The Indian Panorama

Tag: Indian-Origin

  • Indian Owned Jewellery Store Ransacked in the Kansas

    Indian Owned Jewellery Store Ransacked in the Kansas

    WASHINGTON:  A jewellery store owned by an Indian-origin man in the US state of Kansas has been ransacked by thieves who also stole valuable jewellery items, a media report said.

    The Karats Jewellers, owned by Akshay Andy Anand says he wants justice after thieves ripped through his business and family’s dream.

    The jewelry business has been in his family for six generations. Anand was the first in his family to bring the family business to the United States.

    The thieves used stones to smash the glass doors and took away ornaments kept in cases, fox4kc.com reported.

    “You feel cheated,” said Anand. “You feel like somebody violated you. You worked so hard for what you do, and I mean, you do it the right way, you do everything proper, and then just somebody comes in, takes it away from you.”

    “I have raised it like a child for 10 years, and we have put a lot of hard work into bringing this business as one of the top jewellery stores in the city,” Mr Anand said.

    He further said that police are working to identify cars and descriptions of the suspects.

  • Indian-Origin Toddler Youngest Karate Champion in South Africa

    Indian-Origin Toddler Youngest Karate Champion in South Africa

    JOHANNESBURG:  Indian-origin toddler Khiyara Seedat has become South Africa’s youngest ever national karate champion, just a day after her third birthday last week.

    Sedate Khiyara, the daughter of karate instructor Sensei Ahmed Shaheen Seedat – from Parlock in Newslands – walked away as champion of the bo kata (stick fighting) and kumite (freestyle fighting) category. She had to compete against a five-year-old because there was no one to fight against in her age category at the South African Karate and Kickboxing Championships.

    She had just turned three the day before the tournament and competed in the under-five age group.

    Seedat, who holds a third dan (rank) black belt in the sporting code after starting out when he was eight, said his daughter had shown a love for karate when she was just 16 months old.

    Watching her father and his friends kicking and punching away when he took her to karate school one day, he and his wife Laila were initially surprised to find her imitating the moves in her cot that night.

    Even though the smallest available karate outfit known as a gi was twice her size, Khiyara insisted on wearing it daily until she grew into it almost two years later.

    Noticing Khiyara’s rapid progress compared to other children older than her, Seedat’s trainer Abdul Lattief Jogi encouraged him to enter his daughter in the national championships and spent six months preparing her for it.

    Sixth dan black belt holder Jogi said Khiyara had done everyone proud, but he was particularly overjoyed that he had been able to teach both her and her father, who was like a son to him.

  • Indian American Ex-Goldman Banker to Plead Guilty in Regulatory Leak Case

    Indian American Ex-Goldman Banker to Plead Guilty in Regulatory Leak Case

    NEW YORK:  In a rare criminal action on Wall Street, an Indian-origin former Goldman Sachs banker suspected of taking confidential documents from a source inside the government has agreed to plead guilty. Goldman Sachs is also facing an array of regulatory penalties over the leak.

    Rohit Bansal and his source Jason Gross, who at the time of the leak was an employee at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will accept a plea deal from federal prosecutors under which they could go to prison for up to a year, the New York Times reported.

    Federal prosecutors are preparing to announce criminal charges against the banker this week, Rohit Bansal, and an employee of the regulator Mr Gross.

    “The outcome partly reflects their low-level rank on Wall Street. Bansal, who was 29 at the time, was an associate at Goldman,” the report said.

    The Federal Reserve is also expected to permanently bar Mr Bansal from the banking industry, the report quoted a person briefed on the matter as saying.

    The report said that it is “rare” for a Wall Street banker to face criminal charges. Not a single Wall Street chief executive was charged after the financial crisis even as bankers or traders have faced charged in a few investigations.

    Under the planned deal, Goldman would not face criminal charges but would pay a fine of as much as $50m. The settlement would also force Goldman to take the rare step of acknowledging that it failed to adequately supervise Mr Bansal “thrusting the bank back into the spotlight just as it was beginning to overcome a popular image as a firm willing to cut corners to turn a profit,” it said.

    A spokesman for Goldman said: “Upon discovering that a new junior employee had obtained confidential supervisory information from his former employer, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, we immediately began an investigation and notified the appropriate regulators, including the Federal Reserve.

    “That employee and a more senior employee who failed to escalate the issue, were terminated shortly thereafter. We have zero tolerance for improper handling of confidential information. We have reviewed our policies regarding hiring from governmental institutions and have implemented changes to make them appropriately robust,” added Goldman Sachs.

    Mr Bansal had previously spent seven years as a regulator at the New York Fed and after he joined Goldman in July 2014, he was assigned to advise one of the banks he previously regulated, a midsize bank in New York, the report said.

    It alleged that soon Mr Bansal received government information about that bank from Gross, a former colleague who was still working at the New York Fed.

    In addition to the fine and the admission that it failed to supervise Mr Bansal, Goldman will accept a three-year suspension from conducting certain consulting deals with banks in New York State.

    When Mr Bansal left the Fed to join Goldman, he was the “central point of contact” for certain banks.

