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Washington DC: Indian American
Kamala Devi Harris, the Attorney
General of California, is all set to
become the first Indian American
senator in the US Congress. This
became clear when she over‑
whelmingly won the state
Democrats' official seal of
approval last week.
"I'm incredibly honored to have
the endorsement of the California
Democratic Party in the USSenate race, and I'm so proud of
the support our campaign has
received from every corner of our
state," Harris said Saturday.
Harris is far ahead of Rep.
Loretta Sanchez in terms of
The South Asian Timese x c e l l e n c e i n j o u r n a l i s m
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SCI-TECH 25
slamabad India has never attacked
any country in 5000 years of its
history. Yet
Pakistan feels
in t imida ted
by it .
Islamabad on
Thursday said
its nuclear arsenal is for the
defense of Pakistan and i ts people.
This comes after US Secretary of
State John Kerry asked the South
Asian country on Monday to consid‑
er reducing its nuclear arsenal. Hewas speaking at the inaugural
session of the US‑Pakistan Strategic
Dialogue in Washington.
"Our nuclear deterrence is to
deter any aggression against
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30
Pakistanfears India
Continued on page 4
Kamala Harris set tobecome US Senator
Washington: Two previous presi‑
dential nominees of Republican
Party have attacked the current
front‑runner, Donald J. Trump,
warning that his election could
harm the party, put the US and its
democratic system in peril. In
what seemed like open warfare,
Mitt Romney, the partyʼs nominee
in 2012, attacked Trump as “a
fraud” and “a phony” who would
drive the country to the point of
collapse. “He has neither the tem‑
perament nor the judgment to be
president,” former Massachusetts
governor said, evoking the
specter of totalitarianism, saying
New Delhi: Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley on
Monday gave relief to
small tax payers, nudged
the affluent to shell out
more while focusing on
the rural economy with
much higher fiscal out‑
lays, as he presented
India's national budget
for 2016‑17 in the Lok
Sabha.
Making his first big announcement, Jaitley said that the
farming sector would be allocated Rs 35,000 crore. For ruraldevelopment as a whole, Rs 87,765 crore has been allocated.
The highest allocation has been made in infrastructure sector:
a mammoth Rs 2.21 lakh crore. This includes Rs 97,000 crore
for development of roads, Rs 55,000 crore for upgradation &
the remaining amount for capitalization of Indian Railways.
100 per cent electrification of all villages is targeted by
May 1, 2018.
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana will be pumped with Rs
1,80,000 crore to complete the task of financial inclusion.
Tax burden reduced on those earning below Rs 5 lakh per
annum. Tax rates would be reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs
2,000.
1500 Multi Skill Training Institutes will be set up.
Entrepreneurship education & training will be provided in
2200 colleges, hundreds of schools and vocational training
centers through open online courses.
Current account deficit has come down from 18.4 billion
dollars to 10.41 billion.
Continued on page 4
India’s budgetaims at growth
and inclusion
Romney leads waragainst Trump
Mitt Romney during a speech at the University of Utah denounced Donald Trump. (Photos: AP)
There is a sense of urgency in the GOP after Super Tuesday, that the Trump train has to be stopped.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley making hisbudget speech on Feb 29.
GOP bigwigs talk of brokered conventionto deny Trump the nomination
Big outlays in the $300 Billionbudget for rural sector,
infrastructure, and job creation
Endorsed by her party inCalifornia, Harris is likely to
become the first Indian Americanin US Senate. (Photo: AP)
Continued on page 4
See full story on page 8
Some of the highlights:
For details of the budget: pages 10‑11, and 23.
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Haryana cancelsNRI summit
Gurgaon Haryana Chief Minister Manohar
Lal Khattar on Wednesday announced that
the 'Pravasi Bharatiya Divas' to be held here
on March 9 has been cancelled following the
Jat protests for job quotas that l ed to wide‑spread violence in the state.
Hundreds of NRIs, specially belonging to
Haryana, had registered themselves for the
event.
Khattar said the state had witnessed
"unhappy stories and we cannot go forward
comfortably with events like an NRI summit
though it was a dream event. We will plan it
for some other time".
He said the cultural programs scheduled to
be presented during the 'Happening Haryana'
Global Investors Summit on March 7‑8 had
also been cancelled. Khattar, however, said
the two‑day business meet, focused on
attracting investment, will be held as per
scheduled on March 7 and 8.
Properties, business establishments, facto‑ries and vehicles belonging to non‑Jats were
looted and torched at several places in the
state. The nine days of violence left 30 people
dead and over 200 injured. Earlier, the NRIs
of Haryana origin in Canada had expressed
fears that the Jat agitation will impact invest‑
ment in the state. In a statement in Toronto,
the Overseas Association of Haryanvis in
Canada said, "We, the NRIs of Haryana origin,
would like to appeal to our brothers and sis‑
ters to support centuries‑old brotherhood
among 36 biradaris in the larger interest of
Haryana and the nation.”
3March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY
San Francisco A battle has broken out at
the University of California, Irvine over a
$6 million gift from donors affiliated with
the Dharma Civilization Foundation (DCF),
which would endow four chairs in Hindu,
Sikh, Jain and Buddhist studies.
UC Irvine has rejected the donation, after
faculty members objected to the establish‑
ment of the chairs, saying proper procedur‑
al practices had not been followed, and
alleging that DCF is affiliated with Hindu
fundamentalist organizations, reported
India West.
“I feel strongly violated, humiliated and
discriminated against,” nephrologistUshakant Thakkar, who gave $1 million to
fund the Thakkar Family‑Dharma
Civilization Foundation Presidential Chair
in Vedic and Indic Civilization Studies, said.
“The university pursued us for two years.
We never wanted to be in a place that was
not receptive,” the Indian American physi‑
cian added. The Thakkar Family chair was
established at UCI in May 2015 in the uni‑
versityʼs School of Humanities. Donations
have also been secured to endow a chair in
Jain Studies, one in Sikh Studies, as well as
the Swami Vivekananda‑DCF Chair in
Modern India Studies. Plans are also to
endow a chair in Buddhist Studies and one
in Parsi Studies; DCF has connected with
the Godrej family to possibly fund the lat‑
ter. DCF was established in 2012 with the
goal of establishing Indian religious and
cultural studies at several U.S. universities.
The organization was created after Shiva
Bajpai, who served as professor of history
and director of Asian Studies at CaliforniaState University, Northridge, and psychia‑
trist Manohar Shinde, who was on the
teaching faculty at UCLAʼs School of
Medicine, found there was a lot of misrep‑
resentation of Hindus and India in current
academia, and a lack of religious scholars,
according to Thakkar, who serves as the
chairman of DCF. Bajpai, who has a Ph.D. in
ancient Indian history, has few contempo‑
raries in his genre.
“This country has studies of most reli‑
gions, but not Hinduism. We need Indian
scholars to defend and create a narrative,”
Thakkar said.
But shortly after the first chair was estab‑
lished, faculty at UC Irvine began a petition
drive protesting the endowments. A total of
391 professors from UCI and other univer‑
sities throughout the world have signed an
online statement, which states that DCF has
ties to fundamentalist groups in India, and
seeks to establish its own agenda through
the gift.One of the signatories, Catherine Liu, a
professor at UC Irvineʼs Film and Media
Study Department, told India‑West that due
diligence was not followed in accepting the
donation and that DCF had not been prop‑
erly vetted. Moreover, Liu claimed, South
Asian scholars at UCI were excluded from
the process of consultation. India is cur‑
rently studied by scholars as a region in
South Asia, said Liu, noting that DCF has
proposed to free India studies from the
larger context of South Asia studies, forgo‑
ing established critical and cultural
methodologies used in the study of any cul‑
ture.
Liu also noted that DCF had sent a list of
proposed faculty members. “This is against
all norms,” she said, adding: “A donor can‑
not determine or suggest candidates as a
stipulation of the gift.”
“DCF must pursue their agenda some‑
where else,” stated Liu. “We are not a reli‑
gious organization. There is a strong sepa‑ration of church and state.”
She reiterated the protesting professorsʼ
belief that many of DCFʼs members have
ties to the RSS and the Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh. Thakkar refuted such statements,
noting that he is married to a Catholic
woman, and his children practice Jainism
and Buddhism.
New York Over a hundred Indian academ‑
ics and public figures have floated an
online petition to remove a renownedAmerican Indologist as editor of a presti‑
gious Harvard University Press book series
on Indian languages.
Sheldon Pollock, the current Arvind
Raghunathan professor of South Asian
Studies at Columbia University, should be
barred from helming the Murty Classical
Library of India ̶ an ambitious effort to
translate classical works from ancient
Indian languages into English ̶ because
of his opposition to Hindu nationalist per‑
spectives, the petition argues.
It has been authored and endorsed by
132 Indian professors, and so far has been
signed more than 13,000 times, Time mag‑
azine reported. But in his first public com‑
ments on the issue, Rohan Murty, the sonof Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy,
said that Pollock will continue to oversee
the translation of Indian classics into
English for several more years as he is crit‑
ical to the project. The Murty Classical
Library was set up with a $5.2 million
endowment from him.
In what many say is a disconcerting sign
of Indiaʼs increasing Hindu nationalism
under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the
petition also cites, as another reason for
his removal, Pollockʼs signature on two
statements condemning the Indian govern‑
mentʼs recent handling of a controversy at
New Delhiʼs Jawaharlal Nehru University,
where students were charged with sedition
under a colonial‑era law for allegedly
shouting “anti‑India” slogans.
“It is crystal clear that Pollock has shown
disrespect for the unity and integrity of
India,” the petition claims.
The Indian academics also take offense
to the fact that Pollock is an American, ref‑
erencing Modiʼs “Make in India” campaign
(an effort to increase homegrown manu‑
facturing) as a justification.
“The project must be part of the ʻMake in
Indiaʼ ethos and not outsourced wholesale
to American Ivy Leagues,” the petition says.
Several academics express consternation
at the petition but also fear speaking out
against it within the current environment,
Washington D.C.–based education website
Inside Higher Ed reported.
“I deplore these attacks on my colleague,”
Wendy Doniger, a prominent Hinduism
expert at the University of Chicago, whose
work has been similarly attacked in the
past, was quoted as saying.
“The whole situation both in India and
among the American Hindu diaspora wor‑
ries me greatly,” she added.
UC Irvine rejects $6M gift to endow 4 Chairs in India studies
The petition seeks to bar Sheldon Pollock from helming the Murty ClassicalLibrary of India; but Rohan Murty (left, who endowed the project,
is sticking with the American Indologist.
Indian academics demand droppinga scholar from a Harvard project
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Website: TheSouthAsianTimes.info Updated Daily
Romney leads war against TrumpContinued from page
Trump embodied a “brand of anger that has led other nations into
the abyss.”
Senator John McCain, the partyʼs standard‑bearer in 2008, too
denounced Trump as a candidate who was ignorant of foreign poli‑
cy and has made “dangerous” pronouncements on national security.
On Thursday, dozens of conservative national security leaders
released a letter announcing that they would never vote for Trump.
There is a growing prospect the GOP leadership could abandon its
own nominee this fall, reports The New York Times. Romney hashinted at a messy convention floor battle.
In an immediate and venomous reply, Trump derided Romney as a
“failed candidate,” “choke artist” and “loser” for his loss to President
Obama in 2012.
The timing of new assault on Trump after his commanding elec‑
toral victories in seven states on Super Tuesday may make it futile.
Still, Romneyʼs plea may help deter other Republicans from join‑
ing forces with Trump at a point in the race when party leaders
would typically rally around a clear front‑runner.
The Associated Press asked Republican governors and senators if
they would support Trump if he becomes the party's nominee. Of
the 59 respondents, slightly fewer than half could not commit to
backing him in November. A handful of officials, including
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse,
have said they would not support Trump in November, though it
was unclear what alternatives they would have.
One long‑shot idea rumbling through power corridors in
Washington was the prospect of a late third‑party candidate to rep‑
resent more mainstream conservatives. A more likely, though still
extraordinarily unusual, scenario being discussed is a contested
convention.
Kamala Harris set to become...Continued from page
support and funds to win the primary in June to succeed Senator
Barbara Boxer, who is not seeking re‑election.
Pakistan fears IndiaContinued from page
Pakistan's territorial integrity," Foreign Office Spokesperson
Mohammed Nafees Zakaria said. "It is for the defense of Pakistan and
its people, as a responsible nuclear state, we have invested in ensuring
nuclear safety, nuclear security and robust command and control sys‑
tem."
On Wednesday, Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Adviser said in
Washington that "India, not terrorism, is the biggest threat to the
region", and asked India to reduce its nuclear stockpile so that
Pakistan can consider reciprocation. Sartaj Aziz underscored that
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is a major deterrent, a fact that the US also
recognizes.
Responding sharply to Kerry's suggestion to cut its nuclear arsenal,
Aziz said it was India that was stockpiling n‑weapons and not Pakistan
as it has to keep up a minimum deterrence.
"If they increase the stockpile, we cannot reduce ours," he said.
New Delhi India has denied visas
for a delegation from the US gov‑
ernment agency charged with mon‑
itoring international religious free‑
dom, the agency said on Thursday.The delegation from the US
Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had
been scheduled to leave for India on
Friday for a long‑planned visit with
the support of the US State
Department and the US embassy in
New Delhi, but India had failed to
issue the necessary visas, the com‑
mission said.
“We are deeply disappointed by
the Indian governmentʼs denial, in
effect, of these visas,” USCIRF chair‑
man Robert George said in a state‑
ment.
“As a pluralistic, non‑sectarian,
and democratic state, and a closepartner of the United States, India
should have the confidence to allow
our visit,” he said.
George said USCIRF had been able
to travel to many countries, includ‑
ing those among the worst offend‑
ers of religious freedom, including
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam,
China, and Myanmar.
The Indian embassy in
Washington did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
PA Sangma dead
Purno Agitok Sangma, who
died on March 4, was
Speaker of Lok Sabhafrom 1996
to 1998and Chief
Minister of
Meghalaya
from 1988to 1990.
He was aco‑founder
of the Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) and remained a
member of the Lok Sabha for
eight terms.Currently, he represented the
Tura (ST) constituency in the
West Garo Hills district in the16th Lok Sabha.
Modi govt denies visa toUS religious freedom body
New York Grabbing a handrail on the New
York Cityʼs subway transfers as much bacte‑
ria as shaking hands with 10,000 people.
That's according to a recent study that found
the Big Apple has by far the most bacteria in
its subway system compared with other US
cities.
Many of the bacteria found have been
known to cause respiratory problems and
skin infections, although scientists stress
most are harmless and could even be good
for our immune system. Travelmath, a logis‑
tics website, sent a team to gather bacteria
samples from public transit systems in fivemajor cities: New York, Washington, D.C.,
Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. The
study found that while 'surprisingly few
germs' were on handrails on most cities,
there was one major exception: New York.
The Big Apple's subway system has more
than three times as many travelers as the
city's other four transit systems combined.
Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco
was the second grubbiest subway.
Broken windows
policy thrown outof the window
New York Starting Monday, police officers in Manhattan
are supposed to stop arresting people for minor crimes
like urinating and drinking in public and instead give
them criminal summonses. The goal is to reduce the
backlog in Manhattan Criminal Court, which officials
told the New York Times could drop by about 10,000
cases per year.
To be sure, pissing in public, along with making unrea‑
sonable amounts of noise and littering and other petty
offenses targeted by "broken windows" policing, remains
illegal.
But instead of being arrested, most violators will now
be asked to appear before a judge and answer questions.The judge can then decide whether to dismiss the case
or impose a penalty.
The joint decision between the NYPD and Manhattan
District Attorney Cy Vance preempts a broader proposed
change to policing in New York. In January, City Council
Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito unveiled the Criminal
Justice Reform Act of 2016; if passed, it would give cops
the discretion to hand out either civil penalties or (crimi‑
nal) summonses, as called for under the new Manhattan
policy, for low‑level offenses.
NYC has countryʼs
most bacteriaridden subways
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5March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY
New York: Members of a Sikh temple under
construction in Plainview voiced concerns
Tuesday over Oyster Bayʼs halting of build‑
ing on the site.About two dozen Sikhs came to the town
board meeting to speak to the board or to
support speakers, newsday.com reported.
On Feb. 2, the Town Board took review of
the temple site plan out of the hands of the
town Planning and Development depart‑
ment following complaints by residents over
parking and traffic.
That move surprised the congregation of
the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center on Old
Country Road whose members said they had
worked with former Commissioner of
Planning and Development Frederick
Ippolito to resolve parking issues.
“We got blindsided,” Gurmeet Sodhi, 41, a
television producer from Northport, was
quoted by Newsday. Sodhi said the town
board halted construction without inform‑ing the congregation.
“Everything was approved, everything was
moving along; why did we stop this?” she
said.
Construction on a new $3 million temple
on the site of the old one began in 2014 but
was halted last July on the grounds that it
didnʼt comply with an off‑street parking
plan. That 2015 stop work order was subse‑
quently lifted.
Town Supervisor John Venditto said the
town was looking for a compromise
between the Sikh community and neighbor‑
ing residents “to make the project fit.”
By SATimes Team
Mineola NY: Nassau County
Comptroller George Maragos host‑
ed on Feb 2, for the third consecu‑
tive year, the Nassau County Art
and Photography Exhibition to
promote local female artists and
contribute to the growing arts
industry in the county. With the
theme “Truth & Beauty”, the art
from over 50 award winning
artists kicked off Womenʼs History
Month in the county.Comptroller Maragos who could
not attend the event in the
Theodore Roosevelt Executive
Building here, said in a statement,
“I am honored to once again host
the exhibition as a way to promote
our local talent and spur further
growth in our local art industry.
My office is always ready to sup‑
port our local businesses, artists
and entrepreneurs.” The works on
display were curated by Carla
DʼAmbra and Minna Dunn and pro‑
fessionally judged with prizes
awarded to winners in various cat‑
egories from local sponsors.
New York Nassau County police
have ended their investigation into
the so‑called sexting scandal
involving Nassau County Executive
Ed Mangano.
As CBS2 Political Reporter
Marcia Kramer reported, Nassau
County police said they could not
find any evidence that Mangano
exchanged sexually explicit mes‑
sages with a local marketing execu‑
tive. But there are still questions –
and a mystery.
Nassau County police Detective
Sgt. Patrick Ryder said when he
interviewed Mangano about the
case, he warned the county execu‑
tive he would put him in handcuffs
if he was lying.
As 1010 WINSʼ Juliet Papa
reported, Ryder has spent the last
few weeks conducting interviews
and gaining access to the phones of
Mangano and marketing executive
Karin Caro. But after denials from
both Mangano and Caro, Ryder
said both were telling the truth
that they were not having an affair,
they never texted one another, and
they were the victims of a hoax,
WCBS 880ʼs Sophia Hall reported.
“The evidence that I have and the
investigation that I did shows that
Mr. Mangano and Mrs. Caro did
not sext each other,” Ryder said.
But Ryder also said, “with the evi‑
dence that I have, the phones were
not hacked or spoofed,” as
Mangano had suggested.
Rather, police said it all appears
to be a cut‑and‑paste job made to
look like text messages and tweets.
“This could have been a kid or
somebody who has an agenda,”
Ryder said.
Town Supervisor John Venditto interacts with members of the Sikh community at anOyster Bay town board meeting. (Photo courtesy: newsday.com)
The work of over 50 female artists was presented at the show markingWomenʼ History Month. Seen in the picture, Anu Jain with her paintingʻFreedom ‑ The Beauty of Lifeʼ, flanked by James Garner, Chief DeputyCounty Comptroller, and Dilip Chauhan, Director of South East/Asian
Affairs with the Comptroller.
New York Rajasthan Association
of North America (RANA) has
organized Spring Festival
Celebrations on March 26 at
Hotel Hilton, Long Island
Huntington, Melville NY 11747
from 2.30 pm onwards.
RANA has previously success‑
fully organized Rajasthan
Mahotsav – Festival of Festivals2015 under the able leadership
of President Naveen C Shah
which saw participation from
over 3000 attendees, complete
with a grand parade featuring
elephants, horses and camels to
various dance & musical per‑
formances showcasing the vari‑
ety and depth of Indian culture.
The Deepavali celebrations in
November 2015 was another
monumental sensation with over
600 people packing the Grand
Ballroom at the Long Island
Marriott and were entertained by
the sensational music trio from
India – Dhwani.
In his address to the communi‑
ty leaders at the kick‑off meeting
held recently, Naveen C Shah
said, “RANA has proven that we
can celebrate all our festivals on
one common platform. We want
to continue this practice this year
by organizing the Spring
Festivals Celebration.”
The 2016 Spring Fest ival
Celebration includes a Fashion
Show event showcasing the attire
of different states from India by
top fashion designers, a segment
on Wedding Day Attire by com‑
munity members and cultural
performances. This will be fol‑lowed by a Kavi Sammelan fea‑
turing renowned poets and
satirists from India, emceed by
Shailesh Lodha. Over 1000 peo‑
ple are expected to attend the
event. “We expect people from all
communities – Rajasthanis,
Gujaratis, Punjabis and all other
Indian communities to attend the
dayʼs events and partake of the
celebrations. RANA aims at bring‑
ing about harmony and celebrat‑
ing the festivals of India jointly
with other communities to foster
the spirit of brotherhood and
comradeship,” said Shah.
Tickets cost only $75 each and
include lunch, afternoon tea &
snacks, dinner and entrance to
the fashion show, cultural enter‑
tainment, kavi sammelan & exhi‑
bitions area.
For more information, visit
website www.ranausa.org
RANA to host grandSpring Festival
Celebration on March 26th
Sikhs express concern to town board oversuspension of approved gurdwara site
Nassau County Comptroller hosts art exhibition
No evidence of Mangano sexting found
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6 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info TR I S TATE COMMUNI TY
Use your cricket trivia knowledge tohelp spread the word about cricket
and also win $10,000. Registra‑
tions are open to participate in the first
annual MoneyGram Cricket Bee
(http://cricketbee.com/cricket‑contest‑
registration/)
Game Format at each regional center is
as follows:
1st Innings: 35 question Multiple
Choice Written Round; Qualify by an‑
swering 25 or more questions correctly;
lunch; 2nd Innings: Oral Round on a missand out basis; Player gets a question, if
answered correctly, moves onto second
round, if incorrect, then they are Out; The
top 3 from each regional are invited to
the Finals to compete for a grand pr ize of
$10,000 and a runner up prize of $2,000.
There are three centers: April 10, NJ;
April 17 Bay Area and Apr 24, Toronto.
Registration is Free. So brush up on
your trivia and get ready to play the
Cricket Bee
The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
(IFFLA) announced its 2016 lineup of
narrative and documentary features,
short films, and galas for its 14th annual fes‑
tival. Opening the festival on April 6 is the
U.S. premiere of the ensemble powerhouse
Angry Indian Goddesses, from filmmaker
and four‑time IFFLA alum Pan Nalin. Anu
Menonʼs poignant Waiting, starring
Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin, clos‑
es the festival with its North American pre‑
miere on April 10.
The festival is widely recognized as the
premiere showcase of groundbreaking Indi‑
an cinema globally. IFFLA will run April 6‑
10 at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles,
the festivalʼs home since its inception.
"India's independent filmmakers are tak‑ing bold risks, defying convention, and re‑
sponding to injustice in each of these vi‑
sionary films, and the results are breathtak‑
ing,” said Mike Dougherty, Director of Pro‑
gramming. “I'm extremely excited for our
Los Angeles audience to experience these
films, which have garnered raves from
around the world, or are making their world
premiere with us."
