The Indian Panorama

Tag: Indian-Origin

  • Indians in UK face risk of radicalization by terrorists, says British Parliament

    Indians in UK face risk of radicalization by terrorists, says British Parliament

    LONDON (TIP): Indian youngsters in UK face real time risk of being radicalized by Islamic terrorist organizations and handlers, says Britain’s House of Commons.

    Keith Vaz, Britain’s longest-serving Indian-origin MP who was recently re-elected as chair of Parliament’s influential Home Affairs Select Committee told TOI in an exclusive interview that Indian families in UK need to be vigilant. Indians are the largest foreign-born group in London. Nearly 9% of all foreign-born residents in London are now Indian. In sheer numbers, this means 2.63 lakh persons born in India are now living in London.

    Vaz told TOI “radicalization of our young people is at the forefront of our minds”.

    He added “So far there has not been much evidence of young Asian and Indian individuals falling victim to the propaganda and extremist influence on the internet or via other means, but members of the community should remain vigilant. The government needs to be far better at working with communities, not against them”.

    UK’s Office of National Statistics has confirmed that Indians had overtaken the Irish to become the largest foreign-born ethnic group in the whole of England and Wales. The latest census had revealed that the number of Indians went up by over 52%, from 4.56 lakh in 2001 to 6.94 lakh a decade later.

    Britain’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) says that a record number of foreign fighters have now been confirmed to have joined militant organizations in Syria and Iraq. It is now estimated that the total now exceeds 20,000 – of which nearly a fifth were residents or nationals of western European countries.

    The largest European countries -France, the UK, and Germany – also produce the largest numbers of fighters. This has made the conflict in Syria and Iraq the largest mobilization of foreigner fighters in Muslim majority countries since 1945. It now surpasses the Afghanistan conflict in the 1980s, which is thought to have attracted up to 20,000 foreigners.

  • Twitter’s Indian American M&A chief Rishi Garg quits

    Twitter’s Indian American M&A chief Rishi Garg quits

    Rishi Garg, Twitter’s top M&A Chief Indian-origin executive at the micro-blogging site has resigned, the latest in a recent string of departures from the company including that of CEO Dick Costolo. Rishi Garg, the Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategy at Twitter, a role that put him in charge of the Mergers & Acquisition strategy, has announced his departure after tenure of 13 months.

    Garg has resigned from the company to pursue other projects, technology blog Re/code reported, citing a tweet from Garg.

    This is the third resignation at Twitter’s and the second in the mergers and acquisition team. Jessica Verilli resigned last month as the director of corporate development and strategy, to take a role at Google Ventures, the technology blog said.

    “After an amazing ride as Twitter’s VP Corporate Development and Strategy, I’m saying farewell today,” he tweeted on June 27. “Our team has built a stronger Twitter with a dozen acquisitions in the last year. Hats off to @dickc for admirable leadership, humour, energy, and trust,” Garg said, using Costolo’s Twitter handle to thank him.
    “I can’t wait to witness the company’s next chapter. I’m off to pursue some exciting new projects; more soon! #staytuned,” the tweets read. Twitter did not immediately announce a replacement for Garg, whose departure comes just two week after Costolo announced he was stepping down as the company’s CEO.
  • Indian-origin scientist develops world’s first skin-like display

    Indian-origin scientist develops world’s first skin-like display

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Indian-American researcher Debashis Chanda from University of Central Florida (UCF) has developed a nature-inspired technique for creating the world’s first full-colour, flexible thin-film reflective display.

    Simply put, if someone at a wedding reception is wearing the same dress as you, the technology can help you switch yours to a different colour in the blink of an eye.

    “All manmade displays like LCD and LED are rigid, brittle and bulky. But you look at an octopus. He can create colour on the skin itself covering a complex body contour and it is stretchable and flexible,” said professor Chanda.

    That was the motivation: Can we take some inspiration from biology and create a skin-like display?

    Chanda was able to change the colour on an ultra-thin nano-structured surface by applying voltage.

    The new method does not need its own light source. Rather, it reflects the ambient light around it.

    “Your camouflage, your clothing, your fashion items – all of that could change,” he said.

    Traditional displays like those on a mobile phone require a light source, filters and a glass plates.

    But animals like chameleons, octopuses and squids are born with thin, flexible, colour-changing displays that do not need a light source – their skin.

    Chanda’s display is only about few microns thick, compared to a 100-micron-thick human hair.

    Such an ultra-thin display can be applied to flexible materials like plastics and synthetic fabrics.

    The research has major implications for existing electronics like televisions, computers and mobile devices that have displays considered thin by today’s standards but monstrously bulky in comparison.

    The potentially bigger impact could be whole new categories of displays that have never been thought of.

    “This is a cheap way of making displays on a flexible substrate with full-colour generation.”

    The research is detailed in the journal Nature Communications.

  • Singapore court jails Indian-origin woman for hurting maid

    Singapore court jails Indian-origin woman for hurting maid

    SINGAPORE (TIP): A Singaporean woman of Indian-origin, who tortured her Myanmarese maid over a period of three months, burning her with a heated metal ladle and beating her with a grinding tool, was jailed for 15 months on June 25.

    Suganthi Jayaraman, 34, who pleaded guilty to three charges of maid abuse, was also ordered to pay SGD 4,900 compensation to Naw Mu Den Paw.

    The court heard she scalded the 24-year-old maid in the kitchen of her apartment on September 28, 2013, as she was not happy with the curry the helper had cooked.

    She heated an 18 cm-long ladle until it was red-hot before sweeping it over the woman’s left calf and back, according to media reports on Thursday.