    At Goldman, he joined a unit within the investment bank that advises other financial institutions on mergers and other deals, a role that presented him with a potential conflict of interest, the report said.

  • Indian-Origin Student among 4 Killed in Oklahoma State homecoming crash

    Indian-Origin Student among 4 Killed in Oklahoma State homecoming crash

    A ‘drunk driver’ rammed her car into a crowd of spectators at Oklahoma State University homecoming parade, killing at least four people and injuring 47 others, Stillwater police said.

    Adacia Avery ChambersThe accused driver of the vehicle – Adacia Avery Chambers, 25, has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol that resulted in the tragic collision in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She is due to appear in court Monday morning.

    Nikita Prabhakar, 23 - Facebook Pic
    Nikita Prabhakar, 23 – Facebook Pic

    Indian-Origin Nikita Prabhakar and married couple Bonnie Jean Stone, 65, and Marvin Lyle Stone, 65 were pronounced dead at the scene. The 4th Victim a two-year-old Nash Lucas’s died from his injuries at Oklahoma University Medical Center Children’s Hospital, according to a Stillwater Police Department statement.

    Nikita Prabhakar, 23, was from Mumbai and was doing her MBA from University of Central Oklahoma.

    “Our students come to Central with their unique goals, hopes and dreams, and Nikita was undoubtedly no different,” the University of Central Oklahoma’s president, Don Betz, said in a statement.

    Of the 47 people treated after the crash, 17 remained hospitalized and five were in critical condition, police said.

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  • Indian American Doctor indicted in anti-kickback case

    Indian American Doctor indicted in anti-kickback case

    BOSTON  (TIP): An Indian-Origin doctor Rita Luthra was arrested on Thursday, Oct 22, in connection with allegedly accepting free meals and speaker fees from a pharmaceutical company in return for prescribing its osteoporosis drugs, allowing pharmaceutical sales representatives to access patient records and lying to federal investigators.

    Luthra has been indicted on one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, one count of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information and one count of obstructing a criminal health care investigation by lying to federal agents and directing an employee to do the same. From October 2010 through November 2011, Warner Chilcott, a pharmaceutical company based in Rockaway, N.J., allegedly paid Luthra $23,500 to prescribe its osteoporosis drugs, Actonel® and Atelvia®. On 31 occasions, a Warner Chilcott sales representative allegedly brought food to Luthra’s medical office for her and her staff, and paid Luthra $750 to talk with her for 25-30 minutes while she ate. On another occasion, Warner Chilcott paid to cater a barbeque that Luthra hosted at her home for her friends. Warner Chilcott also paid Luthra $250 for speaker training, despite the fact that she never spoke to any other physicians, according to court documents reports WWLP-22News.

    It is alleged that Luthra’s prescriptions of Warner Chilcott’s osteoporosis drugs increased during the time that she was paid by the company, and precipitously declined once she was stopped being paid. Luthra also allowed a Warner Chilcott sales representative to access protected health information in her patients’ medical files. She further provided false information to federal agents when interviewed about her relationship with Warner Chilcott, and allegedly directed one of her employees to also lie.

    The charge of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute provides a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $25,000. The charge of disclosure of individually identifiable health information provides a sentence of no greater than one year in prison and/or a fine of $50,000 and one year of supervised release. The charge of obstructing a criminal health care investigation provides a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

  • 72 year old Indian American man killed in accident

    SAN JOSE (TIP): A 72-year-old Indian-origin San Jose resident was killed in a hit-and-run accident and was later identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office in California.

    Inderjeet Sharma was walking near a road in San Jose on Tuesday, October 13 morning when he was hit by a pickup truck. The driver fled the spot.

    Sharma was pronounced dead at the scene and his identity was revealed on Friday, October 16, San Jose Mercury News reported.

    With the help of eyewitnesses and footage from a surveillance camera, the police identified and located the vehicle on Wednesday.

  • 72 year old Indian American Man Killed in US Accident

    72 year old Indian American Man Killed in US Accident

    A 72-year-old Indian-origin San Jose resident was killed in a hit-and-run accident and was later identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office in California.

    Inderjeet Sharma was walking near a road in San Jose on Tuesday morning when he was hit by a pickup truck. The driver fled the spot.

    Mr Sharma was pronounced dead at the scene and his identity was revealed on Friday, San Jose Mercury News reported.

    With the help of eyewitnesses and footage from a surveillance camera, the police identified and located the vehicle on Wednesday.

    On the same day, the driver of the vehicle Pedro Cortez Bernal, 29, surrendered to the police.

    Mr Bernal was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.

  • 3 Indian Americans earn honorable mentions, Indian teen places 2nd at Action For Nature awards

    3 Indian Americans earn honorable mentions, Indian teen places 2nd at Action For Nature awards

    NEW YORK (TIP): A cadre of Indian American youth was among the winners announced by Action For Nature’s International Young Eco-Hero Awards, with three individuals earning honorable mentions while one youngster of Indian-origin took home a second place prize.

    According to its website, Action For Nature’s award honors the work of young people between the ages of 8 and 16 who have executed creative environmental projects.