This year the festival will feature three
world premieres, including IFFLA alum
Kranti Kanadeʼs CRD, two North American
premieres, and ten U.S. premieres.
More features and shorts from female
filmmakers will be presented this year by IF‑
FLA than ever before, including: Deepa
Mehtaʼs gangster drama Beeba Boys; Leena
Yadavʼs Parched, a piercing examination of
Indiaʼs patriarchal culture through the sto‑
ries of four women; Ruchika Oberoiʼs genre‑
bending triptych, Island City; and RinkuKalsyʼs documentary For The Love Of A
Man, about the fierce devotion shared by
South‑Indian superstar Rajinikanthʼs fans.
New Delhi There is nothing
that cannot be achieved if a
person has the will and is de‑
termined to make decisions,
NASA astronaut Sunita
Williams said on Thursday.
"A person should aspire to
try out new things and ex‑plore new opportunities. Con‑
fidence, perseverance, persist‑
ence and knowledge play a
key role in achieving the most challenging
feats," the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration astronaut, who is also a US
Navy Captain, said while addressing a ses‑
sion on women's empowerment here. The
event was organized by the women wing of
the Federation of Indian Chambers of Com‑
merce and Industry.
"I considered myself the girl next door, but
I always grabbed the opportunities and ex‑
plored them," Williams added. She said op‑
portunities were aplenty and the need was
to grab and explore them. It was important
to be a good student as it opened doors of opportunities, the United States Navy officer
of Indian‑Slovenian descent said. Williams
also recounted her experience of viewing 16
sunrises and 16 sunsets in a
single day during her space
mission. "I was in a spacecraft
moving at tremendous speed
(28,000 km per hour) around
the earth. There was a time
when I saw 16 sunrises in a
couple of hours," she said.Speaking on the theme of the
session 'Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathemat‑
ics(STEM)', she said: "Studying STEM today
offers a plethora of areas to learn, explore
and understand." Reminiscing her journey,
she said when she joined the US Naval Acad‑
emy, there were only 10 percent women stu‑
dents but the number had doubled over the
years. "NASA is keen on having young and
feisty females in its midst," she remarked.
Williams also spoke about her experiences
in a male‑dominated field. She said she often
found herself in a minority but it never de‑
terred her or interfered with her goals. "I
knew my tasks well and was competent to
take on any challenge. And every womanbrings to the table team work and willingly
takes care of the team as it's her innate
nature."
Passionate about Cricket?Participate & win $10,000
Shalini Vadhera, a renowned,
award‑winning global beauty and
lifestyle expert, founder and CEO
of Power Beauty Living, and best‑selling
author of Passport To Beauty, took her
Power Beauty Living brand global on
February 29th at the United Nations
alongside IMPACT Leadership 21, for
an exclusive VIP POWER UP Network‑
ing and Cocktail event.
Vadhera was recently appointed to
IMPACT Leadership 21's Global Adviso‑
ry Council (GAC) as its newest member.
A global leadership platform that pro‑
vides solutions to creating inclusive
economies, IMPACT Leadership 21's
GAC is comprised of men and women in
diverse leadership backgrounds and in‑
fluence from multi sectors.
"We are thrilled to add such a dynam‑
ic, passionate leader with a strong track
record of success and zest for empow‑
ering women to the GAC. Shalini's ex‑
tensive entrepreneurial experience and
industry knowledge is a welcomed ad‑
dition to our team, especially as we ex‑
pand our international reach," said
Janet C. Salazar CEO and Co‑Founder of
IMPACT Leadership 21.
Shalini Vadhra launches
"Power Beauty Living" at U.N.
Internationally renowned playwrightMahesh Dattani will direct the Eng‑
lish‑language premiere of Chokher
Bali (Sand in My Eye), a play based on
Rabindranath Tagoreʼs modern literary
classic. The performance, presented by
the Barnard College Department of The‑
atre March 3‑5, is one of few Indian pro‑
ductions to be performed in the United
States and will also feature the work of
Broadway production designer Neil Pa‑
tel. This production is dramatized and
translated by Professor Partha Chatter‑
jee of Columbia Universityʼs Depart‑
ments of Anthropology and Middle East‑
ern, South Asian, and African Studies.
Barnard College and Columbia Universi‑
ty students will comprise the cast.
Chokher Bali (Sand in My Eye) is based
one of the most well‑known Indian clas‑
sical works. The play is a compelling ac‑
count of marriage and widowhoodagainst the backdrop of the rapidly mod‑
ernizing bhadralok, or gentlemanly
class, of late 19th century Calcutta.
Chokher Bali transcends its immediate
historical context to become a timeless
meditation on feminine desire and
agency.
The Thursday performance will fea‑
ture a post‑show talkback with director
Mahesh Dattani; the playwright, Partha
Chatterjee; and Shayoni Mitra, Barnard
College Assistant Professor of Theatre.
The discussion will be moderated by Al‑
ice Reagan, Barnard College Assistant
Professor of Professional Practice in
Theatre. The play will be staged at Mi‑
nor Latham Playhouse, located on the
first floor of Milbank Hall on the
Barnard campus, 3009 Broadway, New
York, NY, 10027
Manesh Dattani directedʻChokher Baliʼ to premiere in NY
IFFLA announces 14th festʼs lineup
Nothing that can't be achieved throughwill, determination: Sunita Williams
Shalini Vadhera(Photo courtesy: zimbio.com)
IN BRIEF
Philanthropist and Ellis Island Medal winner Meera Gandhi (right) has beencampaigning for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President. The Manhattan
based founder of The Giving Back Foundation was in New Hampshire doingdoor to door campaigning with Hon. Jackie Weatherspoon.
Sunita Williams speakingat FICCI event inNew Delhi
(Photo courtesy: aninews.in)
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Washington DC:
Congresswoman Tulsi
Gabbard, vice chair of the
Democratic NationalCommittee, resigned on
Sunday in order to endorse
presidential candidate Bernie
Sanders.
Gabbard ̶ who was the first
Hindu and first American
Samoan to be elected to
Congress, as well as the
youngest person ever elected
to the Hawaii legislature, at
age 21 ̶ commended the left‑
ist Vermont senator for his for‑
eign policy, and his opposition
to the hawkish policies of fel‑
low presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton.
“After much thought andconsideration, Iʼve decided I
cannot remain neutral and sit
on the sidelines any longer,”
she wrote in an email to fellow
DNC officers obtained by
Politico. “There is a clear con‑
trast between our two candi‑
dates with regard to my strong
belief that we must end the
interventionist, regime change
policies that have cost us so
much,” Gabbard said.
“This is not just anotherʻissue.ʼ This is THE issue, and
itʼs deeply personal to me,”
Gabbard continued. “This is
why Iʼve decided to resign as
Vice Chair of the DNC so that I
can support Bernie Sanders in
his efforts to earn the
Democratic nomination in the
2016 presidential race.”
Gabbard, who is a member of
the House Armed Services
Committee, has condemned
U.S. policy in Syria. In late2015, she introduced a biparti‑
san bill that called for “an
immediate end to the illegal,
counter‑productive war to
overthrow” Syrian dictator
Bashar al‑Assad.
7March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info NAT I ONAL COMMUNI TY
New York Seven out of eight Indian‑
American candidates, who ran for
local elections in Lexington city in
the state of Kentucky on Tuesday,
have won.
With this, now their are a total of
12 Indian‑Americans elected mem‑
bers of the Lexington Town Meeting,
India New England News reported
on Wednesday.
"This movement is historic. Great
result despite heavy turnout because
of presidential elections which tends
to favor known contestants and
incumbents," Narain Bhatia, a long‑
time Lexington resident and commu‑
nity activist, said.
The winners of Lexington elections
include Sharmila Mudgal from
Precinct‑3 for one year term, Anoop
Garg from Precinct‑4 gets three year
term, Pam Joshi and Rita Pandey
gets three year term each from
Precinct‑9 and Precinct‑5, respec‑
tively.
Anil Ahuja from Precinct‑5, Vikas
Kinger from Precinct‑7 and Nirmala
Garimella from Precinct‑8 got one
year term each.
The only Indian‑American candi‑
date to lose in the election was Hema
Bhatt in Precinct‑9.
"Hema Bhatt lost but got 375 votes
and lost by just 36 votes while beat‑
ing Scott Burson, a long time town
meeting member and former School
Committee member by 76 votes,"
Bhatia said.
In addition to the winners in
Tuesday's elections, Indian‑
Americans have five current Town
Meeting members whose term is not
over making a total of twelve.
These sitting members are: Narain
Bhatia, Ravish Kumar, Sanjay Padaki,
Dinesh Patel and Syed Rizvi. (IANS)
San Francisco: An Indian
American woman who raised
thousands of dollars online
allegedly posing as a victim of a
rare blood cancer, was arrested
here Feb. 26, and charged with
five counts of felony fraud.
Manisha Nagrani, 40, is cur‑
rently being held in San
Francisco County Jail, on a no
bail warrant from Santa Clara
County, according to media
report.
Nagrani has been charged
with false personation; receiv‑
ing or buying stolen property;
2nd degree commercial burgla‑
ry; and acquiring access cards
without the cardholder or
issuerʼs consent.
Nagrani was previously
arrested in 2006 and served
time before being released on
parole. In 2009, the San
Francisco Chronicle referred to
her as an “accidental entrepre‑
neur” who – after losing a job in
public relations – founded a
matchmaking business, which
introduced over 40 couples
who got married.
Sometime around 2014,
Nagrani began posting on her
Facebook page that she hadbeen diagnosed with
Myelodysplastic syndromes, a
blood disorder affecting stem
cells in bone marrow.
Nagrani – who used the pro‑
file Manisha MN and also
allegedly used several fake pro‑
files including Matt Marc –
stepped up her game on May
27, 2015, posting a lengthy,
heart‑rending post about her
struggle with a terminal dis‑
ease.
Supporters immediately
began raising funds for
Nagraniʼs treatments, creating
campaigns on the web portals
gofundme.com; youcaring.com;
and giveforward.com. Nagraniʼs
fundraising pages are no longer
visible on gofundme and you‑
caring, but her giveforward
page shows donations of
$17,552, with many donations
of over $1,000.
Manisha Nagrani(Photo: Facebook)
TulsiGabbard
(Photocourtesy:newsmax.com)
Seven out of eight Indian‑American candidates win
in Lexington elections
ʻFAKEʼ CANCERVICTIM ARRESTEDIN SAN FRANCISCO
Tulsi Gabbard quits DNC,endorses Bernie Sanders
Washington DC: Indian
American Rep. Ami Bera, D‑
Sacramento received endorse‑
ments from the CaliforniaDemocratic Party Feb. 27, during
the state convention.
Bera won his endorsement,
gaining nearly 90 percent of the
vote. Fifty people voted for the
sole Indian American in
Congress, while six voted against
him. Bera – who is seeking his
third term in office – is running
unopposed in the primary elec‑
tion June 7.
He will face Sacramento
County Sheriff Scott Jones – a
Republican – in the general elec‑
tion Nov. 8.
Bera has been opposed by
some labor organizations for his
vote last year supporting the
Trade Promotion Authority bill in
the House, which allows the pres‑
ident to “fast‑track” trade treaties
with certain countries, withoutCongressional oversight.
House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, D‑San Francisco, told
party delegates before the
endorsement vote was taken that
Beraʼs position on TPA was dif‑
ferent from her position, but that
his vote on the issue should not
be the sole basis for his re‑elec‑
tion. “He is a valued member of
the Congress. He has a great
base of support at the grassroots
level and I think he will win,” said
Pelosi.
New Delhi The US health regula‑
tor has refused entry of 11,664
Indian products, including drugs,
into the American market
between January 2011 and
February 2016, Parliament was
informed on Wednesday.
"According to refusal report
data available on the US Food and
Drug Administration (USFDA)
website, 11,664 refusals of Indian
products were recorded from January 2011 to February 2016,"
Minister of State for Commerce
and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman
on Wednesday said in written
reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The products from India that
were denied entry into the US
included medicine, bakery prod‑
ucts, fried snacks, spices, basmati
rice, fisheries and herbals, she
added. Dietary supplements, hair
dyes and colors were also part of
the no‑entry list.
"The reason given for the
refusal varies from problems in
branding to packaging, labelingand adulteration," the minister
said.
Elaborating on the steps taken
by the government to improve
standards and quality to interna‑
tional levels, the minister said:
"The steps taken by the govern‑
ment include tightening labeling
rules and making it mandatory
for companies to clearly mention
the dates of manufacturing."
Other steps include improving
pre‑export inspection, greater
emphasis on standards through
sensitization of exporters for
compliance of regulatory issuesthrough export promotion agen‑
cies and also taking up the issue
at bilateral trade forums wherev‑
er possible, Sitharaman said. (PTI)
Ami Bera wins CaliforniaDemocratic Party endorsements
USFDA rejected entry of over 6Indian products a day since Jan 2011
Ami Bera
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New York: The American India
Foundation, one of the leading U.S. phil‑
anthropic organizations working in the
U.S. and India, announced Feb. 22 that
its board of directors named Alex
Counts as the organizationʼs next presi‑
dent and chief executive officer, effec‑
tive March 29.
Counts is the founder of the Grameen
Foundation and became its president
and CEO in 1997, after having worked
in microfinance and poverty reduction
for ten years.
As president and CEO of AIF, Counts
will continue to build and scale AIFʼs
presence by leveraging its strong spec‑
trum and networks as well as ensuring
that AIF stays at the cutting‑edge of
innovative solutions for poverty allevia‑
tion and economic development in
India, according to a press release.
After training under Nobel Laureate
Muhammad Yunus, the founder and
managing director of Grameen Bank,
Counts leveraged a $6,000 seed grant
to grow Grameen Foundation to a glob‑
al leader in international development
with a $20 million annual budget.
“Alex is a highly regarded develop‑
ment leader who built one of the most
successful international humanitarian
organizations in the world,” said co‑
founder of AIF and co‑chair Lata
Krishnan. “He not only has the manage‑
ment experience, passion and drive, but
also deep experience in India and South
Asia to create the strongest develop‑
ment programs in India.”
Counts succeeds M.A. Ravi Kumar,
who joined AIF as CEO in September
2012, and led the company through a
significant growth trajectory.
8 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info NAT I ONAL COMMUNI TY
On way to become first Indian American senator in USWashington DC: Indian American Kamala
Devi Harris, the attorney general of
California, may become the first Indian
American senator in the US Congress, the
media reported on Wednesday.
The landslide victory of 78.1 percent of
votes earned Harris, the much‑needed
California state Democrats' official seal of
approval and, most likely, financial support
from the party, reported the Los Angeles
Times on Sunday.
"I'm incredibly honored to have the
endorsement of the California Democratic
Party in the US Senate race, and I'm so proud
of the support our campaign has received
from every corner of our state," Harris rel‑
ished the victory in a statement late onSaturday.
"We know there is more that unites us than
divides us, and I'm grateful to the
Californians who joined together to send that
message this weekend," she added.
The win also solidified her position as the
front‑runner for the US Senate and delivering
a setback to her top rival, Loretta Sanchez
who won 19.3 percent of the 2,139 ballots
cast. The remaining 2.6 percent voted for no
endorsement at all, the report added.
While talking to Democrat supporters,
Harris described the life‑shaping experience
of growing up in the Bay Area as the daugh‑
ter of two civil rights activists. Her speech
hewed to the high ideals of the Democratic
Party and the "poison" politics consuming the
Republican presidential race.
She vowed to protect and restore the funda‑
mental rights of all the citizens of the nation.
"For far too many, liberty and justice for all
is a promise we have failed to keep," Harris
said. Winning the party endorsement
required at least 60 percent of the votes from
credentialed party delegates or their proxies,
a mark that historically has been difficult to
reach because delegates also have the option
of checking a box for "no endorsement."
(IANS)
Illinois: American Telugu Association [ATA] host‑
ed a grand ATA DAY Gala at the grand ballroom
in Sheraton Hotel in Lisle, Illinois on February
27. This ATA Day gala was held as a reaffirming
precursor leading up to the magnificent mile‑
stone silver jubilee ATA Convention to be held in
July 1‑3, 2016 at Rosemont Convention Center
in Chicago, IL. The highlight of the ATA DAY galawas the donation of over $812,000 from
inspired donors touching a groundbreaking
milestone to help host grand ATA Convention on
an unparalleled scale and magnitude. The glitter‑
ing evening was replete with music, dance,
singing enhanced by the presence of prominent
Tollywood/Bollywood actress: Tapsee Pannu.
The evening attracted the attendance of promi‑
nent ATA pioneering, intermediary and contem‑
porary leaders from all across the country with
Democratic front runner for the United States
Congress Raja Krishnamoorthi stepping in as anhonored guest and spelled out his robust sup‑
port to the large growing constituency of Telugu
people & complimented them for their soaring
success in America.
Washington DC: Neel Sethi, an
Indian‑American boy with no
acting experience, has broughtout the charisma, spunk and a
bit of swagger of world‑famousfictional character Mowgli in
the 3D cinematic adaptation of
"The Jungle Book", says the
movie's director Jon Favreau.The team of the Disney movie
conducted auditions acrossseveral countries to zero in
on their Mowgli, but settled for a young‑ster in America with an Indian connect ‑‑
much like the character himself. Favreau,
known globally as the "Iron Man" and"Chef" director, said Neel's portrayal as
Mowgli is like a flashback tour to his own
childhood memories around the animat‑ed character.
"You need the personality, humor,charm and the emotion of the characters.
That's really what 'The Jungle Book' rep‑
resents. People don't think about action...It's fun to have it, but really what you
think about is the characters and therelationships. "Neel really seems to cap‑ture for me what I remember of Mowgli
in the film. He has spunk and a littleswagger. He's just a great kid and I loved
working with him,"
Favreau said here.
Neel, 12, stays inManhattan and has
his roots in Gujarat ‑‑a state from where
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
comes.After showing the
clips, which highlight‑ed Mowgli's chemistry
with Baloo, chase sequences and the fightsequence that the director delved on the
whole casting process, he started getting
worried when there would be an end tosearch for the perfect Mowgli. Then, the
team stumbled upon Neel. "We were real‑
ly scared because we looked at 2,000children and I was getting a little worried
as casting is everything for me. And espe‑cially when a kid is (required to be) on
the screen that much in a movie, then
you don't want someone you get tired of,or might look good only for a couple of
scenes. "You're going to need someonewho holds the screen and is interestingto watch... His habits, body movements
and physicality reminded me of theMowgli that I saw as a child," he added.
Neel Sethi in The JungleBook directed by Jon
Favreau.
Party support solidifiesKamala Harrisʼs candidature
Alex Counts namedpresident and CEO of
American India Foundation
ATA DAY GALA HELD AS A GRAND
PRECURSOR TO CONVENTION
Democratic front‑runner Raja Krishnamoorthi with ATA leaders [LtoR] Mr & Mrs.KrishnaMushyam, Keerthi Ravoori, Krishna Rangaraju, Hanumanth Reddy,
Dr. Meher Medhavaram & Conf.Convenor: Chandrasekhar Reddy Palvai.
Alex Counts is founderof Grameen Foundation
(Photo courtesy: globalhealthhub.org)
California AG Kamala Harris(Photo courtesy: oag.ca.gov)
Neel Sethi has the spunk andswagger to bring Mowgli to life
on screen: Director
Actress Taapsee Pannu, chief guest [in white attire] seen with the ATA team.
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9March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info U S AFFA I RS
Washington
Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton both had commanding wins in seven
states each in Super Tuesday's nomination
contests across 12 states, but their rivals
vowed to stay on in the US presidential race.
Handily winning seven states, from the lib‑
eral northeast to conservative south, thebrash billionaire demonstrated broad appeal
for his anti‑establishment movement among
the Republicans, while Democrat Clinton
showed her strength with minorities in the
South.
But the "most consequential night of vot‑
ing so far in the presidential campaign
demonstrated remarkably divergent for‑
tunes of the two major parties vying for the
White House: Democrats are falling in line.
Republicans are falling apart," as the New
York Times put it.
"This has been an amazing night," Trump
told reporters at his Mar‑a‑Lago resort in
Palm Beach, Florida. He vowed to be a "unifi‑
er" and to go after Clinton with a singular
focus once he wins the Republican nomina‑tion.
"I'm a unifier," Trump said, seeming to
pivot his message for the presidential elec‑
tion on November 8. "I know people are
going to find that hard to believe but I'm a
unifier." But Trump's Republican rivals
vowed to fight on after Texas Senator Ted
Cruz won his home state of Texas, thebiggest single prize of the night, and added
Oklahoma and Alaska, while Rubio finally
landed his first win in the Minnesota
Republican caucuses.
Pointing to his three victories combined
with his win in the Iowa caucuses, as proof
that only he can actually beat Trump, Cruz
suggested that Rubio and others "prayerful‑ly" consider exiting the race to unite the
party.
But Rubio called it a "fight for the heart
and soul of the Republican Party," and
vowed to "go through all 50 states before
we stop fighting to save the Republican
Party from someone like that (Trump)".
"The complicated delegate math meant
that Trump's various competitors combined
could yet prevent him from reaching the
threshold needed to win the nomination,"
said Time magazine."But the path forward for the anti‑Trump
wing of the GOP looks increasingly tricky ‑
and ugly," it said.
After her southern sweep in the
Democratic race, Clinton declared at her vic‑
tory rally in Florida: "What a Super
Tuesday."
And setting her sight on the November
elections, she took aim at Trump by assert‑
ing that America was already great, despite
his campaign mantra, and vowing to make
the country "whole again".
Clinton's self‑styled Democratic Socialist
rival Bernie Sanders, backed by an army of
small donors and grass‑roots appeal, also
vowed to stay in the race after victories in
his own state, Vermont, along with Colorado,Minnesota and Oklahoma.
"This campaign is not just about electing a
president," Sanders said at a rally Tuesday
night in Vermont. "It is about transforming
America."
R
epublican presi‑
dential frontrun‑
ner DonaldTrump's penchant for
gaffes continues ‑ his
latest is misquoting
Mahatma Gandhi.
"First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you, then they
fight you, then you win," Trump
wrote on his Instagram account,
taking a dig at his rivals and the
media for their initial failure to
take his candidature seriously.
The Hill, a website that tracks
polit ics , wrote Monday that
"there's no record that Gandhi
ever used the phrase, which has
been widely attributed to him". It
added that the quote appeared"similar to words used in a 1918
trade union address by Nicholas
Klein". In fact, according to CNN,
the online newspaper Christian
Science Monitor list‑
ed the quote in a
report titled"Political misquotes:
The 10 most famous
things never actually
said".
The "quote" from
Gandhi came a day after Trump
was trolled on Twitter and other
social media for retweeting a
quote by Benito Mussolini, the
Italian fascist: "It is better to live
one day as a lion than 100 years
as a sheep."
Gawker, a news site, claimed
that it had fooled Trump into
retweeting the Mussolini quote. It
said the quote was "originally
posted by a Twitter bot that (it)had made several months ago,
expressly for the purpose of goad‑
ing Trump into retweeting a
Mussolini quote".
After almost a year in space aboard the
International Space Station, NASA
astronaut Scott Kelly made it back to
Earth safe and sound along with cosmonauts
Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov. NASAannounced that the trio landed in Kazakhstan
at on March 1st. Kelly has set two American
records, having chalked up the most consecu‑
tive days in space, at 340, and most days in space cumulatively at 520.
These sustained missions are being used to investigate how the human
body responds to long‑term visits to space. That will include direct compar‑
isons between Scott Kelly and his twin brother, ex‑astronaut Mike Kelly.