    No medication was given to Paw, who was told to wear long pants to cover up the injury.

    Earlier on September 20, she had been unhappy with the helper for not frying vadais quickly enough.

    Suganthi grabbed a metal pestle and hit her on the back of her head as well as near her right eyebrow.

    Paw bled heavily but was not given medical attention. Instead, she was told to finish frying the vadais and deliver them to the mini-mart run by Suganthi and her husband where the snacks were to be sold. On September 30, she punched the maid in the left eye after the victim, who had finished work at 4am, was not up by 6.30am to take Suganthi’s daughter to school.

    Three other similar charges and a fourth charge of using criminal force were considered during Suganthi’s sentencing. District Judge Christopher Goh said her acts were particularly aggravating and the use of a metal pestle and a heated metal ladle to hurt the domestic worker was “cruel and inhumane”.

    He noted that the abuses had occurred over a period of about three months until the victim ran away from the employer home on October 3 of the same year.

    Judge Goh agreed with the prosecution that Suganthi’s actions were deliberate, malicious and also showed a profound lack of respect for the domestic maid’s welfare and dignity.

    “In my view, you seem to treat the victim as a chattel rather than a fellow human being. There is no legitimate reason why an employer should inflict any injury on any of their employees,” The Straits Times quoted the Judge as saying. Suganthi could have been jailed for up to 10-and-a-half years and fined for causing hurt with a heated substance.

    The punishment for the other two offences is a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up to SGD 7,500 each.

  • British Indian Academician Knighted by Queen Elizabeth

    British Indian Academician Knighted by Queen Elizabeth

    A senior Cambridge University academic working with Tata Steel has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list along with 17 other Indian-origin people who received in various fields.

    Professor Harshad Kumar Dharamshi Bhadeshia, Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, has been conferred one of the highest honours awarded by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her official birthday for services to science and technology.

    “Professor Bhadeshia has not only performed brilliant basic research on steels but has brought a number of the new steels he has developed to manufacture. For example, his new carbide-free steel for railway lines is now in use in the Channel Tunnel, the Swiss rail network and the French tram system,” the official citation reads.

    “Other inventions include superbainite, now available as armour, a new welding alloy, and a steel tailor-made for pipes going down oil wells. Perhaps the world leader in metallurgy, he is also an inspirational teacher and researcher,” it added.

    Professor Bhadeshia is among nearly 18 Indian-origin men and women honoured by the British monarch, who celebrated the occasion with the traditional Trooping the Colour parade through central London today.

    More than 1,000 soldiers took part in the traditional display of army drill, music and horsemanship.

    The Queen turned 89 on April 21 but as per royal tradition celebrates her official birthday on a Saturday in the summer month of June.

    Among the other senior awards include the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) which has been conferred upon Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA), for services to primary care; Hamid Patel for services to education in Lancashire; and Dr Hari Prasad Mohan Lal Shukla for services to interfaith and the community.

    While Indian-origin businessman Atul Pathak receives an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to entrepreneurship, the list of MBEs (Member of the Order of the British Empire) honour a range of professionals for their services to the community – Parkash Ahluwalia, Pratibha Dale, Rupinder Kaur Nandra, Naran Bhimji Patel, Pratima Sengupta, Yasvanti Govindji Lakhamshi Shah, Kiran Kumar Sharma and Harsha Yashwant Kumar Shukla.

    Among the final category of Medallist of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) include Bibi Tej Kaur Grewal, Uttamjit Gujral, Narpinderjit Mann and Veena Soni also recognised for the services towards community cohesion.

    From the overseas list, the Queen has honoured Satpal Dass, chair and managing director of Pacific Interiors, for services to British business in India.

    The list is prepared annually by the UK Cabinet Office based on nominations for people who have undertaken outstanding work in their communities, either in a voluntary or paid capacity.

  • 2 Indian-origin Youths from South Africa Die Fighting for ISIS

    2 Indian-origin Youths from South Africa Die Fighting for ISIS

    Two youths belonging to the Muslim community of a small Indian township south of Johannesburg have died allegedly fighting for the Islamic State, becoming one of the first South Africans to have died in Syria.

    Articles in media outlets today said a confidential report had indicated that Fayaaz Valli, 23, had gone to Syria claiming to be working for an orphanage but ended up being killed while fighting with Islamic State.

    Mr Valli’s father Riyad told the weekly Sunday Times that he was heartbroken by the death of his son but did not believe he had joined the IS.

    “I would never have allowed him to go if I knew,” the father said, but the report claims that two South Africans from Roshnee have already died while fighting alongside the IS, while several more were planning to enlist with the group.

    According to the report, the families of both men were advised that they had died in car accidents.

    The second man, whose identity has not been made public, allegedly settled all his debts and distributed his assets before travelling to Turkey to cross the border into Syria to join IS.

    Although government sources would not comment on it, the reports said the Muslim community of Roshnee have closed ranks to protect the families of the duo.

    This came amid concern that a number of young people from the town were being recruited to join the militant group which claims to act in the name of Islam but has been decried by Muslim organisations across the country.

    The weekly claimed to have knowledge of at least 22 South Africans who had flown on their own or with their families to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and then to Turkey to try to join the IS. About half of them had been deported by authorities.

    The report said Roshnee residents had believed men collecting funds for humanitarian efforts on the Syrian border were actually doing so for IS.

    The Syrian Embassy in Pretoria has previously warned against organisations pretending to be engaged in humanitarian efforts in the Syrian war being a front for IS fundraising and recruitment.