    The judges are experts in environmental science, biology, and environmental health, and the winners receive a cash prize and a special certificate.

    Aarushee Nair was the sole prize winner, slotting in at runner-up in the competition’s 13 to 16 age group.

    Nair, of Haryana, India, earned the award for her design of the Blu Pak, a biodegradable container that can hold 350 milliliters of clean drinking water and has a packet of oral rehydration salts pasted on the side. It also has a small beak-shaped outlet so that fluids can be easily administered to infants. She designed the Blu Pak after learning that thousands of Indian children under the age of 5 were dying due to a lack of clean drinking water.

    Sai Sameer Pusapaty, 16, of Texas, received an honorable mention in the 13-16 age group for his efforts in promoting the importance of recycling, according to Action for Nature. After realizing many people don’t understand what can be recycled and how, he developed tools for his community to make recycling easier and more efficient.

    He even developed a mobile app that he calls Recycle Buddy. It can scan a UPC or QR code and display the recycling information for any given product. It can also perform generic lookups for disposal information based on the material and the item type.

    Anuj Sisodiya, 16, of Connecticut also earned an honorable mention for embarking on a project to mitigate the energy waste caused by holiday lighting that is left on during the day.

    He created a project that encouraged the use of an electrical light timer to prevent lights and lighting displays from being left on for extended hours.

    Using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, his Web site, public canvassing, and booths at grocery stores, he distributed free electrical light timers to help save energy across town.

    Furthermore, he formed a team of school volunteers who devoted approximately 500 volunteer hours, and he worked with town leaders, energy company program managers, and vendors to effectively execute his project.

    By creating a sample study of his local community he learned that this campaign had the potential to save about 1 million-kilowatt hours of power in the town of Trumbull, Conn. preventing up to 1.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide being released into the environment.

    Anirudh Suri notched a third honorable mention for Indian Americans after he masterminded a successful recycling program in his local community to cut down on battery waste.

    With the help of his school principal, Anirudh developed the One Cell program. He purchased envelopes for collecting batteries, customized them, and sent them home with students to return with all the used batteries inside their homes.

    Anirudh began the program when he was 9 years old and 5 years later the program is still growing. His goal for One Cell is to expand the program to more schools so that he can collect more batteries.

    In the past three years, he has collected more than 1100 pounds of batteries. This year his goal is to collect over 700 pounds.

  • Animated Superhero Movie on Hindu Deities | Indian American Director Sanjay Patel

    Animated Superhero Movie on Hindu Deities | Indian American Director Sanjay Patel

    An Indian American animator is debuting as a director with his short animated film based on Hindu Dieties, a media report said. “Sanjay’s Super Team”, the first Pixar film on Hindu deities and the first Pixar toon by an Indian-origin director, is a short superhero movie that will be attached to Pixar’s another animated film “The Good Dinosaur”.

    The seven-minute short is based on director Sanjay Patel’s own childhood — specifically the culture clash he experienced with his devout father growing up in San Bernadino, California. “Every morning my dad worshipped his gods and his shrine, and I worshipped mine in mine — which was the TV,” Patel told Yahoo Movies during a recent phone interview. And that’s exactly how the short starts out, with little Sanjay watching his favorite cartoon, the fictional Super Team.

    Working as an animator with Pixar since 1996, Sanjay Patel made his first project that revolves around Hindu deities who are like avengers, Variety.com news portal reported on Tuesday.

     

    Mr Patel’s film revolves around a little Hindu boy who prefers cartoons of superheroes while his father wants him to join the morning prayers, the report said.

    One day, the boy sees Vishnu, Hanuman and Durga as the avengers who save him from a problem.

    While he was researching about the characters of Hindu mythology from the comic books of Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Tales), he did not actually draw according to them, he said.

    Mr Patel said the story of the film is as much about Sanjay’s relationship with his father.

    “I was a late bloomer in my parents’ culture,” he said, adding that after working for 10 years at Pixar he discovered Indian art and mythology.

    “It helped me understand why my parents said ‘Sita Ram’ when I sneezed,” Mr Patel joked.

    Mr Patel has worked as an animator on films like “Monsters Inc.”, “Ratatouille”, “Cars”, “Monsters University”, “Toy Story 2” and “The Incredibles”, and has been a story-boarder on the latter two films.

  • Store Robbed in Virginia, US | Indian-Origin Woman held at Gun Point

    Store Robbed in Virginia, US | Indian-Origin Woman held at Gun Point

    An Indian-origin convenience store owner has been robbed at gunpoint by three unidentified hooded men in the US state of Virginia.

    The three men wearing dark cloths entered the Du Drop store in Madison Heights on Tuesday. They pointed a gun at the owner, Sarla Patel, grabbed some cash and the fled the scene.

    “Today, It’s happened to me tomorrow somebody else,” wset.com quoted Patel as saying.

    Ms Patel has no visible injures but the emotional wounds of being held at gunpoint run deep.

    “I didn’t sleep for two nights. Every time that scene come to in my mind,” said Ms Patel.