(Photo: NASA)
New York Retired neurosurgeonBen Carson appeared set to end hisbid for the 2016 U.S. Republican
presidential nomination onWednesday after failing to win asingle state despite a short‑livedsurge of support last fall in theearly‑voting state of Iowa.
"I do not see a political path for‑ward in light of last evening's SuperTuesday primary results," Carsonsaid in a statement. He said hewould skip the next Republicandebate, scheduled for Thursdaynight in Detroit.
Carson signalled his withdrawalafter Donald Trump consolidatedhis lead in the Republican race witha string of victories on Tuesday, butfailed to eclipse his rivals or drawreluctant party leaders into his cor‑
ner.Yet Trump proclaimed himself a
"unifier" on Tuesday night after hewon seven states from centristMassachusetts to the conservativeDeep South in the contests to pick aparty nominee.
That fell on deaf ears as his WhiteHouse rivals were unbowed and theRepublican establishment unwillingto accept him as their standard‑bearer for November.
"If this was anybody else as afront‑runner, there'd be peopleright now saying 'Let's all rallyaround the front‑runner,'" said U.S.Senator Marco Rubio of Florida,who won his first state contest,
Minnesota, on Tuesday."That will never happen with
Donald Trump," Rubio, favorite of the Republican establishment, toldFox News on Wednesday. "On the
contrary." His latest wins com‑pounded the problem for a party
whose leaders are both critical of many of Trump's positions and val‑ues and skeptical he can defeat thelikely Democratic nominee inNovember, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While they have yet to coalescearound a single strategy, anti‑Trump Republicans have begun tak‑ing action. Conservative advocacygroup Club for Growth claimedcredit for slowing Trump in someprimary states by running attackads.
Some party donors ‑ includinghedge‑fund manager Paul Singerand Meg Whitman, the Hewlett‑Packard Enterprise chief executive ‑
organized a phone call on Tuesdayto get funding for an anti‑Trumpeffort, the New York Times report‑ed. The party's 2012 nominee, for‑mer Massachusetts Governor Mitt
Romney, has weighed in againstTrump, speculating about a "bomb‑
shell" in the billionaire's tax returns.Romney scheduled a speech forThursday about the state of therace, media reported.
But one of Trump's former rivalsin the 2016 race, Mike Huckabee,admonished Republicans for notrespecting the will of the voters.
"The establishment Republicansare all bed‑wetting over this andthey donʼt seem to understand thatwe have an election," the formerArkansas governor said on FoxNews. "Letʼs remember that we havean election process not a selectionprocess."
Trump responded to the furoreagainst him, saying in a tweet on
Wednesday, "The special interestsand people who control our politi‑cians (puppets) are spending $25million on misleading and fraudu‑lent TV ads on me."
Now Hillary Clinton will certainly be Democratic presidential nominee
Scott Kelly
The delegates of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio together are more than Trumpʼs. So to keep Trump from becoming the partyʼs standard‑bear‑er, there may be a brokered or open brokered nomination convention.
Trump and Clinton have a Super Tuesday, but rivals stay on
Trump trips over Gandhi'quote' after quoting Mussolini
Republicans hand‑wringingover Trump; Carson drops out
SCOTT KELLY RETURNS
AFTER 340 DAYS IN SPACE
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New Delhi Adding further confu‑
sion over tax treatment of provi‑
dent fund contributions proposed
in the Union Budget, the finance
ministry said a final view was yet
to be taken on the subject.In a statement, the ministry said
on members of the provident fund
who invest their withdrawals in
annuity funds, no tax will be
levied. If not, 60 percent of the
money withdrawn will be taxed.
Thus far, it is clear.
But what has created confusion
is over whether only the interest
component will be taxed upon
withdrawal or the whole corpus
itself built after April 1 this year.
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh
Adhia had alluded that only inter‑
est will be taxed and not the cor‑
pus. But a statement thereafter
suggests no firm decision has beentaken as yet.
"We have received representa‑
tions today from various sections
suggesting if the amount of 60
percent of corpus is not invested
in annuity products, tax should belevied only on the accumulated
returns of the corpus and not on
the contributed amount," it said.
"We have also received repre‑
sentations asking for not having
any monetary limit on employercontribution under EPF because
such limit is not there in NPS. The
Finance Minister would be consid‑
ering these suggestions and taking
a view on it in due course."
The salaried class was shocked
by Monday's budget proposal pre‑
sented by Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley that seemed to suggest that
60 percent of withdrawals fromthe provident fund accounts will
be taxed ‑‑ that, too, with retro‑
spective effect.
Jai tley sai d 40 perc ent of the
National Pension Scheme (NPS)
corpus would be tax‑exempt at the
time of withdrawal to make it
attractive for the savers. He said
the annuity fund, which goes to
legal heirs, also won't be taxable.
In case of superannuation funds
and recognised provident funds,
the same norm of 40 percent of
corpus to be tax‑free will apply in
respect of corpus created out of
the contributions made on or from
April 1, the minister added.He said the government was also
proposing a monetary limit for the
contributions of employer in
recognised provident and super‑
annuation fund at Rs.150,000 per
annum for taking the tax benefit.
The service tax on single premi‑
um annuity policies had been
reduced to 1.4 percent from 3.5
percent of the premium paid incertain cases.
Similarly, Jaitley also announced
exemption of service tax for annu‑
ity services provided by NPS and
services provided by Employees
Provident Fund Organisation
(EPFO).
The earlier clarification from
Adhia seems to have come due to
the uproar against the govern‑
ment's proposal. But the ministry
statement has clearly said the mat‑
ter was not closed as yet.
"The Finance Bi l l does not
reflect Adhia's clarification.
Perhaps the government may
change the relevant provisions,"Neha Malhotra, executive director
of Nangia and Company, an inter‑
national tax advisory and account‑
ing firm, told IANS.
10 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IA
Washington The US‑India Business Council
(USIBC) has hailed Indian Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley's third budget as "an accurate
path to economic growth in a period of
global uncertainty."
"The budget consolidates the
Government's pro‑growth agenda through
economic liberalisation, while remaining
committed to bringing in long‑term invest‑
ment and job opportunities in areas such as
agriculture, infrastructure development and
clean energy," it said.
In addition, the trade body comprised of
350 top‑tier US and Indian companies
advancing US‑India commercial ties, also
applauded the Indian government's contin‑
ued efforts to create a stable and certain tax
environment to encourage enterprise and
ease of doing business.
A number of recommendations by the
Easwar Committee and the Shome
Committees that aim to simplify the IncomeTax Act and administration of tax policy
were addressed in the budget, it noted.
USIBC said it is also pleased to see that the
budget supports the removal of any retroac‑
tive taxation.
"It is evident that the Government of India
is leaving no stone unturned to build on to
create an investment climate that is
favourable to improving India's ranking in
the ease of doing business index," USIBC
President, Dr. Mukesh Aghi said.
"Tax reforms presented in this budget are
unprecedented, and lay the road map to cre‑
ate an attractive environment for foreign
investors," he said.
"US companies are still eager for the
implementation of GST that has the poten‑
tial to be a game‑changer for the economy.
This is also an inclusive budget‑ one that
creates opportunities for increasing domes‑
tic demand."
In a recent USIBC survey, about 20 per‑
cent of USIBC member companies con‑
firmed that they have already invested over
$15 billion in India since Prime Minister
Narendra Modi assumed office.
"In 2016‑17, we expect an additional $27
billion to be invested by at least 52 US com‑
panies in India," Aghi said. "We are certain
that with this path of reforms, these num‑
bers are achievable."
Chennai Global credit rating agencies ‑‑
Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) and
Fitch Ratings ‑‑ termed India's fiscal budget
for 2016‑17 as credit positive for sover‑
eign rating, but pointed out certain uncer‑tainties. "The budget is modestly credit
positive for the sovereign, since it indicates
a continued commitment to gradual fiscal
consolidation by bringing down fiscal
deficits to 3 percent over the next two
years," said Atsi Sheth, a Moody's associate
managing director for the Sovereign Risk
Group, in a statement.
"However, the proposals did not contain
significant measures to address structural
fiscal challenges, such as the government's
low tax revenue base and the vulnerability
of government finances to economic
shocks," added Sheth.
"This situation suggests that any deficit
reduction will come from either cyclical
upswings or tactical fiscal management,rather than a broad‑based fiscal consolida‑
tion strategy," Sheth said.
According to Moody's while the budget is
moderately positive for most sectors, it is
negative for public sector banks.
The credit rating agency said the budget
is credit negative for public sector banks
due to its insufficient allocation of capital
for the sector, as the government has stuck
to the capital infusion road map announced
last year, budgeting Rs.25,000 crore in cap‑
ital injections. However, increased recogni‑
tion and provisioning for non‑performing
loads (NPL) will require a corresponding
front‑ending of capital requirements, which
suggests that capital constraints willremain a key credit weakness for public
sector banks, Moody's said.
The budget's changes on tax and duties
are credit positive for energy and commod‑
ity producers, but negative for auto‑mak‑
ers.
Finally, the budget is positive overall for
India's securitisation markets as changes in
the distribution tax norms for securitisa‑
tion trusts will improve investors' post‑tax
returns and make investments in securitisa‑
tion products more appealing, which could
attract a new class of investors to the asset
class.
According to Fitch Ratings, the budget
contains a number of elements that could
be positive from a sovereign rating per‑spective over the medium term, but uncer‑
tainties regarding implementation of the
reform agenda and meeting targeted rev‑
enue growth remain.
Fitch Ratings said the Indian government
retains its vision on how to structurally
improve the economy and create sustain‑
able growth and cited reforms relating to
financial sector, agriculture and liberalisa‑
tion of the foreign direct investment regime
announcements.
India's 2016‑17 budget creditpositive: Moody's & Fitch
People keep a close track of national budg‑et 2016‑17 at a TV showroom in Kolkata.
(Photo: IANS)
Jaitley to decide on taxing your provident fund
Business leaders keep a close track of national budget 2016‑17 during aprogramme organised by CII in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS)
US‑INDIA TRADE BODYHAILS INDIA BUDGET
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11March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IA
N e w D e l h i Former finance minister P.
Chidambaram said there was "no big idea" in
the 2016‑17 general budget but commended
the government on the fiscal consolidation
issue.
"There is no big idea in the budget. One
virtue of the budget is that it has left every
section of people equally disappointed. This
budget is a wasted opportunity,"
Chidambaram told the media here.
"I am happy that the government has
spurned the advise of Chief Economic Adviser
Arvind Subramanian and went in for fiscal
consolidation. I take this as a vindication of
the (earlier) United Progressive Alliance gov‑
ernment's policy on fiscal consolidation," thesenior Congress leader added.
He said 'reform' was a misunderstood word
for the government.
"Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) had prom‑
ised to reform to transform. The word 're‑
form' is a little understood but much‑used
word. Reform means reform of factor markets
or product markets. There is little evidence of
such reforms in the budget. The National
Democratic Alliance has followed its own
brand of budget‑making, which is just house‑
keeping and accounting," Chidambaram said.
The former finance minister emphasised that
the Bharatiya Janata Party‑led government
did not pass on the benefit of plummeting oil
prices to the common man to give a respite
from inflation.
"The government boasts that it earned more
tax revenues than it had budgeted at the
beginning of the year. Did they collect morecorporation tax? No. Did they collect more
income tax? No."
"What they collected more was excise
duties. It is a whopping increase of Rs.54,334
crore! That amount was due to the numerous
times the government increased excise duties
on petrol and diesel after the budget was pre‑
sented last year," he said.
"There is lukewarm reference to the Goods
and Sales Tax Bill but there is no promise of
accommodating the legitimate criticism by
the opposition.
I am happy that the UPA schemes have been
continued but the crucial problem is price.
There is no major initiative in increasing pro‑
ductivity of crucial crops," the Congress
leader said.
"The NDA government reneged on its prom‑
ise to give cost plus 50 percent. It did worse
last year by giving meagre or nil increases inthe MSP," Chidamabarm said while alleging
the government was running away from its
poll promise of giving a remunerative mini‑
mum support price to farmers.
No big idea in budget but fiscal consolidation good: Chidambaram
New Delhi Focusing on rural economy and
infrastructure with minor rebate for small
taxpayers but amnesty for defaulters,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled a
Rs.19.78 lakh crore ($300 billion) budget
for 2016‑17, earmarking more money for
health, literacy and roads.
The focus on rural economy and the
promise to double the income of farmers in
five years came against the backdrop of a
distressed agrarian economy, fewer jobs
and assembly elections in five states this
and next year.
The direct impact on taxpayers from the
proposals announced during the 100‑
minute budget speech will be a Rs.3,000
rebate, benefiting 20 million assessees.
Those living in rented homes will get a
higher exemption of Rs.60,000 now,
against Rs.24,000 earlier. But the tax slabs
remain unchanged.
At the same time, withdrawal of provi‑
dent fund and pension upon retirement are
partially taxable.
Jaitley also announced an amnes ty for
those with disputed tax claims, with a waiv‑
er of penalty on amounts up to Rs.10 lakh.
He said 300,000 such cases were pending
before appellate authorities, for an amount
totalling Rs.5.5 lakh crore.
Similarly he also unveiled a limited tax
compliance window from June 1 to
September 30 for people to declare their
undisclosed incomes, with a tax liability of
45 percent of value, including the sur‑
charge and penalties ‑‑ together with
immunity from scrutiny, enquiry and pros‑
ecution.
His other steps include a pilot project to
extend the direct cash benefit transfers,
currently in areas like cooking gas to the
fertiliser sector, as also Rs.25,000 crore for
the recapitalisation of state‑run banks that
are under financial stress on account of
mounting bad loans.
While there were misgivings over money
set aside for additional capital for banks,
Jaitley told a press conference later that
more money will follow as and when war‑
ranted. "The budget is not the last word on
this," he said, adding he was also open to
consolidation of commercial banks.
On cutting subsidies, he promised a bill
soon to use Aadhaar for direct transfer of
cash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick
to appreciate the budget and said its focus
on development of agriculture, farmers,
women and rural areas will give a major
push to India's agrarian economy. "It will
also help the poor man realise the dream
of owning a house," he said.
Jai tley also sa id the governme nt wi ll
meet its fiscal targets but said that from
next year he proposed to do away with the
classification of plan and non‑plan expen‑
diture ‑‑ a move bound to stir up a contro‑
versy.
"I have weighed the policy options and
decided that prudence lies in adhering to
fiscal targets. Consequently, the fiscal
deficit in revised estimated 2015‑16 and
budget estimates 2016‑17 have been
retained at 3.9 percent and 3.5 percent of
GDP, respectively," he said.
Jaitley also enhanced the total expendi‑
ture for this fiscal to Rs.19.78 lakh crore
from Rs.17.85 lakh crore in the revised
estimates for this fiscal ‑‑ a hike of 10.7
percent ‑‑ while the plan expenditure com‑
ponent was revised upward by 15.3 per‑
cent.
"A broad understanding over years has
been plan expenditures are good and non‑
plan expenditures are bad. This results in
skewed allocations in the budget," he said,
adding this would be dispensed with from
2017‑18 to focus on revenue and capital
classification of expenditure.
This move is likely to face stiff opposi‑
tion.
Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, decided to
bring his fellow practitioners under the
service tax net of 14 percent. He also
imposed an across‑the‑board cess of 0.5
percent on services towards farmer wel‑
fare, which will add 50 paise for every
Rs.100 one spends on food to mobile bills.
He also left the market mood sullen by
proposing to hike securities transaction tax
for options to 0.05 percent from 0.017
percent, levy an additional dividend distri‑
bution tax of 10 percent payable by recipi‑
ents in excess of Rs.10 lakh per annum and
1 percent surcharge on luxury cars.
This was enough to sully the market
mood. The sensitive index of the BSE
dipped sharply to a 52‑week low soon after
the finance minister read out these propos‑
als, but eventually recovered slightly
towards the end of the day, but still down
152.30 points, or 0.66 percent, at
23,002.00 points.
Jaitley said the bulk of his tax plan was in
nine categories: Relief to small assessees,
boosting growth and employment, incen‑
tivising "Make in India", encouraging pen‑
sion, promoting affordable housing, push‑
ing rural economy, reducing litigation, tax‑
ation simplification and accountability.
Among the various sectors, the allocation
for the ministry of agriculture and farmers'
welfare was enhanced by 93 percent to
Rs.44,485 crore, for rural development by
10.7 percent at Rs.87,765 crore and for
health and family welfare by 13 percent to
Rs.39,533 crore.
A major boost was also given to infra‑
structure including energy with a 11.3 per‑
cent hike in the outlay to Rs.246,246 crore,
as also for human resource development
with allocation up by 7 percent at
Rs.72,394 crore.
The budget also used the opportunity to
send out signals to the global investor,
seeking to ease the foreign equity norms.
Notably, 100 percent such equity will now
be permitted in multi‑brand retailing
where the produce sold has been
processed and sourced locally.
In a bid to boost entrepreneurship, a
lower corporate tax rate has been
proposed for small firms with a turnover of
below Rs.5 crore, to 29 plus surcharge
and cess, and 100 percent deduction of
profits for three out of five years for start‑
ups set up between April 2016 and March
2019.
Similarly to boost "Make in India" ,
changes were proposed in customs and
excise levies on certain inputs to reduce
costs and improve competitiveness in sec‑
tors such as IT hardware, capital goods,
defence, textiles, minerals fuels, chemicals
and petrochemicals, and aircraft and ship
repair.
Jaitley opens coffers for rural India,unveils tax amnesty
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram.(Photo: IANS)
Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley set to present the General Budget 2016‑17 inNew Delhi. (Photo: IANS/PIB)
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12 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IA
N e w D e l h i "N o
direct link" has been
found between Ja wa ha rl al Ne hr u
University (JNU)
Students' Union
president Kanhaiya
Kumar and anti‑
India sloganeering
at the campus on
February 9, said a
Delhi government
report on March 3.
"I have submitted
the report to the
Delhi government
late last
(Wednesday) night,"
District Magistrate, New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar,
who conducted the inquiry, told IANS.The report also stated that the role of Umar
Khalid, another JNU student accused of rais‑
ing anti‑India slogans, needs to be further
investigated.
"Umar Khalid was visible in many videos.
His support for the role of Kashmir and Afzal
Guru is known and he was the organiser of
the event. His role needs to be further investi‑
gated," the report states.
Sanjay Kumar refused to divulge the details
but an official privy to the report, who did not
want to be named, said: "The DM report says
they could not find any link between what
Kanhaiya Kumar said and the anti‑India slo‑
gans raised at the gathering. "No witness or
video available to me could support allegation
against him," Sanjay Kumar stated in thereport. But the official said that "anti‑India
slogans were indeed raised in the campus.
There is no doubt about it".
"Anti‑national slogans were indeed raisedon the campus of the JNU. The university
administration has identified few faces who
were clearly heard raising anti‑India slogans.
Whereabouts of them should be found out
and their role must be investigated further,"
the report stated. The official said that seven
videos were sent to Truth Labs, Hyderabad, of
which three were found to be doctored. "In
those doctored versions, video has been edit‑
ed and voices added," the official said.
The state government had ordered a magis‑
terial probe into the matter on February 13.
On February 9, a cultural event was organ‑
ised at JNU to commemorate the hanging of
parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
During the event, anti‑India slogans were
allegedly raised, following which JNUSU pres‑ident Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested by Delhi
Police on February 12.
JNU CONTROVERSY:
BREATHER FOR KANHAIYA
RJD workers celebrate JNU s tudent leader Kanhaiya Kumar'sbail in Patna. (Photo: IANS)
New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on March 3 invoked late Congress stal‑
warts and prime ministers JawaharlalNehru and Rajiv Gandhi to urge the opposi‑
tion to let parliament function "peacefully
and responsibly".
"Parliament is a forum where different
view points are put forward, where ques‑
tions are being asked to the government,
where government is made accountable
and nobody is spared, and one shouldn't
expect otherwise," Modi said, replying to
the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the
motion of thanks to President Pranab
Mukherjee's address to parliament.
"And in doing so, it would be great if we
uphold parliamentary traditions" to let the
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha function
"peacefully and responsibly", he said.
"It is not me saying this... These are thewords of former prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi," Modi told the Lok Sabha with
most of the MPs present in the house.
He also referred to India's first prime
minister Nehru and his speeches in parlia‑
ment and urged the opposition to help the
government pass crucial legislations,
including the Goods and Services Tax bill.
"If house maintains decorum, we will be
able to put our point of view in a better
manner," he said.
Modi also referred to Left leader
Somnath Chatterjee who was Lok Sabha
speaker during the first UPA government
from 2004 to 2009.
"As far as disruptions are concerned, our
former speaker and some members herewhose guide and philosopher Somnath
Chatterjee said that to disrupt is totally
counter‑productive."
Modi also stressed that the nation suffers
if parliament does not function properly.
"The House is a place where debates are
to take place. When parliament sessions
are not functional, the nation suffers and
more than that the MPs suffer because
they can't discuss issues," said Modi.
Parliament is a forum where the govern‑
ment is questioned and made to clarify its
stand on various issues, Modi said and
added that the sessions are fruitful if boundaries are maintained during a
debate.
Modi invokes Rajiv,Nehru in Parliament
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.(Photo: IANS)
Bengaluru Liquor baron Vijay Mallya filed objec‑
tions to the State Bank of India's (SBI) interlocutory
application (IA) on March 3 before the debt recovery
tribunal seeking his arrest in the defunct Kingfisher
Airline's multi‑crore‑rupee loan default case.
"We are filing our objections today (Thursday)
against the IA on the merit that the tribunal was not
the right forum to seek a defaulter's arrest or
impound his passport," Mallya's counsel told IANShere.
The bank's IA also sought a direction from the tri‑
bunal, headed by judge R. Benkanahalli, to the
authority for impounding Mallya's passport, seize
his assets and claim on the $75 million (Rs.516
crore) severance package British liquor major
Diageo signed with him on February 25.
After arguments by the bank's advocate, the judge
posted the IA for next hearing on Fridayand gave
notice to Mallya for filing objections, if any.
A consortium of 17 state‑run and private banks
led by SBI moved an application a day after the
February 25 Diageo deal in the tribunal seeking a
directive to Mallya for paying the amount Diageo
agreed to pay him over the next five years, including
$40 million this year and balance $35 million by
2020.Kingfisher Ltd. owes the consortium Rs.7,800
crore as outstanding loans, including Rs.1,600 crore
from SBI as a lead bank over a decade from 2004‑
12. The debt‑ridden airline suspended operations in
October 2012 due to staff strike and termination of
its licence by the civil aviation regulator DGCA sub‑
sequently.
New Delhi Finance MinisterArun Jaitey said the investi‑
gation into the alleged Aircel‑Maxis scam was at a "criticalstage" but refused to divulgemore details about the possi‑ble money laundering caseinvolving Congress leader P.Chidambaram's son Karti'sfirms. Denying that there wasany polit ical vendettainvolved in the probe, Jaitleytold the Lok Sabha that thegovernment was not influ‑enced by the opposition'sstance over the issue thatstalled parliament proceed‑ings on Tuesday andWednesday morning.
He said the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) had"already filed a charge‑sheetinto the case and that proce‑
dures were being followed instrict compliance with the
law".Let the case details go to
the court and then "all thedocuments will become pub‑lic", he said.
Raids by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) and otherinvestigating agencies wereconducted in the Aircel‑Maxiscase, especially in Chennai, hesaid.
AIADMK members raisedthe issue against Karti in theparliament, displaying copiesof an English daily whichclaimed that, as per investiga‑tions by the ED and Income
Tax authorit ies duringsearches at his premises, hehad invested in real estateacross the world.
