LONDON (TIP): UK based entrepreneur Lyric Jain, a Cambridge University engineering student originally from Mysore, developed the start-up that uses a machine-learning algorithm to sift fact from fiction is set to combat fake news around the world, including plans for a project specifically targeted at India.
The platform, which is currently going through technology trials with partners and advisors, will have its full public launch in September for the UK and the US, and hit India by October.
The aim is for the service to work as a news aggregator as well as an indicator of factual accuracy.
“The Logically platform gathers the biggest news stories from over 70,000 domains and determines the credibility of the claims across each article. It does this by using a machine learning algorithm that is designed to detect logical fallacy, political bias, and incorrect statistics,” the 21-year-old techie explains.
“By illuminating the quality of information across these articles, logically provides users with a transparent and insightful view that allows them to determine how trustworthy the news they read really is,” he said.
With a growing number of cases of fake news being exchanged over the WhatsApp messaging service in India, his start-up is exploring ways for artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately assess the validity of information faster than any human can.
India has over 200 million WhatsApp users and with the system being encrypted, it becomes extremely difficult for law enforcement to intervene and stop fake stories from spreading.
“Because of the highly emotive nature of these stories, people are quick to react. This means the time it takes to disprove compelling fake news stories is often too long to prevent action being taken,” Mr Jain said.
“We are still exploring options such as an instant verification chatbot on WhatsApp and will announce our plans by the end of the year,” he said.
Logically has a board of advisers made up of alumni from both Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US and Cambridge University in the UK and has raised 1 million pounds in funding. It employs 38 people across the UK, India and the US and is planning to almost double that figure.
Mr Jain believes there is an urgent need for greater education around the issue of fake news and misinformation being spread, largely via online networks.
“The technology we are developing will equip people with the tools they need in order to navigate a complex and confusing information landscape better than before, but governments still need to do a better job educating people on the real dangers of interacting with misinformation,” he said.
His platform, which combines AI and human intelligence as well as complex analytics, is planned as a first-of-its-kind “intelligent news feed” that he believes may prove to be the future of journalism.
LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin schoolboy who is the under-11 UK national yoga champion has been named the British Indian of the Year for his achievements in the field.
Ishwar Sharma, 8, has won a string of titles in both individual and artistic yoga, most recently a gold medal representing Great Britain at the World Student Games 2018 in Winnipeg, Canada, in June.
“I believe I am competing with myself rather than anyone else, which makes me challenge myself to do the difficult postures,” said the schoolboy, who studies at St Michael’s Preparatory School in Kent.
“I will always be a student of yoga and am deeply grateful to my teachers for the wisdom they have shared with me,” he said.
He was named British Indian of the Year in the Young Achiever category at the sixth annual awards ceremony held in Birmingham earlier this week.
“We feel proud of his achievements and it has improved his academic performance. We want him to inspire adults and other children with this lifestyle habit,” said his father Vishwanath, himself a keen yoga practitioner.
“He and I perform Vedic Yoga with choreography to music, which includes Hatha Yoga postures with Acroyoga and artistic yoga,” he said.
The family is originally from Mysore, home to world-renowned yoga gurus, and travel to the region annually.
“He rejuvenates himself there and would love to stay for more time and get yoga training with the teachers there,” added Vishwanath.
His son has performed in more over 100 events across the UK and worldwide and among his many skills is the ability to chant up to 50 ‘shlokas’ from the ‘Vedas’ and ‘Bhagavad Gita’. He won a gold medal at the Euro Asian Yoga Championships in Turkey in May and has also performed at a number of charity events to raise funds for the under-privileged.
Some of his upcoming competitions include one in Chile in December and then Beijing in January next year. He is also training for the World Games in Canada next year.
“Ishwar is determined to spread awareness about yoga and its benefits, especially among children,” his father said.
LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin UK based industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul has come to the rescue of London Zoo once again and will provide a substantial financial donation for the world-famous zoo’s latest transformation project.
Earlier, Lord Paul had stepped in to save the London Zoo from bankruptcy back in 1993 with a 1-million-pound donation to fund a new children’s zoo section in memory of his late daughter Ambika’s love for the place.
He has since been a consistent supporter of the popular tourist spot in London, where later his son Angad got married to his wife Michelle in 2005.
The Zoo has long been planning to restore and enhance one of its great treasures – the landmark aviary designed by Lord Snowdon. The aviary is at risk and in urgent need of attention, Mr Paul said during his speech at an annual Paul family celebration held at the London Zoo on July 1.
The Caparo Group chief will be providing a substantial financial donation, the exact figure to be revealed at a later stage, for the zoo’s latest transformation project.
ZSL’s director-general, Dominic Jermey, welcomed Mr Paul’s “lifetime of engagement” with the London Zoo, where Lord Paul would bring his daughter Ambika as a refuge from her cancer treatment.
Mr Paul also revealed some detail of a new American luxury Angad Arts Hotel set to open in St Louis, Missouri, later this year, which would be the world’s first hotel where a room can be booked by the color of its decor to suit the mood of the clients.
LONDON (TIP): An Indian-origin Sikh football fan, Gagan, was targeted in a vile and racist letter due to his “skin color” after he put up British flags on his shop window, according to media reports.
Gagan, 31, received the anonymous letter last week which claimed he should not support for England during the World Cup because he is Indian – and it is ‘betraying the Asian community’, the reports further stated.
Gagan works as a manager of GMS Heating & Plumbing. In the poison pen letter he was accused of forgetting his motherland and his skin color.
He raised the flag for the first time on June 20that the store in Ilford, East London, and received the note the following day.
“You have put (the) wrong flag outside your shop when you have come from India. Have you forgot your skin color? You should put the Pakistan flag outside your shop not British,” the letter said.
Bizarrely, the letter also addressed as ‘Dear Uncle’, according to Gagan, was filled with spelling mistakes of grammatical errors, as well as the hateful content.
“If National Front skinheads saw this flag outside they will kick you back to India without your trousers on,” the letter said.
The defiant business owner said his father immediately went out to purchase four more flags after opening the letter.
He said: “We’re just trying to have some fun and people want to ruin it by saying it should not be done. It should be done.”
“I find this mentality really stupid to be honest – what we can’t support the country that we’re living in?”
The business owner said they always put out St George flags for major sporting events and refuse to back down.
“We have lived in this country for around 40 years and we love this country otherwise we would not be here,” he said.
“Supporting England during the football is enjoyable and all part of the fun – and some people seem to think it is wrong for us to do because we are Indian?” he further added.
LONDON(TIP): Sanjay Naker, an Indian-origin finance consultant from north London is on trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old female after a night out drinking with his colleagues.
Mr. Sanjay denies three charges of rape, one count of attempted rape, one charge of assault by penetration, and a count of sexual assault as the trial got underway at Inner London Crown Court this week.
The married 28-year-old is accused of carrying the woman over his shoulder after she was denied entry into a nightclub in central London for being drunk and raped her in an alleyway.