    Investigators are still trying to identify three men who robbed a convenience store owner at gunpoint in Madison Heights. A surveillance camera at the Du Drop store captured the whole thing.

    Ms Patel and her husband opened the Du Drop convenience store in Madison Heights 9 years ago.

    “They just always used the bad language and just say ‘give me the money, give me the money’,” said Ms Patel.

    The report, however, did not mention how much cash was lost.

    If you know anything about this, Investigators urge you to call Crime Stoppers at 888-798-5900.

  • 4 Indian-Origin People Selected for Fellowship in Canada

    4 Indian-Origin People Selected for Fellowship in Canada

    TORONTO:  Four Indian-origin professionals in Canada have been selected for a fellowship for a Toronto-based firm that hires civic leaders to tackle issues in Toronto.

    The four Indians, Anita Abraham, Ritesh Kotak, Mrinalini Menon and Pam Sethi, are among the 27 of the region’s top rising leaders as the next cohort of DiverseCity Fellows selected by CivicAction.

    “These passionate leaders were selected who try to shape their community and provide it with the toolkit and network,” a statement on the official website of CivicAction said.

    CivicAction is a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region. CivicAction has worked with business, government, community, labour, and academia to address social, economic and environmental challenges in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

    Mr Abraham is executive director of Meal Exchange (MX), a non-profit organisation that works in more than 40 communities to use university campuses as a leverage point to build sustainable food systems and fight poverty.

    She is the lead architect for studio impact since 2011 and works with vulnerable youth to teach them about systems thinking and community impact.

    Mr Kotak is a cyber whiz for the Toronto Police and he wants to use the fellowship time to help people like his parents.

    “I see them. I hear their stories. If I can actually do something to help them by eliminating some of these employment barriers to entry, I feel that will have a systemic, positive impact in society,” the 27-year-old was quoted as saying.

    Mr Menon works as a talent sourcing manager at the Royal Bank of Canada and volunteers with the Royal Ontario Museum and Canadian Stage Company.

    She has worked and studied in seven cities around the world, from Washington to Mumbai.

    Mr Sethi has over 10 years of experiences in healthcare and works in health policy, system planning and strategic development with the Ontario government.

    In 2013, she co-founded Lean In Canada, a non-profit organisation geared towards creating a community for women to improve gender equality in the workplace.

  • UK city of Coventry honours Ratan Tata

    LONDON (TIP): Leading Indian industrialist Ratan Tata has been felicitated by the city of Coventry with its highest award in recognition of his contributions to the West Midlands region of central England.

    The Tata Group Chairman Emeritus took oath as an Honorary Freeman of the City of Coventry, an award only 13 people have been conferred with since 1914.

    Tata, 77, was honoured alongside Indian-origin professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder of the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at the University of Warwick in Coventry, at a special ceremony at Coventry Cathedral last week.

    “Recognising two people who have helped in the regeneration of the city is a way of celebrating all that is good about the city and its future,” said Coventry Lord Mayor, Councillor Michael Hammon.

    Earlier this year, Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) had reaffirmed its long term commitment to Coventry and the West Midlands with a confirmation of a further 600-million-pound investment to support product creation and advanced vehicle manufacturing.

    TATA group is also among key contributors to a new 150-million-pound National Automotive Innovation Centre under construction on the University of Warwick campus.

    Professor Sir Nigel Thrift, Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick, said, “Coventry and much of the rest of our region has gained greatly through the vision of these two men. Mr Ratan Tata has transformed the fortunes of Jaguar Land Rover and part of that transformation has seen new jobs created for our city and region and strong new research partnerships pioneered with Professor Lord Bhattacharyya that are creating world leading engineering technologies”.

    Councillor Ann Lucas, Leader of Coventry Council, added, “The vision, leadership and commitment of Mr Tata and Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has been instrumental in placing Coventry on a world stage. Growing the city’s economy is fundamental to achieving our aim of becoming a top 10 city we are delighted to award Mr Tata and Professor Lord Bhattacharyya the highest honour in recognition of their impact on the city. We truly value their friendship”.

    The two men travelled to Coventry Cathedral from the city’s Council House in a 1955 Jaguar Mark VIIM, a car owned by Queen Elizabeth II’s late mother.

    “Mr Tata and Professor Lord Bhattacharyya have made a huge contribution to the British automotive industry, and even more significantly have planted some of the seeds for automotive research, innovation and advanced manufacturing in the future,” said JLR CEO Ralf Speth.

  • Goodyear Tyre Maker sued for Accident

    Goodyear Tyre Maker sued for Accident

    An Indian-origin man in the US has sued American tyre major Goodyear holding it responsible for an accident that left him paralysed.

    Harishkumar Patel, 58, had received a spine injury in 2012 that left him paralysed when his SUV spun out of control and rolled over.

    Mr Patel and his family hold Ohio-based Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co, which made the tyre that failed on the vehicle, responsible for the crash, the Herald Palladium reported Sep 25, 2015.

    Mr Patel’s lawyers contended that the tyre was defective from the factory and never should have been placed on a vehicle.

