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24th Mar to 30th Mar 201280p Let noble thoughts come to us from every sideVOL 40. ISSUE 46 First & Foremost Asian Weekly in Europe

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The Gurkhas have beenthe pride of the Britisharmy for years. Butalmost two centuries ofGurkha service inBritain’s armed forces isnow set to draw to aclose after Nepal MPsbacked a ban on recruit-ment when economicconditions are strongenough to generate alter-native jobs.

A parliamentaryreport setting theHimalayan state’s foreignpolicy, said the recruit-ment of Gurkhas to fightin foreign armies shouldbe ended, reported anational daily.

Its authors com-

plained that since Britaingranted retired Gurkhatroops the right to remainin the UK, the amount ofincome Nepal earns fromthe arrangement hasdeclined.

Those who support aban say the recruitmentof poor young men tofight other country’swars hurts Nepal’snational image.

A ban would break abond which dates back to1815 when the East IndiaCompany’s officersdefeated a Gurkha armyin the Anglo-Nepal butadmired their warriorskills and spirit.

Continued on page 6

Gurkhas in British armyunder threat due to

Nepal government bill

British retailers will be ableto cash in on the influx oftourists visiting theLondon 2012 Olympicsthis year, with the govern-ment set to relax Sundaytrading laws. Shop open-ing laws on Sundays willbe eased for the Games.Chancellor GeorgeOsborne confirmed that heis to push through emer-

gency legislation lifting thesix-hour limit over eightweekends in July, Augustand September. TheChancellor said it would bea chance to try to stimulatethe economy. But thisrelaxation is not going tobenefit the small shop-keepers as they cannotcompete with the big anddepartmental stores. When

big shops are open the cus-tomers will go to them. Infact it is a loss for them.

The Chancellor, whowill set out details in theBudget on Wednesday,said it would be an oppor-tunity to try to stimulatethe economy. “We have gotthe whole world coming toLondon and the rest of thecountry for the Olympicsand it would be a greatshame, particularly whensome of the big Olympicevents are on a Sunday, ifthe country had a “closedfor business” sign on it,”he said.

Mr Osborne faced abacklash over the speed ofthe move – which willmean emergency lawsbeing rushed throughParliament in the next 10days. Critics also predictedthe Government wouldmove to a permanent shiftin opening hours, under-mining family life for thoseworking in retailing.

But Governmentsources say they havesecured cross-party sup-port for the measures,which could give a much-

needed boost to the econo-my. Treasury estimates sug-gest that allowing shops inLondon’s West End to openon Sundays for just fourmore hours would lead toan extra 100,000 peopleshopping in the area at atime when the city will beflooded with foreign visi-tors. Large retailers, includ-ing the Trafford Centre inManchester and Selfridgesin London, have been pri-vately lobbying for thechange.

Until 1994, only spe-cialist outlets such as gar-den centres, corner shopsor chemists were allowedto trade on a Sunday. Themove comes at a time ofgrowing tension betweenthe Government and theChurch over plans tolegalise same-sex marriageby 2015. .A Whitehallsource said: ‘The emer-gency legislation will bevery clear that this is onlya "The Church of Englandwould, however, stronglyoppose any furtherattempts to erode the spe-cial nature of Sunday,

Continued on page 26

Govt to relax Sunday tradinglaws during Olympics 2012

Modi makesit to Time

magazine cover

Indian cricket icon SachinTendulkar, treated like Godby his fans, ended the longand tiring wait for his 100thinternational century onFriday last at Dhaka's Sher-eBangla National Stadium.Sachin hits his 100th century.

Tendulkar, the leading runscorer in the history of bothTest and one-day cricket,achieved the most-covetedton by taking a single offShakib Al Hasan againstBangladesh in Asia Cup.Tendulkar's century came off138 balls and was studdedwith 10 fours and a six.

Continued on page 26

Century and not out

Small retailers to suffer as they can’t compete with big retailers

For report see page 25

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 20122 UK

ONE TO ONEKeith Vaz MP with

Javed Khan, CEO, Victim SupportJaved became Chief Executive at Victim Support inOctober 2010. He leads 1,500 staff across England &Wales, with 7,000 specially trained volunteers. Theagency is the oldest and largest of its kind in the world,supporting 1.5 million victims and witnesses every year.

Prior to this, Javed was the Executive Director tothe multi-agency London Serious Youth Violence Board,responsible for working across London’s key agenciesand Whitehall departments to improve inter-agencyworking to drive down serious youth violence.

Previously Assistant Director of Education inBirmingham, in January 2004 Javed joined HarrowCouncil as Chief Education Officer. Originally a Mathsteacher, he has brought 27 year’s experience of work-ing in schools, sixth form and further education col-leges, with ten years as a Chief Officer in local govern-ment, and more recently in the senior civil service.

Listed in the Asian Power100 publication in 2009, heis a Non Executive Board member of the Children’sWorkforce Development Council; a member of Skills forJustice Sector Skills Council Board and sits on theExecutive Board of Victim Support Europe.

Lord Dolar Popat

I was saddened to hear lastweek that Dr RowanWilliams had decided tostep down as theArchbishop of Canterburyafter ten challenging, yetglorious years in the role.

It has been a privilegeto work with Dr Williamsboth in the House of Lordsand in the community and Iam sure many will join mein paying tribute to DrWilliams for not only coura-geously leading the 77 mil-lion strong global Anglicancommunity, but also for hisrole in uniting differentcommunities and champi-oning the importance offaith in our society.

I would particularly liketo thank Dr Williams for hisrole in establishing theHindu-Christian Forum,alongside Nitin Palan, the

Hindu Inter-faith Co-ordi-nator. Last year’s launchundoubtedly represented amilestone event betweenour two great faiths and Iwould like to thank theArchbishop for offering ahand of friendship to theHindu community whichwill be remembered formany years to come.

The launch of theForum in November 2011at the Lambeth Palace wasan historic event, wherebythe Archbishop ofCanterbury spoke of theimportance of faith, partic-ularly at a time when socie-ty seemed confused andmuddled on the true mean-ing of religion.

Dr Williams alsoacknowledged the manysimilarities between thetwo faiths and communi-ties, many of which he haddiscovered on his recent

trip to India, which hereferred to as a “deeplyenriching experience”.

Dr Williams has alsobeen renowned for takingthe work of the Churchabroad, particularly inAfrica where he has taken aclose interest in Sudan and

Kenya, often helping toease diplomatic tensions inthe region.

The role of Archbishopof Canterbury is certainlynot an easy task, and DrWilliams has shown greatvigour and strength in hisattempts to hold the

Church together against itsnew challenges and chang-ing times.

His reign has undoubt-edly been overshadowed bythe row over gay clergy andwomen bishops, but DrWilliams has continued towork tirelessly with sinceredevotion, integrity andpride. I do not envy DrWilliams new successor,who he wittily said wouldneed the “constitution ofan ox and the skin of a rhi-noceros.”

Speculation has alreadystarted on who will succeedDr Williams as Archbishopof Canterbury and my fel-low UgandanParliamentarian Dr JohnSentamu, the Archbishopof York has been tipped tobe the favourite to take therole.

Originally fromKampala, the charismatic

and outspoken Bishop hastaken a number of difficultroles within and outside theChurch, including being thechair of the DamilolaTaylor Murder Review. Ifsuccessfully elected, DrSemtamu would becomethe first black leader of theChurch of England andwould represent a real stepforward in opening up theChurch.

Dr Williams will begreatly missed and I wouldlike to wish him all the verybest for his new role asMaster of MagdaleneCollege, Cambridge. I amsure that Dr Williams willcontinue to support thework of the Hindu-Christian Forum and I amconfident that his legacy ofinstilling faith and promot-ing inter-faith dialogue willbe remembered for manyyears to come.

Lord Popat speaking at the launch of the Hindu-Christian Forum

alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and

Sri Dharma Das Ji, President of Bhaktivedanta Manor.

A tribute to Dr Rowan Williams

1) Please tell us aboutyour current position?

Chief Executive of VictimSupport

2) What are your proud-est achievements?

Rising from very humbleorigins to become aDirector Education andnow Chief Executive of

the world’s oldest andlargest victim supportagency.

My family originatesfrom the Kashmir regionof Asia, with neither ofmy parents ever havingbeen touched by themagic wand of education.

I was taught aboutthe value of hard workand ethics at an early age,with little or no material

possessions to distract us.I learnt how even a basiclevel of education canmake a profound differ-ence to your life, and thatwithout it many doorsremain firmly shut.

3) What has been thebiggest obstacle in yourcareer?

In the early days it was alack of confidence along-side a poor understandingof my cultural origins.

Having been a mathe-matician, I have benefit-ted from a good enougheye for figures thataccountants haven’t beenable to bamboozle me.However the down sidehas been my lack of writ-ten skills, which I havehad to work very hard atdeveloping. And asunfortunate as it is, Ihave faced the pains ofinstitutional racism sur-facing its ugly and oftencovert head more thanonce along the way.

4) Who has been thebiggest influence on yourcareer to date?

I have been fortunate towork with a number ofhighly inspirational lead-ers, from whom I havelearnt a great deal aboutleading policy, practice &people, deployingresources, and how tohave fun whilst you do it.Most prominent havebeen Tony Henry-Principal of EastBirmingham College, andProfessor Tim Brighouse-Director of Education atBirmingham CityCouncil.

5) What is the best thingabout your current role?

Leading a values drivenorganisation that is fullof the most passionateand committed peoplethat you could ever hopeto work for. If coming inevery day and facing therange of stresses andstrains that a CEO goes

through, and really lovingevery minute of it, leav-ing the office each daywith a great sense of jobsatisfaction is anythingto go by…then I feelblessed to have this role.

6) And the worst?

Quite honestly- thereisn’t one!

7) What are your longterm goals?

Apart from achievingworld peace (!), I don’tdo long term goals. Ibelieve that a greaterpower controls our des-tiny and all that we cando is get the very best outof all opportunities thatpresent themselves. Ourdestiny will look afteritself.

8) If you were PrimeMinister, what one thingwould you change?

Ensure that victim sup-port services remainnationally commis-sioned, ensuring bestvalue, high standards andan entitlement for all.

9) If you were maroonedon a desert island, whichhistorical figures wouldyou like to spend yourtime with and why?

Bruce Lee - to help keepme fit. Jalaluddin Rumi -to understand the mean-ing of life & love. StevieWonder & Nusrat FatehAli Khan - what a duetthat would be!

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 www.abplgroup.com 3

Thought for the Week

Time running out for SriLankaThe hopes engendered at the end of theColombo Government's war with the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appear to havewithered on the vine. Sri Lankan PresidentMahindra Rajapakse spoke eloquently of recon-ciliation in the aftermath of that searing con-flict, but his words are yet to be translated intoinstitutional deeds.

Truth is, that the relationship between theTamil minority in the north and the Sinhalesemajority in the south, and in the rest of thecountry, has been a troubled one, ever since itemerged as an independent state from Britishcolonial rule in Feb 1948 . Sinhalese national-ism became increasingly strident, wit leadingpolitical figured pressing the Buddhist clergyinto political service. The cocktail of politicsand religion took its inevitable toll of trust andthe demons of fear and ethnic hatred ruled theroost. Sri Lanka was declared a Buddhist statewith Sinhala as the sole official language andthe slow exclusion of the Tamil community fromthe country's political mainstream.

Such is the broad canvas of the past.President Rajapakse, it would appear, hoped toachieve a lasting peace based on mutual trustand goodwill between Sinhalese and Tamils.But without a constitutional framework reflect-ing a devolution of power to the tails in thenorth of Sri Lanka honeyed words are nothingmore than vacuous pieties.

President Rajapakse is plagued by thedemons of Sinhalese nationalism; he insists oncentralised rule from Colombo and has com-mandeered chauvinist forces to bend the coun-try to his will. As a result democracy itself andthe rule of law in Sri Lanka under threat.Independent voiced in the media many ofwhom are Sinhalese have been muzzled andcoercive tactics against of political opponents ofevery ethnic stripe. Army death squads operat-ing with white vans routinely kidnap Tamilcommunity leaders, of whom many have disap-peared. The international community has raisedthe alarm but President Rajapakse is playing thenationalist card in his regim's defence. The UShas said it will introduce a vote of censure atUN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva,and it is surely time that India took amore crit-ical stand against its neighbour. New Delhi hasshown great forbearance towards the Rajapakseregime. There have been good reasons for sucha policy. These include a desire to retain a meas-ure of influence in Colombo through trade andinvestment and political persuasion. But ittakes two to tango. India's Tamil population hasa significant voice the country's affairs andthere is growing concern among them at thepresent turn of events in Sri Lanka. Indian sup-port of the US censure of the Rajapakse gov-ernment could be a welcome shot across itsbows.

Relaxing trading hours to benefit big retailersThe Cameron government’s proposal to relaxSunday trading laws during the Olympics is awelcome step. It is clearly sensible - though toargue that this will do much to bolster consumerspending overall is somewhat far-fetched. Therelaxation will benefit only big retailers anddepartmental stores. The small shopkeepers willsuffer as they can’t compete with the big retail-ers. So the move is a bonanza for big retailersand a loss for small shopkeepers. Britain, likemost nations, is becoming a 24-hour, seven-daysociety, and is the livelier for it. Adequate restdays are naturally essential; but should theChurch, already in dispute over other issues,blame the Government for changing mores?Shopping is not an Olympic sport. But Britain isa nation of shopkeepers. Let them open theirdoor. We are on crossroads - One is that to keepthe shops open for long hours during Olympicsthat pauses the country as ‘happening and doingbusiness’ and outsiders gets chance to shop andin return locals will get employment and be paidmore, the economy get chance to progress. Theother view is to not to accept working long hourson Sundays but to be with family and enjoy thebonding time.

It will picture London in better light. Whenthe whole world is coming to London - and therest of the country - for the Olympics, it wouldbe a shame - particularly when some of the bigOlympic events are on Sundays - if the countryhad a closed for business sign on it. But it is bet-ter to slog a bit for few days till Olympics lastsand make a good impression to the outside worldand in return also earn more. There is also

chance that 7,500 jobs would be created, gener-ating extra money for the economy and theGovernment through tax. Usually the countrybenefits from tourists and this is a chance not tomiss.

The decision has provoked uproar in somequarters. Sabbatarians, who for the past 20 yearshave seen their dourly rigid observance steadilyundermined, argued that the change was a coverfor creeping deregulation. Some ConservativeMPs, mindful of the recent campaign by IainDuncan Smith to promote family togetherness,voiced concern that small, family-run businesseswould be at a disadvantage to the big stores thatcan roster staff for Sunday duties. And Churchleaders expressed sadness that the Governmenthas appeared to concede yet another step in thegrowing secularisation of daily life.

These objections all have some validity. Itwould indeed be a pity if fathers found less timeto spend with their children or if the change wereto encourage Britons to spend most of theirleisure time in shopping malls; or if churchesfound attendance dropping still further becauseof the rival attraction of materialist indulgence.In fact none of this is likely to occur. The provi-sion of leisure activities, including outdoor pur-suits, has vastly increased in the past 30 yearsand shopping is unlikely to make any real differ-ence to sport, culture or religion. Those who stillhankered for a Victorian Sunday had only tolook at the rigidly enforced Sunday trading lawsin Germany, which until only a few years agoreduced German town centres to a ghostlysilence every weekend.

Sachin Tendulkar: India's eternal flameIt is scarcely an exaggeration to say that SachinTendulkar is India's icon as no national figure hasbeen this past century. He symbolises for hisnation the eternal flame of aspiration andachievement. He is the most unifying figure in adiverse and fractious country, a hero who silencesdiscord and invites concord at the very mentionof his name. His century in the Asia Cup ODI tieagainst hosts Bangladesh in Mirpur marked his100th international century, for unlikely to berepeated in our lifetime and many more to come.Though Virat Kohli’s high scores in the lastmatch have proven that there are definitelyyoungsters to take Sachin’s place someday, but it

is also possible that such long standing successmay not be ever created in Indian history again.

The crowning hundred was a long time com-ing by Sachin’s exalted standards and the pres-sures on him were truly intimidating. He cametantalisingly close to achieving the feat but luckwas clearly not with him. He persevered and wonout in end, much to the joy and relief of his mil-lions of fans. The steel in him showed but also thesense of proportion wherein reminded his audi-ence at the post-match press conference in Dhakathat he wasn't God but Sachin. Perhaps not, forwho would wish to violate the FirstCommandment?

I’ve always seen librariesas community hubs. As asenior Councillor inHarrow I have demon-strated this by ensuringlibraries are not closed,by removing the Torythreat of privatisationand as promised, restoredthe Sunday opening ofcentral library which wasclosed by the previousTory administration.

As to the accusationmade against me by theTory GLA candidate fornot attacking BrentCouncil ‘for its assault onthe Libraries’ I’d respect-fully suggest to my oppo-nent that he keeps him-self informed. I know andpeople know that he doesnot live in Brent orHarrow but you’d expecthim to stay in touch withlocal issues – it’s obvious,he is not and does noteven follow local news. Ifhe cared to check thefacts out he’d know Ihave made my positionclear against the closureof Brent libraries and crit-icised Brent Council. Mystance on this issue andthe root causes for thecuts cannot be clearer orstronger.

It is entirely due tothe Tory and LibDemCoalition Government’sill-conceived and savageimposition of cuts thatlocal authorities acrossthe UK have been placedin an impossible positionof having to make strin-gent – often unpalatablecuts like Library clo-sures(s). This is clearlyputting local authoritiessuch as Brent Council inan extremely difficultposition of having tomake tough choices.Brent Council is facing upto the staggering level ofcuts imposed by theGovernment, but as aresponsible authorityBrent is committed toprotect frontline servicesfrom the cuts forced uponit by uncaring ToryGovernment.

I’m not a BrentCouncillor so as suchhave no powers or voteon Brent Council but Ihave expressed my oppo-sition to Library closures.During the controversy Ihave met campaignersfighting the library clo-

sures in Brent in supportof their concerns, lobbiedBrent Councillors andthroughout the campaigntaken a constructiveapproach to find a wayforward. To this end I’veoffered my help in thepast and reaffirm mycommitment to workwith campaigners forviable community runlibrary project(s) and co-ordinate dialogue withBrent Council. There isneed for a clear strategicapproach to the future oflibraries Londonwide andKen Livingstone’sannouncement to standup to prevent library clo-sures bodes well for thefuture.

Since libraries acrossthe country have comeunder pressure to close,my colleagues in theLondon Assembly and Ihave been lobbying theTory Mayor of London.We have asked him tohelp Councils in Londonwho are faced with thedecision of closing oflibraries. Unfortunatelythe Mayor’s announce-ment launching the‘Libraries Trust’ last yearhas come to nothing. TheMayor is good on rhetoricbut poor on delivery.

If my Tory opponentwas genuinely concernedabout ‘scores of families’and sincerely believedthat ‘our children are ourfuture’ he’d oppose Torygovernment’s savage cutsaffecting families. Torieshave stifled growth, creat-ed record level of massiveunemployment and leadthe country to double diprecession.

Londoners too areworse off under ToryMayor of London wholacks vision and isresponsible for devastat-ing measures like the cutsin police numbers result-ing in increase in crimeand staggering rise inpublic transport faresundermining the qualityof life of Londoners.Contrast that with KenLivingstone who putLondon on the map in hisadministration for eightyears and is guaranteeingto restore police numbersand reducing publictransport fares at no extracost to Londoners.

Libraries areCommunity Hubs

“Our London”

CIIr Navin Shah AM

London Assembly Member

for Brent and Harrow

COMMENT

Words open the soul's window to ideas and thediscourse of words is how we grope our way toconversation and, when conversation can bestripped of its inequalities and hidden hege-monies, how we eventually become capable ofcooperation, of common life with others, andeven of justice.

- Benjamin R. Barber (1995)

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 20124

In briefLeicester VoiceBy Meera MajithiaEmail: majithia.meera@gmail.com

A Leicestershire policeofficer, who has undergonea potentially life savingbone marrow transplanthas now taken his cam-paign on the road to helpothers who are in the sameposition.

Inspector Rik Basrahas been suffering fromacute myloid leukaemiaand when the diseasereturned for a second time,doctors told him his onlyhope was to receive a stemcell (bone marrow) trans-plant.

Working with the pio-neering blood cancer char-ity Anthony Nolan, Rik’sfamily, friends and col-leagues held a number ofdonor events in Leicester,including at the 2011Diwali celebrations and ata local Gurudwara, in a bid

to increase the number ofpeople on the donor regis-ter, particularly from anAsian background. The‘Rik Basra Campaign’ is

now holding adonor event inBirmingham in abid to help ayoung motherwho is also suf-fering fromleukaemia.

Mother oftwo KamDudwall, 37, ofWolverhamptonis currently inremission butmay need a trans-plant in thefuture. She is thenew face of acampaign aimingto attract donorsat the Nishkam

Centre, Handsworth, onSunday, March 25th.

Rik’s wife, Kas Basra,who is leading the cam-paign, said: “It is fantastic

that Rik has had a chanceof life by receiving stemcells from a donor inGermany via AnthonyNolan. He remains in iso-lation at home but isrecovering well followinghis transplant onChristmas Eve last year.There is a substantialshortage of Asian donorson the national and inter-national donor register andwe have received fantasticsupport from AnthonyNolan to help changethis.”

Figures released fromthe Anthony Nolan Trustshow that while they areable to find a math for 90%of northern Europeanpatients, they are only ableo find a match for 40% ofpatients from ethnicminority backgrounds.

Recovering officer takes his bone marrowcampaign on the road

Former city councillor suspended from partyA former city councillor hasbeen suspended for the sec-ond time after he was foundto have pestered twoschoolgirls for sex and inde-cently assaulted a youngwoman.

Manish Sood, 40 ofRoundhill Road, Leicesterhas been suspended fromthe Labour Party and is fac-ing an internal investiga-tion for his conduct.

A report in theLeicester Mercury claimsthat he is reported to have

kissed a 22-year old on herbottom in the guise of ‘ther-apy’ and offered to pay two

girls, aged 14 and 15, tovisit his home for ‘mas-sages’.

He admitted causing orinciting the two teenagersto engage in sexual activity,and to sexually assaultingthe 22-year-old at LeicesterCrown Court.

Sood, son of the city’sformer Lord MayorManjula Sood, was given athree-year communityorder with supervision andwas told he must attend asex offender group work

programme. A sexualoffences prevention orderwas also put in place ban-ning him from unsuper-vised contact with childrenunder 16 along with restric-tions placed on his comput-er.

He was the Labourcouncillor for theLeicester’s Fosse ward, andParliamentary candidate forNorfolk North West whenhe made national headlinestwo years ago for openlycriticising Gordon Brown.

Olympic torch route revealedThe route the Olympicflame will take throughLeicestershire on July2nd and 3rd this summerhas been revealed.

Ernie White,Leicestershire CountyCouncil’s cabinet mem-ber for health, is urgingpeople to line the route tocelebrate the uniquesporting occasion.

He said: “This mile-stone means that com-munities now have theopportunity to get togeth-er and plan how theywant to celebrate thisexciting event. Managingthe torch relay is impor-tant and we’re workingwith the police, city anddistrict councils and oth-ers to ensure our resi-dents can celebrate theevent safely. The Gamesare a once-in-a-lifetimesporting occasion and byencouraging young peo-ple into sport and helping

communities bring cele-brations to life, we arecreating a fitting legacy.”

Leicestershire CountyCouncil will use tried andtested rolling road blocksto enable residents toenjoy the torch relay andto keep them safe.

With an event of thissize, some traffic disrup-tion is inevitable but theapproach is designed tominimise hold ups andensure that the eventkeeps to schedule.

Information about theparking restrictions andother issues during therelay and the torch relaydress rehearsal, whichtakes place on April 20th,will be delivered tohouseholders and busi-nesses on the route overthe next few months.