  • Indian-origin Keith Vaz appointed Labour party vice-chairman

    LONDON: One of Britain’s longest-serving Indian-origin member of parliament, Keith Vaz, has been appointed as vice-chairman of the Labour party.
    The Party does not have a leader at present with Ed Miliband resigning after the recent election debacle. 
    This effectively makes 58-year-old Vaz the top man in the party at the moment. Vaz has been an MP since 1987 was re-elected from his Leicester East stronghold at the May 7 general election. 
    He received 61% of the votes. Vaz was first elected MP in June 1987 and has been re-elected as a MP six times. 
    Born to Goan parents in Aden, Yemen, Vaz who also serves as the chair of the influential home affairs select committee in the House of Commons was educated at Cambridge University where he studied law and then became a solicitor. 
    Vaz has his roots in Anjuna. His sister Valerie Vaz is also a Labour MP.
    Vaz said “I am delighted to have been appointed as vice-chairman of the Labour Party. After coming through a difficult election, it is time for the party to regroup and bring fresh new ideas to the table. Playing a part in that process is a source of great pride for me”. 
    Vaz has been appointed by acting leader of the opposition Harriet Harman. 
    His appointment clearly follows Labour’s interest in garnering the all-important Indian origin support in the future. 
    The Indian community has been growing in prominence year by year. In 1987, there were only two members of Indian origin in both the houses of parliament. Today, there are over 25 – over 10 times. 
    Recent data showed that up to a million ethnic minority votes helped put David Cameron back into Downing Street.
  • Indian Americans dominate spelling bee – flooded with Racist comments

    Indian Americans dominate spelling bee – flooded with Racist comments

    WASHINGTON: Indian American children’s domination of the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee could be put down to their perseverance, the competition’s director has said while slamming the racist backlash against the winners of Indian-origin.

    Indian-American kids have placed a stranglehold on the Scripps National Spelling Bee, winning it now for seven years in a row and all but four of the last 15 years.

    Indian-Americans account for just under 1 per cent of the US population, but make up more than a fifth of the 285 spellers competing this week in the 88th edition of the bee, beginning today. If recent trends hold, they would account for more than a third of the contest’s 50 semifinalists.

    The winning streak of Indian-Americans is as impressive as it is difficult to explain. It is much the same way that Kenyan runners have owned the Boston Marathon.

    The streak has been much discussed and analysed in recent years — except by the people who actually run the bee.

    For the first time, Paige Kimble, the bee’s longtime director, agreed last week to address the sensitive question of why Indian-Americans have come to dominate the contest.

    The difference for Indian Americans may be a commitment to pursue the spelling championship over many years, she said.
    “How hard a child works is a very individual factor,” said Kimble, who won the national bee in 1981.

    “But what might be happening (with Indian American contestants) is that there might be perseverance for the National Spelling Bee goal over a longer period of time,” she was quoted as saying by the Washington Post.

    Indeed, of the Indian-American champions over the past 15 years, only one, Pratyush Buddiga, won on a first trip to the national bee in 2002.

    The others won after multiple trips, including last year’s co-champ, Sriram Hathwar, who made it to the national bee five times before winning, and Kavya Shivashankar in 2009 and Sameer Mishra in 2008, who both won on their fourth trips.

    Kimble and other bee organizers were appalled by the reaction to last year’s contest, when Sriram, then 14, and his co-winner Ansun Sujoe, then 13, were greeted with a barrage of racist comments on Facebook and Twitter.

    “We certainly followed the coverage last year and we are aware of Twitter posts that are not nice, that indicate that we have a long way to go as a country in embracing all of our immigrant population,” Kimble said.

    Despite the backlash, for Indian Americans the growing spelling dynasty has become a source of great pride.

    Shankar points out that immigrants from India, who are the parents and grandparents of today’s spellers, are typically well-educated professionals and driven to succeed.

    In a country where sports is king for many young people, Buddiga said the bee offered competition that coincided with academic goals set by Indian American families.

  • Indian-Origin Harbhajan Kaur Dheer becomes first Asian elected woman Mayor in UK

    Indian-Origin Harbhajan Kaur Dheer becomes first Asian elected woman Mayor in UK

    LONDON (TIP): Indian-origin Harbhajan Kaur Dheer, 62, became the first Asian woman elected mayor of Ealing Council in London.

    “It is a great privilege and challenge to be the Mayor of Ealing Council in London. I have no illusions about the task ahead. But if I can cope up with Ranjit at home I can climb even the Everest,” Ms Kaur said.

    The early years in Britain were difficult and she had to work very hard to establish herself and raise two children.

    She studied Social Sciences at Kingston University and obtained a degree in 1995.

    She worked as an Approved Mental Health Professional in Surrey County Council until 2003.

    After joining Labour Party in the Eighties, she began to develop her public role within the Party and outside in the community.

    She has served the borough as a governor of a number of schools.

    In the Nineties, she worked as a volunteer Home Visitor helping home bound women with learning English.

    She is a passionate advocate of rights of children and elderly including those with mental health issues.

    A mother of two children – a son and a daughter – she became a grandmother in January this year. Her husband held the post of Mayor of Ealing in 2001-2002.

  • Seventh grader 13-year-old Indian American Raghav Ganesh develops device to help the blind

    Seventh grader 13-year-old Indian American Raghav Ganesh develops device to help the blind

    SAN JOSE, CA (TIP): 13-year-old Indian-origin student from San Jose, California developed a device to help visually impaired navigate has been named one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2015 and granted a 5,000 dollars award by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.

    Raghav started a quest to help the visually impaired by focusing his attention on the white canes used to detect obstacles in their path.

    “I saw how, despite being used for several centuries, the white cane does not provide users enough information about their environment,” he said.

    Raghav designed and built a device that uses sensors to detect objects beyond the reach of the canes.