    However, Goodyear claims that the tyre failed because it hit an object some time before the June 6, 2012, crash. Mr Patel is suing Goodyear for the second time. Earlier, a trial in 2014 ended in a hung jury.

    The case is being heard in Berrien County Trial Court.

    Kevin Riddle, one of Mr Patel’s lawyers, said if the jury decides against Goodyear the panel will also decide on a monetary award for his client.

    He said the cost of care for Mr Patel for the rest of his life is expected to exceed USD 6 million.

    An independent tyre consultant, William Woehrle, who assesses the role and significance of tyres in traffic accidents, took the witness stand on Thursday.

    Under direct examination by Craig Hilborn, the lead lawyer in Patel’s case, Woehrle said the tyre that failed on Mr Patel’s vehicle had three manufacturer defects and one design defect.

    He said the defects eventually caused belts to separate, which led to tread separating, making the vehicle difficult to control.

    Edward Bott, lawyer for Goodyear, questioned Woehrle’s credentials, asking him if he has ever designed a tyre.

    Woehrle, who worked for years as a tyre failure analyst, said no, he has never personally designed a tyre.

    But, he said that he has held positions in which he provided tyre failure information to engineers and designers.

    Goodyear’s defense is based on a belief that the tyre failure was a result of the vehicle hitting an object at some time prior to the day of the crash.

    The trial is expected to last two weeks in Judge Sterling Schrock’s courtroom.

  • Interpol Issues Red Corner Notice against Nine Indo-Canadians in Indian drug ring

    Interpol Issues Red Corner Notice against Nine Indo-Canadians in Indian drug ring

    Nine Indian-origin Canadians, including several Metro Vancouver men, are wanted for drug smuggling in India in a high-profile case linked to a former Punjabi cop and wrestling champion.

    Interpol has issued a red corner notice for their alleged involvement in a drug smuggling network operationg out of India, according to a media report. The notices have been issued against Ranjit “Daraa” Aujla, Lehmber Daleh, Parminder Singh Deo, Sarabjit Singh Sandar, Harbans Singh Sidhu, Nirankar Singh Dhillon, Gursewak Singh Dhillon, Amarjit Singh and Pardip Singh.

    Ranjit “Dara” Aujla, a Richmond man and the former president of the B.C. Kabaddi Federation told The Vancouver Sun Wednesday that he’ll go to India “to fight the case.”

    He said he’s innocent of the allegations, which have been swirling as rumours and occasional news reports since the 2013 arrest in Punjab of Jagdish Bhola, a former cop and wrestler, the paper reported.

    At the time, police alleged Bhola was the kingpin of a billion-dollar network supplying heroin and methamphetamine to North America and Europe through Canadian contacts who smuggled drugs out of India.

    Aujla said he was in Punjab when Bhola was arrested, but was never questioned or taken into custody by police. “I hired a lawyer to check if there’s any case against me in India,” he said, “and my lawyer said there’s nothing going on.”

    He said he came to know about the Interpol warrant when a reporter called him this week.

    Meanwhile, Deo, who is retired, told the media that he has hired a lawyer in Punjab to get more information about the case.

    He said he hasn’t been in India in four years. “I am very shocked from this news because in India, someone sitting in jail, he is telling all the stories,” Deo said.

  • THREE INDIAN-AMERICANS AND 3 INDIANS NAMED AS FELLOWS BY AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR METALS

    THREE INDIAN-AMERICANS AND 3 INDIANS NAMED AS FELLOWS BY AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR METALS

    SACRAMENTO, CA (TIP): Three Indian-Americans and as many persons from India are among 29 people, who have been named as Fellows this year by the American Society for Metals, for their contributions in the field of materials science and engineering.

    The Indian-Origin Fellows are Pranesh Aswath, Suveen Mathaudhu, Muthukumarasamy Sadayappan – while the achievers from India are – Pradeep Goyal, Vivekanand Kain, and Gankidi Madhusudhan Reddy.

    Aswath is a professor and associate dean for the University of Texas at the Austin College of Engineering. He was selected for his significant contributions to the science of tribology through establishing fundamental relationships between lubricant additive chemistry, tribofilm formation and friction and wear.

    Mathaudhu is an assistant professor at U.C. Riverside. He was selected for his scientific leadership, management, and advocacy of the U.S. Army materials research efforts, and in particular for the development and support of new advanced lightweight metals and bulk nanostructured materials.

    The fellowship was created in 1969 to provide recognition to ASM members for their distinguished contributions to materials science and engineering, and to develop a broad-based forum of technical and professional leaders to serve as advisers to society.

    The fellows will be presented with their awards for the recognition during the Materials Science and Technology 2015 event in Columbus, Ohio, in October.

  • Indian-origin Harvard student who found Privacy Flaw in Facebook , Denied Internship after being confirmed

    Indian-origin Harvard student who found Privacy Flaw in Facebook , Denied Internship after being confirmed

    NEW YORK (TIP): Indian-origin Harvard student, Aran Khanna was denied a chance to intern at Facebook after the company learned that one of his creations exposed a critical flaw in its Messenger service, Boston.com reported.