Vijay Mallya in the dock
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya. (Photo: IANS)
AIRCEL‑MAXIS SCAM
PROBE AT 'CRITICAL
STAGE': JAITLEY
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13March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IA
Washington: Describing India as "a politico‑
economic opportunity" for the Asia Pacific,
India's Ambassador to the US Arun K. Singh
has said it could play an important role for
growth, development and stability of the
region.
India's participation in the 21‑nation Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
could also help consolidate India's quest to
speed up growth and to integrate closer with
its neighboring Asia‑Pacific economies, hesaid here on Tuesday.
"India represents a politico‑economic
opportunity for APEC," Singh said during a
discussion at the Indian embassy on "India
and the APEC Opportunity" over a new
report brought out by the Asia Society Policy
Institute (ASPI).
The envoy noted that India was a G20
country and member of the East Asia Summit
and the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP), "whose economic and
political weight is bound to increase in the
coming years".
"We believe that India could play an impor‑
tant role within APEC for growth, develop‑
ment and stability of the region," he said. "In
turn, membership of APEC would help Indiain integrating further with economies of the
region, resulting in a win‑win situation for
all," Singh said.
"It can also help India become familiar and
more involved with the sweeping changes
taking place in the region towards reducing
transaction costs, improving connectivity
and supply chain linkages, strengthening
human capital development, and building
sustainable and inclusive communities," he
said. "Today Asia is witnessing a consolida‑
tion of competing mega regional trade
agreements," Singh said, citing the US led
Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement,
the RCEP, and APEC promoted Free Trade
Area for the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).
"While India is part of RCEP, it is not
involved in TPP or FTAAP. Yet, India has
already become a 'strategic partner' of sever‑
al APEC member countries and all, but four,
APEC member countries already have or are
pursuing trade agreements with India bilat‑
erally or multilaterally, including China."
"India joining the APEC forum can bring
India's economic integration with the region
to a level‑matching its strategic partnership
with the APEC members and groups like
ASEAN," he said. In its new report, "India's
Future in Asia: The APEC Opportunity", the
Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) highlights
the significant benefits that would accrue to
India, APEC members, and the region as a
result of India joining the forum.
Accra Ghana): India Inc. has said
that with Africa's farm sector pro‑
jec ted to grow to $1 tril lion by
2030, there is significant scope
for the continent's agriculture to
benefit from India's experience.
In a forward to a global account‑
ing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) report on agricultural part‑
nership between India and the 54‑
nation continent, the secretary
general of the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI), A. Didar Singh,
said India's food sector is poised
for a transformation and needed
to look for consumers with similar
consumption patterns, while
Africa offers one of the most
attractive and large untapped mar‑
kets. With the changing global
landscape for agriculture and
food, India and Africa have
emerged as key partners in con‑
tributing to global food security,
Singh added.
The PwC report said Africa "rep‑
resents the 'last frontier' in global
food and agricultural markets".
"The continent houses almost 60
percent of the world's uncultivated
land and an abundance of natural
resources."
It also said sub‑Saharan Africa
was specifically attractive due to
the large percentage of uncultivat‑
ed fertile land and the presence of
water. In addition, the lack of
finance to invest in the sector has
also been a problem. It is, there‑
fore, Africa's largest economy,
Nigeria, was turning to China to
develop its commercial agricul‑
ture.
PwC India's head of agriculture
and natural resources Ajay Kakra
said Africa's gross domestic prod‑
uct (GDP) is projected to reach
$2.6 trillion by 2020 and has 11
of the world's fastest growing
economies.
"At present, India and Africa
together have manpower of
almost $2.2 billion and a com‑
bined GDP estimate of more than
$3 trillion," Kakra said.
"The agricultural sector in Africa
has great potential to contribute
to this growth, with the continent
having almost 60 percent of
uncultivated land in the world and
currently producing only 10 per‑
cent of the global output," he
added.
He said Africa is aspiring to raise
its agricultural output from $280
billion in 2010 to $880 billion in
2030.
"This increase will be enabled by
bringing potentially cultivable
land into cultivation, increasing
yields and shifting to cultivation of
high‑value and high‑yielding
crops," Kakra said.
The report estimated that sub‑
Saharan Africa alone requires
additional annual investments of
as much as $50 billion to make
the agricultural system work bet‑
ter. "Over the last decade, coun‑
tries that have increased invest‑
ments in agriculture as per the
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP)
targets have seen reductions in
hunger and poverty, and increases
in productivity," it said.
"Ghana, Togo, Zambia, Burundi,
Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Congo,
Senegal, Ethiopia and Malawi are
some examples," it added.
The PwC report suggested that
to take Africa's agriculture to the
next level, "public‑private partner‑
ships throughout the value chain
as a whole are key," adding that
the role of governments in sup‑
porting the private sector to grow
their businesses should not be
underestimated.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (AEPC) is a forum for 21 PacificRim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the
region. India does not border the region, and was denied admissionby some member countries. But with India becoming the fastest
growing big economy, admittance seems imminent.
India's Ambassador to the US Arun K. Singh
'India, Africa are key partners in global food security'
India a 'politico‑economic opportunity'for Asia Pacific: Amb. Arun Singh
N e w Y o r k : With China
and the rest of the global
economy slowing down,India has emerged as the
fastest growing major
economy in the world. A
new Asia Society Policy
Institute (ASPI) report
argues that India has
great potential to boost
economic growth at
home, in the Asia‑Pacific,
and globally if it is better
integrated with the
region by joining the
Asia‑Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC). APEC, a forum of 21
member economies, has played a central
role in promoting regional economic inte‑
gration in the Asia‑Pacific. As APEC consid‑ers adding new economies, India is “the
ideal next member,” argue authors Harsha
V. Singh, senior associate at the
International Center for Trade and
Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and
Anubhav Gupta, ASPI senior program offi‑
cer, in the a new report.
“The first necessary step toward greater
Indian participation in Asian trade and
investment flows is membership in APEC,”
writes ASPI President and former Australian
PM Kevin Rudd in the
foreword to the report. “It
is a step whose time hascome, for India, for APEC,
and for the international
economy.”
The report concludes
that Indiaʼs inclusion in
APEC would produce tan‑
gible benefits for India,
APEC member economies,
and the region. India is
projected by the US
Department of Agriculture
to be the world's third
largest economy by 2030.
Its middle class, expected to grow to 475
million by 2030, can provide a significant
boost to global demand if better connected
to other markets. India's growing workforcecould help offset aging populations and
labor shortages in other parts of the world.
For these reasons, in the past year, key
APEC economies, such as the US, China,
Japan, and Russia, have welcomed Indiaʼs
interest in APEC. The reportʼs authors cau‑
tion, however, that not all APEC members
are currently in favor of Indian membership
because they view Indian policy and politics
as insufficiently supportive of more open
trade and greater regional integration.
Asia Society urges Indiato join APEC to boost
global growth
Kevin Rudd, President of AsiaSociety Policy Institute and
former Australian PM.
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14 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info OP-ED
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
By Abhik Ghosh
What's the one assurance investors
want before setting up manufactur‑
ing base in India? The ease of mak‑
ing workforce adjustments in line with chang‑
ing market conditions. In this area, Indian
labor laws are among the most restrictive.
The Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 has two
provisions in the way of workforce adjust‑
ments. Chapter VB of the Act requires prior
approval of the appropriate government
before resorting to any layoff, retrenchment
or closure in establishments employing 100
or more workers. The draft Labour Code onIndustrial Relations currently in circulation
seeks to raise the threshold to establishments
employing 300 or more workers, but it is still
work in progress.
Another major contentious provision is
Section 9A of the Act which mandates 21
days' notice before affecting any change in
established conditions of service of any
employee, including any change necessitated
by "rationalization , standardization or
improvement of plant or technique". This is
anathema for investors, particularly in this
age of fast changing technologies and manu‑
facturing processes.
Contract labour is yet another major area of
concern. Investors would surely want to know
if engaging workers on temporary contractswould run afoul of the law. The Contract
Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970,
as the name suggests, is enforced to regulate
the practice and abolish it in certain cases.
In other words, the practice is not prohibit‑
ed. Engaging contract workers for temporary,
intermittent or seasonal work is allowed but
using them for work of perennial nature vio‑
lates the letter and spirit of the law.
Why would investors want to engage work‑
ers on temporary contracts in the first place?
To meet surges in demand for goods and
services requiring urgent workforce adjust‑
ments. Immediate deployment of regular
workers is not always feasible and pruning
them alongside falling demand often meets
legal obstacles. Moreover, regular workersare increasingly becoming less productive
and more expensive.
The central government has yet to initiate
any action in this area. Rajasthan has taken
the early lead, raising the threshold for appli‑
cability of the law to cover industries or con‑
tractors engaging 40 or more contract work‑
ers, up from the original 20. Other state gov‑
ernments are expected to follow suit. The
move has been welcomed by employers and
criticized as anti‑worker by trade unions.
But changing the applicability clause is like
nibbling at the edges. Plunging into the core,
the status of temporary workers must be
redefined and extended beyond the present
limit of 240 days in a year. That should take
care of persistent demands by the traditionaltrade union movement for regularization of
all contract workers.
On this aspect, the experiment by India's
largest carmaker is innovative and instruc‑
tive. In 2012, Maruti introduced a new cate‑
gory of directly recruited temporary workers,
substantially reducing the role of intermedi‑
aries. It has appreciably narrowed the gap in
emoluments and allowances between regular
and contract workers, which is the main bone
of contention.
Temporary workers get on‑the‑job training
as apprentices and become eligible for regu‑lar appointment in due course. Maruti pays
such workers a stipend for the period they
must wait out for regular appointment. This
also promotes a sense of belonging and soli‑
darity with the company. It is the habit of
institutions to give birth to loyalties. The poli‑
cy has worked well and has brought industri‑
al peace to what was a volatile workplace.
The big question is: How soon can the cen‑
tral government bring about meaningful
changes in the existing laws to facilitate quick
workforce adjustments? Labor reforms are
critical to the "Make in India" campaign.Investors have been waiting with anticipation.
Brand India cannot afford to disappoint.
Why Make in India is stumbling over our labor laws
Labor reforms are critical to the "Make in India" campaign. Investors have been waiting withanticipation. Brand India cannot afford to disappoint. (Photo: IANS)
By Amulya Ganguli
Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi
described MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act) as a living monument to the Congress's
decades‑old neglect of rural distress, thequota system is the fallout of, first, a similar
prolonged failure in the fields of employ‑
ment and education and, secondly, of politi‑
cal chicanery.
Haryana is bearing the brunt of these fail‑
ures because of the violent agitation by the
Jat community for reservations.
Originally envisaged as a gesture for a lim‑
ited period to the Dalits and Adivasis who
suffered social and economic deprivation for
many centuries, reservations are now
regarded as a pathway to easy official jobs
and out‑of‑turn admissions to government
schools and colleges by the backward castes.
In view of these advantages, which over‑
ride merit, the quota system has become a
tool in the hands of vote‑hungry politiciansfor buttressing their support bases.
The prime villain in this respect was prime
minister V.P. Singh, who included the back‑
ward castes in the quota system in 1990 as
a safeguard against being undercut by his
rival, Devi Lal. The Pandora's box was thus
opened with more and more communities
seeking the benefits of secure jobs in gov‑
ernment offices and seats for their children
in public educational institutions.
However, it is the stagnant economy and a
moribund educational sector which fueled
the demand for preferential treatment. Had
the economy prospered and a greater num‑
ber of jobs been available, there wouldn't
have been such a rush for reservations.A buoyant economy would have created an
atmosphere of wellness, encouraging
greater public and private investment in the
educational sector.
But the 2/3 percent Hindu rate of growth
under the Congress's "socialist" regimes till
1991 ensured that the economy limped
along, aggravating the unemployment prob‑
lem and starving the academic sphere of
funds.
The post‑1991 era of liberalization did not
bring about a dramatic improvement in the
situation despite the much higher growth
rate because the world had entered a period
of automated technology where machines
did the work of men. Hence the term 'joblessgrowth'.
Although more jobs were available than
before in the services, real estate and infra‑
structure sectors, they were not enough to
satisfy the growing demand, which was
caused not only by a rising population but
also the limited availability of agricultural
land as the farming families grew in num‑
bers. Needless to say, it is not only the fail‑
ures on the economic front which added to
the appeal of reservations but also an offi‑
cial inability to enforce the population con‑
trol program.
The distortion which V.P. Singh introduced
in the quota system was to include the rela‑
tively well‑off, though socially backward,
communities like the Yadavs of the Hindi
heartland who had considerable clout in the
countryside.
Now, the Jats who, like the Yadavs, are an
influential group in the countryside are alsoclamoring for quotas in their favor. Not sur‑
prisingly, the Supreme Court described them
as a "self‑proclaimed socially backward class
of citizens" while turning down the
Congress‑led central government's decision
to confer the backward caste status on them
before the last general election.
This warping of the system has recently
been accentuated by the demand of the
Patidars or the Patels of Gujarat for reserva‑
tions despite being well‑placed, both socially
and economically.
But the worst example of the skewed
nature of reservations was the demand by
the Gujjars of north India for relegation
from their present backward caste status to
that of scheduled tribes or Adivasis.The idea of scrapping the quota system
has been floated by both proponents of a
market economy, who favor a meritocracy,
and social conservatives like Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan
Bhagwat, who wants a review of the system.
Irrespective of whether Bhagwat's views
reflect the longstanding resentment of the
upper castes over the bounties offered to
the lower castes by reservations, there is lit‑
tle doubt that the quota system is out of
place in an open economy with its emphasis
on individual enterprise and not family
background.
Jat mayhem: Quota system out of sync in open economy
The quota system is out of place in an open economy with its emphasis on individualenterprise and not family background. (Photo: IANS)
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Photo taken on Nov. 23,
2015 showsthe scenery of Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall of Chinaafter a snowfall in Tianjin, north China.(Photos: IANS)
Photo taken on Dec. 3, 2015 shows an illumination modelingthe Temple of Heaven at the Magic Winter Lights Show inHouston, TX. The Show there was held in winter months.
WINTERSCAPES
People walk on asnow‑covered streetin Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner
MongoliaAutonomous Region,Nov. 22, 2015. Heavy
snow had hit a vastarea of north China,disrupting traffic inBeijing, Tianjin and
Inner MongoliaAutonomous Region.
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LENS EY E 15March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info
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16 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info ULT I MATE B OLLY WOOD
The Revenant" had a golden
run at the 88th Academy
Awards, where its lead actor
Leonardo DiCaprio broke his Oscar
jinx by winning the best actor tro‑
phy and Alejandro GonzalezInarritu was named best director.
The gala night in Los Angeles saw
British filmmaker of Indian origin
Asif Kapadia winning for "Amy";
late India‑born British actor Saeed
Jaf frey getting an 'In memori am'
honour and Bollywood actress
Priyanka Chopra taking to the stage
as a star presenter.
DiCaprio, who had been nominat‑
ed for the golden statuette four
times for his acting earlier, took
home his first Academy Award in
the Actor in a Leading Role catego‑
ry for his power‑packed perform‑
ance in "The Revenant". He rightful‑
ly received a standing ovation and
accepted the honor with an impact‑
ful speech, in which he addressed
climate change.
It was also a first for Brie Larson
when she won an Oscar in the
Actress in a Leading Role category
for her portrayal of a kidnapped
girl imprisoned by a psychopath in
"Room".
The big surprise came when
"Spotlight" ‑‑ a movie which shines
the spotlight on journalism and a
story of uncovering a child molesta‑
tion scandal ‑‑ won the Best Picture
title at the ceremony held at the
world‑famous Dolby Theatre.
However, the maximum awards
went to George Miller's directorial
"Mad Max: Fury Road" that picked
up six trophies ‑‑ Best Sound
Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best
Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hair
Styling, Best Production Design and
Best Costume Design categories.
The Supporting Actor category saw
English actor Mark Rylance defeat‑
ing Sylvester Stallone to win the
Academy Award for Steven
Spielberg's cold war drama "Bridge
of Spies", backed by Indian busi‑
nessman Anil Ambani‑led Reliance
Entertainment; and Swedish actress
Alicia Vikander won in the same
category for women, for her role in
"The Danish Girl". The awards cere‑
mony, held at the Dolby Theatre
here, was hosted by actor‑comedian
Chris Rock who tackled the 'lack of
diversity' and #OscarsSoWhite con‑
troversy, in a light‑hearted manner ‑
‑ drawing mixed reactions. For
India, while Marathi film "Court",
the country's official entry for Best
Foreign Language Film, did not
make it to the final nomination list
this year, there were proud
moments for the country in abun‑
dance.
Priyanka Chopra looked stunning
in an elegant white gown, a cre‑ation by Lebanese designer Zuhair
Murad. Besides flaunting a perfect
red carpet appearance, she exuded
confidence as she presented the
Oscar in the Best Film Editing cago‑
ry to "Mad Max: Fury Road" along
with Hollywood star Liev Schreiber.
Also presenting an award at the
event was British actor of Indian origin Dev Patel, while
London‑based filmmaker of
Indian origin Asif Kapadia
bagged the Best
D o c u m e n t a r y
Feature Oscar for
"Amy", based on
the l ife of late
singer Amy
Winehouse.
H o w e v e r ,
I n d i a n ‑
A m e r i c a n
Pixar artist
Sanjay Patel 's
animated short
" S a n j a y ' s
Super Team",
which tells the
story of an
i m m i g r a n t
c o m m u n i t y
and "a family
of colour",
lost the Oscar
to Chilean
film "Bear
Story". There
was a
Malayalee angle too in Sajan Skaria,
who worked as the character super‑
visor in "Inside Out", which was
named the Best Animated Feature
Film.
Also, Indian‑born British actor
Saeed Jaffrey was remembered in
the annual "In Memoriam" mon‑
tage, along with Alan Rickman,
David Bowie and Leonard Nimoy.
For Pakistan, it was time for cele‑
brations as filmmaker Sharmeen
Obaid‑Chinoy won the Oscar for
Best Documentary‑Short Subject for
her project based on honour killingtitled "A Girl in the River: The Price
of Forgiveness". It is her second
Oscar win, and she said the fact that
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is hop‑
ing to change laws around honour
killing following the success of her
documentary, shows the "power of
the film".
The night of the glitz and glam‑
our would have been incomplete
without soulful music. Sam Smith
performed Oscar winning song
"Writing's on the Wall" from the
James Bond movie "Spectre", while
The Weeknd performed Oscar nom‑
inated song "Earned it" from "Fifty
Shades of Grey", and Lady Gaga
called for an end to rape culturewith a rendition of her "Till it hap‑
pens to you". Other star presenters
at the Oscars included Julianne
Moore, Reese Witherspoon, Henry
Cavil l , Russell Crowe and Cate
Blanchett. In fact, "Titanic" star Kate
Winslet sparkled in accessories by
NIRAV MODI jewels, an Indian luxu‑
ry brand with a global presence.
British filmmaker of Indian origin Asif Kapadia bagged the Best
Documentary Feature Oscar for "Amy", based on the life of late
singer Amy Winehouse. Actress Daisy Ridley and British actor of
Indian descent Dev Patel handed over the trophy to the film's produc‑
er James Gay‑Rees and director
Kapadia, who won a Grammy Award
for "Amy" earlier this month. The
documentary uses archive footage to
tell the story of the "Rehab" hitmak‑
er's life and premature death. She
died at the age of 27.
These are the first Academy Award
nominations and win for Kapadia and
Gay‑Rees. The film also won a British
Academy of Film and Television Arts
(BAFTA) honor.
In d i a n ‑ b o r n
British actor
Saeed Jaffrey,
popular for movies
like "Gandhi" and
"Masoom", was
honored at the88th Academy
Awards ceremony
here in the "In
Memoriam" montage. Saeed,
who passed away in London in
November last year and was
posthumously named for the
Padma Shri , India 's fourth
highest civilian award earlier
this year, got a musical tribute
by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters.
He was remembered at the
awards ceremony, which was
held at at the Dolby Theatre.
Saeed was included in the
annual montage along with
Wes Craven,
Alan Rickman,
Ja me s Ho rn er ,
Omar Shariff ,
David Bowie,
Leonard Nimoy
and ChristopherLee. Grohl put
his rock music on
pause to pay the
musical tribute as he rendered
The Beatles hit song
"Blackbird" as the footage of
the departed souls played in
the background, creating an
emotional moment. Saeed was
best known to the international
audience for his roles in films
like "Gandhi", "The Man Who
Would Be King", "A Passage to
India", aceThe Horsemen" and
"The Wilby Conspiracy", among
others.
Saeed Jaffrey.(File photo)
Asif Kapadia. (Photo: IANS)
Asif Kapadia wins Oscar for 'Amy'
Bollywood starPriyanka Chopra
presented theBest Film Editing
Oscar toMargaret Sixelfor "Mad Max:
Fury Road"
LeonardoDiCaprio of "The Revenant"after winningthe award forbest actor in aleading role.(Photos: IANS)
Saeed Jaffreyhonored at Oscars
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TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Superstar Shah Rukh
Khan, whose upcom‑
ing film "Fan" prom‑
ises to feature world class
visual effects, says it has
been his "humble attempt
to really make it in India".
"My most cherished and
close to the heart aspect
of work. Been my humbleattempt to really make it
in India. Love them," SRK
posted on Twitter on
Tuesday along with a link
of Red Chillies VFX, a
visual effects company
set‑up by the actor in
2006.
The company has worked on films like
"Ra.One" and "Krrish 3", which had an
abundance of visual effects.
"Fan" revolves around a young boy from
Delhi named Gaurav who embarks on a
journey to the ci ty of dreams, Mumbai, in
order to wish his favourite actor Aryan
Khanna on his birthday. As Gaurav and as
Aryan Khanna, Shah Rukh is ready to treathis real life fans with a dual avatar, and he
has admitted that it took some doing to
work on the make‑up for his role as
Gaurav. Earlier, Shah Rukh had said that
"Fan" is a "special film" considering that he
hopes that it has turned out to be "some‑
thing that Bollywood can look up to in
terms of technology and make‑up that has
not been used in the industry so far". The
film's trailer was launched by his fans at
the Yash Raj Studios here on Monday.
Directed by Maneesh Sharma and pro‑duced by Aditya Chopra, "Fan" also fea‑
tures Shriya Pilgaonkar among others. The
film is slated for an April 15 release.
With veteran actor Kabir Bedi congrat‑ulating Preity Zinta on her marriage,
social media was abuzz with reports
that the Bollywood actress has already said "Ido" to her American beau Gene Goodenough
in a hush‑hush ceremony in Los Angeles.The virtual world had a flood of specula‑
tions that the “Kal Ho Naa Ho” star had
exchanged wedding vows with Goodenoughon Monday night (Tuesday morning in India).
There is also news that Preity's close friends ‑‑
fashion designer and stylist Surily Goel andSussanne Khan ‑‑ were part of the secret cere‑
mony. Sussanne, the estranged wife of Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, also shared a
photograph with Surily on Instagram, and cap‑
tioned it as: “Calif Sunday with my @surilydp‑goel Sunshine and a vintage car. #cityofangels
#LA #dreamcatcher.”
However, there was no direct mention of Preity's wedding. Sending the twitterati into a
tizzy, Kabir Bedi tweeted: “Huge congrats my
friend @realpreityzinta on your marriage toGene in Los Angeles, City of Angels.
Blessings!” A user posted: “Finally#PreityZinta married a Goodenough Gene!”,
while another shared: “Actress Preity Zinta
gets married to Gene Goodenough ‑ so will shenow have the epic name Preity Goodenough?”.