The jury was told that the last thing the unnamed woman remembers was standing in the smoking area with her cousin at the club and then staring at a brick wall in the alley.
Naker told police the sex was consensual and said the woman had not appeared drunk. He admitted later searching online for a definition of the word “rape” but said it reassured him he had done nothing wrong.
Showing the jury CCTV footage from the incident in March last year, prosecutor Neena Crinnion said, “He (Naker) has managed to maneuver her on to his back, into a piggyback position, and he is off across the road and down towards the passageway. The CCTV shows she appears to be slumped over his back, not really maintaining any grip”.
Jurors watched footage of the woman falling from Naker’s back and banging her head on the ground, according to reports. Naker is then accused of “dragging” her further along the alleyway to a “filthy corner”.
The prosecution alleges that Naker forced the “extremely drunk” woman to perform sex acts on him before trying to have sex with her.
Naker denies the allegations as the trial remains ongoing at the London court.
LONDON (TIP): Rhodenne Chand, an Indian-origin British man was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred online at Birmingham Crown Court on June 26. He has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
He posted Islamophobic rants on social media in the wake of the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester last year.
West Midlands Police said the 31-year-old’s sentencing should be a warning to anyone who posts inflammatory messages that they could be arrested for committing hate crimes.
“This case saw the sustained release of offensive, threatening material aimed at Muslim and Pakistani communities – it left people fearing some of the threats could be carried out by him or his Twitter followers,” said West Midlands Police Superintendent Mat Shaer.
“The law is careful to try and not penalize expression of opinion, even in strong and possibly offensive terms. But Chand’s tweets were a much baser expression of animosity towards a section of society and were totally unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Shaer said his force takes hate crime very seriously and anyone found to be stirring up hatred on the grounds of race, religion, sexuality, or disability could find themselves in court and facing a criminal conviction.
“Court outcomes like this are important in order to reassure communities of our willingness to make progress in the way we tackle hate crime matches how proud we are to police such a diverse region,” Mr Shaer added.
Some of the messages encouraged violence against Muslims and for mosques to be attacked – and in one Chand claimed he wanted to “slit a Muslim’s throat”.
A member of the public reported the Twitter rant to police fearing Chand might carry through on his threats. Chand was arrested on June 17 last year, admitted issuing the messages and said he felt disgusted at himself for writing the posts.
He told officers he was “venting” in the aftermath of the Manchester and London Borough Market terror attacks in May and June 2017 and had stopped using Twitter since.
However, a specialist prosecutor assessed the case and determined the posts showed intent to stir up racial and religious hatred and that such “violent rhetoric can cause considerable harm once it is in the public domain”.
LONDON(TIP): Leading Indian-origin British hotelier, Surinder Arora, is locked in a legal battle with Heathrow Airport for his right to build a multi-storey car park at one of the world’s biggest airport hubs.
According to reports, Mr Arora has issued a UK High Court claim against the west London airport over his plans to build a 2,077-space nine-storey car park on a land he owns at Heathrow. While Heathrow Airport Limited claims it alone is entitled to build these spaces, Mr Arora has challenged that claim.
Under local planning rules, a maximum of 42,000 car parking spaces are allowed at the airport. Mr Arora believes the 42,000 cap refers to the airport site as a whole, of which his land is a part and therefore should allow him the right to build car-park spaces too.
A planning application has been pending with Hillingdon Council since 2015. Unable to secure approval for his multi-storey car park, Mr Arora was allowed to build a smaller version with 1,000 spaces and five storeys on the site, which opened last year.
However, the Punjab-born entrepreneur behind a chain of hotels in the UK wants to add another four floors and undercut parking charges at Heathrow – which are among the most expensive in the world.
But the Heathrow guards its car parking rights “jealously”. As well as earning money from drivers, they allow it to reap returns from airline passengers by adding the value of the car parks to its asset base, currently worth 15.8 billion pounds.
The claims also state that the current row is about more than just car parking. It is a proxy for Mr Arora’s broader battle with the airport on whether competition should be allowed.
The businessman wants the right to build a third runway at the airport and has backing from airlines including British Airways for his cut-price plan. Heathrow, however, claims the right to develop the runway is its own.
Mr Arora, with an estimated fortune of 349 million pounds in the latest 2018 edition of ‘The Sunday Times Rich List’, is understood to have hired two top barristers to fight his parking case.
Heathrow thinks Mr Arora should exhaust the planning process before going to court. “We believe this is entirely without merit and will respond accordingly,” the airport said in reference to the High Court claim filed by Arora.
The two-day meeting will be dominated by the possibility of a trade war – prompted by the US levies of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum
WASHINGTON(TIP): After initial dithering, President Trump is heading for G7 Summit at Charlevoix, Canada on Friday, June 8. Following the session on Women’s Empowerment, Trump will travel directly to Singapore from Canada in anticipation of his upcoming meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, Tuesday, June 12.
Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs Everett Eissenstat will represent the United States for the remaining G7 sessions, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
The annual G7 (Group of Seven) summit kicks off in Charlevoix, Quebec on Friday, June 8 and the stage is set for a major showdown between the US and its allies.
The leaders of the G7, an informal bloc of some of the world’s most powerful industrialized countries, including Germany, the UK, and Japan, get together every year to discuss collaboration on issues like global security, the international economy, and climate change.
At the end of the summit, they aim to sign a joint statement detailing the policy positions and initiatives they agree on.
But there’s a decent chance that might not happen this year.
That’s because President Donald Trump has so badly rattled the other members with his recent heavy steel and aluminum tariffs and other divisive new policies that it might be impossible for the group to reach a consensus on any substantive issue.
The two-day meeting will be dominated by the possibility of a trade war – prompted by the US levies of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has predicted a big fight at the summit, triggering suggestions it has become a “G6+1” – with the US president isolated and alone.
The EU is poised to impose tariffs on US imports ranging from Harley-Davidson motorbikes and jeans to bourbon, peanut butter, cranberries and orange juice, from next month.
Brussels is still finalizing the list it will submit to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which will be on top of tit-for-tat tariffs on about £2.5bn of US steel.
A French official told Bloomberg that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to make progress with President Trump on smoothing tensions over trade, the US’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and climate policy — and if that doesn’t happen, France may refuse to sign.
Then there’s the fact that Trump himself is reportedly contemplating not signing the joint statement to show that the US is perfectly happy to go its own way if the other members give it too much trouble during talks. The divide has become so stark that staffers and observers of the G7 have started to call it the “G6 plus one.”
“What this G7 is going to show is that the United States are alone against everyone, and especially alone against their allies,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters last week.
The G7 summit is usually a boring meeting of broad consensus. Not anymore.
The G7 summit, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, plus the European Union (which is not technically part of the G7 but participates), is typically a pretty straightforward affair.
