offering practical support, but this cannot include weapons at the moment because of the EU embargo. Brussels agreed late last month to extend its sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including the arms embargo, for a further three months, after they were due to expire on November 30. The Syrian opposition bloc’s representative to Britain, Walid Saffour, visited the foreign office in London on Thursday for a meeting that officials hailed as “a sign of the progress the national coalition are making”.

    Meanwhile Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was due to meet with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Dublin on Thursday, as world leaders seek an end to the Syrian conflict. British foreign secretary William Hague was also due to hold talks with Lavrov in the Irish capital, which is hosting a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE). US officials hope there may be a new willingness by Moscow, a staunch ally in Damascus, to probe ways to bring more pressure to bear on Assad to step down.

  • Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) to open a representative office in Myanmar

    Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) to open a representative office in Myanmar

    GUWAHATI (TIP): In order to increase the bilateral trade between the Northeast India and Myanmar, Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) will open a representative office in Myanmar.

    Chairman & Managing director of the bank, T.C.A Ranganathan who was in Guwahati on Wednesday said that opening of the trade link with Myanmar and transit facility with Bangladesh will open new opportunities for the organic agriculture produce of Northeast India. EXIM bank has extended line of credit to Bangladesh and Myanmar.

    Exim bank has 10 offices across the country and seven offices across the world. Northeast India accounts for Rs 1000 Crore export out of which agriculture account for less than 5 percent. He said, ” We have applied for permission and expecting to start the office in next couple of months.” Bulk of the export is tea, coal and limestone.

    According to Union commerce ministry the formal border trade across the Northeast is less than 1% of India’s exports. The informal trade across the borders in Manipur, Mizoram and Assam is far higher than what gets registered through the formal trade channels.

  • Berlusconi Party to Abstain in Italy Confidence Vote: Party Official

    Berlusconi Party to Abstain in Italy Confidence Vote: Party Official

    ROME (TIP): The centre-right party of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will abstain in a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament on Thursday, a party official said, heightening the risk of a government crisis. The head of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party said earlier that President Giorgio Napolitano would have to decide whether to call an election if the centre-right withheld its support from the government.

    “As a parliamentary group we have decided to abstain this afternoon in the vote of confidence called by the government to show our strongly critical view of their economic policies,” Fabrizio Cicchitto, the lower house leader of Berlusconi’s People of Liberty (PDL) party, said in a statement. Earlier on Thursday the PDL walked out of a confidence vote in the Senate after industry minister Corrado Passera expressed strong reservations about a return of Berlusconi, who left office in a cloud of scandal at the height of the Eurozone crisis last year.

  • How Crash Cover-up Altered China’s Succession

    How Crash Cover-up Altered China’s Succession

    BEIJING (TIP): “Thank you. I’m well. Don’t worry,” read the post on a Chinese social networking site. The brief comment, published in June, appeared to come from Ling Gu, the 23-year-old son of a highpowered aide to China’s president, and it helped quash reports that he had been killed in a Ferrari crash after a night of partying. It only later emerged that the message was a sham, posted by someone under Ling’s alias — almost three months after his death. The ploy was one of many in a tangled effort to suppress news of the crash that killed Ling and critically injured two young female passengers, one of whom later died.

    The outlines of the affair surfaced months ago, but it is now becoming clearer that the crash and the botched cover-up had more momentous consequences, altering the course of the Chinese Communist Party’s once-in-a-decade leadership succession last month. China’s departing president, Hu Jintao, entered the summer in an apparently strong position after the disgrace of Bo Xilai, previously a rising member of a rival political network who was brought down when his wife was accused of murdering a British businessman.

    But Hu suffered a debilitating reversal of his own when party elders — led by his predecessor, Jiang Zemin — confronted him with allegations that Ling Jihua, his closest protege and political fixer, had engineered the cover-up of his son’s death. According to current and former officials, party elites, and others, the exposure helped tip the balance of difficult negotiations, hastening Hu’s decline; spurring the ascent of China’s new leader, Xi Jinping; and playing into the hands of Jiang, whose associates dominate the new seven-man leadership at the expense of candidates from Hu’s clique.