For more informationvisit www.london2012.com/olympictorchrelay

A Leicester-based busi-nessman has been named‘Entrepreneur of the Year’at the prestigious IndoBritish Business ForumAwards (IBBF) held at theBritish Parliament.

Kulvinder S Sethi (VicSethi) of DaewooInternational Europe,received the award onMarch 15th from theMinister of State of theDepartment of Energy andClimate Change, GregoryBarker, Lord Dholakiaand Rt Hon MP VirandraSharma.

Mr Sethi was recog-nised not only for the suc-cess of his family businessbut for the contribution hehas made back to the com-munity on a global level.

He said: “It is a greathonour to receive such aprestigious award in theBritish Parliament inLondon and I would liketo thank the IBBF, itsmanagement and the peo-ple who have nominatedme for this award. Thiswould not have been pos-sible without the blessingsof the almighty, my elders,my parents in Leicester,Kuwait and Montreal aswell as my family, friends,well wishers and my dear-

est wife.”Attendees at the event

included Members ofParliament, Members ofthe House of Lords, coun-cillors, entrepreneurs,business owners and manymore dignitaries fromacross the country.

In addition to theawards, IBBF hosts anannual summit where themost dynamic leadersfrom the UK and India

come together to discusscurrent business trendsand topics related to themarkets in India, UK andthe European Union. Anumber of smaller satelliteevents are also heldthroughout the year onspecific topics.

Mr Sethi added: “Weare proud to be British andliving in Britain and we dosincerely owe it to theRoyal family for having us

here in this great land ofopportunity. I feel hon-oured that is also the yearof Her Majesty’s DiamondJubilee and the LondonOlympics.”

The businessman alsocommented that he want-ed to see the revival of theBritish industry and that itcan only be achieved bythe loyal support of theBritish people, retailersand the government.

Leicester businessman bags top award

From L-R: Vic Sethi, Lord Dholakia, Minister of State of the Department of Energy and

Climate Change, Gregory Barker and Rt Hon MP Virandra Sharma.

Courtesy: Pukar news

Detectives investigatingan assault on a 21-year-old man in a city night-club are appealing forpotential witnesses tocome forward.

The incident tookplace at about 3am onSunday, February 26that Chilli Whites inBelvoir Street when thevictim was hit over thehead with a glass bottle.

The victim sustainedinjuries to his head, faceand arms and was treat-ed at the Leicester RoyalInfirmary.

The suspect has beendescribed as being anAsian man, 20-25 years-

old, about 5’6”, of medi-um build, with croppedback hair and stubble.

Detective ConstableSarah Walker investigat-ing the incident, said:“This was a nasty attackand resulted in the vic-tim receiving stitches tohis head, we would urgeanyone who knows any-thing about the incidentto contact us.

Anyone with anyinformation can contactDC 4202 Sarah Walkeron 101 (officer’s identi-fication number 4202),or contactCrimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Company bosses inBeaumont Leys are invit-ed to find out about thebenefits of cheaper, easierand greener travel at abusiness forum being heldnext week.� �

The forum is beingheld as part of theBeaumont TravelRoadshow, which takesplace at BeaumontShopping Centre onWednesday, March 21st.� �Confirmed speakers at thebusiness forum includeAndrew Bannister, headof group environmentalmanagement atVolkswagen, and RickMoore, president ofLeicestershire Chamber ofCommerce.

The free event will usecase studies of the busi-ness benefits that othercompanies have seenthrough the introductionof sustainable travelschemes.� � People work-ing or shopping inBeaumont Leys are alsoinvited to come along tothe roadshow to find outmore about sustainabletravel, test drive an elec-tric car or have a go on anelectric bike and get pro-

fessional advice abouttravel subsidies, adultcycle training and othersupport available.� �

The event is beingorganised by LeicesterCity Council and GoTravel Solutions.� CllrRory Palmer, Deputy CityMayor and cabinet leadon transport and climatechange, said: “Employerscan play an important rolein promoting greener, sus-tainable travel and help-ing us achieve our goal ofmaking Leicester a lowcarbon city. � �

“This roadshow is allabout showing local com-panies the benefits ofworking with us to makebus travel, cycling andwalking a more attractiveoption for their staff.”

Sarah Duffin,Beaumont ShoppingCentre manager, said: “Wehope lots of local employ-ers will join us and takethis free opportunity tolearn about greener travel.It will be a fun and enter-taining way to find outabout encouraging youremployees and, whereappropriate, customers totravel more sustainably.”

Go green with Beaumont

Leys roadshow

Appeal for witnesses

following assault in nightclub

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 5UK

It was a crispy afternoon inthe Southall region as wemade our way to the for-mal launch of some realtasty ready made halalfood. Welcomed with somesamosas and pakoras, wewere in for a real treat aswe witnessed unveiling ofone of the finest halal precooked food. How is thisbrand different than anyother Indian pre cookedfood available across theUK? The answer is simple-these packed meals haveno preservatives, is scien-tifically packed and hasbeen carefully tested at thespecialised laboratoriesowned by Bombay Halwagroup. Obviously it goeswithout saying that it alsospeaks of ‘a quality’unknown otherwise, beingmanufactured by ‘thebrand’ that has been domi-nating the food industryfor over 4 decades.

Along side, the paran-thas served (that could bejust tossed in a toaster)remained soft and tastythrough out as we tastedendless variety of veg andnon veg food straight fromthe ‘Royal’ kitchen, finish-ing the gala feast withsome yummy shikhand,also available in packs.

Lord Noon and hisfamily personally super-vised everything as theyensured the guests feel athome.

Lord Gulam Noon,produces 1.5 million cur-ries a week for variousfood brands. He launched

‘Royal Halal’ meals underhis own family-ownedbrand on Friday at thecompany headquarters,Bombay Halwa inSouthall, Middlesexamongst invited guests,journalists, food criticsand creme de la creme ofthe community. � RoyalHalal is a range of premi-um frozen ready-cookedmeals that promise qualityand the authentic taste ofhome-cooked food.Consistent with BombayHalwa’s philosophy ofproduct innovation andevolution, the Royal Halalmeals come in four distinctflavours - Saag Chicken,Chicken Tikka Masala,Kadhai Chicken and

Butter Chicken, withBaghara Rice as an accom-paniment, in all meals.� Talking about the newrange, Lord Noon,Chairman and ManagingDirector, Bombay Halwa,told the Asian Voice, thatthe time was right for apremium quality Halalfood product to belaunched in the UK mar-ket. “We have been closelysurveying and monitoringthe market for a few yearsnow and know that theword ‘Halal’ has becomevery buoyant in theMuslim community. TheRoyal Halal dishes aremainly targeted at thiscommunity, but are notnecessarily only for them.

These are indeed for any-one who likes quality meatdishes,” he said. � “In theRoyal Halal range, thereare no artificial colours oradded preservatives. This

is very important, as some-times, preservatives maybecome non-Halal,” LordNoon added. His vision forthis product is to see itbeing distributed not justin the UK, but also inEurope and the MiddleEast. � As an accompani-ment to these meals,Bombay Halwa has alsolaunched Royal Paranthas.“These are as easy to toastas slices of bread and actas an ideal accompanimentto the Halal meals or canbe enjoyed by themselvesas a snack,” said ExecutiveChef, Jayan Nambiar. TheChef also shared his expe-rience of having developedand produced the RoyalHalal range.

“These meals arecooked in a very tradition-al manner, just as youwould at home. There areno shortcuts or ready-mixes used in the prepara-tion and even though wecook these in large quanti-

ties, the aim has alwaysbeen to try and retain thetaste of home-cookedfood,” he added.

The Royal Halal rangeis already availablethrough various independ-ent retailers and cash-and-carry stores and BombayHalwa is in advanced talkswith multiples and super-markets.

The range, produced byBombay Halwa, joinsother fine products underthe Royal brand, includingIndian sweets, savourysnacks, pickles, chutneysand sauces, among others.Shabbir Kanchwala,Assistant ManagingDirector, Bombay Halwa,was also present at theoccasion and gave aninteresting snapshot of thejourney of Bombay Halwa- from its humble begin-nings in 1973 to the vastfood empire that it istoday.

Lord Noon, Chef Jayan Nambiar and Shabbir Kanchwala, Assistant Managing Director

talking to the invited guests during the launch

‘Royal Halal’ range of frozen ready-cooked meals launched in a ‘royal way’

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Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 20126 UK

Like most commutingLondoners I was ratherintrigued in reading thefront page EveningStandard article on 12thMarch 2012 headed“Ken’s Fares Cut DamnedBy City.” Despite a clearlack of workable futurepolicy and direction and adesperate need to getelected no matter what,rather than in his case forhim to retire gracefully, itis a shame to politics thatyet again KenLivingstone’s balmy elec-tion promises have beenexposed for what theyreally are…election gim-micks with no realprospect of delivery.Independent rating’sagency Moody’s, whichassesses the financialhealth of organisations,assessed the impact onTransport for London ifKen Livingstone’s 7%fares cut was introduced.As a daily bus, tube andtrain user I understandthe needs of Londoner’swhen it comes to usingpublic transport. Peoplewant a system which isreliable, which is safe,which is comfortable totravel in with air condi-tioning and where possi-ble has more carriages totransport people to andfrom work and fromrecreational activities.And naturally, peoplewant this at as fair a costas possible. BorisJohnson has delivered alot of this within Brentand Harrow for examplewith increased capacitytubes with air condition-ing passing through theconstituency. But it cannot be denied that toachieve this there must beinvestment in the systemacross London and whereLabour have failed tomake that investment inthe past and where KenLivingstone himself isresponsible for not takingaction against the unions

who hold the transportusers in contempt withtheir sporadic strikeaction and demands,there must be a clear planto continue to invest inthe transport system thatwe all depend on. Withinthe article I refer to, cityanalyst Ralph Silva isquoted as saying “thefinancial consequences ofKen’s proposals would becatastrophic for TFL’sfinances, London’s infra-structure and itsprospects for growth, andas a result would renderthe Tube impotent.”Commentator DavidBuik goes further adding“the implications arehuge. Livingstone ismassively irresponsiblefor offering this electiongambit. He hasn’tthought it through. Itcould lead to more finan-cial difficulties for TFL.”So it appears that theLabour-camp have prom-ised yet another unwork-able policy to attempt tocon the electorate to votefor them. The electorateare familiar withLabour’s failure to deliv-er on their promises evi-denced by the rejection ofKen Livingstone at thelast Mayoral election in2008 with the appoint-ment of Boris Johnson asthe Conservative Mayorof London to replace him.Also, the electoratereturning theConservatives to 10Downing Street withDavid Cameron as theConservative PrimeMinister reasserts thisposition of mistrust withthe Labour Party.

In light of the above,it could not have come ata better time, but thisweek has also seen adetailed document pub-lished by theConservative Mayor ofLondon Boris Johnsonwhich sets out what hehas achieved during his

Honesty in politics

Cllr Sachin RajputConservative Greater London Assembly Candidate

For Brent & Harrow

Sri Aurobindo spent hisearly childhood years from1879 to 1893 in England,with a brilliant academiccareer at Cambridge. Thefamous Oscar Browny toldhim “ I have examined thepapers at 13 examinationsand I have never duringthat time seen such excel-lent papers as yours. As foryour essay it was wonder-ful”.

Sri Aurobindo returnedto India at the age of 21.The moment he put his footon Indian soil at ApolloBander in Bombay a vastpeace and calm descendedupon him never to leavehim. Sri Aurobindo joinedthe Baroda State Service in1893 and worked in theadministrative departmentand secretariat and finallyas a professor and vice-principal of the BarodaCollege.

During his stay inGujarat, Sri Aurobindogained mastery overSanskrit and also learntHindustani, Marathi andGujarati. He made a deep

study of the political, cul-tural and social scene inIndia, and started practic-ing yoga. He studied theMahabharat, Ramayana,Kalidas, Bhavbhuti,Bankim as well as Homer,Dante and many others.His first collection ofpoems was published fromBaroda. These thirteenyears is the longest periodhe stayed at a place exceptfor his stay in Pondicherry.

During this period, SriAurobindo also started towork for India’s Freedomfrom behind the scenes. Heperceived the need forbroadening the base of themovement and for creatinga mass awakening. Hewent to Bengal andMadhya Pradesh, contact-ed the secret groups work-ing in this direction, andbecame a link betweenthem. He established closecontact with LokmanyaTilak and Sister Niveditaand arranged for the train-ing of Jatin Banerjee in theBaroda Army. He then senthim to organise the revolu-tionary work in Bengal.

Sri Aurobindo came to

Pondicherry in 1910. Towork on Sri Aurobindo’svision for the dynamicapplication of spirituality tolife, Sri Aurobindo Societywas founded in 1960 by theMother.

The Society, works for anew world order based on as p i r i t u a lfoundation. Among thevarious projects taken upby the Society is Sarvam.It was started as a modelvillage project for seven vil-lages in Puthurai andPerambai Panchayats in theVillipuram district of TamilNadu. The project startedas a single-person interac-tion with the communityand went on to become afull-fledged communityinvolved process of inclu-sive development coveringall areas of rural develop-ment like infrastructuredevelopment, education,income generation, health,sanitation and community-media.

If you would like toknow more about SAR-VAM and their activitiesor would like to donateplease speak to Mrs ShilpaShah on 07931717288(between 2.00 p.m. to 6.00p.m) or email onshilpa.sarvam@gmail.com

Sri Aurobindo in England

(1883)

Sri Aurobindo society and their Sarvam project

Mr Vijay Poddar

Don!t forget that BritishSummer Time starts onSunday 25th March, butwhich way to change theclocks? Easy! Justremember: "Spring forward, Fall back!"

Continued from page 1Their heroics in battle

with the British andBritish Indian Armiesinspired fear around theworld. They have foughtin most of Britain’s majorconflicts, includingAfghanistan where a num-ber of Gurkha troops havelost their lives. Todaythere are still 3,800Gurkhas serving in Britishforces around the world,while more than 30,000serve in the Indian Army.Singapore and Bruneihave their own Gurkhaforces.

Padam LalBishwakarma, chairmanof Nepal’s ParliamentaryInternational Relationsand Human RightsCommittee, told the DailyTelegraph he wanted therecruitment to end but notuntil the country couldoffer the men alternativejobs which matched itspay. Major (Retd)Tikendra dal Dewan,Chairman, BGWS toldAsian Voice, “This is notthe first time this issue hasbeen raised. It is a person-al and irresponsible opin-ion of a few ministers forobvious political reasons.These ministers should

Ken Livingstone lands in double controversies Ken Livingstone has land-ed in two major controver-sy just before the mayoralelection. He is facingscrutiny over his taxaffairs after a complaintwas lodged with HerMajesty’s Revenue andCustoms accusing him of“setting disallowableexpenses” against tax.Labour’s mayoral candi-date for London has reject-ed the claim, accusing crit-ics of “vexatious com-plaints”.

Mr Livingstone hasbeen under pressure toexplain why he fed earn-ings of more than £200,000 a year into a limit-ed company, reducing histax burden from up to 50per cent to just 20 percent.

He repeatedly said thathe used the money to paythe salaries of staff. But healso admitted that thoseworkers were employed towork on his mayoral cam-paign, and not for the com-pany in question, SilvetoLtd. On the other handKen Livingstone haspromised to turn Londoninto a “beacon” for thewords of the ProphetMohammed in a sermon atone of the capital’s mostcontroversial mosques.

Mr Livingstone hasdescribed Mohammed’swords in his last sermon as“an agenda for all humani-ty.” He praised theProphet’s last sermon,telling his audience: “Iwant to spend the nextfour years making sure

that every non-Muslim inLondon knows and under-stands [its] words andmessage.” He also prom-ised to “make your life abit easier financially.” MrLivingstone was speakingat last Friday’s Jummahprayer at the NorthLondon Central Mosque,also known as FinsburyPark Mosque, formerlycontrolled by the terroristrecruiter Abu Hamza.

While his action hasbeen condemned by manycritics, for using religion towoo voters or supporters,it remains a very usual tac-tics, often used by politi-cians -especially in a coun-try that promotes secular-ism. Looking at the broad-er picture, it’s interestingto watch a Christian talk

current term in officebut also sets out whathe has not achieved put-ting honesty at the heartof both politics and hiscampaign in general. Itis this honestly andtruth which sets himapart from his chal-lenger Ken Livingstonewho has never pub-lished such statisticsand who has been chal-lenged to do so by Boriswhich would no doubtexpose Mr.Livingstone’s previouselection gimmicks andunkept promises. BorisJohnson’s progressreport can be down-loaded from the follow-ing web-address:http://progressreport.backboris2012.com.

Aside from pledgeson crime, policing,bendy buses and thelike, readers will befamiliar with one ofBoris Johnson’s earliestpledges in 2008 forexample which isreferred to in the report,which was to announcethe appointment of theForensic Audit Panelwhich he delivered on,and which panel subse-quently concluded intheir report that KenLivingstone’s LondonDevelopment Agency“misspent” money “on amassive scale, say tensof millions” (Source:GLA, Report of theMayor’s Forensic AuditPanel, 15th July 2008).

Asian Voice readersmay be interested tonote, prior to readingthe Progress Reportitself, that Boris’s suc-cess rate on achievinghis pledges and promis-es is one of 91%. Asidefrom being an honestreflection on whereimprovements are need-ed, Boris’s record is cer-tainly one of substantialachievement and I forone commend it.

first manage employmentfor the economy migrantsthat flood Saudi Arabiaand work under appallingconditions. Nepal shouldremain proud of theGurkhas serving theBritish and Indian ArmedForces where they play anintegral part in globalpeace keeping. The thou-sands that sacrificed theirlives in the Great Warsstands testimony toNepal’s contribution forworld peace. Nepal is arich country but madepoor by these unscrupu-lous politicians who ironi-cally depend on foreignaid in every venture yetscream foul when individ-uals look after themselvesserving with dignity. It isdue to the Gurkhas thatNepal became known tothe world much before theascent of Mt Everest in1953. They have thus firstand foremost remainedthe true ambassadors ofNepal!”

Gurkhas....

about Islam so passionate-ly, though we cannot overrule the fact that he wasstanding in a mosque talk-ing to Muslims, who werehis potential voters.

Livingstone has been apioneer of faith based fes-tivals in Trafalgar square.Though one cannot turn ablind eye to his tax mas-sacre, but him praisingand promoting Islamstanding in a mosque maybe a very common picturein the world of politics.

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Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 7UK

The Hinduja brothershave launched a scathingattack on DavidCameron’s efforts to boosttrade links with India,claiming that Britain hasfailed to capitalise on itshistoric ties to the fast-growing Asian economy inan exclusive interviewwith The Times.

Gopichand andSrichand Hinduja havewarned that rising taxesand lengthy visa delays forIndians were deterringinvestment in Britain andaccused Mr Cameron ofignoring the advice ofIndian entrepreneursbased here.

The remarks from oneof the world’s most power-ful Indian businessmencome just days beforeGeorge Osborne is due inDelhi for talks withPranab Mukherjee, theFinance Minister, on thetrade relationship whichhas failed to grow despitebeing a focus of MrCameron’s Government.

Nearly two years afterMr Cameron and MrOsborne led what No 10called “the biggest trademission in history” toIndia, Britain has slippedto 16th place in a leaguetable of the nation’s tradepartners, behind Belgium.

Criticising theGovernment’s currentapproach, GopichandHinduja questioned thequality of advice beingoffered to Mr Cameron onIndia trade matters.

“The Prime Ministerhas to take some advicefrom the overseas Indianswho understand and seewhat is lacking. Therecouldn’t be any better tipsand suggestions.”

His brother, SrichandP. Hinduja, said Britainrisked jeopardising one ofits greatest natural advan-tages: “Because of theEnglish language,[Indians] feel comfortablethere . . . It’s a secondhome.” The brothers pro-posed that the UKGovernment help to createinvestment funds throughwhich British companiescould invest in new Indianinfrastructure.

Srichand Hinduja alsosaid Britain could play arole in helping to fosterthe adoption of British sci-ence and technology byIndian companies thatcould assist in the coun-try’s development.

Asian Voice spoke tocommunity stalwarts,Lords and MPs regardingtheir view on the pointsraised by Hinduja brothersabout Indo-British traderelations.

Rt Hon Keith Vaz,Chair of the Home AffairsCommittee told AsianVoice, “Our relationshipwith India is vital.Following my recent visitthere I wrote to the PrimeMinister asking him to

ensure our economic,trade, educational andDiaspora ties are as strongas possible. I urged him toput together a joined upset of Ministerial visits toIndia and to set up a spe-cial unit in Number 10 orthe Cabinet Office tofocus on the relationship.I also suggested heinvolved Diaspora busi-nessmen in his discus-sions, and in Governmentvisits to India.

“11.9% of all immi-grants coming to Britainare Indian – the largestnumber from any countrycoming to the UK. Weneed a structure and aforum to facilitate theirinput to Government poli-cy. It is very importantthat we listen to what theyhave to say to build uponthis very special relation-ship.”

Barry Gardiner, Chairof the Labour Friends ofIndia told Asian Voice, “Iam delighted that theHinduja brothers, seniorplayers in UK-India trade,have weighed into thisdebate. I secured a debatein Parliament last monthon this exact topic, inwhich I warned that theUK-Indian trade relation-ship is in trouble. Between2000 and 2010 the UK fellfrom fourth to seventh inthe list of India’s largestexport markets and fromthird to 22nd in 2010 inimports. The UK now pro-vides only 1% of allimports into India.

“I couldn’t agree morewith Gopichand Hindujawhen he says “take someadvice from overseasIndian who understandand see what is lacking”.That is why LabourFriends of India are hold-ing the first of a nation-wide tour of CommunityOutreach events for theIndian community inNorth West London inParliament on April 19th.I hope more peopleinvolved in UK-India tradewill now engage in thisvital discussion.”

Lord Popat, told AsianVoice, “These commentsare disappointing and Idon’t believe they areaccurate. ThisGovernment has priori-tised trade and diplomaticlinks with India –both as a

member of the BRICcountries but also as a keyally with whom we have adeep and historic relation-ship.

The Government isworking to offset many ofthe barriers that havehampered companies–including barriers todoing business abroad.With lower corporationtax, better skilled employ-ees, improved infrastruc-ture and an easier plan-ning system we are takingthe necessary steps toboosting our businesses. Iknow that there are con-cerns over visas and I havediscussed this withMinisters. It is being keptunder constant review bythe Government.

More can be done tohelp SMEs –includinghelping them to export-but this Government hasdone more in two yearsthan the previousGovernment did in thir-teen to show Britain isopen for business. I fearthat these comments maybe motivated more byParty political allegiancesthan by an accurate reviewof the current business cli-mate.”

Alpesh Patel, one ofthe UK’s best financialcommentator and authorsaid, “Britain is still send-ing mixed messages,despite the best efforts ofthe Prime Minister. He haswon the election, and nolonger needs to appeasethe right-wing anti-immi-gration wing of his party.The message is simple,and has to be co-ordinatedfrom one platform with hisForeign Secretary, HomeSecretary and BusinessSecretary: Britain is openfor business means:

1. Fast track visa foremployees of overseasinvestors into UK whosecompanies have invested �500k+ in past 36 months– ie entrepreneurs. Theygo top of the list.Guaranteed 5 day turn-around time. And we willspeak to you on the phoneand email not just by let-ter!

2. Right to remain forany student you receives a1st class degree for any ofthe top 25 BritishUniversities

Continued on page 30

Lords, MPs and expertsdebate on efforts to boostIndo-British trade relation

The Hinduja brothers

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 20128 www.abplgroup.com

News in BriefMP: ‘Failed bureaucrats line their pocketswith public money’ Living without a roof

Homelessness has risen by more than a fifth in theWest Midlands, according to new data. The region’shomeless rate of 3.9 homeless applications per 1,000households is higher than anywhere in the country,compared to 3.6 in London, 2.0 in the East Midlandsand 1.4 in the North West.