The official themes for this year’s summit include “investing in growth that works for everyone,” “preparing for the jobs of the future,” and “advancing gender equality.” Against the backdrop of these deliberately anodyne themes, world leaders can hobnob and try to move the ball forward on issues like a new free trade agreement or cooperative climate policy.
But Trump has departed sharply from the G7 consensus on issues like these in the past by, for instance, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
And White House officials say he is planning to strike a confrontational posture at the summit. “There are disagreements. He’s sticking to his guns, and he’s going to talk, talk to them,” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters on Wednesday. Trump is also reportedly considering implementing a fresh round of tariffs against Canada — the host of the summit.
European countries could also shun the final statement. Their biggest priority is likely going to be getting Trump to consider some kind of compromise on his recent protectionist trade policies, the most controversial one being his imposition of sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. Currently, those tariffs hit exports from every other member of the G7.
Trump is also apparently not looking forward to what could be a tense and awkward meeting. According to the Washington Post, Trump has reportedly complained to advisers about having an “uneasy rapport” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and sees British Prime Minister Theresa May as “too politically correct.”
And Trump has apparently told advisers that he doesn’t want to be “lectured” by other world leaders, especially as he tries to prepare for an upcoming high-stakes summit with North Korea next week.
If the final joint statement for the G7 is missing signatories this weekend when the summit wraps up, it won’t be the end of the world. It’s a symbolic show of unity, not a binding document with concrete policy effects. But it will be yet another sign of how far the US is drifting from many of its most trusted friends in the world.
LONDON(TIP): The second Indian Awards, organised by the India Business Group (IBG), a leading business advisory consultancy took place last night (17thMay) in the Palace of Westminster.
The awards, attended by UK Home Secretary, Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, recognise UK-‐based individuals, businesses and organisations that have contributed to furthering the relationship culturally, socially or economically, between India and the UK.
The Awards were founded by Amarjit Singh,Chief Executive Officer of the India BusinessGroup (IBG), an established thought leader on UK -‐ India business affairs and Special Advisorfor India to the University of Southampton.
The UK Home Secretary, Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP said:
“As Home Secretary, I am delighted to be able to attend the 2018 Indian Awards ceremony, which recognises outstanding contributions to the UK-‐India relationship. The UK is one of the world’s oldest democracies, and India the largest. Our collaboration is a force for good – our shared values magnified by the ‘living bridge’ formed of a breadth of personal, professional, cultural and institutional ties. With so much in common, it’s only natural that Britain and India continue working together to make our people, and the world, safer and more prosperous”.
H.E. Mr Y.K. Sinha, The High Commissioner of India said:
“Commencing last year, The Indian Awards recognises and celebrates the outstanding workdone by individuals, businesses and organisations in the UK, who have contributed to strengthening the UK-‐India partnership in recent years.I had the pleasure of presenting the Special Recognition Award to the former Prime Minister David Cameron last year. I would like to extend my best wishes for the second edition of these Awards.”
Following last month’s successful UK visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the gala invitation-‐only dinner and ceremony featured senior business leaders, Government officials, opinion formers and prominent members of the Indian community and guests from India and other parts of the World. Nominations were invited by members of the public and the handful of winners were chosen by a panel of esteemed judges and announced on the evening.
The UK’s International Trade Secretary, The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP said:
“India is the world’s seventh-‐largest economy and the fourth largest investor into the UK, while UK investment in India grew by 8.8% in the year to 2016. As an international economic department, the Department for International Trade continues to work closely with our Indiancolleagues to maximise trade between our nations and I welcome this fantastic initiative, celebrating the historic trading ties between the UK and India.”
The Awards ceremony was supported by a range of high profile partners, including Associated British Ports,Heathrow Airport,Invest India, the Institute of Directors Hampshire Cricket,the Lalit Hotel,Niine and Star TV Networks was the official media partner. The awards werealso supported by Indus Net Techshu, Chivas Brothers, HCL, Here&Now365 and Taylor Wessing.
The esteemed judging panel was made of up senior figures, including: Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, Chair of IBG, Virendra Sharma MP, Chair of the Indo-‐British APPG, Baroness Prashar CBE, Deputy Chair of the British Council, Rajiv Luthra, Founder and Managing Partner of Luthra & Luthra Law Advocates, Dr Catherine Raines, Former Director General of Department for International Trade, and Alan Fitzwater, Director of Regional Engagement at the Institute of Directors.
The Rt Hon Mark Field MP, FCO Minister of State for Asia said:
“As the Minister for Asia, I am delighted that the Indian Awards ceremony is happening again this year to recognise outstanding contributions to the UK-‐India relationship. While there is plenty in our shared culture that binds us closely together, what excites me is the relationship we can forge for the future, in technology, in tackling the many global challenges we face. Working together, the UK and India can be a powerful force for good in the world.”
The Special Recognition Award which applauds ‘an individual’s outstanding commitment to building UK-‐India relations’ was presented to Dr Rami Ranger CBE, Chairman of Sun MarkLimited.
On receiving the award, Dr Ranger said:“It is a great honour to receive this special recognitionaward from the India Business Group. I am grateful to the judges who considered me worthy of this accolade. I am privileged to receive the award as last year the same recognition was bestowed upon my hero, the Former Prime Minster of the UK, The Rt. Hon. David Cameron. This award also represents India’s emerging stature and standing in the world as a positive economic and political force. The partnership between India and Britain is based on similar values and as a result, it will go from strength to strength”.
“The India Business Group is delighted to present the second Indian Awards initiative,” says Mr Singh. “The modern relationship between the UK and India is at a key juncture. Through The Indian Awards, we aim to inspire and encourage the next generation of UK and Indian entrepreneurs, facilitators and bridge builders who will take the bilateral relationship to greater heights.”
THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
Larger Business Award -Rolls-Royce PLC
Larger Business Award -Rolls-Royce PLC
SME Award - EnergyPro Limited
SME Award - EnergyPro Limited
Professional Adviser Award - Deepak Lalwani OBE, Founder and Chairman of LalcapLimited
Professional Adviser Award - Deepak Lalwani OBE, Founder and Chairman of Lalcap Limited
Entrepreneur Award - Alpesh Patel, Founder of Praefinium Partners
Entrepreneur Award - Alpesh Patel, Founder of Praefinium Partner
Arts & Culture Award- Gurinder Chadha OBE
Arts & Culture Award - Gurinder Chadha OBE
Special Recognition Award - Dr Rami Ranger CBE, Chairman of Sun Mark Limited
Special Recognition Award - Dr Rami Ranger CBE, Chairman of Sun Mark Limited
Professor, The Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, Chairman of India Business Group said:
“This special initiative celebrates, for the first time, the efforts of outstanding organisations and individuals (based in the UK) who have worked over the years to strengthen the bond between the UK and India. This influential awards ceremony is a timely reminder about the mutually beneficial, evolving and special relationship between our two great nations.”