With no confirmation on the union from both
the parties, it seems the marriage gossip is not
leaving Preity's side. Last year, there werereports that the "Soldier" actress will be mar‑
rying Goodenough in January, and thenaround Valentine's Day. But she had declined
the reports, saying that she is fed up with all
the speculation about her personal life.
17
Come April and Kapil
Sharma will be back with
his brand of comedy on the
small screen with his squad,
including Sunil Grover and Ali
Asgar. The star comedian says
his aim has always been to
spread happiness, and he hopes
to do the same with “The Kapil
Sharma Show”.
The first episode of the show
will be shot with a live audience
as an event in Delhi.
“Me and my team are over‑
whelmed with the kind of love
India has showered on us. Our
aim has always been to bring a
smile to everyone and with 'The
Kapil Sharma Show', we wish to
do just that,” Kapil said in a state‑
ment.
The show will now be aired on
Sony Entertainment Television
starting April 23. Other cast
members on the show are Kiku
Sharda, Navjot Singh Sidhu,
Sumona Chakravarti and
Chandan Prabhakar.
Produced by K9 and Frames
Production, the show promises to
provide unlimited, unadulterated
and spur‑of‑the‑moment enter‑
tainment.
Before the premiere of the
show, fans will get a chance to
interact with their favourite stars
as they embark on an entertain‑
ing journey with a multi‑city
tour. Starting at Amritsar on
March 5, Kapil and his gang will
move to Bhopal (March 11),
Lucknow (March 16) and Delhi
(first week of April).
Danish Khan, executive vice
president and business head of
the channel, said: “It is a family
show, which we hope will become
a habitual dinner‑time ritual for
families across Indian homes.”
March 5-11, 2016ULT I MATE B OLLY WOOD
Actor‑businesswoman Preity Zinta.
Comedian Kapil Sharma.
Kapil Sharma to be back onTV in April with more fun
Actor Irrfan Khan
says he is thrilledthat British film‑
maker of Indian origin
Asif Kapadia's "Amy" wasnamed the Best
Documentary Feature at
the 88th AcademyAwards in Los Angeles.
"Amy" is based on thelife of late singer Amy
Winehouse.
Irrfan, who workedwith Kapadia a decade
ago for "The Warrior",
said in a statement: "I amextremely thrilled for
Asif. He is an amazingfilmmaker and I am
happy that we had the
opportunity to worktogether in the past.
"His film 'The Warrior'
was a turning point of my life. It's overwhelm‑
ing to know that finallyhe got the much deserv‑
ing Oscar."
Irrfan is himself an internationally popular actor, who has acted inHollywood films like "Jurrasic World" and "A Mighty Heart". He has
also shot for "Inferno" with Hollywood actor Tom Hanks.
Irrfan 'extremelythrilled' over Asif Kapadia's Oscar
My humble attempt tomake it in India: SRK
Shah Rukh Khan at the trailer launchof his upcoming film 'Fan'.
Preity gets married tobeau in Los Angeles?
Actor Irrfan Khan. (All photos: IANS)
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By Neena Badhwar
Patrick Farmer, Australiaʼs
Ultra Marathon runner, is in
India running a daunting
jo ur ne y fr om Ka ny ak um ar i to
Kashmir covering 4,600 km in
about 60 days.
The ongoing, much publicized
Spirit of India run has Pat Farmer
supporting ʻNanhi Kali – Education
of girl childʼ program . Farmer is
known globally for his ʻPole to
Poleʼ 20,000 km run when he col‑
lected for Red Cross close to a hun‑
dred million dollars. He also served
as a minister in the Australian gov‑
ernment.
Starting his noble venture on
January 26, Indiaʼs Republic Day,
Farmer has completed by now
more than half the journey having
crossed Kerala, Mysore,
Maharashtra, and Gujarat. On
February 29 he arrived in Udaipur.
Interacting with the media there,
he said, “The run is a public diplo‑
macy initiative intended to pro‑
mote India‑Australia relations, and
raise money for the education of
the girl child. It is expected to pro‑
mote goodwill, friendship, tourism
and trade between the two coun‑
tries,"
People are amazed at his stami‑
na, will power, and inner strength
as he passes through some of the
hottest states, dusty roads, never
ever stopping. He says, “I am a pris‑
oner of my journey” when he does
not have the time or luxury to stop
to see the beautiful buildings, her‑
itage sites and temples he passes
by. But he promises, “Next time Iwill visit India to see all the beauti‑
ful places that I have passed.”
He does have time for the smiling
crowds who welcome him, plonk a
turban on his head or a tilak on his
forehead or a garland around his
neck. His tired face lights up at the
sight of people, school kids, moth‑
ers with children touching his feet
in reverence as if Pat had turned
into something of an itinerant
sadhu for the simple village folks.
He wants to bring a change, and
an awareness about the education
of girls in India. “Educate a girl, you
educate a mother who will then go
on and educate the whole family,”
is Patʼs message to bring about that
change.
At times he has felt dehydrated,
hurt a tendon in his ankle, and is
tired after running 80 km each day
which are equal to two marathon
runs a day to reach his destination,
Kashmir. There is a whole contin‑
gent in toe with an ambulance, a
film crew, photographer, a doctor
and the officers of the Indian
tourism who follow him, run along
with him, even when he insists to
be left alone. As Pat passes various
towns he stops at schools, gives
inspiring messages to the students
who wave flags of both India and
Australia. At times he is welcomed
by thundering drums, dances and
people dressed in local costumes.
In about a month Pat Farmer has
become a hero with the print and
visual media covering his marathon
extensively. At times he is looking
at himself on those big billboards
erected to welcome him whenever
he enters a new state.
Says he humbly, “I donʼt think I
could imagine such a kind hospital‑
ity in Australia.
He asks everyone to donate for
the cause he is trying to fundraise
from this marathon. He asks all in
Australia to donate to ʻNanhi Kaliʼ
foundation by visiting his blog:
www.patfarmer.com
The Indian ministry of tourism
and the ministry of external affairs
along with state tourism depart‑
ments of many states are support‑
ing the run.
Neena Badhwar is editor of The
Indian Down Under, Sydney.
Patrick Farmer started his run from Kanyakumari and passed through Kerala.
Invited to schools, Pat gives inspiring messages to students asin this school in Mangalore.
Pat Farmer says that the daunting run is a public diplomacy initiative to promote India‑Australia relations.
Maharashtrian women giving Pat Farmer a traditional welcome.(Photos courtesy: Kevin Nguyen)
What is walking and running alongside amazes Pat as when he passed through Mumbai.
Pat Farmer, the ultra marathon runner and former Australian minister,is running the 4,600 km Kashmir to Kanyakumari marathon for a noble cause.
An Australianʼs transIndia marathon
to support girls education
TheSouthAsianTimes.info I ND IAMarch 5-11, 201618
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By Anil K. Rajvanshi
Last month, the major agenda
item at the World Economic
Forum in Davos was the
Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR).
Since FIR is already under way in
some of the advanced economiesthere are fears that it will be dis‑
ruptive and create huge unemploy‑
ment. The Davos meeting was
meant to allay these fears. I feel
FIR for developing countries can, in
fact, produce more employment
and benefits.
The first revolution started in the
late 1700s when muscle power
was replaced by steam – mostly
produced by coal. The second,
traced to early 1900s, was driven
by electricity and characterized by
big machines and assembly line
manufacturing. The third, which
began in the early 1960s was
based on IT, electronics and auto‑mated production.
The present revolution is charac‑
terized by the internet of things
(IOT) ̶ 24/7 connectivity, rapid
communication, miniaturization of
design and 3D printing. which
allows for manufacturing and pro‑
duction of goods wherever they are
needed. I feel that IOT and 3D
printing (or additive manufactur‑ing) have the capability of allowing
countries like India to leapfrog into
the FIR.
India is already a decentralized
society where more than 60 per‑
cent of its population lives in rural
areas and lacks the basic amenities
of life. They live in one‑room huts
with nearly non‑existent electricity;
cook on primitive biomass stoves
that produce tremendous indoor
pollution; and lack potable water
and toilets.
Their lives can be improved dras‑
tically by providing livelihood
opportunities and amenities for
households powered by FIR.Around 80 percent of the rural
population is involved in the farm‑
ing sector. At present, farming is
non‑remunerative and needs to be
completely overhauled to make it
attractive. To increase income for
rural households I foresee the use
of high‑tech precision farming
which could either be land‑based
or container‑based. In containerfarming, all the inputs of farming
are applied in an efficient way in
enclosed shipping containers.
This container‑based farming, as
opposed to land‑based farming, can
grow any food (grain, vegetables or
fruits) or fodder with the use of
precise levels of light, temperature,
humidity and nutrients. All these
inputs are controlled by smart sen‑
sors and computers.
There are claims by the practi‑
tioners of container agriculture
that it uses 90 percent less water
than conventional agriculture and
produces several times the yields
that would have been obtainedfrom land‑based agriculture.
Today the biggest crisis in farm‑
ing in India is the lack of labor, low
prices of produce, shortage of
water and poor soils. With preci‑
sion land‑based or container agri‑
culture, powered by solar energy
and other renewable energy sys‑
tems, farming can become very
efficient, high yielding and henceremunerative..
Land‑based agriculture can be
used for planting mostly perennial
crops like grasses for fodder and
trees for fruits, timber and the like.
Grasses and trees can bind the soil
and stop its erosion.
Further, FIR based on 3D or addi‑
tive manufacturing will also usher
in a revolution in its own right. In
3D printing, parts or the product is
built layer by layer at any place.
The designing can be done any‑
where in the world and it can be
sent by internet to a 3D printer.
Thus the raw material ̶ metal
powders in case of production of metal parts, or plastic wires for
plastic products ̶ together with a
suitable glue or solidification of
raw material, forms the end prod‑
uct. 3D printing is being used to
produce parts of rockets, whole
machines and even body parts.
Use of 3D manufacturing will
also reduce the energy consump‑
tion in transportation of goodssince they will be manufactured
and made available wherever they
are needed.
In most cases, prices would come
down. We might therefore see a
proliferation of high‑tech small
scale manufacturing facilities in
rural areas. For rural mobility elec‑
tric vehicles can form the backbone
and could be charged by locally
produced renewable electricity.
And 3D manufacturing may help in
production of such vehicles in rural
areas. The FIR can usher in a
decentralized and democratic soci‑
ety since the control of the means
of production and usage will be inthe hands of locals.
(IANS)
19March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info OP - ED
How India can leapfrog into 4th Industrial Revolution
By Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Ihave heard and read many
questions, comments, and
news stories regarding recent
changes to the government of the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). Why,
everyone seems to want to know,
did we establish a ministry of hap‑
piness, tolerance, and the future,
and why did we appoint a 22‑
year‑old minister of youth?
The changes reflect what we
have learned from events in our
region over the past five years. In
particular, we have learned that
failure to respond effectively to
the aspirations of young people,
who represent more than half of
the population in Arab countries,
is like swimming against the tide.
Without the energy and optimism
of youth, societies cannot develop
and grow; indeed, such societies
are doomed.
When governments spurn their
youth and block their path to a
better life, they slam the door in
the face of the entire society. We
do not forget that the genesis of
the tension in our region, the
events dubbed the "Arab Spring",
was squarely rooted in the lack of
opportunities for young people to
achieve their dreams and ambi‑
tions.
We are proud that the UAE is a
young country. And we are proud
of our youth. We invest in them
and empower them precisely
because they are our future. We
believe that they are faster than
us in acquiring and processing
knowledge, because they have
grown up with tools and tech‑
niques that we lacked at their age.
We entrust them with driving our
country to new levels of growth
and development, which is why
we have now appointed a cabinet
minister of their age and created
a special council of youth.
We have also learned from hun‑
dreds of thousands of dead and
millions of refugees in our region
that sectarian, ideological, cultur‑
al and religious bigotry only fuel
the fires of rage. We cannot and
will not allow this in our country.
We need to study, teach, and prac‑
tice tolerance ‑ and to instill it in
our children, both through educa‑
tion and our own example. That is
why we have appointed a minister
of state for tolerance. We believe
that a legal framework should for‑
malize the tolerance our society
already displays, and that our
policies and initiatives will pro‑
vide an outstanding example to
our neighbors.
When the Arab world was toler‑
ant and accepting of others, it led
the world: From Baghdad to
Damascus to Andalusia and far‑
ther afield, we provided beacons
of science, knowledge, and civi‑
lization, because humane values
were the basis of our relation‑
ships with all civilizations, cul‑
tures, and religions. Even when
our ancestors left Andalusia, peo‑
ple of other faiths went with
them.
Tolerance must be woven into
the fabric of our society to safe‑
guard our future and maintain the
progress we have made. There
can be no bright future for the
Middle East without an intellectu‑
al reconstruction that re‑estab‑
lishes the values of ideological
openness, diversity, and accept‑
ance of othersʼ viewpoints,
whether intellectual, cultural, or
religious.
With every lesson we learn
comes a decision that will shape
our future. But we also know that
we can learn by looking to the
future, not just the past or pres‑
ent. Simply put, we must think of
what life will be like in a post‑oil
economy. That is why we have
invested heavily ‑ more than 300
billion dirhams ($81.5 billion) ‑ in
establishing a focus for the UAEʼs
path ahead, with the aim of
preparing for a diverse economy
that frees future generations from
dependence on the ever‑fluctuat‑
ing oil market.
In writing this commentary, I
want to send a clear message to
others in our region that change
happens by our hands only. Our
region does not need a super‑
strong external power to stop its
decline; we need the power from
within that can overcome the
hatred and intolerance that has
blighted life in many neighboring
countries. We are not new to this
talk about the governmentʼs role
in promoting happiness. Since the
dawn of history, happiness is all
that humanity has sought.
Aristotle said the state is a living
being which develops in seeking
the achievement of moral perfec‑
tion and happiness for individu‑
als. Ibn Khaldun said the same
thing. Likewise, Americaʼs
Declaration of Independence
upholds the pursuit of happiness
as every personʼs right.
In our own time, the UN is now
calling for changes in the criteria
used to measure governmental
success from economic indicators
to measures related to human
happiness and well‑being. It has
dedicated a UN World Day for
Happiness to emphasize the
importance of this shift.
Focusing on happiness is both
feasible and fully justified.
Happiness can be measured, and
its evaluation is already the sub‑
ject of many programs and stud‑
ies. Moreover, it can be developed
and its achievement linked to
material objectives. Studies have
shown that happy people produce
more, live longer, and drive better
economic development in their
communities and countries. That
is why there must be a minister to
guide and follow up with all gov‑
ernment institutions (as well as
provide leadership to the private
sector).
(The writer is Prime Minister of
the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The article is being published by IANS
in arrangement with WAM)
Why UAE appointed ministers forhappiness, tolerance and youth
There can be no bright future for the Middle East without an intellectual
reconstruction that re-establishes the values of ideological openness, diversity,
& acceptance of others’ viewpoints, whether intellectual, cultural, or religious.
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announcedthe forming of the "UAE Gender Balance Council" last year
to boost UAE's efforts to evolve and enhance women'srole in building the future of the nation.
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Abu Dhabi Distressed Indians
in the UAE have been urged to
use 11.7 million dirham (Rs.21
crore) community fund to
which Indian expats contribute
every time they avail a consular
service, a media report said on
Friday.
Dinesh Kumar, First Secretary
(Community Affairs) at the
Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi
told Khaleej Times that the
fund under the mission current‑
ly amounts to 11.7 million
dirham.
Needy Indians ‑‑ including
those stranded after losing
jobs, runaway house maids and
crit ically il l patients ‑‑ are
among those who can availmonetary support from the
Indian Community Welfare
Fund (ICWF).
As much as 2.43 million
dirham was spent from the
fund in 2015 within the UAE
and an additional 6.7 million
dirham was disbursed from the
same for the evacuation of
Indians in Iraq last year, figures
from the embassy showed.
"An amount of Rs.12 crore
was allotted to the Indian
Embassy in Baghdad for the
evacuation of the Indians stuck
there (due to the civil war in
Iraq). We still have about Rs.21
crore left in the fund," said
Kumar.
At the launch of a family pro‑
tection scheme for NRI families
from Aster DM Healthcare and
RAK Insurance this week,
Indian Ambassador to the UAE
T.P. Seetharam urged Indians in
distress to seek help from the
fund.
"There are various categories
of distressed Indians who can
approach us for financial aid
from the fund. These are issuedunder the guidelines for
Indians in the UAE and are also
published on our website and
Facebook page," he said.
He said there are over 8,000
Indian associations or commu‑
nity groups in the UAE and
sought their help in bringing
the cases of distressed Indians
to the attention of the Indian
missions here. (IANS)
London A Sikh group in Britain
has urged the media and politi‑
cians to stop describing the
Rotherham grooming gang,
which was handed combined sen‑
tence of more than 100 years for
sexual assault on women, as
"Asian."
Sikh Federation UK said the use
of term "Asian" for the
Rotherham gang is too vague and
"besmirches" other communities,
The Independent reported on
Sunday.
Rotherham gang is a group in
Britain, including four Pakistanimen and two British women who
groomed, raped, prostituted and
abused teenage girls in
Rotherham town of England and
were handed combined prison
sentences of 103 years on Friday.
It was found that at least 1,400
girls had been sexually exploited
in Rotherham over a 16‑year
period.
Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of
the Sikh Federation UK said he
hoped their combined prison sen‑
tences of more than 100 years
would give a measure of justice
to "victims that have endured
more than a decade of violence
and horrific sexual abuse".
"One of the demands in the Sikh
Manifesto that we published a
ye ar ag o be fo re th e Ge ne ra l
Election was that the government
should encourage public bodies
and the media to abandon theuse of the term 'Asian' when
describing perpetrators for rea‑
sons of political correctness,"
Singh was quoted as saying. "If
the four men that have been
found guilty and carried out the
abuse were Pakistani Muslims,
this is how they should be
described and not called Asian,"
he added.
The term "Asian" was earlier
criticized in December 2013,
when Sikh and Hindu groups
started a petition against the use
of the word for the gang.
In a joint statement, the Hindu
Council UK, the Network of Sikh
Organizations, Sikh Media
Monitoring Group and the Sikh
Awareness Society had said:
"Communities who themselves
fall victim of this emerging pat‑
tern of criminality, should not be
besmirched by the vague termi‑nology 'Asian' ... in order to help
find a solution to the problem, we
need to be clear on the identity of
those involved."
The petition closed with 1,859
signatures calling for the word
"Asian" not to be used in groom‑
ing and sex abuse cases. (IANS)
Suva A team of
doctors from
India has suc‑
cessfully per‑
formed 16
open‑heart sur‑
geries at the
Colonial War
M e m o r i a l
Hospital in
Fij i 's capital
city of Suva, a
media report
said. The sur‑
geries were
performed by a team of special‑
ists brought from India by theFiji‑based Sahyadri Specialty
Pacific Hospital Limited, The Fiji
Times Online reported on
Monday. Project coordinator
Durdamya Munibhargav said that
24 patients were initially booked
for the life‑saving surgeries but
eight did not turn up.
"Of the 16 operated on, two
were Nauruans and the rest wereFijians of Indian descent," he said.
Munibhargav expressed grati‑
tude on the success of the surger‑
ies and thanked another Indian
Nikhil Ghodke for bringing much‑
needed injections from India to
Fiji to keep the surgeries going.
(IANS)
Distressed Indians in UAEto use community fund
STOP USING TERM 'ASIAN' TO DESCRIBE
ROTHERHAM GANG: SIKH GROUP
Mumbai The Hinduja Group said
on Wednesday that it had acquired
the heritage Old War Office in
London that was once inhabited by
Winston Churchill.The Group said in a statement
that it planned to restore and con‑
vert the 1,100 rooms there into a
five‑star hotel and luxury resi‑
dences besides other facilities.
The British Ministry of Defence
handed over the keys to the his‑
toric building to Hinduja Group
Global Co‑Chairman G.P. Hinduja,
Chairman Europe P.P. Hinduja,
Chairman of Villar‑Mir and OHL
Group Juan‑Miguel Villar‑Mir, at a
ceremony in London on Tuesday
evening. Located at 57 Whitehall,
near the British Parliament and 10
Downing Street, it is spread across
580,000 sq feet on seven floors,
connected by more than three kilo‑
meters of corridors.
The heritage building has 1,100
rooms which the Hinduja Group
will restore and convert into a five‑
star hotel and residences besides
rooms for private functions, spa
and fitness facilities.
"With our Spanish partners, we
have a unique vision for the Old
War Office ‑‑ our ambitious plans
will give it a new lease of life and
add a glittering new jewel to
London's crown," said G.P. Hinduja
on the deal which he described as
'giving something back to the
United Kingdom as an ode'.
P.P. Hinduja said that in keeping
with the dynamic spirit of London,
the Group will give the building a
new lease of life, while "remaining
conscious of its unique heritage".
"We will work meticulously to
restore the distinctive and historic
fabric of the building and convert
it into a distinguished hotel and
luxury residence, bringing a fur‑
ther dimension to this prominent
Whitehall landmark," P.P. Hinduja
added. The building has been
acquired on a 250‑year lease
arrangement by Hinduja Group in
partnership with Spanish industri‑
al company Obrascon Huarte Lain
Desarrollos (OHLD) following a
competitive marketing process.
The high‑profile project will also
see State Bank of India entering
and collaborating into the London
realty markets, said SBI official
Sanjiv Chadha. The SBI is funding
the project. Present on the occa‑
sion were Indian High
Commissioner Navtej Singh Sarna
and former Indian National
Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan.
(IANS)
Hindujas acquire Old War Office inLondon, to become luxury hotel
Indian doctors perform 16
open‑heart surgeries in Fiji
20 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info DIASPORA
Old War Office, London was once inhabited by Winston Churchill.(Photo: hindujagroup.com)
The team was brought by Fiji‑based Sahyadri SpecialtyPacific Hospital Limited (Photo courtesy: Every Stock)
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New Delhi External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with
former Afghan president Hamid
Karzai here. “An old friend pays a
call. Former President of
Afghanistan @KarzaiH meets EAM
@SushmaSwaraj,” external affairs
ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup
tweeted. Karzai addressed the
Raisina Dialogue, a global conclave
on geopolitics and geo‑economics
organized by the external affairs
ministry and the Observer Research
Foundation.
In his address, he said that
Afghanistan wanted to be a bridge
between south Asia, central Asia,India and China. In an obvious ref‑
erence to Pakistan, he said that
state entities should not be encour‑
aged to harbor terrorist elements.
SUBCONT INENT 21March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Washington Ahead of the Nuclear
Security Summit here, the US has
asked Pakistan to reduce its nuclear
weapons arsenal as a responsible
nuclear power, while Islamabad has
sought greater US understanding of
its security concern. "It's important
for Pakistan to really process that
reality and put that front and centre
in its policy," Secretary of State John
Kerry said Monday, noting that the
US and Russia were seeking to fur‑
ther reduce their nuclear warheads.
Speaking at the inaugural session
of the US‑Pakistan Strategic
Dialogue here, Pakistan Foreign
Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz, however,
sought greater US understanding of
Pakistan's security concern and its
desire to contribute actively to non‑
proliferation. "Our engagement on
non‑proliferation and strategic sta‑
bility will continue, and Pakistan
hopes to see greater US understand‑
ing of Pakistan's security concerns
and its desire to contribute active‑
ly," Aziz said. As a mainstream
nuclear power, Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif is looking forward to
attending the Nuclear Security
Summit in Washington on March
31, he said. Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is also expected to
attend the summit. Earlier, welcom‑
ing Aziz, Kerry said: "Non‑prolifera‑
tion, nuclear safety is of obvious
concern to both our countries, and I
expect that we will continue to dis‑
cuss the obligations of being a
responsible state with nuclear
weapons in the coming year."