Boot out threat

Three female war veterans, Hilda Turner, aged 104,Honor Richards and Gladys May Walker, aged102 and 101, respectively, are among 30 elderly resi-dents who are facing eviction from New Bradley Hall,a care home in Kingswinford, Dudley, because of acouncil modernisation review.

Life expectancy gap

People in some of Birmingham’s most deprived dis-tricts have a life expectancy of 12 years less thanthose in the wealthiest, it has emerged. A resident ofNechells is likely to live until the age of 71 as a resultof high rates of heart and liver disease and strokes,while in leafy Sutton Coldfield people can expect tolive until 83.

Hospital unveils £1.5m unit

A new £1.5 million theatre suite offering advancedvascular surgery for patients who suffer a potentiallylife-threatening burst in a blood vessel has opened atDudley’s Russells Hall Hospital. The unit wasunveiled by Stourbridge MP Margot James.Consultant vascular surgeon Atiq Rehman describedthe new suite “a huge step forward” for the hospital.

Cash flow woes

More than a quarter of smaller businesses in the WestMidlands are suffering cash flow problems, with overhalf of them blaming customers dragging their feetover settling their bills. Companies operating in con-struction, manufacturing and professional servicesare worst hit by late payments, according to researchby Lloyds TSB.

£150 smoke

Smoker Umar Ali has been told to pay £150 after fail-ing to pay a fine for dropping a cigarette butt inBirmingham city centre. Ali, 20, of Shard End, plead-ed guilty to throwing litter at BirminghamMagistrates. He was fined £35 and ordered to pay£100 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Energy bills ‘headache’

The majority of people in the West Midlands considerenergy bills to be their biggest financial worry, accord-ing to new research. Of those polled in a survey byCo-operative Energy, 55.7% said finding cash for elec-tricity and gas bills was their greatest financialheadache – surpassing rent, car costs and the weeklyshop.

Gifts galore

Nearly two-thirds of people in the West Midlandsspend more on Mother’s Day presents than onValentine’s Day gifts for their other halves, accordingto a poll of 2,000 people. Jonathan Smith from deliv-ery firm Yodel, which carried out the research, said:“It’s heartening to see that mothers aren’t missingout, even if we can’t visit them.”

Trusted tradespeople

Almost three-quarters of Brummies rely on advicefrom family and friends when looked for a trustedtrader, research has found. Seven out of ten peoplefrom Birmingham told researchers they sought rec-ommendations before hiring tradespeople, while 15%said they turned to the internet for help. To find outmore visit www.trusteddecorator.co.uk

£800k bill for Du hunt Detectives from cash-strapped WestMidlands Police have spent £800,000 onthe hunt for a Birmingham businessmanaccused of slaughtering a young family.Anxiang Du, 53, pictured, went missingafter the murders of university lecturerJifeng Ding, his wife Helen and theirtwo daughters Xing and Alice inNorthamptonshire last April. The vic-tims had all been stabbed to death. Cops have run up thehuge bill on interpreters, travel expenses and leaflets.

Jailed scientist loses JP job A magistrate jailed for the manslaugh-ter of a two-year-old girl has lost hisjob as a JP. Rashpal Chana, 49, wassentenced to four-and-a-half yearsbehind bars last November. Before thedeath, Chana, pictured, had been aleading scientist who was invited toBuckingham Palace in 2006. TheOffice for Judicial Complaints con-firmed the disgraced high-flier would not be allowed toserve on the bench on his release from jail.

Boy, 5, honoured Congratulations to DennisMaczka from Dudley, theyoungest recipient of anaward at a ceremony inTelford. Dennis, aged five,was honoured for his life-saving help. He had raisedthe alarm, and alertedneighbours, after seeing hismum collapse. Dennis, pic-tured, was among a list ofstaff from West MidlandsAmbulance Service, police,the military and members ofthe public who were recog-nised last Thursday for their lifesaving assistance.

Dog attacks on postmenMore than seven postmen are mauled by dangerousdogs every week in the Midlands, it has been revealed.Nationally, the number of dog attacks on Royal Mailworkers every year ranges from around 3,700 to near-ly 4,800, resulting in injuries – many severe – and con-siderable trauma. The problem has now sparked anational inquiry, to be led by Sir Gordon Langley,looking at why there are so many attacks and whateffects they have on postal workers.

‘CCTV’ in loos A pervert teacher who set up asecret camera to film women in apublic toilet at Birmingham’sBotanical Gardens has been sen-tenced to a three-year communityorder. Dad-of-two Alan English,55, from Harborne, admitted eightcounts of voyeurism. English, pic-tured, an ex-police officer, also pleaded guilty to pos-session of indecent images of children. He was alsosacked from his job at King Edward VI Five WaysSchool in Bartley Green.

Pair rented room to grow drugs

Two brothers who rented a room in a house in HallGreen, Birmingham, to use for a “sophisticated”cannabis operation have been jailed. Navid Khan, 28,got 18 months and Nadim Khan, 22, was sentenced toten months, suspended for 18 months and wasordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work. Police whosearched the room discovered four-and-a-half kg ofcannabis packed in bags with a street value of up to£18,000.

The coffers of AdvantageWest Midlands, theregional developmentagency, are almostempty. Where has all themoney gone, does any-one really know?Probably not. But whatwe do know is this:bonuses of £188,570were paid to 277 staff atAWM since May 2010,with the agency planningfurther performancebonuses. Now, BlackCountry MP JamesMorris has called for theagency’s staff to give themoney back.Around 40 people arestill working at its officesin Birmingham justweeks before it is formal-ly closed. The £300 mil-lion-a-year quango wascharged with improvingthe economy by drawing

down European fundingand grants. It also owneda huge portfolio of prop-erty including the i54business park inWolverhampton. TheConservatives said thegovernment had beenunable to change thepayments due to“appalling contractarrangements” instigatedacross the public sectorby Labour.Commenting on thesefigures from theConservative Party, MrMorris, Tory MP forHalesowen and RowleyRegis, said: “It is shock-ing that the taxpayer isforced to foot the bill forunnecessary bonuses atthis scrapped quango.”He added: “The sight offailed bureaucrats liningtheir pockets with public

money epitomisesLabour’s something-for-nothing culture. Peopleacross the West Midlandswill see these ridiculousbonuses, paid in the dyingdays of this unnecessaryagency, as the ultimatereward for failure.”And this is not the firsttime either that an MP haschallenged this quango. InDecember 2010, anotherTory MP, Chris Kelly, hadquestioned the credibilityof AWM following analleged cash-for-honourstyle exchange.Mr Kelly, MP for DudleySouth, had asked whyAWM was allowed toenter and win theMidlands ExcellenceAwards. “I question thecredibility of such anaward being given to anorganisation that had afinancial interest in it,”MP Kelly had told AsianVoice in December 2010.Since 1999, AWM hadspent £1.2 million withMidlands Excellence – thenot-for-profit body which,apparently, helps make theWest Midlands economymore effective and effi-cient – including £80,957supporting the awardsprogramme. But bosseshad defended the claimand said the decisions onthe awards were made

with complete impartialityand independence. MPKelly had made his com-ment after AWM took twoof the MidlandsExcellence Awards 2010in the highly commendedcategory and as the “mostimproved organisation”.In 2005, Asian Voice hadlaunched an inquiry intothe alleged misuse of pub-lic funds, specifically fromthe SRB6 (SingleRegeneration Budget) ini-tiative. Unfortunately, asatisfactory conclusionwas never reached, whichwas, at the time, partlyblamed on the suddendeath of Councillor KenHardeman, who had a keyrole in the initiative.Some background:Heralded as the govern-

ment and city council’sgrand solution to tacklingBirmingham’s inner cityproblems, it had proved adisgrace. The seven-yearscheme had used only £16million of the £30 millionallocated to it. It had cre-ated just 200 jobs insteadof the predicted 800, safe-guarded only 165 jobsrather than the expected1,536 and trained a mere1,552 of an anticipated4,218 students. Thescheme was supposed toraise £60 million in pri-vate funds to keep all theprojects up and runningonce the public moneyhad run out. But, it hadraised a paltry £3,000.Funding for SRB6 camefrom the governmentthrough AWM, but thecity council was responsi-ble for overseeing per-formance and financialaccountability.AWM is being replaced bya series of local enterprisepartnerships, or LEPs.

Contact: Dhiren on 07970 911 386 or dhiren.katwa@abplgroup.comDee Katwa

MP James Morris

Midland Voice

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Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 9

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Cricket crazy Indians for the first time was seenso euphoric on Monday morning, as theyexpected a couple of Oscars. British Indians inthe UK, Dharavi slums, the shanty township ofMumbai, a village in Uttar Pradesh and almostthe entire Bollywood waited in expectation,glued to their TV sets. They burst into celebra-tions as one by one, their heroes, the actors ofthe British Indian film and the music maestro, AR Rahman bagged the top awards in the worldof entertainment.

British actress Kate Winslett also won theOscar after having missed it almost five timesearlier.

‘Smile Pinki’, a short documentary on acleft-lipped Indian girl in Uttar Pradesh directedby American director Megan Mylan, won theOscar for the Best Documentary (Short).

‘Smile Pinky’ too gets the Oscar

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Importance of vegetarianism

It is a pity that the speakers at the debateorganised by City Hindus regarding therelevance and importance ofVegetarianism amongst today’s Hinduscould not do justice to the subject pro-posed and questions raised.Vegetarianism is a core principle ofHinduism and no Hindu Sadhu or Monkeats meat and they are our spiritualguides. Some Hindus like their Hinduismto be free of any rules! Mahatma Gandhicame to England in 1888 and never atemeat and it is a pity that many Hindus in2012 feel the need to eat meat when veg-etarian food is so easily available.Compassion to animals and vegetarian-ism are Hinduism’s greatest gifts to theworld - all Hindus should practise thisideal.

Nitin MehtaVia Email

Are many Gods better

than one!

On Sunday, 18th March 2012, there wasa lively discussion on BBC One pro-gramme “Big Question” and one ques-tion, the topic of discussion was onHinduism, in particular the Hindu tradi-tion or rather misconception of believingin more than one God. Jay Lakhani,speaking on behalf of Hindus was mostimpressive and knowledgeable, givingpractical answers to mischievous com-ments, questions and misinterpretations.

As Jay said, there is one God,Supreme Power but in Hinduism thereare many ways, routes and ladders onecan climb to attain Mox, the ultimate aimof Unison with God. As usual, someChristian theologises tried to bring incastism which is or rather was a culturalheritage, practice rather than religiousdoctrine! Jay had logical answers to anyillogical or mischievous question put tohim.

Watching a programme onChristianity in India, mainly in Keralaand Tamil Nadu, I was dumb struck thatwhen Indians convert to Christianity,they take their class prejudice with themand there are some one hundred divisionsamongst Indian Christians who havetheir own exclusive churches and wouldnot attend the mass, the service of otherconverted Hindus.

There is a class system among everyreligion, culture and tradition in India,although it is a dying tradition and itwould cease to exist within a fewdecades, as is the case here in Britainwhere 99% of our younger generationfind their own partners, either in Unis oramongst their own friend circle. That iswhy there is no “Honour Killing” amongIndians, especially among East AfricanAsians of every religious persuasion.

Bhupendra M GandhiVia Email

I-Foundation denied

permission to start faith

school in Croydon

Croydon’s unfair, unjust denial to I-foun-dation’s faith school is depressing, afterselfless Sewa by Hindus. Decision falsi-fies multi religious/multi faith ethos pro-fessed by Croydon Council. Opportunityto create awareness about other faiths,should be grabbed, which Councillorsfailed to do.

Council has made show of diplomacyby rejecting application of both competi-tors. It gave excuse that I-Foundationalready has its plate full by anticipatedopening of additional faith schools, butturned blind eye to success of I-Foundation schools in Harrow andLeicester. Croydon Councillors mustview favourably the acceptance of I-Foundation schools by Leicester andRedbridge and twice by Harrow. CroydonCouncil has underestimated I-Foundation’s endeavours, and placed itat same level as many failed indigenousorganisations.

Councillors have failed to note that I-Foundation has backing of ISKCON whofought upto European court to reverse aban on its Watford temple. It would beexpensive for both parties, if the exercisewould be repeated for I-Foundation’sfaith school in Croydon.

Croydon Council must also note thatwith awareness about other faith, stu-dents, parents and the whole society canbenefit, augmenting discipline by onesown faith.

Hindus must wrench right withmight, in true spirit of karma yoga.

Ramesh JhallaVia Email

Aviation Sector – India

The fate suffered by Air India in my viewis very largely attributable to the CivilAviation Ministry. They did not provideadequate resources and tended to thwartthe work of the management – not tospeak of disregarding the principle ofmerit-based employment.

I would like to add to the conse-quences you have stated which wouldarise from the closure of King FisherAirlines. I have learnt that state-ownedbanks have significant exposure (throughheavy lending) to the Airline some ofwhose shares are also held by public sec-tor investor entities.

Sir Andy ChandeVia Email

Liberal Democrats vs NHS

I think the Liberal Democrat party is justanother form of the Tory party. They aresupporting the Conservatives now inorder to destroy the NHS.

I think most of the people now under-stand that voting Lib Dems make nosense. If there is a general election tomor-row Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem MPswill lose their jobs first.

No wonder they are sticking by theTories! It’s self interest v/s national inter-est.

J B PatelBirmingham

Welcome to the new High

Commissioner

We the people of Indian origin in Britainwelcome the New Indian HighCommissioner Dr. Jaimini Bhagwati. It isnice to read that he is well educated andhold Doctorate in Finance and Masters inPhysics. I hope he will take his positionto sort out the real mess which we areface in acquiring visas.

It is important to inform him that ifhe does not find any complaints in thefeedback register, it is due to the factsthat they do not give the register to anybody who wish to complain.

I visited India last month and wassurprised and very pleased to see the newinternational airport of Delhi, had excel-lent young staff and, very helpful.Decorations in the airport both in arrivaland departure places were exceptionaland I took some good pictures. Staff werereally kind that they allowed me to takepictures in the airport and even remainednear me so that no one could trouble me.

Therefore I expect the New HighCommissioner to bring changes in hisoffice as well as the newly createdAgencies who issue Visas. I will be verywilling to offer my free services ifrequired.

Dharam Sahdev Ilford

Britain’s Water Woes

Recently few water suppliers haveannounced a ban on hose pipes. I knewthis was coming someday. Water is a veryimportant entity that plays a vital role ineveryone’s routine. Whether it is takingshower, shaving, washing hands, washinga vehicle, cooking or something else; youname it, one needs water for sure.

Deforestation, green house effect aswell as the nature imbalance; all of theseincluding many other factors have togeth-er put us into this situation where wehave to ban people using excess amountof water. Since we know, at this stage,that this is just the beginning; let’s acttogether and utilise only what we need.

I have seen some people putting thetap on full flow and let it run while theydo brush, shave, washing something, etc.I believe we can do the same tasks withkeeping the tap on a controlled low flowas well or using the tap as and whenneeded. Let us all respect and understandthe importance of water which would giftus a better future.

Devang BhattHarrow, London

To Cull or not to Cull

It has selected badgers to kill as part of ascheme to tackle bovine tuberculosis andhopes that shooting these lovely animalscould make a dent in the cow TB prob-lem. Hence as many as 130,000 badgersare to be wiped out to curb the diseasefrom entering the food chain throughbeef. It says that this is a tragic necessity.Badgers’ TB may be bad for farmers, butto slaughter these beautiful furry animalsis brutal. There are also plans to kill geesein Lake Windermere and to kill urbanfoxes too.

Some of us, especially the Jains,believe that killing badgers, or any otherliving creatures for that matter, would bewrong under any circumstances. Jainismbelieves in compassion to all living crea-tures, whether human or animal. Whatgives us the right to decide that certainspecies is to be eliminated? Farmersargue that if we do not kill the badgers,many cows will suffer from tuberculosis.

How comes human race are entitledto decree which animals are to be killed.If badgers are to be slaughtered becausethey spread tuberculosis, perhapshumans who spit and sneeze in thestreets and spread the ‘flu and other fataldiseases should also be tackled in a simi-lar manner!

Dinesh ShethNewbury Park, Ilford

YOUR VOICE

Election in UP

I would like to draw the attention of twoletters published in Asian Voice(17/3/12) on state elections in India. Theway in which election was fought on thebasis of caste and religion is a eye openerfor millions of people in India.

UP is the largest state in India withmore than 150 million population withmore than 18 per cent of the Muslim pop-ulation. Even though the Hindu popula-tion accounts for 80 per cent of UP pop-ulation all political parties especially theCongress and SP were competing eachother for appeasing Muslims by promis-ing to provide reservation for them injobs in the state and national levels.

Some senior politicians went to theextent of 9 per cent reservation forMuslims and Samajwadi Party went tothe extent of 18 per cent.

Consequently the only issue that wasraised in the election was reservation forMuslims and issues concerning economicand social developments were not at all.

It is interesting to note that Muslimsin Goa voted against the congress sincethe party did not sanction a burial groundin a village where there is hardly anyMuslims living.

The National Commission ofMinorities is going to take the case onbehalf of the Muslim community.Interestingly, when several temples weredesecrated in Kashmir the MinorityCommission failed to take action.

The present UPA government is dom-inated by religious minorities and noaction is ever taken to unite India on thebasis of one nation. The time has comefor the Hindus to wake up.

Arun VaidyanathanVia Email

Female foeticide

Female foeticide has finally reached theUK Indian communities. In the UK abor-tions have been performed but principal-ly due to socio economic reasons which iscompletely unrelated to gender biases.

However now it seems that many gen-der based abortions have probably beencarried out undetected.

The government should not just pun-ish the doctors but the couples as wellwho have let such a first degree of murderhappen.

Dr K R N MoorthyHandsworth

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 1111UK

A good number of racistparents were allegedlyinvolved in a campaign tooust an Indian head-mistress from a primaryschool, an employmenttribunal was told.

One man was allegedlyheard to say “bloodyIndian woman should notbe in charge of our chil-dren” while children werereported gossiping thattheir parents “hatedblacks.”

Details of the racistremarks, made at theschool which caters forchildren from five to 11years, were given to thetribunal by head teacherSudhana Singh, pictured,who is suing the gover-nors and Reading BoroughCouncil for race discrimi-nation.

Traumatised MrsSingh, a teacher with 20years experience, claimedthat she experienced“deeply rooted racistviews” when she took

over as headteacher ofMoorlands PrimarySchool in Reading, Berks,a daily has reported.

One supporter of theunpopular head wasbranded a “Paki lover,”the tribunal heard.

Mrs Singh is suing thelocal authority and theGovernors of MoorlandsPrimary School after sheclaims she was subjectedto a campaign of unlawfulrace discrimination, bully-ing and harassment.

The hearing is expect-ed to last 15 days.

Head teacher suingschool Governorsover racism claim

Shelina Permalloo crowned Masterchef winner

Dr Jaimini Bhagwati, anoted economist and vet-eran diplomat, hasassumed office as the Highcommissioner of India tothe United Kingdom.

Successor of NalinSurie, Dr Bhagwati tookcharge on February 27 andwas warmly welcomed inthe India House in a for-mal function on February28. He will be meeting the

Indian press and othercommunity members on22nd and 28th Marchrespectively. He is a mem-ber of the 1976 batch ofthe Indian ForeignService. He holds doctor-ate in finance and a mas-ters in physics. He bringswith him rich experiencehaving served inter alia asthe Indian ambassador toEU, Belgium and

Luxembourg, in the min-istry of external affairs invarious senior positions,in the ministry of financeand also the World Bank.Dr Bhagwati, pictured, is aGujarati ambassador toBritain in a very a longtime and has hopes pinnedin him to make changes invarious departments of theIndian High Commissionincluding the visa regime

available for the BritishIndians.

Indian diaspora pins ‘hopes of efficiency’ inthe new Indian High Commissioner

The mother of a teenagerstabbed to death as shewalked by a canal lastweek claimed her daughterwas the victim of a brutalhonour killing.

Laura Wilson, 17, wasrepeatedly knifed in thehead by her Asianboyfriend Ashtiaq Ashgaron a secluded tow pathafter their relationshipturned sour. Her mother,who has never spokenpublicly before, believesher daughter was mur-dered because she chal-lenged the code of ethicswhich some ethnic com-munities still follow. It isthought that Miss Wilsoncould be the first white vic-tim of an honour killing inBritain.

Speaking to the DailyMail, Mrs Wilson said: “Ihonestly think it was anhonour killing for puttingshame on the family. Theyneeded to shut Laura upand they did.”

Although only a

teenager, she already had ababy by an Asian man,Ishaq ‘Zac’ Hussein, a 20-year-old. But her motherrevealed that he refused torecognise the child andMiss Wilson was really inlove with his friend,Ashtiaq Ashgar. Sheadmitted: ‘”Ashtiaq washer first love, she adoredhim.”

Stung by Mr Hussein’srejection of her and theirchild, Miss Wilson decidedto confront the men’s fam-ilies and tell them she hadhad sexual relations withboth of them.

D e t e c t i v eSuperintendent MickMason, now retired fromSouth Yorkshire Police,believes this may havebeen the trigger for a planto kill her.

In October 2010, threedays after the confronta-tion, Miss Wilson agreedto meet Mr Ashgar by alocal canal. Police believehe began a frenzied knifeattack on the girl beforethrowing her into thewater. Mr Ashgar wasfound guilty and sentencedto 17 years in prison andMr Hussein was acquitted.

Ashtiaq Ashgar Laura Wilson

Teenager first ever white victimof honour killing?

Shelina Permalloo hasbeen crowned the winnerof MasterChef, after judgesJohn Torode and GreggWallace said she brings‘’sunshine to a plate’’.

The 29-year-oldbecame the second womanto win the title in eightyears after weeks of intensecompetition in the BBC1culinary challenge, beatingAndrew Kojima and TomRennolds.

She said: ‘’I am com-pletely and utterly over-whelmed. I never thoughtit was going to be me thatwould win. The guys were

so amazing and I just neverthought it could happen tome.’’

Shelina (pictured),who lives in Tooting, southLondon, grew up inSouthampton in aMauritian family where shelearned all about the foodher parents grew up with.She said: ‘’My mum is abrilliant cook. I learnteverything from her. I’mbasically her sous chef. Shetaught me to cook by intu-ition: never by using scales,always by sight and taste.So I developed a strongpalate from a young age.

‘’I only ate Mauritianfood growing up as it gaveour family that affinity ofbeing close to the island.Mauritian food is very fru-gal which is great in theseeconomic climates but atthe same time full offlavour, heady with aromat-ics, nutritional and damn

tasty.’’She fought off competi-

tion from more than 20other contestants duringthe show. Along the wayshe cooked for royalty inThailand, served a three-course meal for Michelin-starred chefs and finallycooked for presenters Johnand Gregg.

Her winning menu wasan Octopus starter, muttoncurry and a dessert ofmango cannelloni filled

with lime curd.John Torode said:

‘’What Shelina has donethroughout this competi-tion is outstanding. She isa very special cook with anexceptional talent, whoalways wears a smile andcooks with care to assaultthe senses and bring sun-shine to a plate.’’

Britain decides to axe aid to India Britain is to stop givingout hundreds of millionsof pounds in aid to India,the Coalition hasannounced this week.

I n t e r n a t i o n a lDevelopment SecretaryAndrew Mitchell said thecurrent eight-year � 1.6bil-lion aid package – whichwill last until 2015 –would be the last.

Until then, the averageannual spend on aid toIndia will be � 280million,despite the fact that thecountry is rich enough tohave a space programme.

Last month, India’sfinance minister, PranabMukherjee, said he didnot even want Britain’said and that it is just a‘peanut’ in the boomingcountry’s developmentexpenditure.