Lord Deighton KBE, Chairman of Heathrow Airport, one of the partner organisations for the awards said:
“Heathrow is the UK’s gateway to India with more connections to the country than any other UK airport. It plays a key role in maintaining Britain’s links to India with flights to six destinations, carrying 2.5 million passengers and more than 127,000 metric tonnes of cargo to and from the country via Heathrow last year alone. We’re proud to be attending the India Business Group Awards, recognising the groups and individuals who have contributed to strengthening the UK-‐India partnership. Having recently received India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April, we understand the important role that India plays in the UK’s economy and are working to see that grow.”
Virendra Sharma MP, Chair of the Indo -‐ British APPG
“The Indian Awards is an important UK wide initiative for recognising entrepreneurs, inspirational people and organisations that have championed international cooperation between the UK and India. This is an opportune moment to celebrate the dynamic UK-‐India partnership”.
Stephen Martin, Director General of the Institute of Directors, one of the partner organisations for the awards said:
“The IoD is delighted to have participated in The Indian Awards, particularly at a time when the UK needs to turn its idea of “Global Britain” into a tangible reality. Growing business and trade links between our two countries is essential as we prepare to exit the European Union.”
The India Business Group (IBG) is a leading advisory consultancy that specialises in helping organisations develop bilateral trade and investment opportunities between the UK and India markets. It is globally recognised as having specialist expertise and regional know-‐how designed to support organisations with market entry and cross border business transactions.http://www.theindiabusinessgroup.com/site/about/about-ibg/
The Indian Awards comprise a handful of six elite awards, with the following categories to the awards: larger business (annual turnover greater than £100m); SME business (annual turnover up to £100m); individual entrepreneur award, professional adviser; arts and culture and special recognition. http://www.theindianawards.com
The IBG is delighted to be supporting the Niine Movement, an ambitious India based initiative aimed at raising awareness of menstrual hygiene: http://www.niine.com
For further information, contact:
Amarjit Singh, Chief Executive Officer -‐ India Business Group: 0844 313 3133 or email: a.singh@theindiabusinessgroup.com
LONDON (TIP): UK based 15-year-old Indian origin Abhimanyu Chohan who disappeared from his school after he was reportedly accused of cheating when he scored 100 per cent marks in an exam has been found safe and well, British police said.
Abhimanyu went missing from King Henry VIII Independent School in Coventry on May 18thafter he scored 100 per cent marks in a mock test and was worried about getting into trouble.
West Midlands Police tweeted that he had been found “safe and well”, the media reported.
On the day he went missing, Abhimanyu changed his clothes and walked out of school – he was caught on CCTV on the highway in the city.
Abhimanyu’s father Varinder Chohan said his son had been worried about getting in trouble at school after accusations he had cheated on an exam paper.
His family believe he may have left Coventry and could have travelled as far as Oxfordshire – but he has no money, food or extra clothing.
“We just want him back safe, this is so unlike him. He’s a bit of a high flyer, he’s a smart kid but he’s not street wise,” Mr Chouhan said.
“We’re worried he may have thought he was in trouble because he got top marks on a mock exam paper.”
“We think he might have seen the paper beforehand but we’re not sure exactly what happened.”
“He was allowed to sit for a completely new paper, so I don’t think there was even a major problem with the school. He is due to sit his General Certificate of Secondary Education’s next year and is on course to do well.
“But he was worried he might get in trouble because he’s never been in trouble before at all. He’s never been in detention, he’s just a hard-working intelligent kid.”
Abhimanyu’s mother Navneet said that her son turned 15 about a week ago and “was so happy”, the report said.
“I dropped him off and he must have then changed,” she said.
“Police came and said ‘we can do more but have to wait until we are on high alert’.
“They said maybe he is taking time for himself and wants to clear his head.”
Relatives have been joined by friends and neighbors to help search for the missing teenager. His aunt, Manjit Sahota, said the family just want him back “safe and sound” and that they “love him so much”.
In a statement on King Henry VIII School’s official Facebook page, head-master Jason Slack said, “We are all concerned about Abhimanyu’s whereabouts and his safety and the school is working closely with the family and the police to locate Abhimanyu as quickly as possible.”
For the first time in 40 years, a British Prime Minister met her Indian counterpart without the overhang, obligations and requirements of the European Union. The Skripal poisoning episode has detracted British domestic attention and muted criticism of their PM Theresa May’s inept handling of Brexit. But there is obviously a different approach. Britain has closed its doors to the kind of liberal immigration Indians have availed of in the past. Instead, Britain seeks improved accessibility of its businesses in India, a copy-paste of the UK-Israel model of tech partnership, lower barriers to commerce in IT, food and drink and life science, and a massive overlay in India of the British National Health Service (NHS) along with its attendant equipment supplier companies.
While the British wait for the barriers to come down or consensus to develop, there is a conscious effort to handhold India’s quest to blend technology with agriculture and medicine. Essentially, London wants to retain its recent trade advantage: the 15 per cent rise in bilateral trade in 2017 was all accounted for by Britain. Clearly, there is a huge dollop of self-interest guiding Britain as it seeks to mould the Commonwealth into a primary tool for engaging with the non-European world. And it doesn’t end at trade. Britain has thrown the baits of a security relationship with a focus on “ensuring freedom of navigation” (the code for anti-China grouping in South China Sea) and assistance in cyber security.
Most of the focus on R&D is ostensibly in keeping with Britain’s claim as India’s second largest research partner. But a closer look shows the plans to invest £400 million by 2021 are spread too thin. London will retain its salience as a global hub of finance but impetus to other ties will rest on British strategic assistance to India as a UNSC member and incubator of high technology. There has been little cause for cheer on those fronts. Britain is attempting a new turn with India. But it needs to be more proactive and less expectant considering that other competing countries can easily top most of these offers.
Modi launches Bharat Ki Baat Sabke Saath at a meeting with NRIs
LONDON(TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, April 16, assured his British counterpart Theresa May that the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union offers opportunities to “further increase” bilateral trade ties as the two leaders had “fruitful discussions” on multiple aspects of India-UK relations and issues like counter-terrorism, radicalization and online extremism.
Modi, who arrived at 10 Downing Street for a breakfast meeting, was greeted with the customary handshake by May. “Very welcome to London, Prime Minister,” May said as she greeted Modi.
Both leaders discussed ways to boost cooperation between India and UK.
“Wonderful meeting with Prime Minister @theresa_may at 10, Downing Street. We had fruitful discussions on multiple aspects of India-UK relations,” Prime Minister Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the two leaders had wide-ranging talks on redefining and infusing new energy into the bilateral engagement post-Brexit.
A statement issued by 10 Downing Street after the meeting said that the Syria air strikes, counter-terrorism, radicalization and online extremism were among some of the key topics covered by both leaders.
“Prime Minister Modi said there would be no dilution in the importance of the UK to India post-Brexit. He said the City of London was of great importance to India for accessing the global markets and would remain so,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The Prime Minister (May) updated Prime Minister Modi on the progress of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, saying the implementation period agreed in March gives Indian companies and investors the confidence that market access will continue on current terms until the end of 2020,” the spokesperson said.