    His device clamps onto the cane, uses ultrasonic and infrared sensors to detect obstacles more than six feet beyond the end of the cane and communicates this information to the user through vibrations in the cane’s handle.

    Raghav secured a grant to make multiple copies and hopes to create an open patent so that organizations for the blind around the world can make the device for their clients.

    For his efforts, Raghav was one of the 10 middle and high school students named America’s top youth volunteers for 2015 at Prudential’s 20th annual Spirit of Community Awards on May 4.

  • Indian American Woman Shot at, Critical After Attempted Robbery in US

    Indian American Woman Shot at, Critical After Attempted Robbery in US

    NEW YORK:  An Indian-origin Gujarati woman working at a gas station in the US state of South Carolina has been shot in the face and left critically injured in an attempted armed robbery.

    Mradulaben Patel was the co-owner and clerk of a store at a gas station in Powdersville. Police have asked for help in identifying the man who believed to have shot Ms Patel in the face Thursday night, Fox Carolina reported.

    The report quoted Ms Patel’s friend Dilip Shah as saying that she had surgery yesterday and the doctors are monitoring her. He said he could not make out the reason for the shooting.
    “She never had any problem with any customers,” Mr Shah said.

    Deputies said the video shows a man walking into the store and they said he bought a pack of cigars. Authorities are reviewing the surveillance footage that showed the suspect, moments before, asking for cigars and then shooting Ms Patel without taking any money.

    Investigators said they believe the man in the video shot Ms Patel during an attempted robbery. A man named Michael Wheat saw Ms Patel lying on the floor as he walked into the store late at night and called the police.

    “I saw the clerk lying there on the floor, bleeding pretty bad,” said Wheat, adding that Ms Patel had blood all over her head and on the floor.

    Wheat said he left the store and got in his truck from where he called 911.

    He said he ran back into the store without knowing whether or not the shooter had already left the scene of the incident.

    “She was kinda moaning as she was breathing,” said Wheat. Customwrs of the shop remembered Ms Patel as a friendly woman.

    “She always asked how everybody was, their day was, (and) she asked how my daughter was every day that I came in here,” Shalynn Zarczynski, a frequent customer of Ms Patel’s, said.

  • Indian-Origin Speed Trader Arrested in UK For Role in 2010 US ‘Flash Crash’

    Indian-Origin Speed Trader Arrested in UK For Role in 2010 US ‘Flash Crash’

    WASHINGTON:  A high-frequency trader of Indian origin was arrested in the United Kingdom over charges he manipulated the futures market and played a role in sparking the May 2010 “flash crash”, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

    Navinder Singh Sarao, 37, of Hounslow, United Kingdom, was criminally charged on charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud and manipulation, said the DOJ.

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed parallel civil charges against Mr Sarao on Tuesday, calling him a “very significant player in the market.”

    The case marks the first time US regulators have alleged that market manipulation played a role in the flash crash, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points before recovering somewhat toward the end of the day’s trading.

    Through his company Nav Sarao Futures Limited Plc, Sarao profited to the tune of $40 million, the CFTC said, adding that his alleged manipulation stretched over the period from 2010 to 2014 and continued at least through early April of this year.

    “His conduct was at least significantly responsible for the order imbalance that in turn was one of the conditions that led to the flash crash,” CFTC head of enforcement Aitan Goelman told a conference call with journalists.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it plans to request that he be extradited to the US.

    An October 2010 report by the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission traced the flash crash back to a computer-driven trade by a mutual fund which chose to sell a large number of E-mini S&P 500 futures contracts.

    The DOJ said Tuesday that Mr Sarao used an automated trading program to execute his scheme, which the department described as “dynamic layering.”

    That strategy involved placing multiple, simultaneous large volume sell orders at different price points to create the appearance of substantial supply.

    He then modified the orders frequently to keep them close to the market price, and canceled them without executing them. Then, when the prices fell, he would sell futures contracts and buy them back at the lower price.

    Mr Goelman said that Mr Sarao used both software tools and manual trading to manipulate the price of the S&P e-Mini, using off-the-shelf software that he modified.
     

  • Convicted Indian-Origin IT professional trashes His Lawyers in US Court – seeks immediate execution

    Convicted Indian-Origin IT professional trashes His Lawyers in US Court – seeks immediate execution

    NEW YORK:  An Indian IT professional, sentenced to death in the US for killing a baby and her Indian grandmother, is so frustrated with his lawyers that he sought immediate execution rather than seeking a new trial with them.

    Raghunandan Yandamuri, 29, appeared in Montgomery County court yesterday with his defence attorneys Henry Hilles and Stephen Heckman for post-trial motions.

    He, however, said in court that he feels his attorneys Hilles and Heckman are ineffective. 

    Yandamuri, a former IT professional who emigrated from India on a work visa, said attorneys Hilles and Heckman do not answer his phone calls, nor do they respond to letters he writes to them, The Times Herald reported.

    He said he may as well be executed “right now” if his appeal keeps going the way it is, the paper said.

    Judge Steven O’Neill called that “a little dramatic.”

    He said that he knows Heckman and Hilles to be “diligent and zealous” advocates for their clients.

    This was not the first time Yandamuri expressed in court to be immediately put to death.

    In his opening arguments at trial he told the jury that anyone convicted of those crimes should be put to death.

    When he was convicted, he asked to forgo the penalty phase and just be given the death penalty.

    It was also not the first time Yandamuri expressed frustration with his attorneys.

    He ultimately represented himself during trial, against the advice of his attorneys and Judge O’Neill.

    Throughout the trial Heckman served as stand-by counsel offering legal advice and guidance and Hilles served as his attorney for the penalty phase of the trial.