Mr Mukherjee spokejust days after India decid-ed to reject a British-builtTyphoon fighter jet as pre-ferred candidate for a � 13billion defence deal–choosing a French optioninstead.

There has been grow-ing anger from Tory back-

benchers over the increasein Britain’s aid budget,which comes at a timewhen public services arebeing slashed in the UK.Though some of the MPsand Ministers have saidthat India still needs thehelp from the west forpoverty alleviation.

Now Mr Mitchell hasaccepted that the aid pro-gramme to India should bewound up as the Indianeconomy booms and itsown efforts to alleviatepoverty become increas-ingly effective.

Suresh Patel ofCoventry has been jailedfor 12 weeks after headmitted to failing toattend a follow-upassessment. In addition,Patel, 24, ofMiddlebrough Road,Radford, admitted failingto surrender to custody,and stealing a Braunshaver worth £299.99from Boots. Patel wassentenced at CoventryMagistrates last Tuesday.

Shaver thief jailed

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201212

Scrutator’sAmong the interesting background pieces to appear on therecent Uttar Pradesh state elections was the one that appearedin the Financial Times (March 1) by James Fontenella-Khan andJames Lamont. Having made an extensive tour of the statersrural hinterland they saw evidence of consumption patternsthat were transforming the lives of a once poverty strickensociety.For instance, the small village of Pokhra, which theyhad visited several years ago, was clogged with traffic, not ofbullock carts and hand-drawn carts, but tractors, motorcyclesand four-wheeled vehicles. Farmers haggled over the price ofLevi jeans, Nokia phones and farming equipment in addition tothose of vegetables and other food stuffs.

The soaring price of food in their cities had clearly benefit-ed farmers, one of whom said: "My grandchildren have thingswe dreamt of back in my days.....they can go to school wherethey get a hot meal; they have better roads, modern waterpump and TV."

Our reporters wrote: "The biggest drivers of growth in ruralareas are government schemes, such as subsidies for energy,fertilisers and food as well a programme to cancel farmers' out-standing loans and providing non-farming jobs.....BajajElectricals and TTK Prestige, two large producers of householdgoods, say they have enjoyed higher growth in semi-urban andrural areas than in cities." Such subsidies, free market econo-mist opine, do little for the country's rising fiscal deficit - whichneeds urgent pruning - but in the longer term this inclusivegrowth will help the economy expand on the basis of increasedpurchasing power.

The market place requires intelligent leavening to har-monise economic growth with social progress, without whichGDP figures, however impressive in the short run are unlikelyto make for a stable polity. India is a country in transition,where backwardness and sophistication exist cheek by jowl.This finds reflection in the frequent absurdities of Ithe coun-try's politics and political culture.

Wipro offer to UK

A notable example ofIndian sophistication isthe nation's IT sector.Wipro is an Indian soft-ware company with aglobal footprint.According to a report inthe Daily Telegraph'sLouise Armistead fromDavos, "Azim Premji,the chairman of Wiproand India's third richestman, has offered to take third-year students from British uni-versities to the company's head-quarters in Bangalore fo threemonths' intensive study andnine months on-the-job trainingwith as view to returning themfit for work in the UK."

He told Ms Armistead; "Wehave sophisticated courses - amixture of classroom and practi-cal training - will make thememployable anywhere in theworld.":Under his proposal, theUK government would payabout 30 per cent of the training

costs and the rest would beborne by Wipro. The companyemploys around 3,500 people inthe UK, of which a quarter areBritish. He put his idea to PrimeMinister David Cameron duringhis visit to India in July 2010.

I-Mission to Mars

The Indian government hassanctioned the country's spaceagency's projected scientific mis-sion to Mars in 2013. The Mars

Orbiter mission is to belaunched using the PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)in November-December 2013.The spacecraft which is capableof carrying 25 kilogrammes of ofscientific instruments will beplaced in an orbit 500 by 80.000kilometres around the Red plan-et.

Mars being farther from theSun than Earth, it takes twoyears to complete a singleorbit.Since Mars and Earth arein movement relative to eachother, the best opportunity tolaunch a probe comes up everytwo years or so. If theNovember-December 2013 date-line is missed the next opportu-nity would be sometime in 2016.

With this in view, scientistsand engineers at the IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) have a challenging taskahead of them. In less than twoyears from now they must beready to launch their Mars mis-sion (The Hindu March 17).

Scientists at the DefenceResearch & DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) aredeveloping advanced seekers forIndia's tactical missiles.to equipmother missiles with smallermissiles. "Imagine a war sce-nario," writes the Correspondentof The Hindu, "in which minia-turised missiles equipped withPrecision-Guided Munitions areunleashed from a mother missileto take out select enemy targetslike ammunition depots whileavoiding collateral damage."

Seekers, which are of twotypes - radio-frequency andinfra-red, enable a missile toacquire, track and home in on tothe target. They are required forall tactical missiles (those with arange of 300 kilometres).

Meanwhile, another Hindureport (March 2) told of thedelivery of an advanced, indige-nously produced light torpedo tothe Indian Navy and surface -to-air Akash missile to the IndianAir Force.

Learning from India

The standard Chinese view ofIndia is one of disdain. It was soin Chairman Mao's day, andjudging by general reporting onIndia in the mainstream Chinesemedia little appears to havechanged. However, China isn'tquite the smooth monolith ofreceived wisdom. It has its social

and economic problems - somepretty serious - as outgoingPremier Wen told the country'sin Beijing recently.

Nevertheless, it came some-thing of a surprise that the web-site of a former People'sLiberation.(PLO) officer SongZhongping advised that Chinahad something to learn fromIndia, stirring debate within thecountry. Respect for religiousbeliefs and democratic valueswere two such areas, he said. Healso cited India's more balancedeconomy and its way of handlingrelations with foreign countries.India's rise had not given rise tothe international anxieties thadaccompanied China's emergenceas a great power. Restraint yieldsbetter results than threats.China should heed the lessons ofNazi Germany and ImperialJapan, the comment being thoseof this columnist and not MrSong's.

Iranians named

Three Iranians have been namedby the Indian authorities fortheir role in the bombing of anIsraeli diplomat's car in NewDelhi, the explosion causingserious injury to his wife. Thisact of terrorism, linked also tosimilar developments in the Thaicapital Bangkok, led to the

arrest of Mohammed AhmadKazmi, an Indian national andDelhi resident. On the basis ofinformation gleaned from theinterrogation of the suspects, thenames of the Iranians wanted bythe Delhi police have beenreleased. These are as follows:Seyed Ali Mahdianasadr,

Mohammed Reza,Abolghhasemi and HoushangAfsar Irani, each of whom visit-ed the Indian capital and stayedin well known hotels gatheringintelligence for their operation.

Warrants have been issuedby the Delhi police against thethree, whose names have nowbeen forwarded to the Iraniangovernment in Tehran. (TheTimes of India March 15).

Tribal girls join CRPF

Tribal girls are joining the para-military Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF), writes a Times ofIndia reporter (March 18). TheCRPF is engaged in counter-insurgency operations againstMaoist forces, who are not mere-ly engaged in an armed struggleagainst the Indian state but alsouse terror tactics to intimidatethe local population and forcethem to collaborate in a varietyof ways.

Garia, a 14 year-old tribalgirl, tells of a group of armedmen coming to her house in aforest area of the WestSingbhum district of Jharkand."They wanted me to join them,"she said. Her father asked fortime to think this over and theMaoists told him they wouldreturn soon for the answer. Thenone dat about three monthsago,something happened thatwas to changed Garia's life. TheCRPF had just begun a trainingcamp for tribal girls; it equippedthem to be guards at schools andsecurity personnel at privateinstitutions, and women from alocal NGO had come calling andencouraged teenage women tojoin the CRPF. Garia was amongthe first to do so.

Pakistan to re-calibrateIndia ties

The Pakistan Foreign MinisterHina Rabbani Khar has saidPakistan would re-calibrate tieswith India on the basis ofincreased trade and opportuni-ties for mutual investment forentrepreneurs in each other'scountry.

She said Pakistan had reaped

no benefits in the three warswith India since the partition ofthe subcontinent in August 1947and it was time relationsbetween the two countries wereput on a different and more pro-ductive platform. More power toher elbow.

Terrorist bombing in Delhi tasrgeting Israeli diplomat's wife

Azim Premji

India's Chandrayan space mission to accompany item on Mars

MEDIA WATCH

Uttar Pradesh during recent polls

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 13UK

If you wanted an Indian entrepreneur inthe UK, you would not say, we will sendthe message of anti-immigration, andwhen you overcome the hurdles of get-ting here, real and perceived, then inthree years we will make it easier? Ashop struggling to attract customers in ahigh street of shops doesn’t increase itsprices to attract customers. It doesn’tput up barriers outside for those withthe money wanting to shop, and say toits best repeat buyers, we’ll keep onincreasing prices for you – it’s not as ifyou will go elsewhere? It doesn’t have aCEO saying one thing and two MDs say-ing the opposite to different sections ofthe customers in the shop.

SP’s right. SP Hinduja that is. Mostpeople won’t say that. They’ll whisperbehind SP’s back about some scandalsinvolving Mandelson and Keith Vaz andthe like from years ago . But most peo-ple will not show the Hindujas therespect they deserve. Remember in the80s how proud we all felt that an Indianwas in the top 10 rich list. How soon weforget what drove us on. Showed uswhat we could do. I find we are quick tobe critical of others who are successfulas a way of ourselves deflecting our ownfailures and inadequacies.

I had tea with SP about a year ago. Iwas once advised by the son of anIndian member of the British House ofLords and ‘friends’ of SP, ‘don’t get tooclose to SP, you’ll be tainted’. He gaveme a copper bottomed guarantee thiswould happen. Ironically it turned outthe person telling me had a lot to hidehimself. Which proves my point.

But, to my main point, SP is right.Britain is not sending out a clear coher-ent message that it is open for business.I would as PM get on a platform withmy Home Secretary, Foreign Secretaryand Business Secretary and say, immi-gration controls will not be permitted toundermine talent and capital coming tothe UK. It would be easy for me to saycut taxes. But what then about thebudget deficit? Who will pay for thepoorest members of society?

The balance has to be that the most

economically productive are sufficientlyincentivised to maximise their taxablereturns, but not over incentivised (ieallowed to keep too much) or underincentivised.

Do you think our domicile rules, our50% tax rate, our payroll tax rates, ourvisa rules, our annual Chancellor’sbudget (as opposed to a 3-year budget)make overseas investors want to putmoney here? Or people rush out andhire workers? Of course you can rely onthe fact most people won’t leave the UK.But what about encouraging foreignersto come here? No airport capacity andno clear 3 year budget plan about whatthe tax rates will look like in 2015would certainly put Indian investors off

How do you get Indian SMEs to theUK without the poor in UK subsidisingit through their higher taxes, so theIndian SME in the UK and its CEO canpay less tax? By spreading the burdenover a broader tax base is how. And theway to get a broader tax base is to getmore businesses here, and once hereexporting and the talent that knowshow to do it here. The more personspaying tax, the less we all need to pay.

So you can either keep tax where itis and say you’ll cut it later once the jobsare created and the inward investmentcomes in. Or you can cut it first, towhere you anticipate it will be when youhit your tax base targets. The latterapproach is what Government neverdoes. It’s what business would do. Itsends a message. It allows planning byeveryone. The sooner you paint the pic-ture of the future, the sooner you get toit.

If I want a Britain with 35% top rateof personal tax, 5% employers NI, 15%VAT, 25% corporation tax and a non-domicile rule without penalties – Ishould do state that is my objective andeach year over 3 years will get to it in astepped process.

It is always easier in politics and inlife to do sooner what you will be forcedto do later anyway.

Alpesh B Patelwww.PoliticalAnimal.me

Making Britain Open For Business

Political Sketchbook

Alpesh Patel’s Asian BusinessPublications Ltd have aproud history of publish-ing the popular GujaratSamachar and Asian Voicenews weeklies - the largestsold Asian news weekliesin the UK. The publica-tions are in its 40th yearand to commemorate thisspecial occasion we areorganising a specialSummer mela in London.The mela promises to dis-play diverse colours ofSouth Asian Culture espe-cially Gujarat by bringingpeople together in a festiveambience where everyonecan enjoy food, music,dance.

The mela will be main-ly divided into seven stallzones viz. food & drink,

education and entertain-ment, Health & Medical,Travel & Tourism,Property & Investment,Banking & Finance,Fashion & Wedding andmany more. Visitors will

have opportunity to haveendless fun, do someshopping, enjoy the daysentertainment, eat sometasty food, meet near anddear ones or dance to their

favourite folk songs.The event willattract more than5000 visitors over 2days period.

For exhibitors itwill also be a greatopportunity toengage with thefocused and carefullytargeted audience.

Asian Voice andGujarat Samachar do nothave any kind of affilia-tions with any other eventor mela organisers.

Join us for fun and frolic at

the ‘Anand Mela’

Date & Time: 9th and 10th June 2012, 10am to 8pm

Venue: Harrow Leisure Centre, Christchurch Avenue, Harrow HA3 5BD

For more information call 020 7749 4085avsales@abplgroup.com

A newsagent stole a win-ning lottery ticket taken toher shop by a loyal cus-tomer - and her husbandtried to claim the � 156,000prize. Shopkeeper AnneJeevarajah, 38, kept thelucky ticket when winnerGwyn Badham-Davies, 73,took it to her store to see ifhe had won.

She checked it on hermachine at the family’sshop in Hingham, nearWatton, Norfolk, but didnot tell the pensioner hehad won a small fortune.Her husband, AlfredJeevarajah, 45 (pictured),

then brazenly rang up lot-tery organisers Camelotand told them he had won.

But Camelot becamesuspicious because therewas a delay between the

date the ticket was boughtand the claim being made.Mr Youell said alarm bellsalso started ringing whenCamelot discovered MrJeevarajah was a shopkeep-er.

Mrs Jeevarajah lastMonday admitted theft andfraud while her husbandadmitted fraud. The couplehave a 10-year-old daugh-ter The couple were jailedfor 14 months each atNorwich Crown Court onMonday. Villagers spoke oftheir shock as the shop dis-played a ‘closed until fur-ther notice’ sign on its door.

Newsagent jailed for stealing lottery ticket

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14 Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012

Finally, Beti B gets a name

Actress Shriya Saran has said that she has the desireto play the lead role in a full-length comedy film. Thecurvaceous Shriya paired up with superstarRajinikanth in “Sivaji: The Boss” a few years ago. Asit happens with heroines pairing up opposite Rajini,Shriya got many film offers opposite top heroes butspoilt the party by doing an ‘item number’ in aVadivelu-starrer. Ever since she did so, offers starteddwindling. After a great struggle, Shriya has man-aged to recover and is quite busy with the shootingschedules of her Telugu, Hindi and English films.She, however, doesn’t have a single film in Tamil andwas last spotted in Vikram’s “Rajapattai.”

There's more to Pawan Kalyan's forthcoming film'Gabbar Singh' other than the hero himself, his pow-erful punch liners, Devi Sri Prasad's foot-tappingtunes, charmingly beautiful Shruti Haasan and direc-tor Harish Shankar. The Bandla Ganesh Babu's pro-duction has a couple of adrenaline-charged car chasesin the end that are now being canned. Stunt mastersRam-Laxman duo is supervising the high-octane cli-max sequence. Planned for release in more than 1,800theatres worldwide in May, the film has Pawan Kalyanplaying the role of a cop. The first-look posters and the

teaser have caught the fancy of his fans.

It is natural to see rivalry between top heroines in the terms of bag-ging offers or making their presence felt in front of media. With easymoney and not much strain on the cards, many starlets are showinginterest in grabbing maximum offers for brand endorsements. Onesuch thing has happened between Trisha and Anushka. And the prod-uct is Colgate toothpaste. So far, it was Trisha who was the brandambassador for this. But now, sources say her place has been given toAnushka. Not only that, Anushka has been roped in to promote thetoothpaste in both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Being a Bachchanentails not just fanworship but also alot of media cover-age. Right from theannouncement ofthe Abhi-Ash wed-ding to the birth oftheir daughter, torumours aboutdaughter's possiblenames, the couplehas been in news formonths.

With rumours ofBeti B being namedvarious names, the real name of the newborn memberof the Bachchan family is finally out. The baby girl hasbeen named Aaradhya. The name was registered acouple of days back and is derived from the Sanskritword meaning worship.

Mallika Sherawat is now on the edge of herseat as Katrina Kaif and Malaika Arora Khan'sitem numbers become the talk of the town.Mallika Sherawat is known for her oomph anditem numbers. With Katrina's Chikni Chameliact in “Agneepath,” and now Mallika'sAnarkali Disco Chali in “Housefull 2,” MallikaSherawat is hoping that her 'Tezz' item song ispromoted well by the producers., Mallikadoesn't want to get lost in the crowd.

Mallika Sherawat

faces heat from

Malaika, Katrina!

Singer Sunidhi Chauhan, who had been mar-ried to choreographer Bobby Khan before itfailed, is now reportedly keen to tie the knotagain with beau Hitesh Sonik, who she hadmet some time back. For all those who areunaware of this, Sonik is a budding musiccomposer and has composed music for filmslike “Pyaar Ka Punchnama,” “Stanley KaDabba” and “My Friend Pinto.” She metHitesh professionally a couple of years back,and the two have been dating since over a year.

Sunidhi Chauhan to

tie the knot again

next month?

“Dabangg” star Salman Khan is all geared upto do an item number in its sequel. Accordingto the latest reports, Salman will be dancingon a peppy item number titled 'Pandeyji MaareSeeti'. And if rumours are to be believed, thenMalaika Arora Khan will also join Pandeyji'sjig as a treat to her fans! It will be quite inter-esting to see, once again, how Salman enticesthe entire country with his quirky yet electrify-ing dance moves in 'Pandeyji Maare Seeti'.Besides, the film will also have an item num-ber featuring actress Kareena Kapoor. Thedirectorial debut of Arbaaz Khan will starSonakshi Sinha opposite Salman.

Salman to do an item

number in ‘Dabangg 2’

Anushka Sharma’s rising pop-ularity in Bollywood is therefor all to see, but the actressis also making waves in thebrand endorsement arena.The “Band Baaja Baaraat” girlwas named the brand icon ofthe year at an award function.Anushka, who forayed intoBollywood with “Rabb NeBana Di Jodi”, was honouredas the celebrity endorserby RelianceCommunications Limitedat the NDTV Good TimesGadget Guru Awards.

Anushka was appoint-ed ambassador for thebrand in 2011. As part ofthe association, she fea-tured in four fun-lovingtelevision commercials.But she wasn’t present tocollect her award at theevent, held at the KingdomOf Dreams in Gurgaon.

Shriya wants to act in afull-length comedy film

Pawan Kalyan's 'GabbarSingh' ready for release

Clash betweenAnushka & Trisha

Anushka Sharmanamed brandicon of the year

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 15

‘Housefull 2’ is family entertainer Shoojit Sircar to release

documentary on Big B

Director ShoojitSircar is puttingtogether a docu-mentary onA m i t a b hB a c h c h a n ,which he saysreveals themegastar inmoods neverseen before. The

film is based on the extensive tours of Gujarat that thedirector undertook with Big B, the brand ambassadorof the state while shooting 14 films promoting thestate tourism. He says “I realised I was travellingacross Gujarat with the coolest co-traveller in theworld. Mr. Bachchan's energy level, his poise in frontof 60,000 fans and most important of all, his innertranquility in those rare moments left me drop-dead.”

Actor Priyanka Chopra is a self-confessedgadget freak and more so an internet addict.

The actor has in the past admitted to beinghooked on to the internet, especially to

her account on micro-blogging siteTwitter. Priyanka would keep in touchwith her fans and update her accountseveral times a day, to keep themposted about what is going on in her

life. But then, about 10 days back,Priyanka announced that she isgoing off Twitter for sometime.

"Got some news!! Im off ona Twitter vacation. Just for abit..so for all bdays exams n

Annivs..lotsa love..andremember ur truth makesu who u r.. Love n hugsguys..will miss y'all!c u

soon.. Xoxo," she had declared onher account.

Though she didn't give any rea-son for doing so, sources say thatPriyanka is caught up with herfilm projects and wants to spendsome quality time with her fami-ly as well and that’s whatsparked the decision. Butsources now insist thatPriyanka is having a tough timekeeping her mind off the site.

"Twitter was the one wayfor Priyanka to keep in directtouch with her fans. She isbeing followed by about4,000 new people on a dailybasis. She is looking for-ward to chatting with all ofthem but right now, shewants to give herself abreak. Priyanka is jugglingbetween the shoots of the“Krissh” sequel and“Barfee.” Both moviesrequire a lot of her time.But more importantly,she is missing her fam-

ily. Her dad is notkeeping too well so

spending quali-ty time withfamily is also

on her priority list.

“Housefull 2: The DirtyDozen,”which will be released inUK and worldwide on 5th April, isa family entertainer with versatileand talented Akshay Kumar as hereprises the role of ‘Arush Jolly’, acomedic, and at times completelyhopeless figure, whose clumsyantics create hysterical and unpre-dictable results. He is joined by amedley of stars, including his lead-ing lady in the film Asin, JacquelineFernandez, comedy king-pinRiteish Deshmukh, and JohnAbraham in a role as you’ve neverseen him before! Bollywood itemqueen Malaika Arora Khan bringsthe house down with a smolderingsong performance – ‘Anarkali DiscoChali which is set to be the ‘itemsong’ of 2012. The all-star film also

features a bevy of famous names ofyesteryear, including legendarybrothers Rishi and Randhir Kapoor,Boman Irani, Johnny Lever and thedancing genius MithunChakraborty.

When it comes to action filmswith a quirky, entertaining and rib-tickling comedy twist, AkshayKumar is the perfect strongmanwith a soft comic centre. The high-kicking, all action hero of mega cin-ematic is set to entertain audiencesonce more in “Housefull 2: TheDirty Dozen,” a comedy of errors.

Director Sajid Khan to make ita hat trick of film success withHousefull 2. Always the crowdpleaser, Sajid Khan’s latest filmpromises a cinema-going actionadventure experience.

Priyankafighting to

survive the‘Twitter

vacation’Indian singer, lyricist and composerKailash Kher is highly inspired by SachinTendulkar’s amazing sporting achieve-ment. So, he is now penning and compos-ing an exclusive tribute to Sachin in theform of a song.

“I want to compose a number that bestdescribes his personality. It will be an emo-tional song. When I sang in front ofSachin, it was a new high for me. I've oftenbeen told that in the last nine years, I havebecome the real 'kailash' (meaning moun-tain) in the world of music. I would say,

Sachin is the real kailash in the world ofcricket,” says Kailash.

On March 18th, 2012 Kailash travelledto Dhaka, Bangladesh with his bandKailasa where they performed the rousinganthem ‘Hausla Buland’ live at the matchbetween Pakistan and India in the AsiaCup. There he met Sachin after he scoredhis historic 100th international centuryagainst Bangladesh.

Since releasing his new album,Rangeele, in January 2012, Kailash hasbeen on a whirlwind tour around South

Asia, performing acrossseveral cities in India,Indonesia and Bali. Hisfirst ever world tourstarting in UK whenthe Easter music fanswill get the chance towitness Kailash’smagic live. Put togetherby London-basedSaregama Events, theUK Tour will seeKailash visiting presti-gious venues inLondon, Birmingham,Liverpool and Leicesterfrom April 4th to the9th.

Kailash Kher to write a songin honour of Sachin Tendulkar

Just last month, Shahid Kapoor celebrated hisbirthday in great style over a four-day weekend atGoa's sun-kissed Morjim beach. Most of hisguests flew down for the big party much later, heleft earlier, accompanied by Nargis Fakhri. Eversince, there has been widespread speculation asto whether they are the newest love birds inBollywood.