May reiterated the UK’s position on Russia’s recent “destabilizing behavior”, underlined by the attack in Salisbury on former Russian double Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and the protection provided for the Syrian regime’s repeated use of chemical weapons against its people.
“They reflected on the progress made on bilateral defense and security cooperation since the Prime Minister’s visit to India in 2016 and the agreement to a number of Defense Capability Partnerships in key strategic areas, with closer military-to-military ties underpinned by a succession of high level visits and exchanges,” Downing Street said.
During a discussion on cooperation between the two countries on legal matters, which is likely to have covered extradition matters, May also welcomed the return to the UK of the “Chennai Six”, the former British soldiers accused of piracy and were freed from an Indian jail last year.
The two leaders said trade between the UK and India had grown strongly over the last year and agreed to build on the recommendations of the UK-India Joint Trade Review to reduce barriers to trade, to make it easier to do business in both countries and enable a stronger bilateral trade relationship for the future.
May and Modi discussed a new UK-India Tech Partnership, which will create thousands of jobs and generate significant investment in both our economies.
Looking ahead at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on Thursday, they also agreed on the importance of working together to build a more “sustainable, prosperous, secure and fairer future” for all Commonwealth citizens.
A “flash mob” of sari-clad women from Indian Ladies in UK, accompanied by dhols, had gathered outside Downing Street to welcome the Indian PM with banners such as “In India, Peace is always in Fashion”.
After his meeting with the British Prime Minister, Modi visited the Science Museum to explore the ‘5000 Years of Science and Innovation’ exhibition and interact with Indian-origin and other scientists and innovators based in the UK.
The event, hosted by Prince Charles, included the launch of a new Ayurvedic Centre of Excellence, aimed at creating a first-of-its-kind global network for evidence-based research on yoga and Ayurveda.
A note said the exhibition celebrates India’s role in the history of science and technology by exploring its contributions to subjects including space exploration and engineering.
Modi had landed in Britain from Stockholm for bilateral engagements as well as multilateral discussions as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
He was received at the airport by UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who said he was “excited” that India-UK bilateral trade is growing at 15 per cent a year and the visit will help build on “huge economic advantages”. Both leaders held a late night meeting at Heathrow airport.
According to official estimates, India-UK bilateral trade stands at USD 13 billion, with the UK among the largest G20 investors into India. Modi’s UK visit this week will have a particular focus on the India-UK technological partnership as well as an enhanced role in the Commonwealth.
PM Modi also addressed a meeting of NRIs and launched Bharat Ki Baat Sabke Saath on April 18. He spoke candidly on a number of issues, from the rape of the 8-year-old girl in Kathua to surgical strike in Pakistan, to creating awareness about Yoga and Ayurveda for wellness. He took the opportunity also to bash the Nehru-Gandhi clan and held them responsible for the ills of the country.
A series of demonstrations, including a silent protest to condemn the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, were staged by various groups at Parliament Square during Modi’s visit.
LONDON(TIP): An Indian origin scientist in the UK, Professor Vik Dhillon, is leading a new high-speed space camera project that is expected to revolutionize our understanding of stars and black holes.
Professor Dhillon and his team at University of Sheffield in the UK were joined by experts from around the world on the HiPERCAM project, which involves the creation of a new camera that can take more than 1,000 images per second.
The camera went live on the world’s largest optical telescope, Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), this week.
It will take high-speed images of objects in the universe, allowing their rapid brightness variations due to phenomena such as eclipses and explosions to be studied in unprecedented detail.
“The combination of HiPERCAM and the world’s largest telescope provides us with a unique, new view of the universe, which history tells us is when major new discoveries are made. Astronomers are excited to use HiPERCAM on the GTC to start exploring the Universe at high speed,” said Vik Dhillon, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield and Affiliated Researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).
“Normal cameras installed on large telescopes usually capture only one picture every few minutes. HiPERCAM can take one picture every millisecond. The high speed essentially provides a slow-motion view of rapidly varying celestial objects,” he added.
“The high-speed images are also captured in five different colors simultaneously, which means we can instantly tell the difference between hot stars which are burning at tens of thousands of degrees Celsius and are blue in color – and cooler stars, which appear red and are burning at only a few thousand degrees.”
The pioneering five-year project was funded by a 3.5-million-euro grant from the European Research Council (ERC) and is being conducted in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) and the IAC, along with researchers from the University of Warwick and Durham University in Britain.
The GTC is based on the island of La Palma, situated 2,500 meters above sea level, which is considered one of the best places in the world to study the night sky.
Data captured by the camera, taken in five different colors simultaneously, will let scientists study the remnants of dead stars such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
These are key objects within astrophysics as their extreme gravities, densities and pressures allow researchers to test theories of fundamental physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics.
By observing objects in the Solar System pass in front of background stars, HiPERCAM will also teach scientists about the sizes and shapes of the minor planets beyond Pluto’s orbit, and whether or not they possess atmospheres, rings and satellites.
“The vital role that STFC and UK universities played in developing HiPERCAM is a testament to the work of our world class scientists,” Britain’s Science and Universities Minister, Sam Gyimah, said.
This game-changing camera that will be installed on the world’s largest telescope will not only deepen our understanding of white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes in our universe, but it will help maintain our reputation as being a global-leader in research and development.
“It is projects such as these, and collaboration with partners and universities from across the world, which underpins our ambitious modern Industrial Strategy to boost innovation and help create a Britain fit for the future.”
“HiPERCAM was a challenging project that pushed the design team to fit a lot of scientific potential into a small space,” Martin Black, an optical engineer from the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) and part of the HiPERCAM team, said.
“The team had to work closely together to ensure everything fit together and to correctly position the cameras to around 30 microns, about the width of a human hair.”
LONDON (TIP): Indian origin Jaynesh Chudasama, drunk-driver in the UK, who hit and killed three teenage boys as they walked to a birthday party in London, has been sentenced for a 13-year jail term. The victims’ parents, reacting to the sentencing, said the jail term was “an insult to the lives of their children”.
Jaynesh Chudasama, 28, had admitted to driving at more than two-and-a-half times over the alcohol limit on January 26 when the fatal collision occurred near a bus stop at Hayes, West London.
The court heard that traces of cannabis had also been found in his car hire worker’s system.
Chudasama had pleaded guilty to charges of three counts of death by dangerous driving after the road collision that killed three teenage boys.
Harry Rice, 17, George Wilkinson and Josh McGuinness, both 16, were instantly killed as they were hit by Chudasama’s speeding car.
“It is obvious that nothing any court can do can measure the loss of Josh, Harry and George for the obvious reason that their loss is immeasurable,” said Judge Wendy Joseph, during the sentencing hearing.
The judge also disqualified Chudasama from driving for 13 years and six months.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the drunk-driver had refused to say what he had been drinking but was estimated to have had a blood alcohol concentration of about 213 milligrams per 100 milliliters at the time of the crash.