    In May, Khanna released Marauder’s Map, a browser extension for Google Chrome that used location data to show you exactly where your friends were. It was downloaded 85,000 times in three days, before Facebook asked him to disable it.

    Facebook also disabled location sharing from desktops and subsequently updated Messenger for mobile, giving users the option to control their GPS data. Prior to that, the app had been sharing users’ locations by default since it launched in 2011.

    Khanna was then informed by a Facebook employee that the company was rescinding his summer internship offer, as he had violated its user agreement when he scraped the site for location data.

    He also received an email from Facebook’s head of global human resources and recruiting, who told him that his Medium post didn’t meet the high ethical standards expected of interns.

    A Facebook spokesperson told Boston.com, “This mapping tool scraped Facebook data in a way that violated our terms, and those terms exist to protect people’s privacy and safety. Despite being asked repeatedly to remove the code, the creator of this tool left it up. This is wrong and it’s inconsistent with how we think about serving our community.”

    Khanna accepted another internship with a tech start-up in Silicon Valley and later detailed the experience in a case study titled ‘Facebook’s Privacy Incident Response: A study of geolocation sharing on Facebook Messenger’ in the Harvard Journal of Technology Science.

  • Superwoman Lilly Singh: biggest YouTube star of Indian origin

    Superwoman Lilly Singh: biggest YouTube star of Indian origin

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]NEW YORK (TIP): Lilly Singh, who has more than 6 million subscribers on YouTube and nearly 800 million total views, is an Indo-Canadian comedian and rapper making her on of the biggest star of Indian origin on YouTube.

    Entertainer Lilly Singh started a YouTube channel five years ago to avoid applying to grad school. Since then, she has collaborated with Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Franco and Jay Sean and amassed more than 6.2 million subscribers. She is popularly known as YouTube’s “Superwoman.”

    Singh’s videos, usually filmed at home, take the form of personal comedic monologues and skits about banal but relatable topics. Lately, she’s branched out and produced a couple of slick music videos

    Indian-origin YouTube sensation Lilly Singh, popularly known as Superwoman, is ready for her big-screen debut with her feature film “A Trip to Unicorn Island”. The 26-year-old Canada-based comedian said her new documentary, which will have an appearance by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, chronicles her world tour journey and life, reported Entertainment Weekly.

    “It’s very close to my heart. It’s a story about me going through the trials and tribulations of my life, and really making the decision to be happy,” she said.

    “How can I tell this story of not just my tour but my life in general to people that came to the show or couldn’t come to the show? I didn’t want to make it a video because I wanted to transcend beyond the audience I have.

    “I wanted it to be in this fashion of storytelling where you could come on a journey through my life framed through my tour… The type of film this will be is a very no-barrier, no-holds-barred me being very honest with you, me talking about depression and overcoming that.”

    “A Trip to Unicorn Island” is expected to release soon.

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  • Indo-Canadian Among 2 Held in Drug Bust in Canada

    Indo-Canadian Among 2 Held in Drug Bust in Canada

    An Indian-origin man and his accomplice have charged by the City police after officers located and seized drugs, weapons, cash and a stolen motorcycle from inside a northeast apartment unit.
    Following a two-week investigation stemming from tips from the public – Gurnazbir Singh Sandhu, 25, and his accomplice Richard Julies Rysdale, 28 were arrested from their Taradale city apartment by members of the drug unit and tactical unit with the help of Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers, a report in Calgary Herald said.
    The police were working out modalities to deport Sandhu to India.

    Following a two-week investigation, drug unit officials were called to Sandhu’s residence on July 28 to execute a search warrant.

    The two residents were at home at the time of search.

    The police found 11,645 Canadian dollars ($8,866) cash, including 42 different types of foreign currency totalling about 2,800 Canadian dollars ($2,131).

    About 104 grams of methamphetamine — an extremely addictive stimulant drug — with an estimated street value of 10,460 Canadian dollars ($7,964) and over 11 grams of cocaine with an estimated street value of 1,200 Canadian dollars ($913) were also recovered.

    The police also recovered 57 undetermined pills which were sent to Health Canada for analysis.

    Apart from these, three vials of steroids, three knives, three replica handguns, seven cellphones were found at the partment.

    A stolen 2011 Kawasaki ZX600 motorcycle, scales and packaging material, some documents items were also found in the fourth-floor suite in which they were staying.

    Sandhu and Rysdale were charged with possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, the report said.

    Sandhu, studying in British Columbia on a student visa that had expired eight months ago, was also charged of breach of probation.

    “Pending the outcome of court, CBSA has issued an exclusion order, which ultimately will remove him from Canada,” drug unit Staff Sergeant Martin Schiavetta was quoted as saying.

    “At this time, we don’t believe that they’re connected to any larger organised crime groups,” Schiavetta added.

  • 2 Indian-Origin Women Accused of Shoplifting from Walmart @Murfreesboro, TN

    2 Indian-Origin Women Accused of Shoplifting from Walmart @Murfreesboro, TN

    Two Indian-origin women have been accused of stealing 155 razors worth USD 4,500 from a Walmart store in the US.

    The theft was reported from a Walmart store on the Joe B Jackson Parkway in Murfreesboro city of Tennessee State.