Rumours apart, it's official - Shahid andNargis is indeed a couple; the latest to hit tinseltown. "Nargis is Shahid's latest love. Since thepast few days, the two are spending a lot of qualitytime with each other. So far, they have avoidedbeing seen together. Perhaps they wanted to keepthe whole thing under wraps for some more time,"revealed a source close to the twosome. When didthe 'good friends' become more than just that? Asource said, "Nargis spent a lot of time withShahid in Goa. They were attracted to each otherthen and their friendship grew after returning toMumbai. However, they started dating onlyrecently." How serious is their relationship,considering Shahid has been linked to a bevy ofB-town beauties including Anushka Sharma andBipasha Basu ever since his break up withPriyanka Chopra last year? "Well, he is quiteserious about Nargis and likes her company," thesource said. Meanwhile, Nargis too has beenearlier linked to the likes of Ranbir Kapoor andShayan Munshi although according to the source,she is hardly in contact with either of them now.

Shahid Kapoor findslove in Nargis Fakhri

John Abraham, Akshay Kumar, Ranjeet

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201216 Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 17

18 Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012

Dear Financial Voice Reader,

I am often told my political columns are better thanmy financial ones! This is worrying as one likes to be astraight-A student in all things. So how can I make sureevery reader is over the moon? How about I answereveryone’s questions:

I am retired? If I want to buy stocks whatshould I do?

Many retired people used to stay away from stocksbecause of the risk. Heck they wouldn’t even buy greenbananas. But now since we’re all living longer, and so adip in a portfolio could recover, safety nevertheless isthe key and that usually means a FTSE 100 company, orall of them via an index tracker. Even for many thiswould be too risky. So you should definitely havefinancial advice for your own circumstances.

I am young and foolish – about 20 – whyshould I both with shares?

Okay genius – this is why. $10,000 (borrow it fromyour parents) seven years ago is now $250,000. I amnot saying every investment you make will be likeApple, but I bet you know enough about what is hip andcool to guess what may be the next big thing. Don’t tryto get rich quick. You’re young, so research, read ratherthan partying all the time. It pays dividends (!). Well 7years is a long time when you are 20, young andfoolish. So what about 6 months? Ashtead Group hasdoubled in that time. Barclays is up 65%. ITV is up60%. Not bad. So stop spending all the time and startearning. Don’t know which stocks to pick – hey youknow the world wide interweb thingy don’t you – lookon Investopedia and learn.

I want to buy for my grandchildren who areunder five – how do I know what?

Well I could say let’s try to predict what will bearound when they are 18. I could say Apple, TataMotors, Sensex and Dow indices. Some indices andsome individual stocks. The danger with individualstocks is that companies often just don’t survive. Lookat Woolworths. Bank accounts pay nothing! Gold isexpensive. So in looking forwards 13 years you maylook back 13 years. What was around then and how hasit done since 2000? Barclays is actually down over thatperiod. BT, Dixons, Lloyds, Glaxo, HSBC, Sainsbury alldown. Hmmm. So what is up? Dominos Pizza! BritishAmerican Tobacco. BG Group. Oil companies. Do youreally want to bet that oil and tobacco and pizza will bearound in 13 years. Rolls Royce is up 300%. Okay, I’llstick my neck out. Rolls Royce for the next 13years…and Apple and Tata Motors. See you in 2025.

For free market webinars by me on the monthlyglobal outlook, trading strategies, why people losemoney in the markets, trading Forex:www.alpeshpatel.com

India allows airlinesaccess to foreign funds

Premier British carrierVirgin Atlantic, which hadstopped its Mumbai-London services in 2009,would re-launch thesedaily flights from October,saying India's "phenome-nal growth" in air traffichad led to this resumption.

The first Virgin flightwould depart fromLondon's Heathrow air-port on October 28 and thereturn flight the next day, aVirgin spokesperson said.

The daily flights wouldserve the UK and open upeasy connections fromLondon to several UScities including New York,

Boston, Chicagoand Washington,she said, addingthat the flightshave been timed tooffer US connec-tions with less thana two-hour-wait inHeathrow. Whilethe air trafficbetween Mumbaiand London has grown bynine per cent since 2009,the Delhi-London andNew York service of Virginwas enjoying a 20 per centgrowth last year. "VirginAtlantic is proud to be fly-ing to Mumbai again, link-ing this wonderful city to

our key destinations ofLondon, New York,Boston and Washington.India's phenomenalgrowth continues to drivetravel to the UK and theUSA," airline PresidentRichard Branson said in astatement. The Mumbai

flights to be operated by"our new Airbus 330-300will feature our brand newUpper Class Dreamsuite.We'll continue to offerIndian entertainment anddelicacies on board servedby local Indian crew.Importantly the plane isalso our most fuel efficientaircraft", Branson said.

The flights fromMumbai would depart dailyat 0310 hours and arriveinto London Heathrow for0755 (GMT), while thosefrom London would oper-ate at 1015 GMT arrivingMumbai at 0055 hours thenext day.

Middle class families arelikely to benefit from taxbreaks worth £758 a yearfrom the budget which isgoing to be presented thisweek. As part of a dealbetween the Tories and theLiberal Democrats,Chancellor George Osbornewill dramatically acceleratemoves to raise the personalincome allowance to£10,000. He will also signalthe beginning of the end ofthe 50p top rate of tax.

Mr Osborne is expect-ed to announce thatincome of over £150,000will be taxed at 45p per £1from April 2013, and indi-cate his intention to bring

the top rate back to 40pthe following year.

Government sourcessaid Mr Osborne wouldalso signal that he aims tolift the amount that can beearned tax-free to the£10,000 target by April2014, far earlier thanplanned.

The £10,000 allowancewill apply to all 23 millionbasic rate taxpayers andmany higher rate taxpayers.

Economists say house-holds with incomes ofaround £40,000 will be thebiggest winners since theytend to have two earners.

Mr Osborne haspledged to ‘come down

like a ton of bricks’ onwealthy property buyerswho avoid paying stampduty on their huge houses.Ban on drink discounts tohit wine clubs

Multiple discount dealson wine and beer could bebanned as part of aCoalition bid to stamp outbinge drinking. It meansretailers will no longer beable to offer three-for-twodeals on wine or sell largemulti packs of beer for lessthan the individual cost ofthe cans. The plans will beannounced next week aspart of an Alcohol Strategyto be unveiled by HomeSecretary Theresa May.

Tax break for the middleclasses families likely

John Cumming RossLimited, a leading firm ofchartered certifiedaccountants, is hosting aseminar in London to dis-cuss the new tax laws forUK non-domiciliaries from7 to 8.30 pm on Thursday,19th April.

The seminar will cover- new tax rules for UKnon-domiciliaries invest-ing in the UK, keepingyour assets outside UKInheritance Tax., planningfor UK residence and theimpact of the ForeignExchange ManagementAct on UK resident NRIs.

Speakers are well-known experts, AndrewGotch, Chartered TaxAdviser and leading lightin UK taxation matters,Rashmin Sanghavi,Chartered Accountant andtax adviser and partner inRashmin Sanghvi &Associates, Mumbai andIndia’s leading commenta-tor on internationalTaxation and the FEMAand Naresh Ajwani, char-tered accountant and taxadviser for past 23 yearsand partner in RashminSanghavi & Associates,Mumbai.

To attend the seminar,please register your detailsby email to seminar@jcp.uk.com.

Seminar onnew tax rulesfor UK non-

domiciliaries

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India has allowed its cash-strapped airlines to borrowexternal loans up to $ 1 bil-lion for a period of one yearto meet its immediate finan-cial needs. This announce-ment was made by FinanceMinister Pranab Mukherjeewhile presenting the annualbudget on Friday.

External CommercialBorrowing (ECB) is a modeused by the government tofacilitate the access to for-eign funds by Indian corpo-rations and public sectorundertakings. Mukherjeefurther proposed to exempt

the maintenance, repairand overhaul (MRO) sec-tor from basic customsduty on aircraft parts, tyresand testing equipment.

"As a measure of sup-port to the airline industry,it is also proposed to fullyexempt both new andrethreaded aircraft tyresfrom basic customs dutyand excise duty." Accordingto Mukherjee, the proposalfor allowing foreign carri-ers to invest up to 49 percent in the domestic carri-ers is under active consid-eration of the cabinet.

The chief executive ofTesco's UK business,Richard Brasher, is to stepdown over poor sales.Brasher took on the rolearound a year ago but isexpected to leave the com-pany in 2012. PhilipClarke, who is currentlyTesco's group chief execu-tive, will then assumeresponsibility for the UKbusiness. Tesco, Britain'sbiggest retailer, announcedplans to open new storesand create 20,000 new jobsin the UK over the nexttwo years as it battles backfrom its first profit warningin living memory made inJanuary. Tesco, which hasbeen the dominant force istackling a drop in its UKmarket share.

Tesco's UK bossto step down

Virgin to resume Mumbai-London services in October

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 19FINANCIAL VOICE

Suresh VagjianiManaging Director

Sow & Reap A Property Investment

Company

However no one actually understood the scheme.Explanations were given of some vague strategy, andbecause enough clever people backed it - because it was intheir interest to do so - £65billion was driven into thescheme.

! Always leave a buffer of 3 months rentalpayment in your mortgage account for anynon payment of rent or maintenance issues

! Look to take rental insurance for ahassle free tenancy

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now: Tips of the Week

0207 313 4595

Westbourne House, 14-16 Westbourne Grove, London, W2 5RH

Specialists inCentral London

Property Sourcing

This week we have just rented two properties. The first is a two bed-room property for £380pw. It’s an ex council ground floor, formally aone bedroom flat close to Edgware Rd station in W2. It has a long leaseof over 100 years and a low service charge of £800 per annum whichincludes the building insurance, considering this, it is a very reasonablecharge. The service charge is something to be conscious of as it canreduce the income produced. The property was purchased for £233,000and a further £10,000 was spent on the conversion.

He doesn’t like to see the property or the works. It’s a question ofnumber work for him. If we say it will cost £10k to do up the propertyand it will be rented for £375pw, this is what he wants to happen. So onthis property he only needed £68,250 including £10k for refurbishment.

This will give him an income of £8250 net per annum after exclud-ing management and service charges. On his deposit of £68,250 he’sgetting a return of 12% net. In addition the property was purchased ata very good price and so he is coming into it with equity. If the proper-ty rises say 5% per annum, this equates to an increase in the propertyby over £11,000 pa.

The second property was purchased for £275,000, it was refurbishedthroughout to a high standard. This one is in the student belt ofCamden. It is a two bedroom property ex council but very cheap giventhe location and property. The work on this one is being carried out byour recommended builders, the refurbishment is due to be completed atthe end of the month. We try to ensure the property is rented on the dayit becomes available or as close to this day as possible.

This is also a long lease property. The refurbishment cost was rough-ly £20k, this means the return on the deposit of £90k is £9180pa, giv-ing a net yield of over 10%. The property again was purchased cheaplyand the investor is walking into a deal where there is equity already

built in.Both of these properties have been rented prior to being completed

this week and were sourced through Sow & Reap. This shows theincredible demand in these locations. It’s not just the time period with-in which these properties have been rented but the amount these prop-erties command which is surprising.

Both of these properties are income generators. Even if they neverwent up in price, the running yield gives an excellent return on invest-ment. Of course they will go up in price due to the locations, but tak-ing an extremely pessimistic view these are still great properties.

I recently read a book about the Ponzi scheme run by Berni Madoff,which ran on a steady return of 12%. The scheme had ‘credible’ peoplefronting it and pushing it out on the market, this gave the illusion thismust be a bona fide scheme.

It works because more money continually flows into the schemeand so the returns are based on new entrants perpetually coming in tothe scheme, however no actual investment goes on.

The title of the book was The Believers, because belief is all itsbased on. People believe this is a genuine scheme, because everyoneelse believes it is.

If it was based on rationale this scheme would have evaporatedbecause there’s nothing behind the scheme. It managed to survive forover 44 years. It only fell apart when a large chunk of investors startedasking for all their money back at one time. The whole pyramid col-lapsed.

I wonder what would happen if we all went to the Bank of Englandand asked what is behind the money which is printed and currently incirculation? What if we, the general public, are involved in one of thelargest Ponzi schemes known to man?

Property offers a steady and viable place to invest your funds, with-out having to worry that they’ll disappear overnight. The property is inyour own name, the income and outgo is easy to understand and istransparent.

The Real Deal

This is the second property this client has purchased through Sow & Reap. Heresponded to one of our email campaigns, came to our office and promptly paid overall the funds, including the exchange amount and refurbishment funds in advance,for us to disperse, as he is very busy traveling.

Due to the demand of the location we have just taken a deposit for the property (waybefore completion of the project) and agreed £440 pw. This is a corporate let , andwhat’s more is the company who have taken the property want it for a straight twoor three years.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201220 FINANCIAL VOICE

There was always the emo-tional connect, now there isan economic investmentside to the decision.NRI’s/PIO’s have neverbeen this keen on an Indianresidential property invest-ment

Recently an acquain-tance – a fund manager byprofession – relocated toIndia to set-up a domesticPE fund here. He hadinvested in Ahmedabadresidential property strate-gically located close to theprimary business districtand an international schoolfor his kid. This invest-ment, done a few yearsback, helped him crystal-lize his plans for relocationto India and start his ven-ture without spending timein finding the right loca-tion, house and school.What I found most inter-esting was that he had not

even considered eventuallyrelocating to India when hebought this apartment. Hehad simply done it forinvestment five years previ-ously.

There are similar exam-ples in just about anymetro and tier two city inIndia. To date, I have notmet a single NRI who isnot keen to buy real estatein India. Very often, suchinvestments in their coun-try of origin help them tomaintain their relation-ships back home while theymake their fortunesabroad.

A few weeks back, Imet another NRI profes-sional – earlier based out inLondon and now relocat-ing to India on the heels ofthe Euro crisis. Achievingthis while resettling familyon all fronts has not beenan easy task for him. He ison the lookout for the ‘best’location for a residentialproperty in India and natu-rally finds the cost of prop-erties in the prime areasstaggering and beyondbelief. He had not consid-ered investing in a propertyearlier. He was ill prepared

for the astronomical ticketsizes that now prevail.

THE WAY OF THENRI/PIO’s

Over the past few years,we have noted thatNRIs/PIOs are investinginto residential real estatespecifically in large Indiancities to build a back-upbase in the country. Thisparticularly applies to NRIswith professional/ entrepre-neurial ambitions whointend to set up businessesin these cities in the future.Post the 2008-2009 globalfinancial crisis, India hasstood out as a showcaseexample of financial stabili-ty, specifically in terms ofits conservative bankingsector. More than anythingelse in the past, the GDPcaused NRIs to seriouslycontemplate owning homesin India.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

• NRIs have no restrictionslimiting them with regardsto how many commercial orresidential properties theycan own in India.• NRIs can invest into realestate by remitting funds toIndia through normal bank-

ing channels, or by investthrough funds inN R E / F C N R / N R Oaccounts maintained inIndia. • NRIs can avail home loanfrom Indian Institution,provided specific terms andconditions listed by RBI aremet.• NRIs can rent out theirresidential property with-out the approval of the RBIin India. Rent received canbe credited to NRO/NREaccount or remitted abroad.

AHMEDABAD -DHOLERA

The city has seen an overall46.01 per cent rise in realtyprices between January-March 2010 and the sameperiod in 2011, accordingto figures released byNational Housing Bank(NHB), a wing of theReserve Bank of India.

The Gujarat govern-ment has put the work forintroducing six town plan-ning (TP) schemes across902 sq km area of theDholera SpecialInvestment Region (SIR) inAhmedabad district on thefast track. “The two TPschemes are proposed for15,000 hectares (ha) of

land next to the Dholeratownship. It is here thatSabir Bhatia’s Nano Cityhas been planned”, sourcesin the GujaratI n f r a s t r u c t u r eDevelopment Board(GIDB), which handles theDholera SIR for the stategovernment, said, adding,“As soon as the draft is out,infrastructure developmentin the two townships willbegin .The schemes will befinalized by April 2012 andwe expect, the work to beover by December 2012.This will make the entireDholera SIR ready to takeoff as a new-age city”.

DHOLERA – FASTFACTS:

• Rs. 40,000 crore MegaIndustrial Park• Rs. 30,000 crore invest-ment by HindustanConstruction company• Rs. 30,000 crore Nanocity by Sabir Bhatia group.• Central Spine Road - A10 lane expresseway link-ing Ahmedabad withDholera• Metro connectivity -There will be also a 10 laneexpresseway linking •Ahmedabad with Dholera• International Airport –

spread over 7500 hectaresof land - off Fedra village,20 kms outside the pro-posed boundary of DholeraSIR.

ABOUT ASSET INDIAAsset India is a global

company specializing inthe real estate investmentsector in India with cus-tomers, who are Persons ofIndian Origin (PIOs), inUK, India, Kenya,Tanzania, Spain, USA,Canada, Australia,Gibraltar and Kuwait andshortly spreading its reachin Dubai, Singapore &Hongkong. We have a teamof specialized real estateportfolio managers andfinance professionals – allof whom are real estateexperts who together havedecades of experience inthe real estate industry inIndia and the UK. We arepurely an investor-drivencompany who provide aone stop shop for all yourIndia property investmentrequirements includingfacilitating Re-sales,Rentals, Property manage-ment, Finance and Foreignexchange facilities.For more informationcall 020 7100 2201

UK NRI’s Interested to Invest inIndian Real Estate

Dharmesh DoshiManaging Director

Free Indian Property Advice service

Wednesday 5-7 pm at ASSET India.

Board Line: 020 7100 2201 | Mobile: +44 7795954142

Email: nmehta@assetindia.co.uk | Website: www.assetindia.co.uk

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 21FINANCIAL VOICE

GBP - INR = 80.11

USD - INR = 50.47

EUR - INR = 66.79

GBP - USD = 1.59

GBP - EUR = 1.20

EUR - USD = 1.32

GBP - AED = 5.83

GBP - CAD = 1.58

GBP - NZD = 1.94

GBP - AUD = 1.51

GBP - ZAR = 12.10

GBP - HUF = 347.29

www.rationalfx.com

Foreign Exchange

Information provided by RationalFX.None of the information on this pageconstitutes, nor should be construedas financial advice. The exchangerates used are the commercial foreignexchange rates provided byRationalFX. For a live quote or to findout more about how RationalFX canhelp you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

Weekly

Currencies

As of Tuesday

20th March 2012 @ 2.30pm

Last week was a crucial week forthe European markets as theongoing Greek saga came to anend for now. Greece managed tosecure its second bailout fundsfrom the Troika after passingthrough parliament the austeritymeasures demanded by the IMF,ECB and EC. In return for the

130Bn bailout money Greecehad to implement measure toreduce their debt to GDP ratiofrom the current 160% to120.5% by 2020. The Greek par-liament managed to convinceenough private investors toabsorb haircuts of up to 53% onprivately held governmentbonds.

Regardless of the bailout thegeneral consensus is still fragileas the tasks ahead for Greeceseem almost impossible. Thealmost bankrupt country needsto reduce their debt levels duringthe most fragile times withrecord high unemployment andconsistent decline in growth.Greece has been in a recessionfor 5 consecutive years and theeconomy continues to contract.European GDP as a whole wasalso a worry as the final quarter

of 2011 resulted in acontraction of 0.3%. Itmay be fair to assumethat we will once againsee Greece on the fore-front of negative news.The recent move hasdone nothing aside frombuy time for theinevitable to happen.

European crisis isstill the main reason forconcern in global mar-kets. The extent of theEuropean crisis is weigh-ing on global growth.Concerns of the Euromodel is still question-able as the major economies arestruggling to bring down theircost of borrowing. UK wasunder the firing line last weekwhen Fitch became the secondrating agency to put our AAArating under negative watch,increasing the chances of the UKlosing its golden rating. Themain reason for the move wasblamed on the excessive tradelinks we have with theEurozone. This came as a majorblow for the UK government asthe Tories have always promised

to keep the UK’s cost of borrow-ing low for the long term.

The week ahead will serve alleyes on the UK as GeorgeOsborne, UK chancellor, pre-pares to present the year budget.The aim is to continue with thepublic sector cuts alongside aplan to encourage domesticgrowth. The chancellor isexpected introduce policies suchas the reduction of, if not elimi-nate the 50p tax on high earnersand reduce the amount of redtape in order to make it easier

for companies to operate in theUK. Plans to offer governmentbonds longer than 30-40 yearswere also hinted to try and keepthe long term cost of borrowinglow. The budget is also seen asan opportunity for the chancel-lor to regain the confidence ofrating agencies around theworld.

US has been had a good startto the year. Even though unem-ployment remains high the US isexpected to grow albeit at amodest pace. A stable footingfrom the world’s largest econo-my has spurred confidence inthe markets and encouragedriskier behaviour. Stock marketsacross the globe rallied with theNasdaq reaching a decade high.Prise of oil seems to be the majordriver of inflation. Due to tradesanctions on Iran and the lack ofsupply the cost of oil peaked at$128 per barrel. If this continuesthe Federal Reserve may have nochoice but to flood the marketswith further liquidity alsoknown as QE3. A move of thisnature could weaken the US dol-lar from its current levels of 1.57against the great British Pound.

European crisis a concern

in global markets

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX,

Currency Specialists.

As part of a strategicrebranding and restructur-ing exercise announced lastJuly, India’s largest airline -Jet Airways said, effectivefrom March 25, its low-costarm JetLite will cease tooperate, after being mergedwith the other no-frillsbrand JetKonnect.

"Effective March 25,JetLite will cease to operateseparately, but will comeunder the JetKonnectbrand, enabling guests toavail a single superior in-flight product in the fullservice (Jet Airways) andlow-fare categories," groupchief commercial officerSudheer Raghavan said ina statement.

JetLite was created in2007, following the takeoverof Air Sahara in April 2007,and used to contribute near-ly three-quarters of the

group's domestic revenue,with the rest coming in fromJetKonnect. It used to oper-ate with 19 Boeing 737s,connecting 31 domestic des-tinations, apart fromKathmandu, with 123flights a day.

JetKonnect waslaunched in May 2009 ascompetition increased inthe no-frills category.

Jet had revealed themerger plan last July.Announcing the first quar-ter earnings, group vice-president, commercialstrategy and investor rela-tions, K G Vishwanathhad said, "The manage-ment is very clear thatthere will be only onebrand in the low-farearena and that is some-thing, which will emergevery clearly in the next oneor two months."

Jet Airways and JetLitewill continue as distinctbusiness entities operatingunder their own airlineoperating permits,Raghavan said, adding "toachieve brand consistency,JetKonnect will be the dedi-cated low-fare service witha mixed fleet of Boeings andATRs to operate on themetro, tier II and III routes."

Explaining the ration-ale behind the merger,Raghavan said, "Thelaunch of JetKonnect is theculmination of a well-coordinated effort and aris-es from the fact that sinceits inception in May 2009,JetKonnect has proved tobe a successful model. Wethought it best to consoli-date our product in thelow-fare segment with asingle brand JetKonnect,for enhanced brand recall."

After a wave of scandalsincluding wrongful foreclo-sures on US home mort-gages, worker suicides at amajor Apple Inc supplierin China and the $1.7 bil-lion accounting fraud atJapan's Olympus Corp, aNew York think tank iscalling out companies thattake the high road.

The EthisphereInstitute's annual World'sMost Ethical companieslist, released last week,found that 145 companiesin countries including

United States, GreatBritain, Japan, Portugaland India stood out as set-ting a high standard fortheir employees' behavior.

American Express Co ,General Electric Co andStarbucks Corp - all ofwhich have made the listsix years running - areamong the companies thatstand out as encouragingemployees to voice theirconcerns, said AlexBrigham, executive direc-tor of Ethisphere.

On this year's list are

two Indian companies,Tata Steel Ltd and softwareservices exporter WiproLtd. No Chinese or Russiancompanies have yet madethe ranking, Brigham said.