    Yandamuri was convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Satyavathi Venna, 61, and the suffocation death of her 10-month-old granddaughter, Saanvi Venna, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in a failed kidnapping plot in 2012.

    Prosecutors said Yandamuri plotted to kidnap the child for ransom money to feed his gambling habit and killed the grandmother when she got in his way.

    Outside of the courtroom, Hilles and Heckman said they were frustrated that Yandamuri would say they do not respond to him, the paper said.

    “Heckman and I met with Yandamuri at the prison tens and tens and tens of times at his request over the two plus years that we were representing him. It boggles my mind to hear him claim that we have not made ourselves available to him. The facts are that we have been as responsive as any lawyer team has ever been,” Hilles said.

  • Indian-Origin Schoolgirl Stumps British PM With Her Question

    Indian-Origin Schoolgirl Stumps British PM With Her Question

    LONDON:  It was not any of the hard-nosed journalists or politicians but a 10-year-old Indian-origin schoolgirl that has stumped the British Prime Minister David Cameron on the campaign trail.

    Reema, a student from the northern England city of Salford in Greater Manchester, asked a question regarding his favorite politician apart from himself in BBC’s children’s programme ‘Newsround’ as part of a series on the upcoming General Election on May 7.

    “If you could pick one politician apart from yourself to win who would it be and why?” 10-year-old asked Mr Cameron. 48-year-old Prime Minister looked visibly rattled and failed to come up with an answer.

    “Wow. If I could pick a politician? Would they have to be living or dead?”

    “If I thought someone else should win the election I would not be standing myself, so I can’t really answer the question about who else I would like to win,” he said.

    “There are lots of candidates around the country I am very enthusiastic about.”

    “I am afraid it is too difficult to say I would like someone else to win other than me or I wouldn’t be here, and I am quite keen on winning,” he added.

    “Top question – it is the best one I have been asked all election campaign,” Mr Cameron said when he was leaving.

    Mr Cameron answered other questions on topics such as immigration, what it’s like to be Prime Minister, and how much it now costs to go to university.

    He was also quizzed on the noisy behaviour of MPs in the British Parliament. ‘Newsround’ is interviewing leaders from all major parties in the lead up to next month’s polls.

  • 5 years jail for Indian American Bombshell bandit Sandeep Kaur

    5 years jail for Indian American Bombshell bandit Sandeep Kaur

    Washington: An Indian-origin woman from California, nicknamed the “Bombshell Bandit” and convicted of robbing four banks in three US states, has been sentenced to 66 months in prison.
     
    Sandeep Kaur, 24, of Union City, California, was sentenced in the federal district court in St. George in the US state of Utah on Tuesday, according to a St. George News report. Her attorney, Jay Winward, unsuccessfully requested for a lesser sentence for Kaur.
    Kaur pleaded guilty in January to four felony charges of bank robberies that occurred during the summer of 2014. 
     
    Kaur’s crime spree began in California and ended after robbing the US Bank in the city of St. George, and leading police officers on a high-speed pursuit to Nevada, where she was arrested after an hour-long stand-off.
     
    Winward asked the court for a sentence of 48 months. He told the court that Kaur was young, well-educated, capable of paying restitution, and had no prior criminal history. 
     
    She was raised in a traditional Indian family and grew up feeling “trapped” and bullied, Winward said. 
     
    She had run from an arranged marriage, to her boyfriend, whom she subsequently married. However, the relationship turned abusive, Winward said.
     
    After making some money in the stock market, Kaur ended up in Las Vegas, acquiring a gambling addiction and becoming indebted to loan sharks, according to the attorney.
     
    He told the court that Kaur was not a run-of-the-mill criminal, but rather a “good, wholesome person who made some horrible decisions”.
     
    Kaur felt remorse, Winward said, and had been a model prisoner; and she had turned back to her religion. She was willing and capable of paying back the money she had stolen in the bank robberies, and could become a useful member of society, he said.
     
    Winward also said that even though Kaur threatened violence during the robberies, she was not a violent person and did not have a firearm or explosives during the robberies.
     
    However, prosecuting attorney Paul Kohler said that during the robberies, the bank tellers did not know Kaur did not have a weapon, and so were afraid for their lives. The tellers were “trapped”, as were the families driving on the I-15 motorway during the police chase, and the police officers who responded.
     
    Before pronouncing the sentence, US District Judge Ted Stewart called the case “complex”, citing both the violence of Kaur’s crimes, and her intelligence and opportunities. Kaur graduated from high school at the age of 15, and from nursing school at 19, he said.
     
    However, the circumstances of Kaur’s life explained, but did not justify the crimes, the judge said, and did not warrant a lesser sentence. The public must be protected, he said.
     
    Besides serving 66 months in prison, Kaur was ordered to repay the $40,000 taken in the four robberies.
     
    According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kaur derives her nickname of “Bombshell Bandit” from the bomb threats she made during the robberies.
     
  • Pooja Chandrashekar: Indian-American Teen Whiz cracks All 8 Ivy League Schools

    Pooja Chandrashekar: Indian-American Teen Whiz cracks All 8 Ivy League Schools

    Indian-origin student and entrepreneur Pooja Chandrashekar created history by securing admission at all eight Ivy League schools and six other top US universities.

    “They are all fantastic schools, so I couldn’t discount any of them… I wanted to make sure I could get into a really good school and have more choices,” Chandrashekar told The Washington Post.

    However, she cleared all of them and scored 2390 out of 2400 in her SAT, getting an average grade point of 4.57. She even excelled in all 13 Advanced Placement Exam and gained admission to all the Ivy League Universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, and Pennsylvania.