    The security footage showed two women, carrying a six- or seven-year-old child, stealing over USD 4,500 worth of 155 razors from the personal grooming section inside the store.

    After stealing the shaving razors, the females left through the entrance on the opposite side of Walmart with a child in tow. They fled the area in a minivan, a media report said.

    They are yet to be identified and arrested, the report said.

    So far, they have not been caught and this is one of several razor blade shoplifting cases reported in recent months.

  • Indian-Origin Doctor Held for Faking Credentials

    Indian-Origin Doctor Held for Faking Credentials

    WELLINGTON:  An Indian-origin psychiatrist from the US, charged with stealing the credentials of another US-based doctor so that he could work in New Zealand, was arrested and denied bail, a media report said on Thursday.

    According to New Zealand police, Illinois-based psychiatrist Mohamed Shakeel Siddiqui used the credentials of another psychiatrist Mohammed Shafi Siddiqui.

    He allegedly used the doctor’s references as his own, New Zealand Herald reported.
    Mohamed Shakeel got a job in New Zealand through a recruitment agency. He was given a year’s contract to work as a practising psychiatrist with the Waikato District Health Board – a public health service provider.

    Later, Mohamed Shakeel’s colleagues became suspicious about his professional behaviour and carried out their own inquiries related to his physician and surgeon’s licence (practising certificate) issued by the state of Illinois’ department of financial and professional regulation on September 13, 2012.

    After they found discrepancies, police were informed and Mohamed Shakeel was arrested.

    Defending his client, Mohamed Shakeel’s lawyer told media: “Siddiqui had been performing well, receiving ‘exceeds expected standard’ in most areas, including clinical knowledge, diagnostic skills, time management, recognising limits, professional knowledge, reliability and professional manner.”

    Mohamed Shakeel appeared in the Hamilton District Court in New Zealand on July 25 and was remanded in custody without plea.

    He reappeared this week before the court and was refused bail.

    The hospital authorities, now, have more questions than answers.

    “If Siddiqui wasn’t entitled to the documents, how did he get them, and how did they get past the eyes of his staff,” the report added.

    The police claim that Mohamed Shakeel may have two passports.

    Originally from India, Mohamed Shakeel earned his medical degree from the University of Arizona in 1992.

    In 2011, he got a degree in psychiatry and neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

    Mohamed Shakeel is also facing trial for obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception.

  • Indo-Canadian Film Producer Komal Minhas’s “Dream, Girl” Making Waves in Canada

    Indo-Canadian Film Producer Komal Minhas’s “Dream, Girl” Making Waves in Canada

    OTTAWA:  An Indian-origin budding independent film producer, whose recent film attracted millions of dollars, is being seen as the next famous person to come out of Canada, media reports said.

    Komal Minhas has produced “Dream, Girl” — a feature-length film that has fetched millions in investor funding and has already created much excitement in the media, Daily Herald News reported on Monday.

    Ms Minhas has partnered with US director and co-producer Erin Bagwell for the film.

    According to her, “Dream, Girl” is part of a larger movement that aims to tell stories of entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of leaders.

    “We are mobilising the mid-20 to 30-year-old cohort of women to see themselves as a big part of the female economy. In the next decade, two-thirds of consumer spending will belong to women — that’s 66 percent of the economy,” Ms Minhas was quoted as saying.

    “The global female economy accounts for $20 trillion. So we want to put a face to these economic powerhouses,” she added.

    The 25-year-old was born and raised in Grande Prairie, Alberta to highly entrepreneurial Indian immigrants. She was an energetic child and did well in school.

    She moved to Ottawa at the age of 17 and attended Carleton University, studying journalism, political science and human rights. Till the time she turned 23, she was already fired from two jobs. She later started working as an independent producer.

  • Indian nationals receiving extortion calls in NZ

    Indian nationals receiving extortion calls in NZ

    MELBOURNE (TIP): Indian nationals living in New Zealand are being targeted by callers posing as immigration officials demanding money, prompting authorities to warn Indians not to fall into their trap.

    The scammers have been using numbers which show up as the Immigration Contact Centre, but with a slight variation in the digits.

    The callers claim to be calling from Immigration New Zealand (INZ) and tell the person there has been a problem with the processing of their visa or arrival card information and demand a sum of money.

    The scammers want the money transferred into a Western Union account or they will face serious consequences including deportation.

    “The phone calls are not from INZ, and people are being warned not to pay the money and instead report the call to police. We will never demand payment over the phone,” 3News channel quoted INZ as saying.

    The callers were aggressive and authoritative, said the ministry of business innovation and employment, and often had details about the person they were speaking to, which made the call seem genuine.

    Over a lakh Indian-origin people are residing in New Zealand.

  • Indian American NBA Player Satnam scores | Thrilling win for Mavericks Vs LA Lakers

    Indian American NBA Player Satnam scores | Thrilling win for Mavericks Vs LA Lakers

    Indian-origin basketball player Satnam Singh Bhamara got to ply his trade in a brief four-minute appearance as the Dallas Mavericks knocked off the LA Lakers 88-86 in a thrilling encounter in the elimination round of the 2015 NBA Summer League.