Having a reputationfor operating in an ethicalmanner helps a companysurvive over time, saidJeremy Wilson, seniormanager of ethics and cor-porate policy at networkequipment maker CiscoSystems Inc, which hasmade the list for five of thepast six years.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201222 FINANCIAL VOICE

maria@abplgroup.comMaria Fernandes

The latest changes to theImmigration Rules havenow been laid beforeParliament and will comeinto force on the 6thApril unless stated other-wise. To summarise themain changes:

StudentsThere will be a limit of

5 years or 6 years , withexception, with a totallimit of 8 years where stu-dents are studying for aPHD. Exceptions havebeen made for law , med-icine and dentistry, vet-erinary sciences, musicand architecture. Thelimit will not include theperiod of study belowdegree level and any timespent under Tier 4(Child).

They will be able toswitch to full timeemployment without theneed for an employer toundergo a labour marketsearch under Tier 2 oncethey complete obtain aUK degree or complete 12months towards a PHD.

Post Study WorkersThis category will

close on the 6th April butthey will be able to switchto Tier 2 without a labourmarket test and will alsobe able to remain as aTier 1 (Entrepreneur) byinvesting £50000 and cre-

ating 2 jobs. They will nolonger be required to beemployed by the sameemployer for 6 monthsbut will be required toprove that they have suf-ficient funds to meet themaintenance require-ments.

Graduate EntrepreneursThis new category of

Graduate Entrepreneur isselected by their HigherEducation Institute todevelop ideas or entrepre-neurial skill and limitedto 1000 places each year.This category will permitup to 2 years followingwhich the Applicant willbe expected to eitherinvest £50000 or leave.The time spent up to thatpoint will not counttowards settlement.

Tier 2There will be a maxi-

mum period of 6 yearswithin which applicantseither have to qualify forindefinite leave or leavethe country. If they donot qualify there is a 12month cooling off periodduring which they willnot be able to qualify inthis category.

To qualify applicantsneed to earn a minimumof £35000 per annum inbasic salary excludingovertime or the amount

that is stated in the Codesof Practice relating totheir occupation whichev-er is the higher. There isan exception for thosewho are or were at anytime on the shortage list.

These changes willcome into effect in April2016 and will accordinglyaffect those who came inApril 2011.

Domestic workersNew applicants apply-

ing for entry in privatehouseholds after the 6thApril will only be allowedto enter for 6 months, willnot be able to switchemployment and will notqualify for settlement.There are correspondingrestrictions for those indiplomatic households.

Fee rises for PBSapplicants

Finally from 14thJune 2012 there will be arise in the maintenancefigures for all pointsbased categories.

Maria Fernandes hasbeen in practice exclu-sively in immigration forthe past 25 years.Fernandes Vaz is based at87 Wembley Hill RoadWembley in Wembley andcan be contacted by tele-phone on 02087330123,by email on info@fernan-desvaz.com.

Changes to Students and workrelated categories

Moody’s has said that theUnion Budget will worsenIndia’s credit worthiness.The rating agency has alsoexpressed scepticism overthe proposal to have aholding company to fundbank capitalisation statingthat if the holding companyraises funds through bankborrowing the capital infu-sion would be ‘fictional’.

According to the inter-national rating agency thegovernment’s increaseddependence on corporatetaxes and vulnerability tocommodity prices hasweakened the govern-ment’s credit profile.

“The fiscal 2012-13Budget’s lack of specificpolicies to address theseweaknesses is credit nega-tive. Absent new policy ini-tiatives during the year, itwill take a combination ofimproved GDP growth andcorporate profitability,lower global commodityprices as well as exchangerate stability to improve fis-cal performance and meetthe fiscal 2012-13 deficittarget of 5.1% of GDP”said Moody’s in a state-ment released on Monday.

Along with its observa-tion on the country’s rat-ing, Moody’s has alsodowngraded Union Bank

of India one notch on allits instruments. Thiscomes less than a fortnightafter it downgraded anoth-er public sector lenderBank of India on thegrounds of borrowers com-ing under pressure andstressed core capital. “It isunclear how this vehiclewould be funded and wetherefore remain skepticalabout the ultimate impli-cation of this initiative.There is a risk that thisvehicle could be levered,possibly via bank loans,effectively resulting inround trip, fictional capitalinjections” Moody’s said.

Moody’s presentlyrates the Indian govern-ment Baa3 with a stableoutlook. Baa3 is the lowestlevel of investment graderating and a downgradefrom this level will put theinvestment in `junk’ cate-gory. Issuers whose bondscome under `junk’ have topay a higher interest thanwhat is paid by bondissuers who are ratedinvestment grade. India’ssovereign rating acts as aconstraint for some largeIndian issuers who have toraise funds overseas as noforeign issuer gets a ratinghigher than that of the sov-ereign.

Budget worsens India’srating prospects: Moody’s

Kingfisher Airlines isexpected scale down oper-ations with only 15-16planes to be kept opera-tional. Kingfisher Airlineschief Vijay Mallya will bemeeting the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviationchairman and is reported-ly, in a detailed presenta-tion has planned to stopall international flights byApril 10.

Earlier in the day,Indian Civil AviationMinister Ajit Singh hadsaid the government mightcancel Kingfisher Airlines'license if safety norms andfinancial viability condi-tions were not met.

Singh added the gov-ernment's main concernwas to ensure passengersafety on the limited num-ber of flights thatKingfisher was still run-ning.

Kingfisher Airlines,which has a debt of 1.3 bil-lion dollars, is facing col-lapse as banks haverefused to lend more forday-to-day operations.

Adding to its woes, amassive cutback in flightshas reduced revenues,leaving the carrier with lit-tle cash to pay its employ-ees, airports and taxauthorities.

Kingfisher to stopinternational

flights

Alpesh Patel is widelyrecognised as being a verywise investor who has anuncanny ability to forecastwhat the markets aregoing to do. Anyone whohas read his biographywill know that his predic-tions have been moreaccurate than many largeand reputable investmentcompanies. During a con-versation with Alpesh hesaid that the most fre-quently asked questionpeople ask him is, ‘Do youhave any tips about whichshares I can buy?’ To behonest I would think thatis the obvious question toask him. If I wanted toplay cricket and I got theopportunity to speak toSachin Tendulkar I am notgoing to ask him what carI should drive, but ratherhow can I play the perfectstraight drive.

However, most of thepeople who ask this ques-tion of Alpesh are notactually seeking to learnanything. They simplywant a simple way tomake some money. Or inother words, they wantsomething for nothing.

And all of us know (orshould know) that youdon’t get anything fornothing. This then makesme wonder how manytimes I have actuallyasked someone for helpwhen actually all I wasasking was for them to doit for me. It’s a bit like achild who asks for helpdoing their homework.How often does the par-ent end up doing it them-selves? So did the parentactually help or did theyjust do? I am not suggest-ing that children are cal-culated or manipulative,but they do know how toget what they want.

This is a very subtlepoint and you maybe ask-ing yourself does it reallymatter? It is actually veryimportant to know whatwe are asking for. Why?Because when you are aleader, everyone will beasking you for help. Andits essential for your ownsurvival, and your sanity,that you are able to iden-tify what people are actu-ally asking of you. Thefirst step to understand-ing other peoples motives

is to understand our own. Alpesh said that he

does not give personaltips to anyone because inhis experience, while peo-ple say that just wantsome help, giving themtips is not actually helpingthem at all. Now this isnot to say that as a leaderyou should doubt all andhelp none. But it is impor-tant that you ensure thatyou are actually helpingthem, even though theymay think that you arenot helping them at all.Alpesh gives regular sem-inars on trading strategiesin which he shares hisknowledge and experi-ence, but he stresses thatpeople need to trade ontheir own. This is helping.Doing a child’s home-work for them is not.

Amit Patel has over 15years experience in thefield of LeadershipDevelopment. He hasdelivered speeches onPeople Management andDevelopment throughoutEurope, North America,and Asia. To contactAmit, email amitpatel-mail@gmail.com

By Amit Patel

Amit Patel has over 15 years experience in the field ofLeadership and Human Resource Management

Asking for Help andAsking to Do

Jet Airways discontinues JetLite,merges with Konnect

Tata Steel, Wipro in most ethical firms list

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 23WORLD

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In FocusLondon: Britain is preparingto end its £ 1.6 aid pro-gramme to India after mount-ing evidence that the countryno longer needs the money.Andrew Mitchell, the inter-national development secre-tary, has made it clear thathis department’s £1.6 billionprogramme for the formercolony is in its final phasesand will be wound up as theIndian economy booms andits own efforts to alleviatepoverty become increasinglyeffective. The governmenthas publicly committed tofunding aid programmes inIndia until 2015. More than£1 billion of British taxpay-ers’ money has been sent tothe country over the past fiveyears, and a further £ 600m iscommitted.

However, in an interviewMitchell conspicuously failedto commit to renewing aid toIndia beyond that date.However, there is growingpolitical pressure to end aidto a country that boasts itsown space programme andspends £70 billion a year onpoverty alleviation, dwarfingthe Britain’s contribution.Last month it emerged thatthe Indian finance ministerhad dismissed British aid tohis country as a “peanut” andargued that it was no longerneeded.

Unlike other Whitehalldepartments, which havefaced cuts, the Departmentfor InternationalDevelopment’s budget is ris-ing 35% in real terms by 2015.

It follows a high-profile

pledge by David Cameron,backed by the LiberalDemocrats, to spend 0.7% ofBritain’s national income ongood causes overseas - anamount seen as excessivelygenerous by many grassrootsTories and some MPs. Thecoalition has promised toenshrine it in law, but therehas been no sign of the bill inthe Commons, promptingLabour MPs to suggest thegovernment may be trying towriggle out of it.

Mitchell was indignant:“The bill is ready and we willlegislate as soon as parlia-mentary time allows.”

Though his budget isincreasing, control over howthe money is spent is tighterthan ever, he said. In opposi-tion, Mitchell travelled to 38

countries that receivedBritish development aid, andconcluded that many projectswere a waste of money. Whenhe became secretary of statein 2010, he lost no time inpulling the plug on 16 out of43 programmes.

“The first thing I didwhen I walked into the officewas tell them, no morecheques to China and Russiaunless they are legally due.You know, we don’t pussyfootaround. We get stuck in. TheChina programme waswound down. You have to dothese things in an orderlyway. The last payment wasmade this year. We wereastonished at the extent ofLabour largesse with taxpay-ers’ money in areas we didn’tthink were the right areas.”

Britain to scrap aid for India

The power of thought canbring success into the palmof our hand or the pain offailure in our heart. A fourday, non residential shibir(retreat) is to be heldwhere you will be able toexplore in a very real, prac-tical sense the functioningof your mind, the nature ofyour thoughts and how toharness them for maxi-mum benefit.

“Thought Power,” (1stto 4th April 10.30 am-5 pm)is based on a book bySwami ShivanandSaraswati. The Gujaratitranslation of this book,called “Vichar Shakti,” isthe subject of a shibir deliv-ered in 2 uplifting lecturesand 2 inspiring workshopsdaily. Lectures will be insimple Gujarati and work-shops will be in both

English and Gujarati.Param Pujya Bhaishree

Nalinbhai Kothari will bedelivering the lectures.Bhaishree, head of the RajSaubhag Ashram in Saylacurrently guides thousands ofseekers on the path toMoksha. His gentle compas-sionate way combines withhis wisdom to transform thelives of aspirants. Sayla, is acentre for spiritual striving,and a base for a vast variety ofhumanitarian work.

Correlating the experi-ences of our everyday life,Bhaishree shall cast light onthe practical application ofthese transformative ideasand inspire our spiritualdevelopment. Immediatelyafter these lectures, you willbe able to join workshopsled by experienced seekersVikrambhai Shah and

Minalben Shah. In 2011, inthe UK, Bhaishree created alasting impact on the lives ofmany souls, when heexplored a text by the nameof “Dharmabeej” in a shibirwhich was both profoundand understandable to theUK audience. In a similarway “Vichar Shakti,” anequally powerful text, shallencompass modern con-cerns with ancient truths.

Public swadhyays (1stto 3rd April, 8-10 pm) willbe in simple Gujarati.Taking reference to thesacred Jain scripture,Uttaradhyayana Sutra,Bhaishree will draw ourattention to key insights, rel-evant for all seekers on thepath to moksha, from thisscripture in a unique andunprecedented explorationof the dialogue between

Lord Parshvanatha’s disci-ple Keshi Swami and LordMahavira’s disciple GautamSwami in its 23rd Chapter.Beginning with upliftingbhakti, the sessions, alsodrawing on the writings ofShrimad Rajchandra, willgently awaken and inspire uswith practically applicable aswell profoundly thought-provoking insights.

A special Ladies Onlyevent (29th March 8-10 pm)will explore solutions to bal-ancing the spiritual andworldly aspects of life.

All events will be held atKingsbury High School,Kingsbury NW9. Pre-registra-tion required for the Shibirand Ladies Only event. Fullinformation available athttp://www.rajsaubhag.org/2012-uk-dharma-yatra/ or phoneJaysukh Mehta 07830 294060

Harnessing the Power of your Thoughts

London: Mr Ken Livingstone,Labour’s candidate for mayorof London, has promised toturn London into a “beacon”for the words of the ProphetMohammed in a sermon atone of the capital’s most con-troversial mosques.

He pledged to “educatethe mass of Londoners” inIslam, saying: “That will helpto cement our city as a bea-con that demonstrates themeaning of the words of theProphet.” Mr Livingstonedescribed Mohammed’swords in his last sermon as“an agenda for all humanity.”

He praised the Prophet’slast sermon, telling his audi-ence: “I want to spend the nextfour years making sure thatevery non-Muslim in Londonknows and understands hiswords and message.” He alsopromised to “make your life abit easier financially.”

Mr Livingstone was speak-ing at last Friday’s Jummahprayer at the North LondonCentral Mosque, also knownas Finsbury Park Mosque, for-merly controlled by the terror-ist recruiter Abu Hamza.

Mr Livingstone has beendogged by allegations of linksto Islamic fundamentalism.In 2010, in the London bor-ough of Tower Hamlets, hecampaigned against his ownparty’s candidate to back a

controversial independentpolitician, Lutfur Rahman,sacked by Labour for hislinks to a Muslim extremistgroup, the Islamic Forum ofEurope (IFE).

During his mayoralty, MrLivingstone’s LondonDevelopment Agency chan-nelled hundreds of thousandsof pounds to the East LondonMosque in Tower Hamlets,controlled by the IFE, eventhough senior LDA managersstrongly opposed the grant.In return, IFE activists cam-paigned strongly for him atthe 2008 mayoral elections,boasting that they "got outthe vote" for Mr Livingstoneand achieving dramaticswings to him in their eastLondon heartland.

Mr Livingstone also gavethousands of pounds of pub-lic money to the MuslimWelfare House, a charityclosely associated with theFinsbury Park Mosque,which signed an open letterbacking his re-election cam-paign in 2008.

I will make London a beacon

of Islam: Ken LivingstoneLondon: Indian callcentres are sellingBritons’ confidentialpersonal data,including credit cardinformation, medicaland financial recordsto criminals andmarketing firms foras little as two pence,an undercoverinvestigation hasdiscovered. Two‘consultants’, claiming to beIT workers at several callcentres in Delhi boasted ofpossessing 45 different sets ofpersonal information onnearly 500,000 Britons.

IT consultant NareshSingh met the undercoverreporters in a hotel room inGurgaon, carrying a laptopcontaining confidential data.

Clicking on the keyboard,“UK bank card data”appeared containing thepersonal details of hundredsof British customers whohold accounts with leadinghigh street banks.

“This is the informationthat would be in there: firstname, last name, address,account, city, postcode,alternate number - that canbe a mobile number, officenumber, any number he hasshared with us - email ID,date of birth, bank name,name on the card, card type,card number, start date, sort

code and CCV (card codeverification) number as well.These would be bank cards,Mastercards, Visa cards.”

Singh is just one of anarmy of data traders sellingswathes of personalinformation -. The Indianauthorities and British firmswho take advantage of thelow wages paid to call centrestaff have sought to playdown the threat of securitybreaches. When details of1,000 British customers weresold to a newspaper by an ITworker last year, the Indiangovernment - anxious topreserve the reputation of anindustry worth an estimated£3.7 billion a year - describedit as a “freak incident.”

A police source in Delhisaid that despite the threat ofa three-year prison sentenceand a fine of 100,000 rupees(£1,261) for leaking andselling confidential data,prosecutions are difficult tomount.

Indian call centres sellingBritons’ personal data

Indian pupil found guilty in

US gay suicide case

Washington: India-born former Rutgers

student Dharun Ravi was found guilty by a

US court of hate crime and invasion of pri-

vacy for spying on his roommate's gay sex-

ual encounter with another man in 2010.

The sentencing of 20-year old Ravi, who

was convicted of hate crime, invasion of pri-

vacy for spying on Tyler Clementi, has been

set for May 21 Ravi faces 10 years in prison

or possible deportation to India for invading

the privacy of Clementi when he used a

webcam to watch him kiss another man on

September 19, 2010. Ravi had then sent

text messages to some of his other friends

inviting them to watch the sexual encounter.

Clementi committed suicide days after the

footage became public. The case threw

light on issues of cyber-bullying and treat-

ment of young gays and lesbians.

India world's largest recipient

of arms, says study

Stockholm: India is the world's largest

recipient of arms while South Korea is sec-

ond and Pakistan and China are third in the

list, reveals data on international arms trans-

fers published by the Stockholm International

Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The vol-

ume of worldwide arms transfers in 2007-11

was 24 per cent higher than in 2002-06 and

the five largest arms importers in 2007-11

were all Asian states, said a press commu-

nique. The data revealed that Asia and

Oceania accounted for a whopping 44 per

cent of global arms imports, followed by

Europe 19 per cent, the Middle East 17 per

cent, Americas 11 per cent.

NRI mother charged with

drowning toddler

Houston: A 30-year-old Indian-American

pharmacist, suffering from postpartum

depression, allegedly killed her one - year-

old son she hated by drowning him in a

bathtub. Neha Patel, of Florida allegedly

drowned her infant son Ishan on February

16, then wrapped him in a blanket and went

on a 13-hour drive through Florida, includ-

ing the Tampa International Airport, where

she intended to jump from the parking

structure. Neha said she hated her son and

the hatred reached a fatal level on that day,

when she first slapped him and then pur-

posefully left him alone to drown in a bath-

tub half full of water.

39 killed in Iraq blastsBaghdad: Explosions rocked two more

towns in Iraq on Tuesday, raising the toll in

a string of bomb attacks across the country

to 39 dead and 188 wounded, police and

hospital sources said. A car bomb targeting

a police patrol in Mahmudiya in the south

killed three people and wounded 12, while a

car bomb blast near a convoy carrying the

governor of Anbar province killed one of his

security men and wounded eight other peo-

ple. At least 14 other explosions hit various

Iraqi cities and towns earlier on Tuesday.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201224 PAKISTAN-BANGLADESH-SRI LANKA

Q & A: Visa to IndiaWhat is Renunciation/Surrender of IndianPassports

Under the Indian law, peo-ple of Indian origin, who haveacquired foreign nationality,are required to surrender theirIndian passport (nationality)to the High Commission ofIndia in London or at therespective Indian consulatesat Birmingham and

Edinburgh before submittingtheir visa applications.

What documents do I need to surrender my IndianPassport

Documents Required for Surrender of IndianPassports

Duly filled application form Original Indian Passport (Last/Valid Indian pass-

port at the time of Naturalization)Self attested photocopy of Indian passport (Used

Visa Pages)Self attested photocopy of British / Foreign

PassportSelf attested photocopy of British / Foreign

Naturalisation certificateProcessing time would be a minimum of 13-14

working days; it may take longer in certain cases. Alldecisions are at sole discretion of the HighCommission of India, London and its Consulates inthe United Kingdom.

Please note that this list is not exhaustive and doesnot guarantee a Surrender Certificate. The HighCommission of India or its Consulates reserve theright to ask for additional documents if required.What is the fee for Surrendering my Indian Passport?

Mode of payment could be Cash, Debit or CreditCard (except American Express Card), Postal Order orBank Draft payable to “VF Services UK Ltd”

The Government of India has fixed a fee forrenouncing the Indian Citizenship / Surrender OfIndian Passport based on the date, the Person ofIndian Origin, has acquired British/ForeignCitizenship. The fee has been fixed w.e.f. 01.06.2010 asunder:-

*The fee in the table is inclusive of the £2 ConsularSurcharge.

Can I post my Indian Passport SurrenderApplication?

Applications can also be sent by post to our cen-tralised postal processing centre at the address listedbelow. Postal applications require a minimum of 10-14working days to be processed. This does not includethe period when applications are in transit to and fromthe High Commission of India or its ConsulateGeneral of India in United Kingdom.

India Visa Application Centre1-3, Canalside, Uxbridge RoadHayes, Middlesex, UB4 0JN

For further information please visit our websitein.vfsglobal.co.uk

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Washington: Pakistan'sstate-endorsed discrimina-tion, and in some casesextermination, of itsminorities has finallycaught the eye ofWashington lawmakers.Coming on the heels ofsupport in Congress for aBaloch homeland in theface of Islamabad's depre-dations in the region, a USCongressman has zeroedin on the abduction andforced religious conver-sion of Hindus in thecountry highlighted by thecase of Rinkel Kumari.

In a sharply-wordedletter to PakistanPresident Asif Ali Zardari,Congressman BradSherman urged him totake action to ensure thereturn of Rinkel Kumari toher family, pursuant toreports that she had beenabducted with the help ofa Pakistan People's Party(PPP) lawmaker. In a casethat has been widelyreported in the liberal

Pakistani media, Rinkel,who was abducted onFebruary 24, was forced tomarry one Naveed Shahand convert to Islam.

She was subsequentlyproduced before a civiljudge twice, but she wasreportedly coerced intoclaiming that she had con-verted on her own will, evenas her family was deniedaccess to her in kangaroocourt proceedings thatrevealed in video clips to beled by a frenzied mob ofzealots, including armedfollowers of the Pakistanilawmaker. According toPakistani civil liberties

activists in Washington DC,Rinkel was allegedly threat-ened while in police custodythat if she did not changeher statement, she and herfamily would be killed.

''Rinkel Kumari's case isjust one case of abductionand forced religious con-version in Pakistan,''Congressman Shermansaid in the letter to Zardari,citing the Asian HumanRights commission figureof 20-25 kidnappings andforced conversions ofHindu girls in Sindh everymonth. ''I urge you to takeall necessary steps to bringan end to this practice andother harassment ofHindus in Pakistan.''

The Rinkel Kumari casewas brought to the atten-tion of US lawmakers notby Hindu activists but bythe Sindhi AmericanPolitical Action Committee(SAPAC), a lobby groupthat, like the Balochgroups, is increasinglyasserting the secular and

syncretic identity ofPakistan's Sindhi commu-nity in the face of growingIslamization in the country.Sapac activists are tellingUS lawmakers that statesponsored discriminationagainst minority groups inPakistan is rampant and iscausing Hindus to migrateout of Pakistan in droves.

Hindus, who constitut-ed more than 15 per centof Pakistan's populationsoon after Partition, havenow dwindled to less thantwo per cent, mostly insome districts of Sindh.There have been severalreports in recent monthsof Hindu families seekingto migrate to India in theface of growing radicalIslamization of Pakistan,including abduction andforcible conversions, but itis the first time thatWashington, which literal-ly slept over Pakistan'sgenocide of Bengalis in1970-71, is paying atten-tion to the issue.

Islamabad: Pakistan PrimeMinister Yousuf RazaGilani said he would rathergo to jail for committingcontempt of court thanviolate the constitution byacting on the SupremeCourt's ultimatum toreopen graft cases againstPresident Asif Ali Zardari.