    The case also shows how the profligate lifestyles of leaders’ relatives and friends can weigh heavily in backstage power tussles, especially as party skulduggery plays out under the intensifying glare of media. Numerous party insiders provided information regarding the episode, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the authorities. Officials have investigated the aftermath of the car wreck, they say, including looking into accusations that a state oil company paid hush money to the families of the two women. Under Hu, Ling had directed the leadership’s administrative center, the General Office, but was relegated to a less influential post in September, ahead of schedule.

    Last month, he failed to advance to the 25-person Politburo and lost his seat on the influential party secretariat. Hu, who stepped down as party chief, immediately yielded his post as chairman of the military, meaning he will not retain power as Jiang did. “Hu was weakened even before leaving office,” said a midranking official in the organization department, the party’s personnel office. Ling’s future remains unsettled, with party insiders saying that his case presents an early test of whether Xi intends to follow through on public promises to fight highlevel corruption. “He can decide whether to go after Ling Jihua or not,” said Wu Guoguang, a former top-level party speechwriter, now a political scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. “Either way, this is a big card in Xi Jinping’s hand.” Ling, 56, built his career in the Communist Youth League. At an early age, he secured the patronage of Hu, who led the Youth League in the early 1980s and brought Ling to the General Office in 1995. “Hu didn’t come with a lot of friends, but Ling was someone he knew he could trust,” said the organization department official. ”

    Officials said that if Ling called, it was like Hu calling.” Ling played a central role in moving Youth League veterans into high offices and undermining Hu’s adversaries. Ling also wielded leverage over internet censorship of leaders’ affairs, and sought to use it to benefit his patron. “Negative publicity, including untruths, about Xi Jinping were not suppressed the way publicity about Hu Jintao was,” said one associate of party leaders. As his influence grew, Ling tried to keep a low profile. About a decade ago, his wife closed a software company she owned and formed a nonprofit foundation that incubates young entrepreneurs. The couple sent their son, Ling Gu, to an elite Beijing high school under an alias, Wang Ziyun.

  • Ross Taylor fired as New Zealand Cricket Captain

    Ross Taylor fired as New Zealand Cricket Captain

    WELLINGTON (TIP): Ross Taylor made himself unavailable for New Zealand’s cricket tour to South Africa this month after being fired as national captain and replaced by Brendon McCullum. New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White announced the move at a news conference in Auckland on Friday, saying Taylor rejected an offer to remain as test captain while allowing McCullum to lead the team in one-day and Twenty20 internationals.

    McCullum’s appointment as New Zealand’s 28th test captain comes after Taylor scored a century and half century to lead New Zealand to a drought-breaking test victory over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. New Zealand had previously lost six-straight tests under Taylor. Taylor’s firing also follows a reported breakdown in his relationship with new head coach Mike Hesson. Hesson, who is a personal friend of McCullum, has been head coach for fewer than three months and has repeatedly refused to express confidence in Taylor’s captaincy.

    Taylor was reportedly asked to step down from the captaincy before New Zealand’s tour to Sri Lanka began but refused to do so. He was then told he would be removed from the position when the tour ended. After winning the second test and drawing the two-test series, New Zealand Cricket approached Taylor and offered to allow him to remain as test captain but he refused. Taylor said on Friday he would now take a break from cricket, but expected to be available for New Zealand’s home series against England early next year. Friday’s move may further strain already deep divisions within New Zealand cricket. While Taylor didn’t enjoy the full support of the New Zealand dressing room, his treatment by Hesson and New Zealand Cricket is not expected to win the approval of his teammates or fans. Hesson is an unproven international coach, having been awarded the New Zealand role after only months as Kenya’s coach. The New Zealander quit that role over fears for the security of his family.

    White attempted on Friday to avoid any suggestion that Taylor had been fired. He said instead that his removal was the result of his own decision to reject the proposal of a shared captaincy with McCullum. White said Hesson’s assessment “was that he wanted to share the captaincy workload. He thought the best environment for Ross to develop his captaincy was in the tests.” White said he met with Taylor and his manager for three hours on Thursday, hoping to reach a resolution of the captaincy issue but Taylor was unwilling to compromise. He and Taylor had looked “at a number of options, including just to play in the tests” in South Africa. He thought long and hard about it but felt he needed a break. “It’s not ideal and we would be a stronger team with Ross in it. But we respect his wishes,” White said. White said he did not believe Taylor had lost the support of his teammates. “I don’t believe he lost the dressing room. He is well respected,” he said.