    Satnam entered the game with two minutes left in the first quarter. He immediately made an impact grabbing a defensive rebound with 1:44 left on the clock.

    He went on to score his first points in the game with a free throw in the second quarter. Jeremy Tyler led the Mavericks with 25 points and 11 rebounds in the late game nail-biter.

    The 24-year-old Dallas center, whose NBA career includes stops in Atlanta, Golden State and New York, was 11-of-15 from field goal range and also had four offensive rebounds.

    Justin Anderson added 16 points for the Mavericks on 6-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range.

    Dwight Powell had 12 points and nine rebounds and Maalik Wayns had 12 points and three assists.

    Dallas cruised to a 30-20 lead at the end of the first quarter, thanks to nine points from Tyler and eight from Anderson. Anderson added five points in the second and as the Mavericks led by 12 at the half.

    Trailing 68-63 at the end of three, Los Angeles tied the game at 76-76 on a 3-point play by forward Jabari Brown with 6:19 left in the final period. Tied at 88-88 with under 10 seconds to play, Wayns missed a contested floating layup attempt from the baseline for Dallas.

    Tyler grabbed the rebound on the other side of the rim and dropped it in with 1.4 seconds. After a Lakers timeout, 27th overall pick Larry Nance Jr inbounded the ball to Julius Randle from 30-feet out, but the former Kentucky Wildcat couldn’t get a 3-point shot off before time expired.

    Dallas moves on to the second round of the winner’s bracket, where they’ll face the NBA Development League Select team next.

  • On a lighter Side: Canadian man sings ‘Tum Hi Ho’ for his Sikh bride

    On a lighter Side: Canadian man sings ‘Tum Hi Ho’ for his Sikh bride

    Weddings are very special and this Christian wedding has gone viral on social media for a very different reason. Frank Gregoire, The Groom, a Canadian, struck a special note –by singing the popular Hindi song ‘Tum Hi Ho’ for his Indian-origin bride to tell her how he loved her in a very unique way as part of the vows.

    The video of Gregoire humming the Bollywood song from the love story ‘Aashiqui 2’ to impress his Sikh bride has gone viral on social media.  Arijit Singh’s original song is a cult romantic song which featured in the Bollywood blockbuster movie ‘Aashiqui 2’.

    Simran Malhotra, the bride, was initially taken aback as she realised her soon-to-be husband was singing a Hindi song. She eventually started crying, seemingly with tears of happiness.

    Frank Gregoire reportedly took six weeks to learn the famous song which he performed on their wedding day.

    Not unlike the song and its singer, the wedding looks like it was a concoction of western-Indian traditions. Simran was seen wearing traditional bangles with a white gown and has even applied henna on her hands, commonly applied by brides in India.

    The award-winning song was sung by Arijit Singh, a Bengali playback singer, and is a cult romantic song which featured in the Bollywood blockbuster movie ‘Aashiqui 2’.

  • CNN’s Sanjay Gupta under scrutiny for misidentifying patient

    CNN’s Sanjay Gupta under scrutiny for misidentifying patient

    NEW YORK (TIP): American TV network CNN’s Indian-origin medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta is under scrutiny after it emerged that a child he had operated upon during the earthquake in Nepal had been wrongly identified by him, even as the network rallied behind him.

    Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon, clarified yesterday that he did perform brain surgery on a 14-year-old girl following the earthquake in Nepal in April but acknowledged he may have misidentified the patient as being eight-year-old, according to a post on the CNN website.

    “We are trying to independently verify exactly which child it was,” Gupta said on CNN’s “New Day”.

    The clarification came after the website Global Press Journal reported that the 8-year-old identified by CNN “never underwent surgery of any kind.”

    Gupta had travelled to Nepal in the days following the earthquake to cover the devastating natural calamity and had operated on a girl on April 27 at Kathmandu’s Bir Hospital.

    The Global Press Journal reported that according to the girl’s family and doctors, Salina Dahal was never operated on. Instead, Gupta had operated on 14-year-old Sandhya Chalise. CNN rallied behind Gupta, saying he had the network’s support and that it was proud of his or.

    Gupta has our “full and unequivocal support,” CNN said in a statement.

    “As we reported, he assisted the surgeons at Bir Hospital by performing a craniotomy on a young victim,” the network said.

    “Some reporting has suggested it was not the young girl we, at the time of our own reporting in the midst of the crisis, believed her to be. We will try to verify that.”

    It said Gupta had spent a week in Nepal, “helped save a young life in the operating room, and we couldn’t be prouder of him.” Gupta’s medical assistance, particularly in disaster zones, is sometimes shown on the network’s newscasts. CNN had provided video to Global Press Journal more than a week ago that showed Gupta’s role in the surgery, contradicting the initial claim that he hadn’t helped at all.

    “He was, if anything, relatively modest on the air in characterising his own role. He simply appears to have been fundamentally wrong about the identity of his patient,” said NPR’s David Folkenflik, who was informed of the journal’s reporting ahead of time.