    Besides Ivy League schools, she got through Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, and Georgia Tech. But, Chandrashekar is keen on joining only three of the 14, Harvard, Stanford and Brown, as they have offered her admission into medical school. She now wants to explore the field of medicine and bio-engineering.

    The Indian-origin teenager was born to an engineer couple, who stayed in Bangalore before moving to Virginia in US – where she was born and brought up. Like other teens, even Chandrashekar cherishes Bollywood songs and television shows like ‘Shark Tank’. However, she is not like every other teen as she is already an entrepreneur.

    Chandrashekar studied in Nysmith School in Herndon before she joined Thomas JeffersonHigh School for Science and Technology, where she studied computing, artificial intelligence and DNA science.

    Besides being a genius student, Chandrashekar is the founder and CEO of ProjectCSGIRLS, which is “a national youth-driven nonprofit working to close the tech gender gap by running a national computer science competition for middle school girls and workshops around the country,” according to her website poojachandrashekar.com.

    She has even developed a mobile application that helps in “diagnosing concussions and a speech-based diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease”. This app is believed to give 96% accurate diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

    Chandrashekar loves speaking about her work and she has attended several conferences and summits around the country. She was part of the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference, the Global Tech Women Voices Conference, the O’Reilly Velocity New York Conference, and the STEM Symposium for the National Capital Region, the website reads.

    She has received altogether 30 honours and recognitions since 2010, including CIA Outstanding Student Scientist Award, and 1st Place Individual American Regions Mathematics League Local.

  • Northern Ireland fields first-ever Sikh candidate for UK polls

    Northern Ireland fields first-ever Sikh candidate for UK polls

    LONDON (TIP): A 31-year-old Sikh politician will be the first Indian-origin candidate to contest in the UK General Elections from Northern Ireland on May 7. Amandeep Singh Bhogal, who was born in Jalandhar, is already making his mark on the campaign trail for the Conservative party in his trademark blue turban. He represents the Upper Bann constituency in the heart of Northern Ireland, which is 54 per cent Protestant and deeply Christian and churchgoing.

    “The Conservatives want to end sectarian politics in Northern Ireland and introduce some real normal politics,” he said.

    While Bhogal’s candidacy is attracting widespread media interest, he is not expected to win the seat, which is currently held by David Simpson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

    “We have a long-term electoral plan,” Bhogal said in reference to his decision to stand from what is seen as an un-winnable seat.

    “Together we can in Upper Bann,” is the slogan he has coined and has had T-shirts printed with it. Politics seems to a passion for Bhogal, who has moved to Northern Ireland from Kent in England where he grew up. Over the years, he has put in bids to stand for no fewer than 45 parliamentary seats.

    In 2012, he contested the London Assembly elections alongside current mayor Boris Johnson, who he credits for giving him valuable “never to give up” advice. Bhogal’s grandfather came to the UK in 1959 to “achieve better in life, not just to make extra money”. He was married to Pari when he was 19 at a ceremony in Punjab and the couple have a daughter Sukhamani, 10, and son Arjun, 4.

    With just four weeks to go until polling day, the campaign is yet to fully ignite in Northern Ireland’s 18 constituencies represented in the House of Commons. Some poll pundits predict that the DUP could play the role of kingmaker in the event of a hung Parliament verdict. The Conservatives are unlikely to achieve a great breakthrough in the region, which is historically divided along Catholic and Protestant lines.

    The Tories are fielding 16 candidates in the region, with 11, including Bhogal, parachuted in from England and Scotland.

  • Indian-origin grandpa kills grandson, self in South Africa

    JOHANNESBURG (TIP): In a bizarre incident, a 64-year-old Indian-origin man took his four -year-old grandson to a car and set it ablaze with them both in it in South Africa in a murder-suicide that has shocked the Indian township of Azaadville, west of Johannesburg.

    Juguthlay Persadh is believed to have called his daughter and son-in-law shortly before the incident on Thursday, April 9, informing them of what he was about to do.

    Shivan Mikyle Maharaj’s shocked parents had to be restrained by police from trying to get to the blazing car, which was under threat of exploding.

    They joined police in a frantic hunt to find the car, only to find it ablaze.

    “Persadh had apparently been involved in a family dispute for several months,” according to a neighbor who said there were frequent late night arguments in the Persadh residence.

    It is believed that Persadh had asked his son-in-law to move out of the house.

    “They had been arguing for a while and he recently told his daughter’s husband to move out of the house. He then threatened them that he was going to kill their child,” a neighbor, who refused to be identified, said.

    “I did not really believe that the threats were serious, but now I am shocked and wish I had intervened,” the neighbor said.

    A private security guard working near the field where the car was parked said he noticed that it was there for about an hour before he saw flames coming from it and summoned police. He said after the fire was extinguished, he saw the charred bodies of the man on the back seat with the child lying in his arms.

    Police spokesman Kay Makhubela said that the police were currently conducting inquest to find the motive behind the tragedy.

  • Indian-Origin Schoolboy Wins Institute of Physics Prize in UK

    Indian-Origin Schoolboy Wins Institute of Physics Prize in UK

    LONDON:  A 15-year-old Indian-origin schoolboy in the UK has been awarded the Institute of Physics Prize for conducting an experiment that verified an effect of Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity.

    Pratap Singh, a student at The Perse School, Cambridge, has won the 500 pounds Institute of Physics (IOP) prize at the  Big Bang Fair held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in March.

    The prize was among several awarded in the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition at the fair.

     

    More than 200 UK students aged 11-18 competed in the finals, demonstrating their projects to thousands of visitors.