Gilani's remarks at twopublic events in Bahawalpurregion of Punjab provincemarked an escalation in thestandoff between the PPP-led government and theSupreme Court, which hasbeen pushing the premier torevive cases of allegedmoney laundering againstthe President inSwitzerland.

"If I write (to the Swissauthorities), then I violate

the constitution becauseparliament has given thePresident immunity inPakistan and abroad. Thepunishment for violatingthe constitution is men-tioned in Article 6, which isthe death sentence," Gilanitold a gathering at Malsi inBahawalpur district.

On the other hand,Gilani said, he had beencharged with contempt forfailing to act on the apexcourt's order and could facea six-month prison term.

"Tell me, should I vio-late the constitution andwrite (to the Swiss authori-ties) and face the death sen-tence? "Which is better? Asix- month jail term or thedeath sentence?" he asked.

Gilani raised the sameissue while addressing stu-dents during a convoca-tion at BahawalpurIslamia University, and atboth places the audiencesaid he should face a six-month prison term.

Kabul: The Americancampaign in Afghanistansuffered a double blow.President Hamid Karzaidemanded that Natotroops immediately pullout of rural areas in thewake of the killing of 16civilians, and the Talibanbroke off talks with US.The setbacks effectivelyparalyze the two maintracks for ending the 10-year-old war.

Part of that exit strate-gy is to gradually transferauthority to Afghan forceswhile another tack is topull the Taliban into some

sort of political discus-sions with the Afghan gov-ernment. Karzai also saidhe now wants Afghanforces take the lead forcountrywide security in2013, a year ahead ofschedule.

"Afghan security forceshave the ability to keep thesecurity in rural areas andin villages on their own,"Karzai said in a statementafter meeting visiting USdefense secretary LeonPanetta. He said he hadconveyed his demand toPanetta during their meet-ing. Foreign ministryspokesman Janan Mosazaiconfirmed that Karzai wasasking for Nato to immedi-ately pull back from vil-lages and rural areas tomain bases. Karzai is con-fident that Afghan securityforces know "a thousandtimes better than any for-eign troops the culturallysensitive ways of dealingwith their own people.

Islamabad: Indian spiritu-al guru Sri Sri RaviShankar offered to holdtalks with the Taliban tousher in peace in theregion, saying it wouldhelp foster understandingamong people with diver-gent views. "I am ready togo and talk to the Taliban.I want to talk to them,understand them and givethem my opinion. So wecan definitely make a dif-ference. We should try itagain and again even if wehave to try it 100 times,"Ravi Shankar said duringan interaction with thepublic and media in thePakistani capital recently.

Responding to a ques-tion on what leaders coulddo to usher in peace in the

region, the spiritual gurusaid "most of the trouble iscreated by rhetoric" andpeople should insteadwork for a future filledwith hope. "People findimportance in creatingsuch dangerous situations.They should stop and givemore hope to people," hesaid. Ravi Shankar, whovisited Pakistan recently,inaugurated a centre forhis Art of Living move-ment at Bani Gala on theoutskirts of Islamabad. Healso met with a group ofMuslim clerics and some

political leaders.Answering questions fromthe media and the public,Ravi Shankar said deci-sion-makers should be"calm and collective" whiletackling serious issues.Life becomes worth living,he said, when people areable to be of help to oth-ers. "When decision-mak-ers are in high tension orangry, they will project thesame thing in their deci-sions. They should dosome meditation andrelax, especially when theyhave to make a seriousdecision that will impact alot of people," he said. Hesaid he was happy to seethe enthusiasm withwhich the Pakistani peoplehad welcomed him.

Islamabad: India plans toreopen its consulate in theport city of Karachi, saidIndian HighCommissioner to PakistanSharat Sabharwal.Sabharwal said that talkswere underway for thereopening of the IndianConsulate in Karachi tofacilitate Pakistani nation-als applying for visas. Theenvoy was interacting withthe media during his visitto the Bhutto family mau-soleum at Garhi KhudaBakhsh. Sabharwal saidthe Bhutto family had sac-rificed their lives for thesake of democracy. Withsome 70 per cent ofPakistanis seeking Indianvisas being from Sindh, thetwo countries had agreedto reopen consulates inKarachi and Mumbai.

India to reopenconsulate in Karachi

BradSherman

End forced conversion of Hindus in Pak,

US Congressman urges Zardari

I prefer jail term todeath sentence: Gilani

Quit Afghanistan villages:

Hamid Karzai tells US

I am ready to hold talks with

Taliban: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 25

In divine lightBy Rajen Vakil

Last week we saw howParavasu, Arvavasu’selder brother, had killedRishi Raibya, his father,and asked his youngerbrother to do penance forhim, allowing him to finishthe yagna of the king.Thus, Arvavasu went intothe jungle to perform thepenance and after com-pleting the same returnedto the yagna. As Arvavasuentered the yagna hall,Paravasu told the king,“My younger brother haskilled a Brahmin, myfather. You will lose all thebenefits if he as much aseven lays an eye on thisyagna, so please stop himfrom entering.”

The king believed hiswords and asked theguards to throw Arvavasuout of the hall. As theywere pushing him out theykept taunting him that hewas a murderer of aBrahmin. Arvavasu plead-ed that he was innocentand his brother had killedthe Brahmin, but no onelistened to him. He thenleft the yagna quietly andwent into the deep forest.

In the jungle he start-ed practicing tapas of theSun God. He went verydeep into the mysteries ofthe Sun and even wrote anew Veda on what he hadexperienced. The Sun God

was very pleased with himand appeared before themeditating Arvavasu andgranted him a boon.Arvavasu said, “Bring myfather to life again and heshould have no memory ofbeing killed, free mybrother from the sin ofhaving killed a Brahmin,also give life to RishiBharadwaj and Yavakrit,my father’s friend and hismisdirected son respec-tively. This Veda that Ihave written shouldbecome the accepted pathto worship you.” The Sungod said yes and all ofthem came back to life.

Yavakrit asked the SunGod, “Even though I hadknowledge of the Vedashow was it that the RishiRaibya was able to killme?” The Sun God repliedthat Raibya was able toacquire the knowledgethrough great sufferingand surrender to his guru,while Yavakrit had gainedthe knowledge through ashortcut. Saying thesewords, the Sun god left.

The word Yavakritcomes from ‘yava’ mean-ing new and ‘krit’ meaningdone, that which is newlydone; in today’s language,

remixed. The shortcutbeing we take an old songwith old music and addsome additional beats andit is remixed. We do nothave to go through thestruggle to create themusic or writing the lyrics.A song is ok, but whatabout higher knowledge?Yavakrit gained thisknowledge the easy waywithout working under aguru.

When we work with aguru, every step is a jour-ney in dissolving the ego.In life we can react, getirritated or upset in smallmatters, but under ateacher we are not evenallowed to show displeas-ure in our gestures andthe teacher keeps on cre-ating conditions that takeus to the limits of ourpatience. The disciple alsoworks on purifying hisemotions and thoughts.Only then is higher knowl-edge attained.

Knowledge onlyincreased Yavakrit’s vanityand as he had not workedon inner purity, it led himto commit a rape. Thus, inhigher knowledge, short-cuts lead to disaster.

All past articles on the Mahabharata can be accessedfrom http://epaper.asianvoice.com or from http://www.3stepbreath.com/mahabharata.html

Asian Voice and GujaratSamachar news weeklieslaunch a Coffee TableBook- “Life & Legacy SirSayajirao Gaekwad III” atNavlakhi Ground inVadodara recently.Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi unveiledthe book on 11th Marchduring the 150th birthanniversary celebrationsof Maharaja Sayajirao.

This book,an initia-tive of MrC B Patel,the Editora n dPub l i sherof GujaratSamachar-Asian Voice,e x p l o r e ssome of theunexploredfacts aboutthe life and legacy of thegreat ruler and a salute tothe great ruler for itsremarkable contributionto Baroda. The Coffee

Table book is one of itskinds, to document someof the aspects of theruler’s life which are noteven mentioned in ourhistory books and haveremain untold. Hard-cov-ered 100 pages book hassome rare pictures andarticles written byesteemed writers.Foreword is written byProf Lord Bhikhu Parekh,

House ofLords andUniversitieso fWestminsterand Hull.This book isp r e c i o u spiece of col-lection. Thebook isavailable atprice of £5

from Asian voice / GujaratSamachar office. If youwant to receive the bookby post or courier, addi-tional charges will beapplicable.

Asian Voice - Gujarat Samacharlaunches coffee Table Book on

Sayajirao Gaekwad III

Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi figures onthe cover of the forthcom-ing issue of Time magazinewhich praises him in anarticle for the developmentof the state he has beenruling for over a decade.But the magazine wondersif he can become the PrimeMinister. The cover of theTime magazine’s March 26issue features Modi, withthe caption: “Modi meansbusiness but can he leadIndia?”

In an article titled“Boy from the backyard”,the US magazines

describes Modi as a “con-troversial, ambitious andshrewd politician”. It alsomentions his series of day-

long Sadbhavana fasts toreach out to the people ofthe state.

“It’s Modi in makeovermode: an act of self-purifi-cation, humility andbridge building in a statethat is still traumatized bythe Hindu-led anti-Muslimmassacres of 10 years agoand the flawed investiga-tions in their wake...,” thearticle says.

The Time magazinearticle says Modi is a firm,“no-nonsense leader” whocan steer India out of a“mire of chronic corrup-tion and inefficiency”.

Akhilesh Yadav formallytook over the reins of UPwhen he was sworn in aschief minister along with ateam of 47 ministers, mostof them old MulayamSingh Yadav loyalists,among them the controver-sial Raghuraj Pratap Singhalias Raja Bhaiya who hasbeen booked under POTAand has several casespending against him. Asthe team didn't quiteinspire confidence in hispromise of providing cleanpolitics in UP, many won-dered whether Akhileshhas had a free hand inpicking his ministry. Onlyone member of the so-called 'Team Akhilesh' -IIM-Ahmedabad's formerprofessor Abhishek Mishra- has been picked as a min-ister of state.

The size of the ministryis small compared toMulayam's jumbo-sized 98-member cabinet, but it isstill much larger than initialestimates as Akhilesh him-self had talked about asmall team. Doubts werebeing raised on theSamajwadi Party's inten-tions to check crime and

criminals as 28 out of 47ministers have criminalcases against them, eventhough a number of thesecases could be political innature. At a ceremony atthe La Martiniere schoolgrounds, 19 cabinet minis-ters were inducted and 28ministers of state. The cere-mony was attended by sev-eral political bigwigs,among them Union cabinetminister Pawan Bansal andveteran Congress leaderMotilal Vora. There werealso Prakash Karat andSitaram Yechury of CPMand A B Bardhan of CPIwhich made political pun-dits wonder whetherMulayam was cosying up tothe Left for the possible for-mation of a non-Congress,non-BJP political front.

While the SP was suc-cessful in shedding itsanti-English, anti-comput-er image under Akhileshduring the election cam-paign, he will still have toexplain the inclusion ofthe likes of Raja Bhaiyaand Mahmoob Ali, whofaces 15 criminal cases.Akhilesh later defendedRaja Bhaiya's inclusion

saying he had been a min-ister before. Also, glimpsesof the old SP were on dis-play at the ceremony ashundreds of SP workersclimbed on to the stage assoon as the ceremonyended to trigger a free-for-all. After the swearing-inceremony, Akhilesh Yadavwent to the CM office atthe secretariat annexe totake charge and lateraddressed a news confer-ence at 5, Kalidas Marg -official residence of the UPCM - where he promisedto implement all the prom-ises made in the partymanifesto. At his first cab-inet meeting it was decid-ed that all girl studentspassing Class X would begiven laptops. This done,the Mulayam Singh family,including Akhilesh and hiswife Dimple and ShivpalYadav, headed for SaharaSheher for a lunch hostedby Sahara chief SubrataRoy. The lunch was alsoattended by the visitingLeft leaders and otherpolitical and businessnotables, including AnilAmbani. Jaya Bachchanand Zayed Khan.

The Indian governmentwill spend close to Rs 500million on welfareschemes targeted at over-seas Indians in 2012-13,according to budgetaryestimates proposed byFinance Minister PranabMukherjee.

The Ministry ofOverseas Indian Affairs(MOIA) has been allocat-ed a total of Rs.1.148 bil-lion for the next fiscal, a41 per cent increase fromthe 2011-12 budget outlayof Rs 810 million.

The ministry will alsospend Rs 60 million on cel-ebrating the PravasiBharatiya Diwas.

The rest of theRs.1.148 billion will gotowards establishment andinfrastructure expenses.

India has the world'ssecond largest overseascommunity, next only toChina. It is estimated thatthere are about 25 millionIndian diaspora spreadover more than 110 coun-tries around the world.

The MOIA was estab-lished as a separate min-istry in 2004 to look afterthe welfare of the Indiandiaspora and to providethem assistance acrosseconomic, social and cul-tural spheres.

Budget has takenreality of India's situation:

Swraj PaulLeading NRI industri-

alist Lord Swraj Paul hassaid that the Budget hastaken the reality of India'ssituation.

Reacting to theBudget, Caparo Groupchairman Swraj Paul said:"The budget has taken thereality of India's situation.There are too many prob-lems that exist which needto be dealt with to makethe economy better.

"I hope the governmentgets the grip on the prob-lem and start paying atten-tion to it. India has a greatfuture if we can get ourhouse in order."

He described theBudget as "a very goodbudget". Finance ministerin the Budget hikedexcise duty and servicetax by 2 per cent across-the-board to raise Rs459.40 billion and offeredmarginal relief to individ-uals in income tax.

Budget gets mixedreactions from NRIs inGulf: The NRI communityin the Gulf region hadmixed feelings for theBudget, as some of themwelcomed the hike in dutyon gold while some otherswere disappointed byincrease in service tax andexcise duty.

ITL Cosmos GroupPresident Ram Buxanisaid increase in the cus-toms duty on gold willhelp Dubai's business.

On the hike in servicetax and excise duty in theBudget, Indian BusinessLeaders Forum (IBLF)President Sudesh KAggarwal said, "The com-mon man will get adverse-ly affected due to theincrease in the indirecttaxation - such as increasein the excise duty andservice tax."

"The governmentshould have focused moreon widening the tax baseand bringing more peopleon the tax net througheffective managementthan increasing the tax atthis juncture," he added.

However, he termedthe delay in implementa-tion of the Direct TaxCode (DTC) as a positivestep and appealed to thegovernment that thedemands of the NRIsshould be kept in mind asand when DTC is imple-mented and 'status quo'should be maintained asregards to their number ofdays of stay in India.

Adil Rasheed, an AbuDhabi- based academicianand researcher said thisbudget merely confirmsfears of most Indians.

Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh onMonday said India wasintending to vote in favourof the resolution onUNHCR on Sri Lanka.

The resolution shouldcover India's objectives toachieve a future forLankan Tamils based onequality, dignity, justiceand self respect.

The move will likelypacify the DMK who in aninformal meeting of topleaders at party chief MKarunanidhi's residencehere on Sunday decided,in principle, to pull outministers from the UPAgovernment if the Centredid not accede to theirdemand.

Karunanidhi calls off fastMeanwhile, KarunanidhiMonday called off hisscheduled hunger strikeafter the Indian govern-ment said it intended tovote against Sri Lanka ona "war crimes" resolution.

Lanka war crimes:

India likely to vote

in favour of

UNHCR resolution

Modi makes it to Time magazine cover

India to spend `500 mn onoverseas Indians

Akhilesh's cabinet packedwith Mulayam's men

Yavakrit resurrected

INDIA

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201226 INDIA

Continued from page 1

"I can't think of anything atthis stage, it has been atough phase for me,"Tendulkar said after hisinnings. "I started off theseason well but was luckless.It does not matter how manyhundreds you score, you stillhave to grind it out."

"When I got the 99thcentury, no one spoke aboutit. I guess it was the mediawhich started it. EverywhereI went people were talkingabout my 100th hundred,"he said.

He was finally out for114, caught behind offMashrafe bin Mortaza, whothen ran over to shake hishand. The master blaster's99th century had comeagainst South Africa onMarch 12, 2011, at Nagpurduring the World Cup.Friday's century was

Tendulkar's 49th in one-day-ers; he has 51 Test centuries.

Tendulkar, who was leftstranded on 99 internationalhundreds for a year and fourdays, played Test seriesagainst England, the WestIndies and Australia. He alsofeatured in the recently con-cluded tri-series in Australiabut his bid to become thefirst batsman to score 100international hundredsremained unfulfilled,although he came close on afew occasions. Tendulkar hasset a benchmark unlikely tobe surpassed in his lifetime,with his closest rival, RickyPonting, on 68 internationalcenturies and approachingthe twilight of his career atthe age of 37. Since his inter-national debut at 16 againstarchrival Pakistan in 1989,Tendulkar has been com-pared to not only top bats-men of his era like Brian

Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq,but also to Australian greatDonald Bradman as the bestbatsman ever. Bradman, whoretired in 1948 with an aver-age of 99.94 runs, saidTendulkar reminded him ofhis own playing style.Tendulkar has defied age andinjury at every stage of hiscareer. Whenever injuriesthreatened to stall his career,he pushed his body to thelimit, and sometimes evenbeyond. Even the mostthreatening of all his injuries- the painful tennis elbow (in2004) - couldn't break him.He cried out in agony, wait-ed with hope for almost ayear, tackled it with determi-nation and ultimately con-quered it like only he can.

In February 2010,Tendulkar became the firstin world cricket to score adouble hundred in one-dayinternationals, while in

December 2010 he becamethe first to score 50 Testtons, both landmarksachieved against the bestpace attack in world cricket- South Africa. Wisden,regarded as the bible ofcricket, named Tendulkar asthe leading cricketer in theworld for the year 2010. In2007, Wisden had identifiedTendulkar as the player tohave won such an award for1998 - had it been institutedthen. Tendulkar, whorealised his long-cherisheddream when India won theWorld Cup in April 2011,was also named in Wisden's2009 Test XI, at his accus-tomed number four position.His passion for the game notonly keeps him going, butalso gives him the opportu-nity to reinvent himself.Each time he goes out on tothe field he seems to be rais-ing the bar for himself.

Sachin Tendulkar : 100 not out

Continued from page 1

which legislation still reflects. “We believe thatfor family stability and community life, asmany people as possible should have the pos-sibility of a common day off every week. Thepotential detrimental impact on the health ofemployees, and on small retailers, outweighany potential benefits of further deregulation.”

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop ofCanterbury, added that existing Sunday trad-ing restrictions were already "fairly modest"and urged the Government to ensure that theOlympic changes were only temporary.”

Under the Sunday Trading Act 1994,shops bigger than 3,000 square feet inEngland and Wales can only trade for six con-tinuous hours between 10 am and 6 pm onSundays. But it was belatedly realised that therestrictions would affect the Olympic Games,with five large merchandise shops in the eastLondon park having to shut before a closingceremony attended by 80,000 people onSunday, August 12th.

Govt to relax Sunday

trading laws during

Olympics 2012

After testing the nerves ofTrinamool Congress bossMamata Banerjee for fourdays, India’s RailwayMinister Dinesh Trivediresigned from the UnionCabinet to bring down thecurtain on the controversythat his rail budget kickedoff. Trivedi called Banerjeejust as she was about to leavefor Delhi and conveyed hisdecision to quit. It marked asudden change of heart forthe minister who only a dayback had insisted thatBanerjee give him his sackorder in writing.

On Tuesday Mukul Roy, atrusted lieutenant of Mamta,was sworn in as new railwayminister amid signs that thegovernment would bow tothe wishes of a petulant coali-tion partner and initiate apartial fare rollback. While itis certain that the hike forsleeper classes will be rolledback, the Centre would preferonly a partial rollback of therail budget. It would also pre-fer that Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee reply tothe rail budget debate.

TMC had announced thatit would oppose the referenceto NCTC and Congressmenfeared it could throw itsweight behind the amend-ments moved by BJP.Congress had assured TMCthat the Prime Ministerwould clarify that the Centrewould not move on thecounter-terror body till it hadheard the chief ministers inan April meeting.

I will not indulge in pettypolitics: Trivedi

Trivedi said he would notindulge in petty politics, aday after his resignation.

"I have done my work,and I am very happy. I have

given the railway budget tothe parliament. Everybodyhas to play his or her part andI played my part but I will notget into petty politics,"Trivedi told media outsideparliament.

Trivedi further thankedMamata Banerjee,Manmohan Singh and hiscabinet colleagues for givinghim the opportunity and sup-port to work as railway min-ister. Praising Banerjee,Trivedi said: "I have a highregard for her. She is a greatleader, and is very much inher right to have her opinion,and, I respect her opinion. Ihave a deep regard for her."

He further said that con-fusion over the issue couldhave been averted had (TMCMP) Sudip Bandopadhyaynot spoken in parliament."The confusion was becauseSudip Bandopadhyay hadmade one announcement,and there was anotherannouncement. So, I thoughtthe best thing for me was toring up Mamata Banerjee andfind out what is the realtruth," he added. Admiring

the role of Indian railways asan organisation, Trivedi saidit was one of the best in theworld.

He said that he tried hislevel best to do whatever lit-tle he could do in the interestof the railways and in interestof the country. Meanwhile,lauding Trivedi's decision,Banerjee said: ""Yes, he(Minister Dinesh Trivedi)called me and he said: I willabide by the party's directionsand I will send my resigna-tion and whatever the partywill tell me, that I will do."The row over Trivedi exposedemerging differences and per-ceived erosion of tiesbetween the Congress and itsally TMC.

For the past few months,the TMC has kept theCongress on tenterhooks onvarious issues of national andstate concern, such as theprice rise, allowing foreigndirect investment in multi-brand retail, the issue ofestablishing the NCTC, andMamata Banerjee's decisionto skip the Prime Minister'svisit to Bangladesh last year.

Dinesh Trivedi forced to quits as railway minister15 dead as train rams intovan in UPAt least 15 people were killed on Tuesday

when a passenger train rammed into a van

at an unmanned crossing in Hathras district

of Uttar Pradesh, police said. The accident

took place in the early hours of Tuesday

when a vehicle packed with more than 25

persons was crossing the tracks. The driver

could not see the approaching train and by

the time he reacted, it had rammed into the

vehicle, killing 15 people on the spot and

injuring about half a dozen, police said. Rail

traffic on the route was disrupted for more

than an hour and was restored after the

tracks were cleared of the mangled vehicle

with the help of cranes.

Badal spends `30 mn onswearing-inBuoyed by the historic success of breaking a

46-year-old jinx, the SAD-BJP alliance indi-

cated it was in no mood to take immediate

austere steps for the debt-ridden state, blow-

ing up roughly `30 million on its first official

day. Standing taller than Delhi's Qutub Minar,

the Fateh Burj (Victory Tower) at Chhapar

Chiri village in Mohali, witnessed a grand 45-

minute swearing-in ceremony of the Punjab

CM and 16 cabinet ministers - one of the

costliest in the country - as giant money was

spend in celebration.” The rough estimate

we had arrived at was around `15 million," a

reluctant state chief secretary said.

Sri Lanka envoy apologisesto MPsIndia’s External affairs ministry has sum-

moned Sri Lankan High Commissioner and

sought some clarifications on his remarks on

alleged connection between Tamil MPs and

LTTE. The envoy later apologised to Indian

MPs for his comments that sought to link

those questioning Colombo's human rights

record with the Tamil Tigers. The diplomat

was earlier quoted by an Indian newspaper

as saying that New Delhi should investigate

Indian MPs sympathetic to the Tamil cause.

"That is not what I meant," Kariyawasam

clarified. "What I meant was the LTTE

(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) lobby

groups abroad and in this region carrying on

a campaign of disinformation (against Sri

Lanka) was aimed at disrupting the process

of reconciliation in Sri Lanka following the

end of the long-drawn war in 2009, he said.