The legal limit for driving in the UK is 80 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood.
“The decision by Jaynesh Chudasama, to drink far in excess of the legal limit and then drive his car at such a speed, needlessly ended the lives of three young men,” said Sally-Anne Russell of the CPS.
“Anyone who drives a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of excess alcohol should know they are putting not only their own lives at risk, but those of other motorists and pedestrians too. Chudasama faces the consequences of causing the fatal collision,” she said.
Chudasama was driving at 71 mph in a 60 mph zone and ended up mounting the pavement in his car as he attempted a dangerous man oeuvre to overtake another vehicle, killing the three teenagers walking home with five other friends from a birthday party.
The grieving families are planning online petitions to demand the conviction be reconsidered and a charge of murder applied to the dangerous driving charge, which would involve a tougher sentence.
NEW DELHI (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second visit to the U.K. in less than three years is due to take place in April, with a community event in central London planned alongside bilateral engagements, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
A publicity campaign for the ‘Bharat ki baat, sabke saath’ event on April 18 kicked off on Wednesday, March 28. “A unique niche event… it will be a one of its kind live interactive conversation,” tweeted the BJP’s Vijay Chauthaiwale.
The event will be held in central London, as against the Wembley Stadium, where Mr. Modi addressed a gathering of around 60,000 people, and will be a smaller affair, with around 1,500 to 2,000 people.
Within the first hours of the website for free registration going live, the number of registrations had already exceeded this figure.
The planned format highlights the different tone of the current visit and the audience Mr. Modi hopes to focus on — while the Wembley event was pitched very much as a “diaspora” event, with community performances — the April event is targeted at a more global audience, matching the aspirations of the visit, which is pegged around the ambitions of taking the Commonwealth to a new level. India’s active engagement is seen as key to the revival of the Commonwealth during the heads of government meeting on April 19 and 20, and the preceding Commonwealth Business Forum.
Visiting London earlier this year, Suresh Prabhu touted the leadership role that India could adopt in the organization.
However, others are hopeful the visit will also provide an opportunity for the U.K. government to express concerns over a number of developments in India. Earlier this month Foreign Office Minister Mark Field, responding to a debate in the House of Commons Westminster Hall, during which MPs expressed concerns, said the government would raise the issue of the treatment of Christian and Sikh minorities in India in the “appropriate manner” during CHOGM to ensure that Parliament’s voice was “properly heard.”
“He will appreciate that diplomacy sometimes needs to be done behind closed doors, rather than with megaphones,” he told MPs.
With the government of Theresa May touting a free trade deal with India as one of the ambitions of a “global” post-Brexit Britain, the visit will be a crucial, though sensitive one for the UK.
Earlier this year Britain and India agreed to the terms of a memo on the swift return of Indian illegal immigrants from the U.K. – an issue that has repeatedly been raised by the British government and seen as an obstacle to immigration reform on the British side.
India’s action will park the ball back in Britain’s court and strengthen calls for change from the U.K. when it comes to immigration and visa issues, particularly for business travelers, students and those in professional services.
Protests and rallies are also expected to take place, as they did during Mr. Modi’s last visit. The Sikh Federation, U.K. said it expected large numbers to turn out for a protest rally during the visit. The protest will raise issues including the detention of U.K. citizen Jagtar Singh Johal by Indian authorities last year.
LONDON (TIP): British Prime Minister Theresa May, on March 14, held Russia responsible for the nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy and his daughter as she expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level bilateral contact.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance.
Russia denies being involved in the attempted murder of the former spy and his daughter. “The Russian state was culpable of the attempted murder” of spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, May told lawmakers. She said Britain will suspend high-level bilateral contact with Russia and revoke an invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit the UK.
The Prime Minister announced that Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats, saying they have one week to leave the UK. She identified those diplomats as “undeclared intelligence officers”, BBC reported.
Moscow, which had been given an ultimatum to provide a “credible response” over how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used on British soil, had warned of “an equal and opposite reaction” against any UK reprisals.
The reprisals follow days of diplomacy since May first informed Parliament that there was enough evidence to conclude that it is “highly likely” that Russia is behind the poisoning ofSkripal and his daughter in Salisbury on March 4.
“Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” she had said.
“It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil,” she added, giving Moscow a Tuesday midnight deadline to respond on the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Downing Street said the British prime minister received the backing of Trump, who agreed in a phone call that Moscow “must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used”. Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, France and Germany have also held Russia responsible for the murderous attempt in London.
LONDON (TIP): Jay Shetty ,A seven-year-old Indian origin, suffers from a debilitating form of cerebral palsy and autism since he was a baby, which means he cannot walk, talk or sit up unaided. He left with his family for the US on March 11th for a revolutionary treatment that has the potential to improve the quality of his life and give hope to others with neurological disorders.
He is now set to undergo a pioneering clinical trial at Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina, which relies on the infusion of his younger brother’s umbilical cord blood frozen at birth.
After a lot of research on stem cells, we had decided before I got pregnant with Kairav, our younger son, that we would save our child’s cord blood. Then towards the end of the pregnancy in 2015, I got in touch with Duke University and they were planning on doing a sibling cord blood therapy trial, said Jay’s mother Shilpa.
She and husband Raj had the umbilical cord blood of their younger child frozen and stored by UK-based blood bank Cells4Life.
Umbilical cord blood is rich in a kind of stem cell that can, in theory, help heal most parts of the body, either by stimulating growth or by transforming into the required type of mature cell.
These can then be put back into the body, even many years later. It relies on a close tissue match for the recipient, to lower the odds of the body rejecting it.
When the Shettys contacted Duke University, they were told that Kairav’s blood was a match for Jay’s raising the prospect of the UK’s first such sibling cord blood therapy on Jay.
Stem cell is a cure for some and improvement for all, so we are pretty sure it will definitely have some improvement in Jay’s life, said Shilpa.
The family from Maharashtra, who have been based in London for over 15 years, are determined not to be put off by some dissenting voices within the medical community who cast doubts on the rare procedure.
According to Shilpa, because it is not an invasive therapy , they want to go into it with a positive nothing to lose attitude.
It is in its early stages and it has always been the norm that people will doubt treatments which have not been proved yet. But stem cells in general after years of proven research are known to have the ability to reach the damaged organ and regenerate new cells, she said.
Claudia Rees, Operations Director at Cells4Life, describes the procedure as a cutting-edge treatment , considered a cornerstone of a relatively new area of science known as regenerative medicine.
Stem cells and cord blood have already been used to cure diseases such as leukaemia, lymphoma and testicular cancer; in the near future it is likely that these treatments will provide hope for common and often life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, said Rees.
Jay will be in the US for the treatment for a week and undergo rehabilitation in the UK after the cord blood transfusion procedure. The family have managed to raise nearly 26,000 pounds through fundraising to assist with the massive costs involved.