He noted that once both the US
and the then Soviet Union had
50,000 warheads pointing at each
other, but today, Russia and the US
are operating under a treaty that
has about 1,500 or so nuclear war‑
heads. "And we are seeking to
reduce that. So we're moving in the
other direction," he said. "And I
think it's important for Pakistan to
really process that reality and put
that front and centre in its
policy."
Colombo Sri Lanka aims to imple‑
ment a Free Trade Agreement with
China in order to gain an access to
the market of 1.3 billion people,
the country's state investment
agency said here on Wednesday.
Both countries recognized the
benefits that can be leveraged
through the positive relationship
between trade and investment, the
Board of Investments (BoI) said in
a statement, Xinhua news agency
reported. The BoI said that the Sri
Lankan government also informed
China that it was accelerating the
implementation of ongoing
Chinese project in the island
nation and aimed to attract more
Chinese tourists to visit Sri Lanka.
"Both sides recognised that
China's Going Abroad strategy and
Sri Lanka's very favourable loca‑
tion on the Maritime Silk Road
provided a strong basis for
strengthening Sino‑Lanka econom‑
ic relations," the BoI said.
It added that Colombo also paid
its gratitude for Beijing's support
during the country's 30‑year civil
conflict as well as assistance for
infrastructure development.
China has been Sri Lanka's
biggest contributor of Foreign
Direct Investments. Nearly, 70 per‑
cent of the infrastructure projects
in the country have been funded
by China and built by Chinese
companies. Sri Lanka already has
preferential trade agreements with
India and Pakistan.
Kabul A policeman and two civilians were
killed when militants targeted the Indian
consulate in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city,
triggering a fierce gun battle that left all
five attackers also dead, officials said. All
Indian diplomats were safe.Nineteen other civilians were injured in
the mayhem and admitted to a hospital,
Afghan news reports said. Officials said all
diplomats and staff at the Indian consulate
were safe.
Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province,
is often targeted by Taliban militants.
The consulate was attacked earlier in
2013 too by the Taliban. But no one
claimed responsibility for Wednesday's
attack which involved a team of militants
armed with weapons and explosives.
The dramatic attack began around noon
when a suicide bomber came up to the
front gate of the consulate and suddenly
detonated his explosives‑laden vest, stun‑
ning the guards and civilians there.The aim was to pave the way for the
other militants to storm the building, police
officer Fazel Ahmad Shirzad told TOLO
News.
The explosion, which was heard in a wide
area, left two civilians and a policeman
dead ‑‑ and triggered a massive fight as
security forces rushed to the area in their
armored vehicles. Panic gripped the area,
also home to the Pakistani and Iranian mis‑
sions. Civilians fled from the spot.
Journalists reported explosions and gun‑
fire. A shopkeeper near the consulate told
journalists that he saw several injured peo‑
ple lying on the ground after a massive
blast shattered his windows.
"Four other attackers were killed afterhalf an hour of clashes with the security
forces," the police officer said.
In January, the Islamic State group
claimed responsibility for a deadly gun and
bomb siege targeting the nearby Pakistani
consulate in Jalalabad, the first major
attack by the group in an Afghan city.
The attack comes ahead of direct peace
talks this week between the Afghan govern‑
ment and the Taliban.
In January, a gun battle took place near
the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad in
which at least seven Afghan security per‑
sonnel were killed.
The Afghan government has been bat‑
tling the Taliban for over a decade. The
Taliban have launched several high‑profileattacks in recent months.
In September, the Taliban briefly overran
the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, in one
of their biggest victories since they were
ousted from power in 2001.
Afghan security officials members inspect the site of asuicide attack in Jalalabad city. (Photo: Xinhua/IANS)
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meets former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai in New Delhi. (Photo: IANS/MEA)
Sri Lanka aims to have Free Trade Agreement with China
New Delhi External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj held a
meeting with former Sri Lankan
president Chandrika
Kumaratunga here. “Another old
friend, from Sri Lanka. EAM
@SushmaSwaraj meets former
President Chandrika
Kumaratunga,” external affairs
ministry spokesman Vikas
Swarup tweeted after Sushma
Swaraj earlier on the day met
with former Afghan presidentHamid Karzai.
On Tuesday, Kumaratunga
addressed the Raisina Dialogue, a
global conclave on geopolitics
and geo‑economics organized by
the external affairs ministry and
the Observer Research
Foundation.
In her address, she said that
while cooperation and economic
integration proceeded very fast
in the rest of the world, econom‑
ic integration in South Asia was
very slow.
Lamenting that the India‑
Pakistan conflict prevented
regional integration in SouthAsia, she, however, said that
things were likely to change now
with the rise of the post‑Partition
generation.
Sushma meets ex‑Sri Lankanpresident Kumaratunga
Eight die as Indian consulate in Jalalabad is attacked
US ASKS PAKISTAN TO REDUCEITS NUCLEAR ARSENAL
Sushma meets former Afghan president Karzai
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I NTERNAT IONAL22 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info
Beijing An editor of one of China's
most prestigious newspaper, the
Guangzhou‑based Southern
Metropolis Daily, was sacked over
an allegedly veiled critique of media
censorship by Chinese President Xi
Jinping.
Liu Yuxia, who had worked on the
daily's front page for the last three
years, was fired from the newspa‑
per and her senior Wang Haijun
handed a "serious demerit" over the
front paged critique in the newspa‑
per's February 20 edition, EFE news
reported.
The main headline carried a quote
from Xi, from his recent visit to the
headquarters of state TV broadcast‑
er CCTV, in which he had sought
loyalty from official media towards
the country's Communist Party and
below this piece of news, was a
report on the funeral of a historic
leader of the regime.
While the two stories had no
apparent connection, the headlines
of both, when combined read as
"Media following the surname of
the party have their souls returned
to the sea," which was seen by some
as a veiled critique of the iron‑fisted
information control exercised by
the Chinese president.
China has also clamped down on
online journalism, and last month
saw the suspension of over 580
social media accounts, including
those belonging to popular online
commentators.
Islamabad Pope Francis has accepted
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's invita‑
tion to visit Pakistan this year, a media
report said on Thursday. According to
a message received from the Vatican,
the invitation was extended by Ports
and Shipping Minister Kamran
Michael and Religious Affairs Minister
Sardar Yusuf, Dawn online reported.
Michael led a high‑level delegation forRome to meet Pope Francis at the
Vatican City on February 23. The
highest Catholic priest also offered
special prayers for Pakistan and the
Pakistanis who have fallen victim to
terrorism.
U n i t e d N a t i o n s UN
Secretary‑General Ban Ki‑moon condemned the
recent terrorist attacks inIraq's Baghdad and east‑
ern town of Muqdadiya
which are claimed by theextremist group Islamic
State (IS).Earlier, a suicide bomb‑
ing attack near
Muqdadiya killed at least
34 people and wounded43 others. On Sunday, 53
people were killed and117 others were wounded
in back‑to‑back bombings
at a busy marketplace inBaghdad.
The deceased include
seven Shia militia leaders, Xinhuareported.
In a statement released by hisspokesperson, Ban said he is con‑
cerned that these "cowardly"
attacks claimed by IS at funerals,markets, and places of worship
are aimed at undermining the
unity of the people of Iraq."The Secretary‑General calls on
the Government of Iraq to make
sure that the perpetrators of
these crimes are swiftly brought
to justice," said the statement.Iraq is currently undergoing a
wave of violence since IS took
over areas of Iraq's northern andwestern regions in June 2014. A
United Nations report estimatedthat over 22,300 people were
either killed or injured in Iraq's
armed conflict in 2015.
Istanbul
Turkey has been put on high
alert following a warning by the intelli‑
gence agency of possible terror attacks
by the Islamic State militants, Turkish
media reported.
"Turkish intelligent units have revealed
that two IS suicide bombers, illegally
crossing the border into the country,
have been planning to conduct terror
attacks in Turkey," the Haberturk daily
reported.
According to the report, the two mili‑
tants were expected to meet with a Syrian
citizen in Turkey's southeastern province
of Kahramanmaras.
The intelligence agency, while distribut‑
ing the photos of the two IS militants to
all the units in the country, had requested
security forces to review the security
measures throughout the country, the
report said. Ankara, Istanbul and other
Turkish cities have come under deadly
terror attacks over the past months, with
the latest one hitting Ankara, the national
capital, on February 17, in which 29 peo‑
ple were killed, mostly military person‑
nel. Turkey also blamed the IS for twin
suicide bombings in Ankara in October
last year, which claimed 102 lives and
injured hundreds more.
A new wave of terror attacks has been
hitting Iraq, Libya and other Middle
Eastern countries in recent days.
Turkey blamed the IS for twin suicidebombings in Ankara in October last year,
which claimed 102 lives and injuredhundreds more. (Photo: IANS)
UN Secretary‑General Ban Ki‑moon.(Photo: IANS)
UN CHIEF CONDEMNSIS ATTACKS IN IRAQ'S
CAPITAL
Turkey on high alert over possible IS terror threat
Chinese daily editor sackedover veiled critique of Xi
Pope acceptsinvitation tovisit Pakistan
Beijing China sought to allay the fears of
doing business in the country, saying it
believes in protecting the interests of for‑
eign investors.
It also said that efforts were on to paint
a grim picture of China but that would notdeter foreign companies from doing busi‑
ness as the country had favourable poli‑
cies for investors.
Talking on the eve of the 4th Session of
the 12th Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference National
Committee (CPCCC), its spokesperson
Wang Guoqing said the Chinese policy of
attracting foreign investors "will not
change"."Business activities in China are not get‑
ting worse but better. Last year, from
January to November, the number of for‑
eign companies coming to China increased
by 11 percent," Wang said.
The world's second largest economy wit‑
nessed the slowest growth last year since
2009. The stock market crash and devalu‑
ation of the yuan in 2015 made matters
worse, triggering fear in the global market."China will remain the favorable destina‑
tion of foreign investors," Wang asserted
at the Great Hall.
The CPCCC is the country's top political
advisory. The meeting comes before the
session of the National People's
Conference (NPC) ‑‑ parliament ‑‑ begins
on March 5.
The 13th Five Year Plan will be dis‑
cussed by around 3,000 members of thecountry's legislative body.
Economic development and worsening
pollution are some of the likely issues to
be discussed.
France tells British voters migrantswill flow to Britain after EU exit
London France warned Britain on
Thursday it would end border
controls and let thousands of
migrants move on to Britain if vot‑
ers backed leaving the European
Union.
It also said it would open its
arms to British‑based banks want‑
ing to flee a non‑EU Britain and
stay in the bloc. French Economy
Minister Emmanuel Macron
echoed comments by BritishPrime Minister David Cameron
that a migrant camp known as the
"Jungle" in the northern French
coastal town of Calais could move
to southern England in the event
of a British EU exit.
Speaking ahead of an Anglo‑
French security summit in Amiens,
Macron said a British exit would
scupper a border deal that halts
migrants in France but that Paris
would be happy to accept bankers
fleeing London.
Macron's comments, which sup‑
port Cameron's argument that an
EU exit after the June 23 referen‑
dum could undermine security, led
television news reports in Britain,where opinion polls indicate immi‑
gration is the biggest concern for
voters. Opponents of membership
said the comment was part of a
campaign to scare British voters
into supporting membership.
China to protect interests of foreign investors
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BUS INESS 23March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info
New Delhi In a post‑Budget 2016‑17 meeting with India
Inc, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated the need for
fiscal discipline and said he was optimistic of the reform
process moving ahead in parliament.
"Fiscal discipline is going to be very important, and I'm
sure that if we keep to it, we'll be able to meet the targetsset by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian in the
Economic Survey," Jaitley told representatives here of
industry associations FICCI, CII and Assocham.
"I am also sure, if there is cooperation in the political
sphere, that we will be able to go ahead with reforms," he
added.
Presenting the budget in parliament on Monday, Jaitley
said he had decided that prudence lies in adhering to fis‑
cal targets, but while doing so, has also ensured that the
development agenda is not compromised.
The government has targeted reducing the fiscal deficit
to 3.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the
current financial year, compared with four percent last
year, and reduce it further to 3.5 percent in 2016‑17.
The fiscal deficit for 2014‑15 touched 4.1 percent of
GDP.
The Economic Survey presented in parliament last weeksaid "the coming year is expected to be a challenging one
from the fiscal point of view because of challenges posed
by a lower‑than‑projected nominal GDP growth" and
"chances of India's growth rate in 2016‑17 increasing sig‑
nificantly beyond 2015‑16 levels are not very high, due to
likelihood of persistence of global slowdown".
Fiscal discipline is of prime importance: Jaitley
Pune
Barely five hours after
the Maharashtra government
sealed the Sahara India
Pariwar's flagship Aamby
Valley Resort for non‑paymentof tax, the company paid up the
outstanding non‑agriculture
tax dues and the seal was bro‑
ken.
The company also termed as
"il legal and high‑handed
approach" the sudden move to
seal and close the resort's gates
by the revenue department offi‑
cials earlier this morning.
In a statement, the Sahara
Group also contested the state
government's claims of out‑
standing dues of around
Rs.4.50 crore and said it has
already paid up Rs.4.25 crore
for the past two financial years,with a small outstanding of
Rs.27,27,740 left.
For the current fiscal (2015‑
2016), it said that the outstand‑
ing amount was only
Rs.2,26,13,870 for which it had
30 days time (till March 31).
However, at the insistence of
the revenue department offi‑
cials who sealed the project
main gate and its administra‑
tive offices, Sahara Group madethe full outstanding payments
(Rs.2,53,41,610) by cheque on
Tuesday itself.
The company also subse‑
quently circulated the latest
photos and videos of unrestrict‑
ed entry‑exit at its prestigious
project near Lonavala hillsta‑
t ion in Pune district this
evening.
Aamby Valley, labeled a hill
city paradise for the rich and
famous, is spread across
around 4,300 hectares of lush
green hills with a large natural
lake and three artificial lakes
on the property in Pune dis‑trict.
Constructed in 2003, it
boasts of a private airstrip, an
18‑hole golf course, premium
chateaus, villas and bungalows,
shopping plazas, boating and a
good all‑year round weather.
Sahara pays tax dues,Aamby Valley 'unsealed'
Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley addressesthe representatives of FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM
in New Delhi (Photo: IANS)
Washington Reliance Industries
chairman Mukesh Ambani againtopped 84 Indian billionaires in
Forbes 2016 list of the world's
richest people once again headed
by Bill Gates with a net worth of $75 billion.Mukesh Ambani with a net
worth of $19.3 billion was
ranked 36th among world's1,810 billionaires with an aggre‑
gate net worth of $6.48 trillion,
down from $7.05 trillion last year.
Technology guru Gates, whohas topped the list for 17 of the
last 22 years was followed by
Spanish clothing retailerAmancio Ortega, best known for
the Zara fashion chain, with
Warren Buffett remaining in thethird spot.
The US led with the greatestnumber of billionaires, with 540,followed by China with 251,
Germany with 120, India with 84and Russia with 77.
China had the most of 198
newcomer billionaires, adding 70to the list. Thirty‑three newcom‑
ers were from the US, 8 from
India and 28 from Germany.Notable newcomers included
Flipkart cofounders Sachin
Bansal and Binny Bansal (No.
1476) of India.India's top ten: 1 (world rank‑
ing 36) Mukesh Ambani $19.3
bn; 2 (44) Dilip Shanghvi $16.7
bn; 3 (55) Azim Premji $15 bn; 4(88) Shiv Nadar $11.1 bn; 5
(133) Cyrus Poonawalla $8.5 bn;6 (135) Lakshmi Mittal $8.4 bn;
7 (184) Uday Kotak $6.3 bn; 8(196) Kumar Birla $6.1 bn; 9
(219) Sunil Mittal $5.7 bn; 10
(233)Desh Bandhu Gupta $5.5bn.
Telecom mogul Carlos Slim
Helu (No. 4) dropped two spots,and his net worth decreased to
$50 billion from $77.1 billionlast year.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos (No. 5)
moved up to the fifth from thefifteenth spot last year; his net
worth increased to $45.2 billion.Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg
(No. 6) moved into the top 10 for
the first time.He was the biggest gainer with
his fortune going up by $11.2
billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth rich‑
est in the world.
Reliance Industries chairmanMukesh Ambani. (Photo: IANS)
Mukesh Ambani tops 84 Indianbillionaires in Forbes list
Key Indian equity indicesstage post‑budget bull run
After a fall on Budget day, the bull run on Indianstock markets continued for the second
straight day, with the mood also lifted by the
strong showing in other Asian markets and overnightgains in the US and Europe.
The opening itself was quite strong with the sensi‑tive index (Sensex) of the BSE debuting above the
24,000‑point mark at 24,044.96 points, against the
previous close at 23,779.35 points. Post‑noon, theindex was ruling at 24,178.10 points (at 12.31 p.m.) ‑
‑ up 398.75 points or 1.68 percent.
At the National Stock Exchange, the broader Niftyopened at 7,321.70 points, against the previous close
at 7,222.30 points. It was since quoting at 7,356.90points ‑‑ up 134.60 or 1.86 percent.
Analysts said the sentiments were also boosted by
signs of a surprise rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), given that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
has decided to adhere to meeting the deficit target of
3.9 percent for this fiscal, and lowering it to 3.5 per‑cent for the next.
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SPORTSMarch 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info 24
ad r i d Suspended Union of
European Football Associations
(UEFA) president Michel Platini
has submitted to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) an
appeal against the six‑year sus‑
pension imposed by FIFA for
alleged corruption, seeking to
annul the ban.
The CAS has confirmed receiv‑
ing Frenchman Platini's appeal,
which seeks to annul the decisions
taken by the Ethics Committee of
FIFA, confirmed on February 24
by the Appeals Committee of that
body, reports Efe. "In appealing to
the CAS, Michel Platini seeks to
annul the decisions taken by the
Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA
Ethics Committee and by the FIFA
appeal committee which led to
him being declared ineligible totake part in football‑related activi‑
ty at national and international
level for six years. A CAS arbitra‑
tion procedure is in progress,” the
CAS statement said.
The CAS has already started
arbitration proceedings.
First the two sides will exchange
their arguments in writing and a
panel of three arbitrators, after
choosing a date for the hearing,
will later issue a formal decision.
The decision to punish Platini
and former FIFA president Sepp
Blatter was based on the payment
of 1.84 million euros ($2 million)
which FIFA made to Platini in
February 2011, authorised by
Blatter, which "had no legal basis
in the written agreement signed
between both officials on August
25, 1999".
Platini had been viewed as the
obvious successor to Blatter as
FIFA president before his suspen‑
sion. Gianni Infantino, UEFA's gen‑eral secretary at the time, became
a candidate in his stead, and won
last week's vote in Zurich to
become FIFA's new leader.
Platini takes appealagainst FIFA ban to
sports tribunal
Mirpur Bangladesh): India will aim to
maintain their all‑win record when they
meet minnows United Arab Emirates (UAE)
in their final group game of the Asia Cup at
the Sher‑e‑Bangla National Stadium here.India top the pool table with six points
after winning all their three matches so far
‑‑ against hosts Bangladesh, arch‑rivals
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The men in blue
have assured themselves a place in
Sunday's final after the five‑wicket win over
the Lankans and even an unlikely defeat
against the UAE will not hamper them.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni may
decide to make a few changes in the line‑up
in order to give match practice to some of
the players who have not featured in the
tournament till now.
"We'll definitely make a few changes in
the coming games. How many we can,
that's something we will have to see.
Because we still want the strength and thecomposition of the side to be very good,"
Dhoni told reporters here.
"I think most of the players will definitely
get a chance in the next game. Whether all
the people who are sitting outside will get a
chance, we're not sure. But we will try to
make as many changes as possible," headded. The Indian team management may
consider including the likes of Ajinkya
Rahane, Harbhajan Singh, Pawan Negi and
Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the line‑up for the
UAE game.
Among the four, Rahane is the one who
has the best chance to be selected. Theright‑hander has been in good form in
recent months and may be included in
place of the off‑color Shikhar Dhawan.
The Indian think tank may also decide to
rest veteran pacer Ashish Nehra in order to
keep him fresh for the final. The 36‑year‑
old Nehra has been in excellent form, pick‑
ing up five wickets. If the Indian team man‑agement does decide to rest the Delhi
pacer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar may be includ‑
ed in his place.
The spin bowling combination may also
witness a change as experienced off‑spin‑
ner Harbhajan Singh and left‑armer Pawan
Negi may replace Ravichandran Ashwin
and Ravindra Jadeja for this particular
game.
Negi who was the most expensive Indian
player during the recent Indian Premier
League (IPL) auction, will also be valuable
for his ability to produce the big hits lower
down the order. The UAE will look to their
captain Amjad Javed to lead from the front.
Javed has bagge d 12 wickets from the
UAE's six matches in this tournament(including the qualifiers) and will hope to
inflict some early blows on the Indian
batting.
Auckland Legendary New Zealand crick‑
eter Martin Crowe passed away here on
Thursday after fighting a long battle with
cancer. The 53‑year‑old was diagnosed in
September 2014 with terminal Lymphoma.
He is survived by wife Lorraine Downes,
daughter Emma and step‑children Hiltonand Jasmine. His funeral will be held on
March 11 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral
here, stuff.co.nz reported.
The right‑handed batsman played 77
tests and 143 One‑Day Internationals for
New Zealand. He scored 5,444 runs in
Tests at an average of 45.36, including 17
centuries and 18 half‑centuries with a top
score of 299. Crowe's ODI runs totaled
4,704 at an average of 38.55 with four
centuries and 34 half‑centuries and a best
score of 107 not out.
Shimla Indian cricket board sec‑
retary Anurag Thakur said that
politics should be kept away
from sports, but Himachal
Pradesh Chief Minister
Virbhadra Singh reiterated his
concern over "security" as opin‑
ion of families of martyred sol‑
diers in the state is against hold‑
ing the India‑Pakistan World
Twenty20 tie at Dharamsala. "It's
a world event and not a bilateral
series," Thakur, who is also the
Himachal Pradesh Cricket
Association president and a
Bharatiya Janata Party parlia‑
mentarian from the state, toldreporters here. State leaders
from both the ruling Congress
and the opposition Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) are united in
their opposition to the Super 10
Group 2 match between India
and Pakistan being hosted at
Dharamsala on March 19, keep‑
ing in mind the local sentiments
against Pakistan.
"I wil l go to any extent to
request anyone with folded
hands in the interest of Himachal
Pradesh," Thakur said, seemingly
making it an issue between him
and others. He called upon all
stakeholders to rise above petty
politics in the interest of the
nation and not to oppose the
match at Dharamsala.
"Even if they are against theHPCA, they should forget it for
the time being. Court cases are
pending, inquiries are pending,
I ʼm ready to step down, but
please don't let the state suffer,"
Thakur said. However, state lead‑
ers from both the ruling
Congress and the opposition BJP
were steadfast in opposing the
India‑Pakistan match scheduled
to be held at Dharamsala. While
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh
has in a letter to union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh asserted
that the state government will
not be able to provide security
during the game, former chief
minister and BJP leader Shanta
Kumar in his letter to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi said the
match should not be allowed atDharamsala in Kangra district as
it is home to hundreds of valiant
jawans, martyrs and ex‑service‑
men.