    In his experiment, Singh used two Geiger-Muller tubes to detect cosmic-ray muons, which should not reach the Earth in detectable numbers unless time dilation occurs.

    He created a mathematical model for their arrival rate with and without time dilation, and using a Raspberry Pi and some statistical analysis, showed that they follow the model predicted by Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity.  

    His experiment was compact enough to fit inside a shoebox.

    “I am absolutely thrilled to have won the IOP prize,” Singh said.

    “I am especially happy that over the course of this  project I was able to bring together the theory, create a  mathematical model, and using just school physics lab equipment build an apparatus to observe relativistic time dilation,” he said.

    The prize also includes a trip to a national physics-related activity, ‘Cambridge News’ reported.

    The IOP’s head of outreach and engagement, Johanna Kieniewicz, and the IOP’s regional officer for the Midlands, David Wilkinson, jointly judged the prize.

    “I’d like to congratulate Pratap Singh on winning the  Institute of Physics prize with his outstanding project. He demonstrated remarkable creativity in his approach to the problem, bringing together theory grounded in robust science with practical ingenuity,” Kieniewicz said.

    An article that Singh wrote about his experiment will be published in Physics Education, a journal published by the IOP.

  • Indian-American Physicians’ Role Praised by US Lawmakers

    Indian-American Physicians’ Role Praised by US Lawmakers

    WASHINGTON:  US lawmakers have lauded Indian-origin American physicians for their role in passage of a bill by the Congress that reformulates the way physicians are reimbursed for a government health insurance for seniors.

    Several US lawmakers – including Nisha Desai Biswal,Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, and Ami Bera, the lone Indian-American physician in the US Congress –  praised them for their hard work and their constant efforts to make healthcare affordable.

    “We are extremely delighted and grateful to the US Congress for passing this historic measure,” said Ravi Jahagirdar, President of the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) urging the US Senate to take up the bill and pass it without delay.

    The legislation requires the Senate approval to repeal medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) currently in use and would reformulate how physicians are reimbursed for Medicare, a government health insurance for seniors over 65.

    The passage of SGR bill came on March 26. The SGR formula places a cap on spending for physicians services, according to an AAPI statement.

    “AAPI has been a tremendous organisation for what you do here in the United States and for what you do in India and for what you do to improve and extend the US-India relationship,” Biswal said in her keynote address.

    Bera shared his own personal experience of growing up to be a physician and how he got elected in a district that has only 1 per cent Indian-Americans.

    “My story is your story and our story is that of the entire nation,” he said, adding: “I want my legacy to be how the generation is going to take us all to the next level and have many more Indian Americans get elected to the Congress.”

    AAPI is the largest ethnic organisation of physicians, representing over 100,000 physicians, fellows and students of Indian-origin in the US, who have been lobbying for the repeal of SGR formula for years.

  • Indian American Entrepreneurs Charged With Insider Trading in US

    Indian American Entrepreneurs Charged With Insider Trading in US

    NEW YORK:  Two Indian-origin entrepreneurs have been charged by the US authorities with insider trading for making over a million dollars in illegal profits through the proposed acquisition of Cooper Tire and Rubber by India’s Apollo Tyres.

    Amit Kanodia of Massachusetts, a 47-year-old entrepreneur and private equity investor, and his long-time friend Iftikar Ahmed of Connecticut, a general partner at a venture capital firm have been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a complaint filed in US district court in Connecticut.

    The SEC is seeking to have Mr Kanodia and Mr Ahmed return their allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest and pay civil monetary penalties.

    The US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts today announced parallel criminal charges against Kanodia and Ahmed.

    Mr Ahmed, 43, is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi and Harvard Business School, while Kanodia received degrees from the University of Massachusetts.

    While the acquisition of American company Cooper by Apollo was never completed, the SEC complaint said that Cooper Tire’s stock price jumped 41 per cent when the acquisition was announced in June 2013.

    The SEC alleges that Mr Kanodia tipped Mr Ahmed and another friend prior to the acquisition announcement after learning of the deal from his wife, who was Apollo’s general counsel at the time, more than two months before the merger was announced.

    “Trading on insider information is fraud, plain and simple,” US Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston said.

    The SEC said, Mr Kanodia shared the highly confidential information with Ahmed who began buying significant amounts of Cooper Tire stock and options.

    Once news of the deal was public, Mr Ahmed immediately liquidated his Cooper Tire holdings, reaping more than 1.1 million dollars of ill-gotten profits, according to the complaint.

    The SEC said, Mr Ahmed later paid Mr Kanodia a kickback by transferring $ 220,000 to Lincoln Charitable Foundation, a supposed charity that Mr Kanodia controlled and used to mask kickbacks.

    A second close friend of Mr Kanodia, identified in the complaint as ‘Tippee 1’, also profited by trading on the confidential information provided by him and paid a portion of his illicit gains to Mr Kanodia using the same charity, the SEC’s complaint alleges.

    SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit Co-Deputy Chief Joseph Sansone said that Mr Kanodia gave inside information to two close friends who then paid a portion of their insider trading profits to a supposed charity that Mr Kanodia controlled.

    “Despite Mr Kanodia’s attempts at concealment, the SEC staff was able to uncover and unravel the scheme,” Sansone said.

    The SEC’s complaint charges Mr Kanodia and Mr Ahmed with violating federal anti-fraud laws and a related SEC rule.

    The SEC named Rakitfi Holdings LLC, a company owned by Mr Ahmed, and Lincoln Charitable Foundation as relief defendants.

    Apollo had agreed to buy Cooper Tire and Rubber for about $2.5 billion in 2013. The merger was abandoned in December that year.