Jay cannot express and communicate much but we are pretty sure he knows what’s going on as he is pretty bright.
Kairav is two and half, so doesn’t know much. But he knows a lot of travelling revolves around Jay for therapies. So, he is used to it, said their mother, who believes even a small improvement in Jay’s quality of life as a result of the therapy would be a success story for their family.
LONDON (TIP): Indian origin steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has been appointed by Britain’s Prince Charles as an official ambassador for the Industrial Cadets program designed to nurture manufacturing skills.
Mr. Gupta was appointed to the flagship program to give children and young people direct structured experience of the industry while still at school or college.
The Industrial Cadets annual awards ceremony was held on March February 28th in London.
“Gupta is doing so much to apply real imagination, innovative thinking and sustainable rejuvenation to our nation’s heavy industries and I’m thrilled that he, through his GFG Alliance, has so enthusiastically become involved with Industrial Cadets as well,” said the 68-year-old Prince of Wales.
As the Executive Chairman of UK-based GFG Alliance, Mr. Gupta has been on an acquisition spree in the steel industry over the past few months which has helped secure hundreds of jobs.
“Coming from a family of industrialists, I had the opportunity while growing up to spend time in steel works and engineering plants. That left a lasting impression on me and really inspired me to pursue an active career in industry. I see Industrial Cadets fulfilling the same function and am very excited about the impact it is facing,” Mr. Gupta said.
His GFG Foundation is actively involved in funding and promoting the Industrial Cadets program, through a partnership with the Engineering Development Trust.
GFG Alliance companies, including Liberty House and SIMEC, currently support 1,300 cadets from 26 schools across Britain to participate in the scheme, with a target of 5,000 students by next year.
Around 26 GFG executives located at 13 industrial sites in the UK are regularly engaged in organizing work placements at their respective plants, helping the youngsters to maximize the benefit they get from time spent in the group’s steelmaking, engineering, power generation and manufacturing facilities.
Mr. Gupta said that the task of ensuring the next generation has the motivation and skills to enable the UK to remain competitive and successful on the world stage in manufacturing as one of the most important tasks facing modern society.
As part of his role as ambassador, the 46-year-old businessman has also been tasked with establishing Industrial Cadets in Australia, where the GFG Alliance already employs 6,000 people in its integrated mining, steel and energy businesses.
LONDON (TIP): An Indian origin Sikh law student in the UK felt “victimized” and “heartbroken” after he was dragged out of a bar because he was wearing a turban, media reports said.
Amrik Singh, 22, claimed that he was ordered to leave Rush Late Bar in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, for wearing his religious headgear.
Mr. Singh was told that the bar had a “no headwear” policy.
Mr. Singh was also allegedly told, “I didn’t think you were allowed to come in a pub and drink anyway.”
“I’m heartbroken. The reason why I was removed was because I refused to remove my turban,” he wrote on Facebook.
Mr. Singh said the bouncer had approached him saying that he needed to remove his turban, the report said. “I explained that a turban isn’t just headgear, but part of my religion and that it protected my hair – and that I was allowed to wear a turban in public,” he said.
“The bouncer ignored this and said I needed to take it off. I refused and was subsequently dragged away from my friends,” he added.
“The fact that I was being removed because of my religious views really upset me. My ancestors have fought for the British army previously,” Mr. Singh said.
“Furthermore, my parents and I were born in Britain and all uphold British values,” he said.
“The worst part of it was the fact he compared my turban to wearing a pair of trainers,” Mr. Singh, a final year law student at Nottingham Trent University, added.
The management, however, has apologized and said the staff involved faced suspension pending an investigation.
In a statement to the Labour councillor for Mansfield, Sonya Ward, Rush Late Bar said that it was not their policy.
“Good morning, this is absolutely NOT our policy. We are investigating this incident and the security member in question has been suspended,” Ms. Ward shared the statement on Twitter.
In February, an Indian Sikh environmental activist’s turban was ripped by a white man shouting “Muslim go back” during a racist attack outside the Parliament in UK.
London (TIP): Indian Origin Conservative party MP Priti Patel said that she had made it clear to her political colleagues and civil servants that she does not like the term Black, Minority Ethnic (BME). She was the first Indian origin member of the UK Cabinet until she resigned last year.
“I don’t like the labelling of people. I don’t like the term BME. I’m British first and foremost, because I was born in Britain,” she was quoted as saying by BBC.
“I challenge all my colleagues in the Conservative Party and in Westminster: Don’t label me as a BME. I’ve said that to people in the Cabinet. I’ve said that to civil servants. I think it’s patronizing and insulting, she said.
The 45-year-old former international development minister said the term was “totally unhelpful because we are people and everybody wants to be recognized for their individual merits”.
The MP who represents Witham in Essex also expressed doubts over whether the UK could one day have a minority ethnic incumbent in 10 Downing Street.
“Who knows?” she said, when asked if she could be Prime Minister.
Ms. Patel was forced to resign from her Cabinet post in November 2017 after revelations of a series of undisclosed meetings with Palestinian officials had made her position in government untenable.
In reference to the controversy, she said the “whole thing was incredibly messy” but that she had been “very clear with the Prime Minister and also I took responsibility for what she felt was not acceptable, so I think I did the right thing”.
Ms. Patel, now as a backbench MP, continues to be among the most vocal pro-Brexit voices in the Conservative party.
MANCHESTER, UK (TIP): A UK court has prohibited an Indian origin family from flying their baby daughter to India because she is at risk of being subjected to an “utterly unacceptable” genital mutilation procedure.
A judge at Manchester County and Family Court ruled that the child, who will turn two this year, is at risk because religious and cultural pressure had overridden her mother’s “maternal instinct”.
Social workers in the UK believe three other girls from the family, which cannot be named for legal reasons, had been subjected to a similar procedure.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision, involves ritual intimate cutting, sometimes without anaesthetic, and has been banned in the UK.
Judge Robert Jordan made an “FGM protection order” in Manchester after a private family court hearing, ‘Manchester Evening News’ reported.
The judge was told that the baby’s three older sisters had previously been taken to India so that FGM could be carried out on them. He made the protection order after concluding that the little girl was also at risk and needed protecting.
“The effect of the cultural pressure overrode the mother’s maternal instinct. As a consequence of religious and cultural pressure the mother facilitated the mutilation of her children,” he noted.
“That cultural pressure still exists in their country of origin – and undoubtedly in this country,” he added.
FGM protection orders came into force in Britain three years ago and give police and local authorities power to intervene to prevent such procedures. Parents can be barred from taking children abroad and passports can be seized and face prosecution if they breach it.
According to UK research, FGM is less common in India and is more prevalent in around 28 African countries and in parts of the Middle and Far East.
In Britain, communities that have been identified as at risk of FGM include Somali, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Sierra Leonean, Sudanese, Egyptian, Nigerian, Eritrean, Yemeni, Kurdish and Indonesian women and girls.