ASIA CUP: India aim to continue winning run
India captain MS Dhoni may decide to make a few changes in the line‑up. (File photo)
Michel Platini. (File photo) Legendary New Zealand cricketer Martin Crowe. (Photo:www.sportal.co.nz)
New Zealand cricketer MartinCrowe passes away
India-Pak match: Keep politics away, says Thakur
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25March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info SC IENCE & TECH .
OK, so everyone in the wire‑
less industry is talking about
5G. Why should I care?
5G aims to be 100 times faster
than our current wireless technolo‑
gy and even speedier than what
Google Fiber offers through a phys‑
ical connection to the home. The
incredible speeds and responsive‑
ness achieved with 5G open up new
possibilities, and the technology
had people buzzing at the Mobile
World Congress trade show in
Barcelona, Spain, last week.
"5G will take it to the next level,"
said Cristiano Amon, president of
Qualcomm's chip business. "Therewill be "ubiquitous connectivity
from all sorts of devices."
Do be mindful of the hype sur‑
rounding 5G. The earliest mobile
deployments likely won't happen
until 2018, with broader availabili‑
ty in the years after.
But that doesn't mean you can't
dream about what's next. Here are
a few things you'll be able to do
with 5G.
Games and new experiencesWant to play a virtual game
against a friend across the world or
visit a fancy beach house when
you' re real ly stuck in your base ‑
ment apartment? With 5G, you can
wirelessly stream that content into
your virtual‑reality headset.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
said at MWC that he hoped VR
would be one of the "killer applica‑
tions of 5G." Data transfers so
quickly that you won't have to wait
long for virtual experience to load
on your mobile VR headset.
Thanks to the minute lag times,
you'll be able to keep up with your
gamer friend on the other side of
the planet.
Self-driving cars5G networks can respond fast
enough to coordinate self‑driving
cars, either with cars talking to a
central controller at a road inter‑
section or communicating with
each other.
"You can imagine no traffic lights
in the street ‑‑ the cars are crossing,
but they're not bumping into each
other," said Volker Held, head of
innovation marketing at network
equipment maker Nokia.
Once all cars have sensors and
cameras, they could also capture
continuous video footage, said
Marc Naddell, a vice president at
chipmaker MediaTek. If there's an
accident, you'll be able to view
video from all angles, not just from
the cars involved but from all cars
in the area at that time.
Remote healthcare
Telemedicine becomes feasiblewith 5G, whose communication lag
is brief enough to permit doctors to
perform some procedures remote‑
ly, said Matt Grob, CTO of mobile‑
chip maker Qualcomm. Carriers can
set up 5G networks so those med‑
ical procedures get priority over
someone watching YouTube videos.
The lag time is so miniscule that
doctors could use robots to operate
on you from 1,000 miles away.
People in remote regions can be
treated by the specialists, even if
they're halfway across the world.
"You can get the best doctors in
the world to work on your mother's
cancer," Samsung's Kim said. "That
was not feasible years ago."
Videoconferencing likeyou're really there
Kim believes the way we commu‑
nicate will become more visual.
Imagine talking to your family by
way of a supersharp video, with
resolution so high it's like you're
next to them. Or rehearsing with
yo ur ba nd ma te s ‑‑ in di f fe re nt
homes ‑‑ via video. That seems sim‑
ple, but today's networks don't
offer precise real‑time communica‑
tions. There's always a lag, and that
causes it all to fall apart.
Hollywood-like Web speeds
Remember in "The AmazingSpider‑Man" when Peter Parker
runs a Bing search (we know,
Bing?) on Dr. Kurt Connors and
instantly gets results? Your Web
pages never load that fast. "That's
Darth Vader's computer there,"
Ericsson Chief Technology Officer
Ulf Ewaldsson quipped. Pages usu‑
ally take a second or two to load,
even on a fast connection. With 5G,
those results will come immediate‑
ly. Or if you wanted to kick back
and download the movie "The
Guardians of the Galaxy," it would
zip to your device in 15 seconds
instead of the 6 minutes it takes
via 4G.
Ateam of Chinese researchers has devel‑
oped a new thin display that creates a 3D
image without causing viewing discom‑
fort on your smartphone as you watch a 3D
movie on the go.
Using a technique called "super multi‑view",
researchers at the Sun Yan‑Sen University in
China developed a new display with comfort‑
able 3D visual effects.
The "super multi‑view" technique not onlyworks to reduce viewer discomfort but also
greatly decreases the required number of
microdisplays which makes a compact design
possible. "There are many causes for 3D‑view‑
ing discomfort but the most substantial one is
the vergence‑accommodation conflict," said
Lilin Liu, associate professor of the State Key
Lab of Optoelectronics Materials and
Technology at Sun Yat‑Sen University.
Vergence‑accommodation conflict is a mis‑
match between the point at which the eyes
converge on an image and the distance to
which they focus when viewing 3D images.
Human eyes are separated by about 6 cm,
which means that when we look at an object,
the two eyes see slightly dif ferent images.
In natural viewing, human's vergence andaccommodation responses are correlated with
each other and adjust simultaneously.
Conventional 3D displays try to mimic the
natural viewing by creating images with vary‑
ing binocular difference which simulates ver‑
gence changes in the natural 3D landscape. But
the accommodative distance remains
unchanged at the display distance, resulting in
the so‑called vergence‑accommodation conflict
that causes viewer discomfort.
The team's solution is to project numerous
2D perspective views to viewpoints with inter‑
vals smaller than the pupil diameter of the eye.
This means the device can deliver at least
two different views to a single eye pupil.
According to Liu, adjustments to the device
could make it even thinner which is a focus of
their future work.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the firstreport of a 'super multi‑view system' with thin
structure which makes it suitable for portable
electronics such as smart phones and wearable
devices," Liu noted.
Scientists from a US university have
created the thinnest, lightest solar
cells ever produced which could be
placed on almost any material or surface
including your hat, shirt, or smartphone,
or even on a soap bubble.
Although it may take years to make
such solar cells commercially available,
the laboratory proof‑of‑concept shows
their potential in helping power the nextgeneration of portable electronic devices,
believe researchers at MIT, who created it.
The process is described in a paper by
MIT professor Vladimir Bulovi, research
scientist Annie Wang, and doctoral stu‑
dent Joel Jean, in the journal Organic
Electronics.
The key to the new approach is to make
the solar cell, the substrate that supports
it, and a protective over‑coating to shield
it from the environment, all in one
process.
"The innovative step is the realization
that you can grow the substrate at the
same time as you grow the device," Bulovi
said. In this initial proof‑of‑concept exper‑
iment, the team used a common flexiblepolymer called parylene as both the sub‑
strate and the over‑coating, and an organ‑
ic material called DBP as the primary
light‑absorbing layer. Parylene is a com‑
mercially available plastic coating used
widely to protect implanted biomedical
devices and printed circuit boards from
environmental damage.
The entire process takes place in a vacu‑
um chamber at room temperature and
without the use of any solvents, unlike
conventional solar‑cell manufacturing,
which requires high temperatures and
harsh chemicals. In this case, both thesubstrate and the solar cell are "grown"
using established vapor deposition tech‑
niques.
The team said different materials could
be used for the substrate and encapsula‑
tion layers, and different types of thin‑
film solar cell materials, including quan‑
tum dots or perovskites, could be substi‑
tuted for the organic layers used in initial
tests.
To demonstrate just how thin and light‑
weight the cells are, the researchers
draped a working cell on top of a soap
bubble, without popping the bubble.
Although cells may be too thin to be
practical, but researchers said that pary‑
lene films of thicknesses of up to 80microns can be deposited easily using
commercial equipment, without losing the
other benefits of in‑line substrate
formation.
The superfast wireless technology promises a lot, and eventually it will happen. Think virtual reality, telemedicine and
more. Some companies like Verizon say they'll roll out 5G starting in 2018.
Soon watch 3D movie on smartphonewithout headache or nausea
Ultralight solar cells maypower next generation devices
5 amazing things you'll be able to do with 5G
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U
nderstanding the evolving
job market can he lp you
focus your energy produc‑t ively and land a coveted
new job.
The recently released 2016
Hot Jobs List , published by
Randstad US, one of the largest
HR services and staffing compa‑
nies in the United States, sheds
light on important trends and
predicts the jobs in greatest
demand for the coming year.
Some hot areas include informa‑
t ion technology, human
resources, finance and account‑
ing, office and administration,
engineering, and manufacturing
and logistics. And thereʼs good
news ‑‑ experts say that acrossthe board, job candidates can
raise their expectations.
So what are the most in‑
demand jobs and skills needed to
secure employment in these
fields? Consider the following
insights and predictions from the
Randstad 2016 Hot Jobs study:
Engineers will be highly
sought after this year to support
innovative technologies, especial‑
ly in sectors that have not typi‑
cally required engineering talent
in the past, such as healthcare
and entertainment.
Technology will continue to
transform finance and account‑ing, presenting a tremendous
opportunity to elevate these
types of roles. The key will be
helping to shape company strate‑
gy through a comprehensive data
approach. Organizations will likely
gravitate toward human resource
candidates with specific skills to
cope with an increasingly com‑
plex workforce environment, par‑
ticularly around critical matters
such as talent acquisition and
retention, succession and com‑
pensation planning and work‑
force engagement.
There continues to be a lack
of skilled IT talent, particularly in
industries that deal with the
increasingly complex issues
related to cyber risk and busi‑
ness compliance. Companies will
continue to seek those with softskills, like strong writing and
communication abilities.
As the economy continues
to improve, manufacturing com‑
panies are expanding their busi‑
nesses. This will require anincrease in highly‑skilled talent.
With industry workforce short‑
ages, employers will need to con‑
sider different ways to attract
and retain talent.
The administrative role con‑
tinues to evolve, particularly as
new technologies are introduced
into workflows. Additionally,
many organizations are coping
with baby boomers retiring at a
rapid pace by advancing current
employees into more senior
roles, rather than replacing the
positions outright. These trends
create great opportunity for
administrative talent.With a lit t le research and
industry trend insight, you can
achieve career success in 2016.
(StatePoint)
Are you experiencing heart
palpitations, shortness of
breath, fatigue and discom‑
fort around your heart? You could
be experiencing atrial fibrillation
(AF or AFib), the most commonheart rhythm disorder.
Recognizing signs and symptoms
is essential to early diagnosis and
effective treatment.
Affecting about three million
Americans, AF is a rapid heart‑
beat, which can lead to poor
blood flow and increased risk of
serious conditions, including
stroke and heart failure.
AF is the result of abnormal
electrical impulses, which travel
chaotically throughout the upper
chambers of the heart, causing
the atria to contract so quickly
the heart loses its ability to pump
efficiently. This may cause bloodto pool in the heart, where it can
clot. If a clot travels to the brain,
it can cause a stroke. A recent
study by researchers from Boston
University found that people with
AF are nearly five times more
likely to have a stroke.
“All types of patients of all ages
should monitor heart rate and
blood pressure regularly, and
seek medical help when they
donʼt feel well. Even short bursts
of palpitations may be the begin‑
ning of persistent or chronic AF,”
says Dr. Leo Polosajian, an elec‑
trophysiologist and founder of
Cardiac Rhythm Specialists in
Reseda, CA.
Unfortunately, many AF
patients donʼt experience symp‑
toms until an event happens.
“While biking my normal route,
my heart rate rose and I couldnʼt
breathe. I pretty much went into
sudden cardiac death,” says Todd
Smiland, a patient of Polosajianʼs.
“Luckily the ambulance made it to
me in seven minutes and they
were able to defibrillate me back
to life, essentially. That pretty
much started all of my heart
issues.” By correcting abnormal
conduction fibers in the heart
through ablation, its electrical
system may be repaired and the
heart may return to a normal
rhythm. One of the newest inno‑vations uses contact force abla‑
tion technology, which gives
physicians a real‑time, objective
measure of force applied to the
heart during the procedure.
“I felt this patient was an ideal
candidate for an ablation proce‑
dure instead of medication, which
only treats symptoms. When
patients donʼt respond to medica‑
tion or itʼs not an optimal therapy
option, I turn to radiofrequency
ablation,” says Polosajian.
“It was like night and day,” says
Smiland, who after receiving abla‑
tion treatment, resumed activities
he previously enjoyed.According to Polosajian,
Smilandʼs experience may not
represent those of all patients,
but a recent FDA review found
ablation had at least a 47 percent
greater success rate than medica‑
tion. “This patientʼs experience is
what all physicians hope to
achieve,” says Polosajian.
Itʼs important to note there are
risks and potential adverse eventsassociated with ablation proce‑
dures, including but not limited to
cardiovascular related complica‑
tions, such as hematoma, effusion
and infection. Contact force abla‑
tion may not be appropriate for
patients who have had certain
recent heart surgeries, prosthetic
valves, active systemic infection
or have undergone other major
vascular procedures. Patients
should consult with their physi‑
cians about options.
A checklist of questions to ask
yo ur do ct or ca n be fo un d at
www.sjm.com/AfibAnswers, a site
provided by St. Jude Medical, aleader in technologies that treat
atrial fibrillation.
Know the signs and symptoms
of AF and talk to your doctor, if
you suspect anything is amiss.
T
ax season can be one of the
most, well, taxing times of
year, especia lly for chronic
procrastinators who make up
about 20 percent of the American
public, according to research con‑
ducted at DePaul University.
Why drag out the stress? Here
are some great ways to streamline
the process of preparing and fil‑
ing taxes:
Review Forms : As you receive
your W‑2, 1099s and othe r tax
forms, review each document
right away to ensure itʼs accurate.
Then, file these forms in one place
so they will be ready for you when
youʼre ready to file.
E F i le : Consider filing taxes
online. The IRS provides a free
database of e‑file providers, as
well as information on free tax
preparation for qualifying individ‑
uals and families. More informa‑
tion and resources can be found
at www.irs.gov.
Get Ready : For business own‑
ers, it may make sense to turn to
professionals for tax filing servic‑
es, but many individuals have rel‑
atively uncomplicated financial
situations and can save a lot of
money by preparing taxes on
their own.
However, the right tools will
make the process go more
smoothly. For quick calculations,
make sure that youʼre equipped
with tools like a desktop calcula‑
tor with tax calculation function‑
ality. For example, those from
Casio are ideal for home or office
use.
You can reduce your margin of
error by keeping better documen‑
tation of your tax paperwork and
better notations throughout the
preparation and filing process.
Donʼt Wait : When it comes to
filing your taxes, donʼt procrasti‑
nate. Not only will the task loom
over your head until you take care
of it, but you may encounter filing
issues that delay the process and
cause you to miss the deadline
and incur a hefty penalty fee.
If youʼre due for a refund, youʼll
especially want to file early so you
can put that refund to good use
right away (i.e. paying down debt,
investing it in a retirement fund
or college savings account).
Consider filing your taxes as soon
as you have all your forms in hand
and opting for direct deposit for
an even faster refund (keep in
mind you will need your bank
information on hand to do so).
While tax season is only anannual headache, it can be a major
headache if you are not prepared
and organized. Take steps to
reduce the stress.
26 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info S ELF HELP
Tips to efficientlyprepare & file taxes
Chest Discomfort, Feeling Extra Tired?
Job hunting? What careers & skillsare in greatest demand this year
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LIFESTYLE 27March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info
New Delhi Oscars ceremony isnʼt
only about film and stars. It is also
about fashion and beauty trends.
Here's how you can get the Oscar
red carpet look in no time and
without hassle.
Shailesh Moolya, national cre‑ative director, hair, at Lakmé
Salon, and Sushma Khan, national
creative director, makeup, at
Lakmé Salon, have decoded the
best of hair and make‑up look
flaunted at the 88th Academy
Awards ceremony held in Los
Angeles on Sunday.
Messy braid bun as seen on
Olivia Wilde: Separate hair at the
crown. Tease it lightly, working the
comb downward. Separate the hair
into three pieces. Braid the pieces
very loosely, allowing strands to
pop out.
Secure two of the three strands
at the end of the braid with anelastic band, leaving the last
strand free. Pull the loose strand at
the end of the braid, pushing up
the rest of the hair until youʼve
formed a bun. Holding the hair in
one hand, tuck it under, then
insert a large bobby pin horizon‑
tally to secure the bun. Let strands
pop out, or pin them up if you pre‑
fer. Spray hair lightly to hold the
style.
Je nn if er Ga rn er ʼs su bt le
smokey eye: To get a clean surface
to apply make‑up, use an eye
primer from the lid to the brow
bone. Then, use a shadow base
from the inner corner to outeredge of the eyelid. Lightly apply
brown eye shadow, avoiding any
smudging or smearing around the
eye.
Fill the water line with grey kohl
pencil and smudge on the outside
with a pencil brush for a smoky
effect. Add a touch of mascara for
a little drama. Lastly, shape eye‑
brows with a clean raised arch for
a shapely and sculpted look. For a
nude look, use a foundation shade,
matching to your skin tone.
Using a brush, start from the
centre of the ear and go downward
towards the corner of the lip, stop‑
ping halfway at the cheek. Add apeach blush for slight color and to
shape cheekbones. For nude lips,
line your lip with a lip pencil three
shades darker than your lip color
and fill in with a natural nude
shade to bring out the eyes.
New Delhi In view of increase in
usage of mobile based health appli‑
cations, Indian doctors have urged
people to not blindly rely on suchtechnologies for health updates as
they may give wrong estimates.
They said that a lot of times the
applications suggest wrong diet to
the user, without knowing the
metabolism of the userʼs body,
resulting in serious health compli‑
cations.
"A lot of applications are not to be
relied upon and exist just to gener‑
ate revenue in the market. There
are health applications which claim
to measure blood pressure by sim‑
ply keeping thumb on the screen.
Such techniques are misleading,"
said Pradeep Gadge, a leading dia‑
beteologist.Citing an example, he said that
the blood pressure result after
measuring through health applica‑
tions is always different from man‑
ually measuring it.
"There are situations when health
application users rely on it for the
calories burn during the entire day
along with several other things,
without even realizing that suchapplications are pre set and do not
show the actual results," said Gadge.
According to doctors, there are an
estimated 50,000 medical applica‑
tions in the market and this is
expected to grow. Currently, 500
million people worldwide are using
such apps for health updates.
Sudhir Kumar, a Delhi‑based dia‑
beteologist , said: "People want
instant results and further they fol‑
low their own methods to lose extra
kilos through apps or some meth‑
ods rather than going for the natu‑
ral way or the way suggested by
doctors.
He said that a recent survey alsohad revealed that various health
applications had diagnosed several
types of diseases to its users, but
when they consulted the doctor fur‑
ther they were found to not be suf‑
fering from any diseases.
Donʼt blindly followhealth apps, warn doctors
Oscars red carpet look decoded
New York Listening to rap music frequent‑
ly can lead to having early sex in
teenagers, warn researchers, adding that
rap music is more likely to have sexuallyexplicit messages than other music genres.
According to researchers from the
University of Texas' health science center
at Houston (UTHealth), when middle
school youth listen to rap music for three
or more hours each day, they are more
likely to believe that their peers are having
sex and subsequently more likely to initi‑
ate sex by ninth grade.
"Rap music influences your beliefs about
what you think your peers are doing. It's a
norming agent that tells you that certain
things are ok, like drinking alcohol or hav‑
ing sex. It gives you the idea that everyone
is doing it," said Kimberly Johnson‑Baker,
lead author and faculty associate at
UTHealth's school of public health."The more you're listening to it, the more
you're conforming, so you could see how it
would set up a belief about what your
peers are doing," Johnson‑Baker added.
In an analysis of 443 youth enrolled in a
longitudinal evaluation study in Houston,
middle school students were surveyed
about how often they listened to rap music
and whether they believed their peers
were having sex.
At follow up in ninth grade, the same
youth were surveyed about whether they
had initiated sex.
Youth who listened to rap music three
hours or more each day in seventh grade
were 2.6 times more likely to report hav‑
ing had sex two years later.However, researchers found that the
association was partially mediated by per‑
ceived peer sexual behavior because youth
who believed their peers were having sex
were 2.5 times more likely to initiate sex,regardless of the additional factors.
Johnson‑Baker emphasi zed that when
adolescents hear sexually explicit mes‑
sages in a song, they are looking to their
friends to confirm whether such behavior
is happening around them.
If their friends confirm it, youth are
more likely to initiate sex. But if friends
are being critical of the themes in the
music, they may be convinced that it's not
happening around them.
Rap music and forms of progressive hip‑
hop education can be used as tools to
deconstruct sexually explicit messages
adolescents receive.
"Parents can play a more proactive role
by having open conversations with their
kids regarding the themes in rap music
while sett ing clear expectations for
responsible sexual and dating behavior,"
the authors noted.
New York A team of
researchers, including
an Indian‑origin scien‑
tist, has revealed in a
new study that people
who live close to gro‑
cery stores may make
healthier food choices.
A study of Instagram
posts revealed that
food posted ‑‑ and
eaten‑‑ by people in
"food deserts" are five
to 17 percent higher in
fat , cholesterol and
sugars compared tothose shared in "non‑food deserts"
areas. The researchers used a term
"food deserts" to describe communities
with limited access to grocery stores.
"The US Department of Agriculture
identifies food deserts based on the
availability of fresh food," said lead
author Munmun De Choudhury from
Georgia Tech's School of Interactive
Computing.
"Instagram literally gives us a picture
of what people are actually eating in
these communities, allowing us to study
them in a new way," Choudhury
observed. "Fruits and vegetables are the
biggest difference."
The team from the Georgia Institute of Technology has identified three million
geo‑tagged Instagram posts of food to
determine what people are eating.
"Forty‑eight percent of posts from
people in non‑food deserts mention
them. It 's only 33 percent in food
deserts," Choudhury noted.
The research team used the USDA's
database of nutritional values for nearly
9,000 foods to create a nutritional pro‑
file for both groups.
The amount of calories didn't differ
significantly, but the levels of fats, cho‑
lesterol and sugars were much higher in
food deserts, especially in the West and
Southwest, the study found.
Pictures of meals that are most likely
to be posted by both groups tend to be
the staples of each region. Steak and
coffee in the West; lox and cheesecake
in the East; and okra and biscuits in theSouth. "It doesn't matter where you live,"
Choudhury said. "Everyone seems to eat
what their region is known for."
(Stories: IANS)
Beware! rap music cantrigger early sex in teenagers
Nearness to grocerystore may change the
way you eat, says study
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IMPORTANT If you are on a skiing holiday
and you see angels, do NOT fall backwards
and wave your arms to make an angel shapein the snow.
They may find it offensive.
Always be politically correct.
Especially to angels.
***
Besides, if I could have any job I wanted, I
would be the Angel of Karma.
Her timing is like SO TIGHT these days.
This rave review was sparked by reader
Dhruv Banerjee who sent me a news report
about a robber in Illinois who bought a get‑
away car but failed to pay for it.
At the EXACT MOMENT that he went on a
crime spree at the local mall to raise funds,
karma arranged for a repossession agent to
appear and tow the car away.
Police caught up with the man walking
dejectedly down the road.
Had they listened, Iʼm sure they would have
heard chuckling from a nearby cloud (and
applause from a thousand writers of bad
comedies).
***
To me, the Angel of Karma is a superhero
without the cape and external underpants.
***
More proof arrived in a second car‑related
news story.A Texas woman whose old, broken‑down
car was stolen by a thief with a tow truck
spotted the vehicle in town a month later.
Police helped her take it back, after which
her husband found the thief had fixed the
drive shaft and paid for new wheels.
Victim Chelsea Peters was said to be "very
happy."
***
It ainʼt just America. These reports remind‑
ed me of a case in Malaysia in which a thief
parked his getaway car outside an emptyhouse and broke in.