  • Indian-American Hiten Patel Sentenced to 46-Year in Jail for Sex Crimes in US

    Indian-American Hiten Patel Sentenced to 46-Year in Jail for Sex Crimes in US

    NEW YORK:  An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to a 46-year prison term in the US state of New Jersey for sex-related crimes against five women in 2012.

    Hiten Patel, 36, was convicted in February of 22 criminal charges, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault and attempted sexual assault in Atlantic County, the prosecutor’s office said.

    Several women described attacks by Patel at a two-week trial in Mays Landing.

    According to the prosecutor’s office, Mr Patel contended the women were prostitutes who consented to his actions, a report in the Cherry Hill Courier Post said.

    One victim, a 21-year-old from Camden County, said Mr Patel claimed to be an undercover detective, showed a badge and ordered her into a van where she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint.

    Police arrested Mr Patel in August 2012 after the woman was able to escape from the van.

    The gun turned out to be an imitation, officials said.

  • Indian-origin Singaporean nurse to be given achievement award

    Indian-origin Singaporean nurse to be given achievement award

    SINGAPORE (TIP): An Indian-origin nurse here will receive an international achievement award for her work in the healthcare sector of women and refugees, becoming the first Singaporean to get the prestigious biennial prize.

    Dr Subadhra Devi Rai, a nurse and a senior lecturer at the School of Health Sciences (Nursing) at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, will be bestowed by this year’s International Achievement Award by the Florence Nightingale International Foundation.

    Rai was selected as the recipient of the award for her outstanding work in the health of women and refugees.

    The International Achievement Award will be presented to Rai at a conference in Seoul on June 21.

    FNIF is the International Council of Nurses (ICN) premier foundation. Its purpose is to support the advancement of nursing education, research and services.

    The award recognises Rai’s work in the health of women and refugees, and is the first time a Singaporean will be awarded the biennial award since its introduction in 1999.

    Speaking to the media today, Rai said she felt “honoured and humbled to receive this recognition” and hopes that this award sends a “powerful message to other nurses to serve beyond the healthcare setting”.

    “Without a strong understanding and awareness of the people you are helping, there would be a mismatch between the support rendered and what is needed,” Rai was quoted as saying by the local media.

    Her area of interest focuses on issues such as gender-based violence, sexual health and the reintegration of refugees. Over the years, she had been volunteering and working with different organisations to help and raise policy awareness for these issues.

    The NYP lecturer decided to go into teaching when she realised that the younger generation is the key to a better nursing industry in the future.

    “Being in this position allows me to inculcate in my students what is it actually is to be a nurse,” she said, adding that she wants to initiate change in the nursing profession by instilling pride of being a nurse in students.

    Rai hopes that with this award, she can inspire her colleagues to aspire more, and that the “sky’s the limit”.

  • Ahmedabad Teacher Makes the Final 10 for $1 Million Global Teacher Award

    Ahmedabad Teacher Makes the Final 10 for $1 Million Global Teacher Award

    New Delhi — A teacher in an Ahmedabad school has made it to the top ten finalists for the $1 million Global Teacher Prize to be given by the Varkey Foundation in Dubai next month.

    The foundation, which has former President Bill Clinton as its honorary chairman, said it will be the largest prize of its kind and will be given to one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.

    Along with Kiran Bir Sethi, a teacher at the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, an Indian-origin teacher from Timor Leste, Madenjit Singh (Science of Life Studies), has also made it to the ten finalists, the foundation said in a statement.

    The top ten finalists were narrowed down from a list of 50 shortlisted candidates.

    Sethi, who set up the Riverside School, said she teaches because she loves learning and in her job “no two days are ever the same. So, every day I can become an explorer, or an artist, a magician or a storyteller.”

    Varkey Foundation founder Sunny Varkey said the award has received a huge global support.

    “We introduced the prize in order to return teachers to their rightful position — belonging to one of the most respected professions in society.” 

    The award ceremony will take place on March 15 at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, to be attended by education ministers, international education experts and business leaders from across the world.

    Varkey Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GEMS Education, said the winner will also be asked to serve as a global ambassador for the Varkey Foundation, attending public events and speaking in public forums about improving the prestige of the teaching profession.

  • Indo-Canadian Financial Planner Arvindbhai Bakorbhai Patel charged in Ponzi scheme

    Indo-Canadian Financial Planner Arvindbhai Bakorbhai Patel charged in Ponzi scheme

    Former B.C. Coast Capital Savings mutual fund salesman faces 32 Securities Act charges in$110M scheme

     

    TORONTO (TIP): An Indian-origin former financial planner has been charged with 32 counts of Securities Act violations in Canada for advising clients to invest

     

    in a $110-million fraudulent scheme operated by a former Vancouver notary, a media report said Thursday, February 5. Arvindbhai Bakorbhai Patel, who worked as a British Columbia Coast Capital Savings financial planner, convinced about 90 investors to place nearly $29 million with former notary public Rashida Samji, who is facing 28 criminal charges of fraud and theft, CBC News reported.”I feel betrayed by a friend, and also I feel morally responsible for introducing my daughter to this scheme and losing her money,” Victor Vishwanathan, who is among 15 alleged victims of Patel, was quoted as saying.Last month, the British Columbia Securities Commission fined Samji$33 million for running a ponzi scheme. The commission, said that investors believed they were providing financial backing for the expansion of foreign wineries built by the Mark Anthony Group.

     

    They were told the money would be used as collateral for loans, but it remained in Samji’s trust. The company had no idea its name and reputation were used in association with the scheme.The charges against Patel carry maximum penalties of $3 million and up to three years in prison.