It is believed to be a way of ensuring virginity and chastity and is used to safeguard girls from sex outside marriage and from having sexual feelings.
Although FGM is practised by secular communities, it is most often claimed to be carried out in accordance with religious beliefs.
LONDON (TIP): Two truck driver have been accused and one was found guilty of causing the deaths of eight Indians in one of Britain’s worst road accidents last year.
The victims from Nottingham’s Malayali community and their relatives named as Panneerselvam Annamalai, Rishi Ranjeev Kumar, Vivek Baskaran, Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, Subramaniyan Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arachelvan were on their way to London to catch a bus to Disneyland in Paris. Among them were IT professionals employed by software major Wipro.
Ryszard Masierak, a 31-year-old Polish national, was convicted at the end of a trial at Reading Crown Court. The jury heard that he was two times over the legal drink-drive limit and had stopped in the inside lane of the highway when he was involved in the crash with a minibus and another truck near Newport Pagnell in southern England on August 26.
He had denied the charges of causing the deaths of Nottingham-based Keralite minibus driver Cyriac Joseph and seven of his passengers all Indians.
The 52-year-old had been hired to drive his passengers from Nottingham to London to join a European holiday tour group when they met with the fatal accident.
The jury is yet to pronounce its verdict on David Wagstaff, a 53-year-old British citizen who was driving the second truck involved in the collision, and will continue deliberations on March 7.
However, it reached a unanimous verdict on the guilt of Masierak, who was also convicted of four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, in relation to injuring four other passengers including a four-year-old girl orphaned by the crash.
The trial was told that a drunk Masierak had stopped for 12 minutes in the slow lane of the highway just before the crash. His truck caused an obstruction on the motorway forcing others to slow down before moving around him.
As Joseph waited with his hazard lights on for a chance to go around the heavy goods vehicle (HGV), a second truck driven by Wagstaff smashed into the back of the van, forcing it to crash into and then go under Masierak’s truck, the court was told.
“In Mr Wagstaff’s case, on a hands-free call, his lorry on cruise control and he on auto-pilot, completely failing to notice what was ahead of him in full view for some time, inattention on a gross scale,” said Prosecutor Oliver Saxby.
The sentencing in the case will take place after the jury has decided on both accused later this week.
LONDON (TIP) : An Indian origin Birmingham man, Harry Athwal, who risked his life to help a fatally injured young boy in the last year’s Barcelona terror attack, has been selected for this year’s ‘Pride of Birmingham’ award.
Harry Athwal, a project manager from Great Barr area of north-west Birmingham, was in Spain on holiday with a group of friends and family, including his sister Kinde Dehr, when a terrorist drove a van into pedestrians on Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas tourist spot, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds.
He ran to help seven-year-old Julian Alessandro Cadman, who was among those hit, and defied police orders to evacuate the area to keep holding on to him until the emergency services arrived.
The boy, who had dual British and Australian nationality, died on the spot but his family have since thanked Mr. Athwal for being there for him.
“I am a Sikh, and in Sikhism it is my duty to go and help somebody who is hurt or who is being bullied. That, in a sense, overtook me. I didn’t have time to think,” Mr Athwal said.
“At that moment you have a split second to decide what you are going to do. It was my instinct that I had to go and help somebody. I had to do something. It’s in my DNA,” he said.
The 45-year-old has since been in touch with the boy’s grandparents, Noreen and Tony Cadman, who have thanked him for his heroic actions.
He had arrived in Barcelona on August 17, 2017, the day of the attack along with his sister Kinde Dehr and a group of friends.
A week ago, he was in Barcelona for a family holiday with his wife Harjinder and two sons, 19-year-old Deirnn and eight-year-old Khye, to celebrate his younger son’s birthday.
The group was having lunch at a restaurant overlooking Las Ramblas when he heard people screaming and saw a van ploughing through them. He rushed down to the street to try and help.
“The noise was phenomenal as it [van] hit people thump after thump after thump. Straight away, I realized it was a terrorist attack,” he recalled.
Mr. Athwal says he is speechless to be selected for the Pride of Birmingham’s Outstanding Bravery Award. The annual awards, organized by the Birmingham Mail newspaper and partners TSB, to recognize courage, caring, compassion and community.
Mr. Athwal is among 11 winners who will be presented with their awards at a ceremony at the University of Birmingham on March 8.
LONDON (TIP): Senior Indian origin Scotland Yard officer Neil Basu has been appointed as the counter-terrorism chief, as announced in an official statement said.
Mr. Basu, currently the Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner, will be promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations.
He will take charge as the force’s National Lead for Counter Terrorism (CT) and the Head of the Met Police’s Specialist Operations following the resignation of incumbent Mark Rowley on March 21.
Mr. Basu, whose father is of Indian origin, said “it is a privilege to be asked to join the management board of the Met and to lead for CT policing at such a point in our history. It is both a challenge and a duty that I accept with humility and a sense of great purpose.”
“I will lead to the best of my ability, the most extraordinary people I have ever worked with as they work night and day to counter terrorism,” he said in a statement.
CWEIC is organiser of Commonwealth Business Forum, April 2018, London
LONDON (TIP): Award winning London-based global strategist, director and CEO Natasha Mudhar has officially been appointed to the Advisory Board for Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), an organisation facilitating trade and investment throughout the 53 states of the Commonwealth and supporting private sector companies and governments to promote economic activity.
India is the Commonwealth’s most populous member and has been a key member since Independence in 1947. As the world’s largest democracy, India plays an increasingly important role on the world stage and is set to play a key role in the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), taking place in in London for the first time in 20 years.
The CWEIC will run the Commonwealth Business Forum, to be held on 16th-18th April in London. The event forms a unique platform for dialogue, bringing together a range of industries and economies and will be organised alongside CHOGM. With the government supporting enterprise and business in the country, Indian business will also be an essential part of the Commonwealth Business Forum.
With offices in India and UK, Natasha is also the CEO & MD of the awarding multi-disciplinary, international business and communications consultancy Sterling Media, which has also announced a partnership with the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, as the official global communications partner for on-going activities.
Sterling and Natasha are renowned for its work in being the first international communications consultancy to take Bollywood global. Some of the hero campaigns she has spearheaded include Pad Man, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Dangal, the IIFAs in the UK to name but a few.
Natasha is also the India Director of the UN’s Global Goals campaign, launched by filmmaker Richard Curtis to popularise the Sustainable Development Goals globally to end poverty, reduce inequalities and tackle climate change. She was also part of the team to launch one of India’s largest public health campaigns to eliminate filaria in India by 2020.
The Commonwealth announcement is the latest addition to a long-standing commitment of Natasha to work on some of the most relevant campaigns. Whether it’s taking Bollywood global, be breaking the Internet with over 100 million views for the explosive release of the remake of Spice Girls Wannabe video for the UN’s Global Goals to empower females or lobbying governments to end world hunger to launching iconic British brands internationally, Natasha is recognised across continents as a global campaign expert and entrepreneur in her sectors.
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