The owners came back and the villain ran
away, leaving behind his most prized posses‑
sions: toolbox, keys and car.
He returned to ask for them back the same
day.
The conversation must have gone some‑
thing like this.
***
THIEF: "I'm the guy who tried to steal your
stuff but ended up giving you all my stuff!
Life's funny, right? Ha ha."
VICTIMS: [Grim silence]
THIEF: "Maybe I should just go."
[Leaves.]
VICTIMS: "Woohoo! Let's check out our new
wheels!" ***Sometimes Ms Karma does not go for the
big stuff, but works delicately, with the tiniest
of nudges.
In Hong Kong in the 1990s, Yeung Yu‑kit, a
20‑year‑old mugger, leaped onto a victim to
steal her purse.
In the tussle, Yeung lost her own purse,
dropping it conveniently into the victim's bag
to be carried away.
It was a sort of reverse robbery.
I'm not quite sure what crime they charged
her with.
"Committing a grossly ironic act in public,"
perhaps.
***
What does it all mean? I think the Angel of
Karma has risen in the ranks and irony now
rules the world.
Three proofs
1) A friend bought a pair of expensive sun‑
glasses and was warned: "Keep them out of
direct sunlight."
2) My local authority canceled Kite Flying
Day because high winds were forecast.
3) I bought a pair of scissors and it came in
a package that could only be opened by some‑
one who already owned scissors.
***
At least the Angel of Karma has a sense of
humor. ***
28 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info HUMOR
Funny Side by Nury Vittachi
IRONY AND THE ANGEL OF KARMA
New York Head Quarter
422S Broadway
HI KSVILLE
NY 11801
5168271010
BESTRATEFORINDIAANDPAKISTAN
Laughter is the Best Medicine
by Mahendra Shah
Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and
humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the
immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons. Hailing from Gujarat,
he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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5th March 2016
Traits in you: As your ruling planet is the Mercury, you are
born realistic, intelligent, simple, focused, caring, deter‑mined, and courageous. As you are very helpful, peopletrust you very soon and you enjoy a good impression in your friendʼs circle. H owever, you need to work on yourstubbornness and jealousy to become a better individual.Health this year:
Your health may remain the same as itwas during the last year. You may improve a bit with med‑ication and diet control. You may practice meditation and yoga for better results. Do not neglect the health of yourfamily members as well as they may fall ill frequently this year and you may remain bothered for the same.Finance this year: You may find yourself in financial bene‑fits. However, you need to take enough toil to make thishappen. You may go for various new proposals and assign‑ments, which would improve your income and prosperity.There may be a huge rise in expenses, but you will be ableto meet those with your increased earnings.Career this year: You will be successful in every project youtake up this year. You may be adjudged the best employeeby your higher management because of your efficiency,hard work, and timely delivery. You may need to negotiatewith different types of customer and learn a lot about han‑dling a p roject independently.
Romance this year: Your marital relationship will move onsmoothly. If you are yet to marry, you may fall into aromantic relationship this year. You may get into a maritalalliance if you are already into a relationship. You will beleading a blissful romantic life with your spouse or partnerwith lots of love, care, and concern.Lucky month: September , November and December6th March 2016
Traits in you:
As you are ruled by Venus, you are simple,generous, cheerful, friendly, humble, honest and peace lov‑ing. You are pretty interested to stay in harmony with eachand everyone in your surroundings. You need to work on your nature of being restless and pessimistic.Health this year: Your health would be moderate this time.You may not have the privilege to take the diet of your wishas the doctor would prescribe to avoid that. You may prac‑tice yoga and meditation along with your prescribed medi‑cines for better results.Finance this year:
Your expectations for financial gainsmay not convert to reality as you have to spend a moderatefinancial life this year. Do not invest huge amount on any‑thing as you may go in loss. You should wait for the right
time to invest on anything. You should not lend money toanyone as it may create financial crisis for yourself.Career this year: As far as your professional life is con‑cerned, you are expected to get a lot of opportunitiesthroughout this year. However, you have to work hard andefficiently to convert those opportunities. Being a quickdecision maker, you may have to decide on many critical
matters in your professional circle.Romance this year: You may try and convert your long
time romantic relationship to a married one. You will beenjoying a great life with your spouse with lots of under‑standing, love, and care. You need not get into any kind of argument with your beloved this year.Lucky month: April, August, October and November7th March 2016
Traits in you:
Your ruling planet Neptune makes you intel‑ligent, adaptable, charming, independent, humble, decisive,courteous, and courageous. Along with many positive char‑acters, you also have few negatives. You need to work on your carefree and dominating attitude towards others toget respect and attention in your friend circle.Health this year: You need to take an appropriate care of your health. You may fall sick in the middle months of the yea r tho ug h tho se wi ll no t be ser io us . If yo u are asportsperson, you need to be very careful for your diet andnutrition to perform better in your sporting events.Finance this year: You will be financially profited from youlong term past investments. Your legal issues wil l be solvedto give you a huge amount of money. You may end upspending a lot of money on your family members this yearthough you will earn a handsome amount. You may go forinvestments to get benefited in future.
Career this year: Professionally, you are a very smart andefficient worker. So you may need to clarify doubts andhelp you peers and juniors in their work. People in yourprofessional circuit will seek your help at every crucial situ‑ation. You may get promoted as a result of your spectacularperformance throughout the year. You may be assigned anew responsibility this year. You may go for a job changeas well as there will be plenty of opportunities available.Romance this year: You will be spending a peaceful andcontent life with your beloved. During the last few monthsof the year, you may have few misunderstandings, whichcan be cleared and sorted out if you both sit and try to lis‑ten each other.Lucky month: April , June and September8th March 2016
Traits in you: The influence of the planet Saturn makes you creative, realistic, helpful, thoughtful, enthusiastic, andoptimistic. You should take care of your impatience and jealousy to excel as an individual.Health this year:
You may fall sick often this year if you donot take required preventive measures. You should see your doctor once a month to check your health conditions
and supplements if required. You should also take care of the health of your family members by providing them med‑ical attention.Finance this year:
You may prosper financially with theopportunity to earn as much as possible with new sourcesof income. You may go for long distance business trips if you want success in your business. Be aware of fraud invest‑
ment agencies as you may end up losing a huge amount of money. You are advised not to lend money this year.
Career this year: Your hard work, dedication, and efforts in your work wil l get reflected in your professional hierarchyas you may go a step further towards your promotion. Youwill be admired by your peers and seniors this year for your performance and decision making capabilities. Treat your ordinates respectfully and try to help them in difficultsituation as it would help you in getting a better appraisaltowards the end of the year.Romance this year: Your relationship with your partnermay reach to new heights this year as your love, trust, careand concern will develop towards your beloved. You mayget married towards the end of this year if you are yet tomarry.Lucky month: April , October and January9th March 2016
Traits in you:
Your ruling planet Mars makes you strong,determined, courageous, enthusiastic, intelligent, ambi‑tious, and motivated. You have a strong dislike towardsfake people and fake emotions. You are a huge fan of truthand cleanliness. You need to work on your nature of show‑ing dictatorship and being rude and stubborn at times.Health this year: As far as your health is concerned this year, you may not remain healthy throug hout the year.
There will be few hiccups in your health as you may sufferfrom many minor diseases. If you want to stay healthy, youshould go for proper medication and a healthy diet plan.You have to leave consuming alcohol and smoking ciga‑rettes.Finance this year: You may go through sudden gains andlosses this year. However, you will be capable enough tofind out the source to earn ample amount of money. Yourfinancial condition will be improved for a long term. If youare into business, you may enhance your business to gainbetter profits. You should invest in real estate this year asthe chances of return are hig h.Career this year: You will face huge challenges in your pro‑fessional field this year. There will be a lot of changes in your profess ional life. You may remain distur bed about your profession. You may go for a new job change as youwould find the current work disgusting and monotonous.Romance this year: You will enjoy an improved life with your partner with lot of love, care, and concern. You shouldgive time to your spouse or partner. If you are not married, you might have to wait as the movement of your planetsdoes not suggest a marital alliance this year.
Lucky month: June , July and October10th March 2016
Traits in you: Your ruling planet, the Sun blesses you witha unique character. You are pretty confident, creative, intel‑lectual, optimistic, and enthusiastic. You are gifted with anartistic perception. You are very much social and like tomake new contacts wherever you go. However, you need to
control your mood swings and selfishness.Health this year: You may go through a very bad patch as
far as your health is concerned this year. You may fall sickfrequently with minor diseases like fever, cough, cold, bodypain, and so on. You should take care of your health by tak‑ing proper medication.Finance this year: If you are well educated and employed, you may find yourself in huge monetary benefits this year.You might get favors from government officials to get yourwork done, which will earn you a lot of money. You may gofor investments in various sectors as it may prove to beprofitable for you.Career this year: You are quite capable of taking wise deci‑sions. So your colleagues may seek you help in taking criti‑cal decisions. You will excel as an efficient employee andthis might bring you a promotion or salary hike. Your confi‑dence, hard work, and dedication will help you obtain suc‑cess in every project assigned to you.Romance this year:
You may go for a romantic relationshipthis year if you are yet to be in one. If you are married, youwill enjoy a good time with your spouse. You may plan formarriage if you are still unmarried. You should plan for along holiday with your par tner to give time to each other.Lucky month: June, August and November11th March 2016
Traits in you: Being influenced by the Moon, you are cre‑ative, simple, reliable, intelligent, hardworking, and verysocial. You are a very efficient in your work. However, youneed to control your attitude of being rude and pessimistic.Health this year: Your health will remain fine. However, you may suffer from various minor diseases say cough,cold, body pain, loss of sleep and so on. To enjoy a veryhealthy life, you need to get a good control on your diet.You have to stay away from alcohol and cigarettes to avoidany organ dysfunction.Finance this year:
You may go through a moderate finan‑cial condition this year. You past investments may notbring you expected results. You may get minimal returnfrom your fixed savings and that would not make yousecure financially. You should not lend money to anyoneduring this year as you may feel the requirement of moneyat any point of time.Career this year: Being a hardworking professional, youare well capable of performing the best. However, you needto be very selective and cautious if you plan to make amove for your career. You may go for a new job opportuni‑ty. You may see many ups and downs in your career as you
may struggle to get things right for yourself.Romance this year: Your marital life will go on smoothlywith the gradually growing understanding between youand your spouse. You will get enough support from yourpartner whenever you are in a problem. If you are yet tomarry, you may need to wait for another year.Lucky month:
April, June and November
By Dr Prem Kumar SharmaChandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 [email protected]; www.premastrologer.com
MARCH 5‑11, 2016
ANNUAL PREDICTIONS: FOR THOSE BORN IN THIS WEEK
29
ARIES New ventures start on a positivenote. Guests visit would make it a pleas‑ant & wonderful week. This week long‑
term investment would enable to make sub‑
stantial gains. Your flashing smile would workas the best antidote for romantic partnersunhappiness. Charity work undertaken willbring mental peace & comfort. Enjoy your hol‑iday with love of your life. Selling your homeprivately can be an excellent way of saving oncosts. A surprise gift especially later in theweek could come your way.
TAURUS You succeed in completingprojects efficiently provided you put inall your efforts. You will be in the
mood to celebrate with family and friends thisweek. Financial hassles will be eased out withthe help of your friends. Sharing candyflossand toffees with lover/beloved would bringunlimited joy.Meditation and self‑realization prove benefi‑cial. Romantic destinations seems appealingto you. Off‑plan property investment is one of the easiest and most profitable methods tomaximize gains in the real estate market.
Interactions with youngsters will be anenriching experience.
GEMINI Hard work put‑in the past will yield handsome rewards in businessthis week. Good advice from family
members brings gains. Certain importantplans will be executed, bringing fresh finan‑cial gains. Company of love partner wouldinspire to take initiatives this week. You willhave ample time to do things to improve yourhealth. Travel for fun and pleasure is what
you demand. Your property prices will boostin the coming period. Devoting quality time tohelp needy people would bring immensepleasure.
CANCER Business partners behavesupportive on executing strategies tosort out pending problems. The com‑
pany of family friends will keep you in a
happy & relaxed mood. Speculations are likelyto bring monetary profits. Love works like apanacea as you find sanity. Sound physicalhealth will enable to participate in outdooractivities. Small journey with your office col‑leagues will be interesting. Buying propertycan lead to gains as property prices continueto increase. Your guidance would encourageothers.
LEO Innovative ideas & technicalexpertise would enable to win the con‑fidence of seniors at professional front.
Parental guidance in your decision wouldimmensely help. Monetary position is likely toimprove later in the week. Love partner touch‑es soul that would take imagination to unlim‑ited heights. You will be successful in gettingrid from tensions. Your boss may ask you for
your company to a friendʼs party. You couldbuy the property that you are looking for.Developing social contacts would immensely
help in widening horizons.VIRGO Service people, artists andthose in creative field will get severalnew opportunities. A week when mis‑
understandings at family front are sorted outwith ease. Hard work of previous weeksbrings good fortune enabling to fulfill mone‑tary promises. Someones timely help wouldenable visualizing succeeding in love. Asparkling laughter filled week when mostthings proceed, as you desire. Travel plan witha colleague might lead to a new relationship.Investing on properties which are underdeveloped will be profitable. A visit to placewhere never gone before is on the card.
LIBRA Your greatest gains will comethrough your creative ideas at profes‑sional front. Believe it or not someone
in the family is watching you closely and con‑
siders you a role model. You succeed in mak‑ing some extra cash on playing your cardswell. Romantic imagination would keep you ina jovial & cheerful mood. Your enormous con‑fidence would help in enjoying a healthy life.Small picnic organized by your company isgood to change your mood. Whether young orold, now is the t ime to start investing. An idealweek to impress others with creative talent.
SCORPIO Success is certain provided you wor k as a team. An im por tantdevelopment at personal front brings
jubi lat ion for ent ire fami ly. An auspici ousweek to invest money on items that wouldgrow in value. The company of love partnermakes you forget about the work. A veryhealthy week filled with happiness & vitality.Official journeys prove to be more fruitful for
you. Looking for good long term investments,then go for a property which is under con‑struction. You get unlimited respect in friend
circle.SAGITTARIUS You will be on the sev‑enth heaven when you receive recog‑nition for your achievements at work.
A happy time in the company of friends andrelatives as they do many favours to you.Investment on long‑term plans would pave theway for earning financial gains. Suddenromantic encounter will lift your spirits.Pleasure trip would help in maintaining soundhealth this week. Fly away with your dreams,new business horizons are ready to explore.Value the property at right price to attractbuyers for it. Efforts succeed in winning thehearts of adversaries.
CAPRICORN Your creativity willamaze people around you besidesenhancing career prospects. Enjoying
the company of close relatives will brighten
your evening. Improvement in finances makesit convenient in clearing long pending dues &bills. Attending a social event/family functionbrings a romantic encounter. Yoga and medi‑tation would help in keeping in shape andmentally agile.A fun‑ filled holiday at an amusement andtheme park with your family is there. Italways is exciting to begin looking at homesfor sale in your area. Strange fascinations arelikely to attract.
AQUARIUS New job opportunitiesfor some will be better than expected.Shopping with family members will
be highly pleasurable and exciting. Successfulexecution of brilliant ideas would help inearning financial profits. Your physical charmwould catch the attraction of opposite sex.Blessings of a saintly person give peace of mind. An interesting cruise ship is next placefor your vacation. Buying cheap property in
the right location can provide you triple gainannually. Interaction with others will be sig‑nificant.
PISCES At work you are likely to winappreciation and awards for pastefforts. You will be at the limelight in a
social gathering provided you attend. A verysuccessful week as far as monetary position isconcerned. Love life blossoms paving the wayfor lovely times ahead. Chances of recoveringfrom physical ailment are high. Breathtakingbeautiful site scenes are your loverʼs desire.Investing in property business sounds veryappealing. Temptation of any kind fails toallure you.
March 5-11, 2016TheSouthAsianTimes.info A STROLOGY
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30 March 5-11, 2016 TheSouthAsianTimes.info S P I R I TU AL AWARENES S
Life is challenging. Every day
people face situations that
can make one feel stress and
anger. Modern science has proven
the affects stress and anger have
on the health and wellness of our
body and mind. Is there any way
that we can deal with stress and
anger so that it does not create
stress‑related illness of our body
and mind? Is there a way that we
can face the tension of life in a
way that we maintain calm and
equanimity physically, mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually?
The combined wisdom of the
saints and mystics from ancient
India and the current research by
scientists, medical doctors, and
researchers point to the same
answer: we can reduce stress and
anger and maintain optimum
health and wellness through the
practice of meditation.
As life has become more com‑
plex, we interact with many peo‑
ple in the course of the day. Any
one of these can result in stress.
Whenever there are disagree‑
ments between two or more peo‑
ple, or things do not go the way
we expect, this can lead to anger.
In the past, when people lived and
worked on a farm or from their
homes, there were fewer interac‑
tions with others. However, today,
we have many opportunities
throughout the day in which we
meet and interact with others.
People have stress on the job.
When we are raising a family,
there is stress over the health of ourselves or our loved ones, their
schooling, their financial difficul‑
ties, or living in a household with
multiple people. With the econom‑
ic difficulties of modern life, we
have financial stress. As students,
either in a school or college, or in
training for our career, we have to
worry about our grades in school
and our test scores. We worry
about whether we will be accept‑
ed into a school or training facili‑
ty, and once there, whether we
will pass so we can get a job in
our chosen career. Once we have a
job, there is stress about keeping
it with the stiff competition work‑
ers face, or we worry what will
happen if we lose the job? The
terminal illness or death of a fami‑
ly member or loved one creates
tremendous pain and stress in our
lives. There is also stress caused
by interpersonal relationship
problems. From morning until
night, we face one or more of
these situations that cause stress
or which makes us feel angry.
The good news is that there is a
solution to dealing with stress and
anger. From ancient times, saints
and mystics have taught medita‑
tion as a way to remain calm and
peaceful. In the past few decades,
the practice of meditation has
gained popularity in countries all
over the world. While people have
been practicing meditation
because they recognize how good
it makes them feel, there is the
added bonus contributed by med‑
ical researchers and doctors that
prove why we feel so good when
we meditate. These medical stud‑
ies bear out the positive effect
meditation has on the health and
wellness of our body and mind.
The most beneficial gains from
meditation are that it reduces
stress and anger, which in turn
reduce our risk for stress related
illness. Numerous diseases have
been linked to stress, such as can‑
cer, stroke, heart problems, diges‑
tive problems, circulation prob‑
lems, migraine headaches, skin
problems, and others. By reducing
stress, we can minimize our risk
for these problems, prevent them,and mitigate them if we already
have them. Spending daily time in
meditation contributes to our
health and wellness.
Two meditation techniques we
use in Science of Spirituality̶
Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission are
simple to do and can be
practiced by anyone
of any age in their
homes or wherever
they like. It does
not require dif‑
ficult pos‑
tures or
asanas, and can be performed
anywhere at any time. One is the
Shabd Meditation, or Meditation
on the Light and Sound. This pro‑
vides us an inner connection to a
source of happiness, peace, and
bliss within us. It is like having an
internal retreat that we can visit
anytime we want to recharge and
refresh. The second is an intro‑
ductory technique called Jyoti
Meditation, which involves sitting
quietly, focusing our attention
within, and experiencing the
peace and calm within us. For
more instructions, many
resources related to meditation
can be found at www.sos.org
A few other factors can help us
reduce our stress and anger. New
research is showing the value of a
vegetarian diet. By eating plant‑
based foods, we also can reduce
our risk of many diseases. Illness
produces its own stress not on
only our body, our families, our
work, but also on our finances. If
we can remain healthy through
healthy eating such as a vegetari‑
an diet, we can also reduce stress.
Selfless service to others also
reduces stress. When we are a
contributing member of a commu‑
nity, we are calmer and happier.This reduces tension and stress.
By being of service to others, we
create a joyful life for ourselves
and make life better for others.When we think of others first, it
helps take our attention away
from our own problems.
As a byproduct of meditation,
we realize the same light within
us is in all others. We realize that
at the level of soul or spirit, all
humanity is one. We begin to
develop love for all and treat oth‑
ers kindly as members of one fam‑
ily. As we become more loving and
calm, we eliminate much of our
stress and anger. We replace
stress and anger with love and tol‑
erance for all, making our own
lives and that of others more
peaceful.
Here are some easy tips to help
us when w e feel anger arise in our
daily lives
Tip : We can remove ourselves
from the situation and go some‑
where to quietly meditate. This
gives us a break from the situa‑
tion so we can calm down, slow
down our heart rate and brain
waves to a calmer state, and then
return with the equipoise to deal
more peacefully with the situa‑
tion.
Tip 2: When we return to the
stressful situation after meditat‑
ing, try to talk things over. Listen
calmly to what the other person
has to say and see if there is any
truth to it. If so, we can apologize
if we have done or said something
to hurt them, and resolve to
refrain from repeating
that action or those
words. After the other
person has felt
heard and that
we truly lis‑
t e n e d ,
they may be more open to hear
things from our point of view. We
can then share our side of the
incident, so they can understand
us as we have tried to understand
them. We can then discuss a way
to have a win‑win solution or
compromise. In this way, we can
use conflict resolution to work out
a problem without resorting to
anger and violence.
Tip 3: We can look at the source
of our anger, which is often ego.
We get angry when things are not
going our way. It could be that we
want to control others, have
power over others, or make others
do what we want. If we can step
back and find ways to make
things work out in a way that is
mutually beneficial for all parties,
we are happy, others are happy,
and we have made the environ‑
ment peaceful.
Through daily meditation, lead‑
ing a calm, peaceful life becomes
a habit. Over time, a habit turns
into our nature. Day by day, we
transform ourselves into peaceful,
nonviolent, and calm people and
radiate that to others. The ripple
effect of our calmness and
equipoise spreads and it will notbe long before we have a peaceful
family, community, and world.
Peace begins with each of us.
Dealing with stress and anger
By Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj
SE RET TO ENLIGHTENED LIVING
There is a quotation by the great
Greek philosopher, Socrates. Once
he said, “Our prayers should be for
blessings in general, for God knows best
what is good for us.” This quote coin‑
cides with the prayer to God to give us
whatever is good for us.
Time and again, whenever we
demand something from God that is con‑
tinually denied to us, it is usually
because we are asking for something
that is not good for us ultimately.
There have been many instances in
which people prayed to God for some‑
thing, and God did not grant their wish.
Later they came to learn that receiving
the wish would not have been a good
thing after all. Will a mother allow the
child to have poison? The child may cryfor it and throw a tantrum, but if it is
poison, the mother will not grant it.
Instead the mother will give the child
what is best for him or her. The child
may not realize it at the time, but as the
child grows and learns, the child is
grateful for all the things the mother
denied him or her that were ultimately
not good.
Many people are anxious about
making choices. The way to be sure we
make the right choices about what to
pray for is to pray that God gives uswhat is best for us. God makes no mis‑
take. Rather than pray for something
that may or may not be the best for us,
let us pray for Godʼs will for us.
What are the spiritualpearls to enlightened
living?
If we relax and rest in Godʼs will, we will find that every‑
thing works out for the best in the long run. Meditation is
a process of relaxing in Godʼs will. Meditation provides a
time when we can let go of all clutching and praying for this
thing and that. It is a time in which we sit in a state of still‑
ness and surrender to Godʼs will. It is a chance to let go of allour wants and desires. We merely sit in a receptive mood
and ask God to grant what is best for us. We will find that
God will give us much more than we had expected.That is
the secret to enlightened living.
By Sant Rajinder Singh JiMaharaj
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HAB BANK
HAB B
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