Battered baby Falak dies Brutally beaten, bitten and her skull broken

and limbs fractured, little Falak fought a bit-

ter battle with life for nearly 60 days. But the

two-year-old's heart gave way finally, after

five critical surgeries and two earlier heart

attacks, despite valiant efforts by doctors at

the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

"The atmosphere is very grim in the hospi-

tal because all the staff was emotionally

attached to her," he added. The police had

arrested 10 people in the case.

An undercover investigationby one print media revealedlast week how corrupt Indianbookmakers were trying torig matches, using glamorouswomen to target players.

A Bollywood actress whoclaims to be the woman at thecentre of a media investiga-tion into cricket match fixinghas admitted to socialisingwith international players inEngland. Although she wasnot named in the article, theactress, Nupur Mehta, calleda press conference inMumbai where she said shebelieved she had been identi-fied. She denied beinginvolved in rigging matches.

Mehta said she met inter-national cricketers by chanceduring a visit to the CromwellMint casino in central Londonon June 22, 2009. “I went tothe casino on my own andthese cricketers happened tobe there,” she said. “They

were all in London because ofthe T20 World Cup.” Mehtasaid during her visit sheshared a room at the RoyalGarden Hotel in Kensingtonwith a man she believed to bea businessman working in thebuilding industry. He was, infact, an Indian bookmaker.

Asked about her relation-ship with the bookmaker,Mehta, 31, who has modelledon catwalks in Paris andMilan, said: “I no longer haveany kind of relation with thiskind of person. When I knewhim, I knew he was in the con-struction business, that’sabout it. I don’t know whatconnection he has with thebookie world or anything.”

Mehta confirmed that shehad met several Indian crick-eters. “I was in Bollywood soall cricketers were there so Ididn’t think that meetingthem was any kind of harm,”she said.

Bollywood actress denies

hand in match-fixingMaoist guerrillas haveabducted two Italian touristsfrom a remote district ofOrissa, marking a potentialescalation of a decades-longrebel war considered India'smost serious internal securitythreat.

"We have imprisoned twoItalian tourists," SabyasachiPanda, organising secretaryof the state committee of theoutlawed Communist Partyof India-Maoist, said in anaudio message sent to media.He said the tourists wereseized after they were spottedtaking photos of women fromone of India's indigenoustribes who were bathing in ariver in Orissa.

The Italian ForeignMinistry identified theabducted men as PaoloBosusco and ClaudioColangelo. It said it was incontact with Indian policethrough its embassy. Bosusco

runs a travel agency calledOrissa Adventurous Trekkingand has been a regular visitorto India for the last 15 years,Italian media reported.

Prime MinisterManmohan Singh hasdeclared the longstandingrebellion the biggest singlethreat to internal security.Hundreds die each year inviolence linked to the insur-gency but the guerrillas arenot known for targeting for-eigners. At a news conferenceon Sunday, Orissa's homesecretary U. N. Behera saidthe kidnapping took place onSaturday. Police say thetourists had been warned notto enter the area.

The Maoists say they arefighting for the rights of thepoor and landless and stageambushes in the swathe ofeastern and central India inwhich they have a strongpresence.

Maoist rebels abduct

two Italian tourists

In Focus

Yogesh Patel

With reference to the Lib Dem peersopposing an amendment to a squattingclause in the Legal Aid, Sentencing andPunishment of Offence Bill, it brings oneto the question of how far state and politi-cians should go to award a crime. Socialjustice cannot be moral if it hinges onendorsing thuggery by the squatters aslawful, or by creating a new law to protectthem, or by ignoring the flaws in the exist-ing law. Quite often in political debatesblindness due to the grandiose ethics andmorals gets carried away by the self-right-eousness giving in to ignoring the crimi-nal act itself. However lofty the politicalcorrectness may be, the squatters cannothave the rights. Their right regardingthe property they occupy can existonly by the state indulging in makingthe unlawful acts lawful at the expenseof law abiding people who happen tohave an empty property at some stage.Fundamentally, such acts morallyremain wrong, arrogant and dictatorialbecause they terminate the rights ofsomeone or an entity who lawfullyowns a property.

Moral philosophy will have some-thing to say about the ownership ofanything in general. At a very rudi-

mentary level, if someone owns jewellery,and does not use it for a while - howeverlong - doesn’t mean it transfer the right ofownershipor use to someone else, even inthe case of a property. If the state arro-gantly steps in to impose restrictions cre-ating a law about giving some rights to thecriminals, then it effectively indulges in todecriminalising the crime committed. Inthe case of despotic state rationale maynot exist, but is it right in the democraticstate to snatch away individual’s provenright to ownership of any lawfully ownedproperty?

There are alternatives that politiciansand law makers could explore. Instead ofindulging in removing property owner’srights, the less damaging acts can concen-

trate on the empty properties themselves,or addressing its emptiness. One simpleexample that one can give is that theproperty owners can be heavily taxed forleaving the property empty after an agreedvery long period. That amount directlycan transfer to supporting the homeless.This could release the empty accommoda-tions without creating the morally corruptlaws snatching away individual’s right toownership, and its use. ‘Maintained stateof the property’ and fines are other areasthat may be debated. It could also createconditions for the direct contributions tothe social justice ideals and funds. This isjust one example as to how differing polit-ical agendas can come to common groundand protect the lawfulness rather then

indulging in to decriminalising the crimecommitted.

Most people accept the concept thatliving together in the society means bal-ancing everyone’s right, in most cases tothe tolerance norms. It certainly doesn’tmean legalising criminal behaviour ofsome group so that it sounds good as asocial justice!

In the case of squatters, if the law mak-ers have indulged in legalizing the lawbreaking at the expense of law abiding prop-erty owners, and tried to be the high priestsof morality and social justice, to makeamendments to decriminalise that law itselfmust be treated as an opportunity to begrabbed wholeheartedly. The Lib Dems arefailing the society by not grasping it.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 27

12th Asian Achievers Awards14th September 2012 NOMINATION FORM

Application Form

Sports Personality of the Year............................................Awarded for excellence in sports.Business Person of the Year ..............................................Awarded to a business person who is a success in every sense ofthe word and can demonstrate a genuine passion for socialissues.Professional of the Year ......................................................Professionals in the field of medicine, law, education, banking,finance and others, who have scaled the heights of their chosenprofession.Achievement in Community Service................................In recognition for an individuals service to community.Achievement in Media, Arts and Culture ....................Someone who has made a mark in media including print andbroadcast media; cinema, art and culture.Award for Entertainment ....................................................For outstanding performance by Asians in the field of Dance andMusic.

Woman of the Year ................................................................The award will recognise and honour a woman who has made asignificant mark in any chosen field.Young Entrepreneur of the Year ......................................Awarded to an young entrepreneur (less than 35 years) with aproven track record of operating a successful business enterprise.Uniformed and Civil Services ............................................For outstanding achievements in uniformed and civil services orcontribution to the community through any of the above services.International Personality of the Year ............................Awarded to those who have acclaimed popularity internationallyfor his/her contribution in any particular sector and is recognisedfor their timeless philanthropic activities.Lifetime Achievement Award ............................................To honour those individuals, who during their lifetime, have madeimmense contributions in any given field. This remarkable individ-ual can be marked as an example for the younger generation.

Please tick the appropriate category

! Name of the Nominee: ___________________________________________________________________________________

! Contact Details of the Nominee (Tel & email): _______________________________________________________________

! Present Occupation of the Nominee: _______________________________________________________________________

! Please attach your CV which includes the following information (Please do not exceed a limit of 1000 words)(1) Personal background(2) Most important career achievements till date(3) Your contribution to the community and nation(4) Any notable obstacles in you career that has helped you to reach where you are today(5) Future plans, ambitions and visions

! Summary- (Please include a summary in not more the 150 words why the nominee is worthy of winning the particular award in a separate sheet)

! Nominators name and contact details: _____________________________________________________________________

! Nominators current Occupation/Company: __________________________________________________________________

! Tel/Mobile: _________________________________ ! Email: __________________________________________________NOMINATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

" This is a unique event where readers nominate and an independent panel of judges comprising of eminent personalities selects the winner. "#Judges’ decision is final. ABPL Group will not entertainany dialogue with members of the public regarding the judging process. "#In order to ensure a high degree of transparency and fairness, the management and members of the staff of Asian Voice andGujarat Samachar will play no role in the nomination or judging process. " You may use an additional sheet if the space provided is insufficient. "#The winners will be announced at the AAA Awards cer-emony in 14th September, 2012. "#Asian Voice, Gujarat Samachar will publish the names of the short listed candidates and winners after the event. The winners names will also appear in our e-editionwww.abplgroup.com "#You can nominate yourself if you wish to. "##Nominations and entries must follow the prescribed format. "#All nomination forms must reach our offices on or before 12th July, 2012

!"#!!"#!

!"#$%&'($()#*&+, -../0/(1&2(%#3#34 567$473#*&28(3/%,567$4734

Presents

98#& 63#4%/)/7:4& ;4/($& ;08/#"#34& ;<(3*4& /4& 874%#*& #"#3,& ,#(3& =,& >?@4& 1#(*/$)& $#<4&<##A1/#4& ;4/($& B7/0#& ($*&C:D(3(%5(E(08(3&%7&87$7:3&+3/%/48&;4/($4&6(3&#F0#11#$0#G&H.&%8#3#&/4&47E#7$#&,7:&A$7<&<87&8(4&=37A#$&=7:$*(3/#4&($*&*#4#3"#43#07)$/%/7$&.73&%8#/3&:$/I:#&07$%3/=:%/7$&%7&%8#&07EE:$/%,&($*&%8#&$(%/7$&%8#$&61#(4#&$7E/$(%#&%8#E&.73&7$#&7.&%8#&(<(3*41/4%#*&=#17<G

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The Thuggery of Squatters and Misguided Lib Dem Peers

WORLD

London: Edzard Ernst, a professor ofcomplementary medicine at ExeterUniversity, has accused homeopaths oflying to their patients. Homeopathicpotions do not work and it is unethicalto give them on the NHS, he hasclaimed.

The NHS spends around £4 milliona year on homeopathy, despite callsfrom the British Medical Association forthe funding to end. The discipline –which has won the backing of PrinceCharles – claims to prevent and treatdiseases by using dilute forms of materi-als that in higher concentrations couldproduce the symptoms of the condition.

Homeopaths also believe that thegreater the dilution of the medicine,the more potent the potion, and soingredients are mixed in tiny amountswith water or alcohol.

A typical remedy could have onepart of an ingredient to one trillion,trillion parts of water. Although scien-tists argue the potions are so dilutethey are unlikely to contain any of theoriginal substance, homeopaths claimthe water retains a ‘memory’ of theactive ingredient, which it passes tothe body to help fight the illness.

But Professor Ernst said that even ifan ultra-dilute homeopathic solutionwas somehow different from pure water,this would not make it an effective drug.

Writing in the Society of Biology’smagazine, The Biologist, he said: ‘Howwould this difference explain positivehealth benefits? The water in mykitchen sink also differs from purewater after the washing up but thisdoes not mean it is good for my health.’

Professor Ernst, a former home-opath who now researches comple-mentary medicine at Exeter University,said the treatments could be danger-ous if people chose them over conven-tional medicines with proven benefits.He accused homeopaths who citestudies showing the treatments workof ‘cherry-picking’ results.

“It follows that the Government’sdecision to continue offering homeop-athy on the NHS is not ethical.”However, the professor saved his mostscathing criticism for the Government.He said if a homeopath doesn’t tell apatient that the treatment is worthless,he is not telling the truth. Modernmedical ethics state that patients mustbe fully informed and telling lies topatients is not acceptable.

Homeopathy is

worthless, says an

expert in the subject

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201228 TRAVEL & WOMEN

By AV Correspondent

Kumudini Lakhia, Kathakdancer and choreographerbased in Ahmedabad,Gujarat, is the founder ofKadamb School of Danceand Music in 1967, aninstitute of Indian danceand music.

A pioneer in contem-porary Kathak dance, sheis credited for movingaway from the solo formof Kathak by turning itinto a group spectacle,and also innovations liketaking away traditionalstories and adding con-temporary storylines intoKathak repertoire.

Kumudini, who wasborn in 1930, began totour the West with RamGopal and popularisedKathak there for the firsttime, and then became adancer and choreographerin her own right. Shelearned first from variousgurus of Jaipur gharanaand then from ShambhuMaharaj.

She is particularlyknown for her multi-per-

son choreographies. Someof her most famous chore-ographies includeDhabkar (Pulse), Yugal(The Duet), and Atah Kim(Where Now?), which sheperformed at the annualKathak Mahotsav in Delhiin 1980. Dance criticSunil Kothari later noted,"Those who witnessed theperformance were takenaback by the sheer powerof Kathak cast in anunusual mould. There wasno Krishna, no Radha, noriver banks of Jamuna, nobowers of Brindavan, nostealing of butter and nofemales looking seductive-ly through the ghoonghat.And yet, for the purists,the classicists, there wasno room for complaint." Ineach of these, she present-ed the Kathak dance formin a way that had neverbeen seen before, andwhich at the time hadsome purists up in arms.However, these choreo-graphies are now consid-ered classic, and many ofthe innovations she pre-miered in them have

become so ingrained inKathak performance thatpeople are unaware thatthey were once just that:innovations. She wasalso a choreographer ofthe Hindi film, ‘UmraoJaan’ along with GopiKrishna.

She is also guru tomany disciples, perhapsmost notably Kathakdancers Aditi Mangaldas,Vaishali Trivedi, DakshaSheth, Prashant Shah,Sanjukta Sinha, AnjaliPatil and Parul Shah whohave achieved interna-tional fame.

She is also the motherof Apoorva Lakhia - thefamous Bollywood direc-tor. Kumudini was award-ed the civilian honour ofthe Padma Shri by theGovernment of India in1987 and the PadmaBhushan in 2010 and theSangeet Natak AkademiAward by Sangeet NatakAkademi, India's NationalAcademy Music, Danceand Drama in 1982, andKalidas Samman for theyear 2002-03.

an innovator of Kathak dance

Kumudini LakhiaWOMEN ACHIEVERS

By Purvi Apurva Shah

Mahatma Gandhi is loved by millions, notjust in India but across the world, andGandhian philosophy has attracted hun-dreds of foreigners to India.

Many foreigners visit GujaratVidyapith in Ahmedabad to learnGujarati language to understand Bapu’sphilosophy. Three Mexicans have come allthe way from Mexico to Ahmedabad tolearn Gujarati. They want to translateGandhiji’s Gujarati books into Spanish.Since Spanish is the dominant languagein Mexico and the English books availableon Gandhi are of not much use to them. Itis a big surprise that why these Mexicansdid not try to learn English language andtranslate the books into Spanish thanlearning an alien language. The reasonmay be that theo r i g i n a lGujarati flavourand verve maybe missing inthe Englishtranslation.

“Maru naamA n t o n i aEsparza chea,”is what profes-sor of econom-ics, Universityof Guadalajara says. Two other professorsof History in the same university- AlbertoLopez and Zarina Aguirre- were otherslearning Gujarati. They find Gujarati verydifficult to follow but are keen to learn itand master it.

“The Gujarati language coaching is forthree months only, but we have extendedit for a year, especially for these learners.Not only are they learning Gujarati lan-guage but are also adopting Gujarati wayof life. They say that they want to get theoriginal flavour and aura of the local lan-guage. In their spare time they are alsodoing research on Gandhiji at Vidyapith.They are also greatly influenced by theGandhian philosophy of non-violence andtruth and want to spread this message intheir own country,” says Prof KamleshDave, who is fluent in both Gujarati and

Spanish and is coaching them. “Theywant to deeply understand Gandhiji andwant to read as many Gandhi books aspossible, and are eager to translate themin their national language.” Zarina has aneight year old son who also accompaniesher in the coaching, so along with themother he can also learn Gujarati.

Kaori Kurihara, 26, from Japan wholearned Gujarati in the past, says“"Gandhi's words in Gujarati are muchmore emphatic than in any other lan-guage. I red him in English but could notconnect.”

Along with Gujarati, there are manywho have come to learn Hindi. Prof DrAnjana Sandhir who is an expert in Hindisays, “I make them learn Hindi in easyways, with the help of Hindi songs andthey pick up words faster.” They can sing

Indian nationalanthem and theBollywood hits o n g“ S e n o r i t a , ”which is mix ofSpanish andHindi. At times,we translate thesong in Englishand then trans-late it in therespective lan-

guage of the learner and then put it inHindi. But the fun-play-way methodmakes them learn the language very fast.Prof Sandhir has also published a book onleaning Hindi and was teaching Hindi inAmerica for a decade. Right now there arequite a few overseas students learningHindi under her guidance at BhartiyaBhasha Sanskriti Sansthan, GujaratVidyapith. Some of the students are -Camilla Christensen from Denmark,Simon Bolz from Germany, PichetNeerapatk from Thailand, BramDelombaerde from Beligium, Anna Sidotfrom Italy, Dorothy Durling and DavidDurling (Husband and wife) from USA,Soma Niket and Ajai Markose, KnitraYeshuamofer Puanysuwan (Kerala),Alfonso Hernandz from Miexico andNicole Pechoux-France.

TRAVEL TONIC

I'm Kyra and I review hol-idays to inspire your nextescape. The cultural melt-ing pot Malaysia was mylatest adventure. My firststop was the capitalKuala Lumpur. From themoment I stepped out ofthe airport I fell in lovewith the organised hustleand bustle. A must-see isthe Petronas Towers. Tocapture the breathtakingviews, I took photos ofthe city with the newcamera I bought from theLow Yat shopping mall,famed for state of the artgadgets, for half price!

Or if you want to shopfor clothes, toys and tryout the local gastronomy,opposite Low Yat mall isBerjaya Times Squarewith over 1,000 retailstores and 65 food out-lets. A must visit is thefood court - Taste of Asia- offering a smorgasbordof restaurants from localto international cuisines. Ienjoyed a slap-up, inex-pensive Malay curry there

and then went to relax atthe Dorset RegencyHotel. Situated in theheart of Kuala Lumpur'sGolden Triangle, a fewminutes walk from thePavilion, ConventionCentre, Sungei Wangshopping centre and theBerjaya Times Square. Iwas delighted with myaccommodation with freewi-fi access, a 32 inchplasma TV screen, 24hour room service and aseriously comfortable bed.

After a few days ofcity sightseeing, I headedoff to the lush island ofLangkawi, to unwind.Langkawi is a bit of a hid-den gem. I stayed in thebeautiful Mutiara BurauBay Resort, nestled in thesplendour of a tropical

rainforest, located on thesun-drenched coast ofBurau Bay.

The resort features150 traditional Malaycabins specificallydesigned to create harmo-ny with the stunning nat-ural surroundings. Ahighlight was the amaz-ing views of the Andamansea, which you can enjoy

over a sunset dinner atthe resort. Families mightchoose the SeashellBeach and Café. Offeringa tranquil ambiance, withswaying palm trees, thereis an adjoining children'splay area, giving parents a

chance to relax.There is a plethora of

activities to choose fromsuch as a Mangrovesafari, watersports, jungle

trekking, scuba diving orjust enjoy chilling out atthe resort's beautifulpool. To satisfy your tastefor the exotic, Malaysia isa holiday destination thatshould be top of your list.

My holiday wasarranged by BrightsunTravel who offer a helpfuland friendly service,answering all my ques-tions such as offering themost convenient flightstimes and providingdetails on facilities inhotels. For flights, 3

nights in Bangkok and 4nights in Langkawi,Brightsun have a specialApril offer on this pack-age for only £999 pp.

Brightsun Traveloffers a price matchpromise on worldwideflights and holidays soyou will get the bestdeals. To book yourdream holiday, callBrightsun Travel on 0208819 0486 or visitwww.brightsun.co.uk<http://www.brightsun.co.uk/>

Amazing Malaysia

Ghandhian philosophy inspires

Mexicans to learn Gujarati

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 29ART &CULTURE

British PunjabiDate: April 2012

Devdaya Gala Charity Night Venue: City Pavillion, LondonDate: 21st April, 2012

Gujarat Samachar & Asian Voice 40th Anniversary special issue & Gala launchVenue: TBCDate: May, 2012

Finance Banking InsuranceVenue: House of Commons, LondonDate: 24 May 2012

British Tamils Date: May 31st

Anand Mela - A Gala celebration of Asian Voiceand Gujarat Samachar's 40th year anniversaryVenue: Harrow Leisure Centre, LondonDate: 9 & 10 June, 2012

12th Asian Achievers AwardsVenue: Grosvenor House, Park Lane LondonDate: 14 September, 2012

CB Live on MATV every thursday from 7pm to 8pmFor more information Contact Alka Shah, ProducerTel: 020 7749 4002 Mobile: 07944 151 893Email: alka.shah@abplgroup.com

Forthcoming Special Events in 2012

Shweta Desai

While the rest of his ‘actor’family including wifeAishwarya Rai and parentsAmitabh and Jaya havemade their mark in inter-national ‘crossover’ films,Abhishek Bachchan ruesthe fact that he has notbeen presented with anopportunity to be part offilms apart from the main-stream Bollywood films.

The actor, who was inLondon as a patron of theLondon Asian FilmFestival on 16th March,said that he would love tobe a part of a British filmproject sometime soon.“Go ahead and narrateyour story,” Bachchan saidin a reply to a young film-makers question, if hewould work with a com-pletely new director/actoron a British film.

Bachchan was in hissuave best when he inter-acted with film-makers,students and fans at thepress conference for theOpening night of the 14thLondon Asian FilmFestival (16th – 24thMarch) at the British FilmInstitute, Southbank.Dressed in a suit anddesigner glasses, the actorsaid he felt ‘very underqualified’ to be discussingfilms sitting alongsideMeera Syal and other film-makers.

“I’m the only non Britwho hasn’t worked in anyBritish Cinema but only inmainstream Bollywood. Ido hope that one of thedirector’s give me a chanceto work with them becauseit’ll be an honour to workwith them. There’s somegreat talent here.’’ Headded that he wasn’t reluc-tant to work with a com-plete debutant director ora film maker if they had astory to narrate to him.

The Bacchan familyhas been supporting

Tongues on Fire a non-profit organisation whichinitiated the LAFF.Bachchan said, “It hasbeen a great honour to bepart of a movement thatreally highlights and givesa platform to a lot ofyoung, new talent comingout of Britain.”

While Bachchan him-self will be taking a MasterClass on acting, ace film-maker Sanjay LeelaBhansali known for hissensitive films likeKhamoshi, Black andGuzaarish, highlightingthe struggles of disabledpeople in society will bepresenting the Nargis Duttlecture on Indian films. Inthe year of Olympic andParalympic Games inLondon, Bhansali will alsobe awarded with Beacon ofExcellence at the closingnight award ceremony atBAFTA for his portrayal ofvarious disabilities in com-mercial cinema.

The 14th LAFF includ-ed the psychologicaldrama Michael, starringNaseeruddin Shah for itsopening night, along withMichael Winterbottom’sTrishna, a three country –India, Pakistan,Bangladesh cross culturalfilm Meherjaan and thecontroversial hit Bol from

Junior Bachchan wants to workin `British’ crossover film

Q: Tell me about yourparental origins and howthat is influencing yourwork at Asia House.� �A: My father is fromCalcutta, my mother isfrom England. I grew upin Sussex. There were noother Asian faces and noIndian community there.I first went to India at theage of 17. It was quite aculture shock, but thebeginning of my discov-ery of India. I still have ataste for Gulab Jamun!My Uncle had a house inShantiniketan - that’swhere I discoveredTagore and first had asense of how rich Bengaliculture is.Q: How does havingSouth Asian blood in youhelp you in your work?A: Having a dual identitydefinitely helps. My workis about cultural under-standing, so knowingwhat racism really is,having experienced itfirst hand at an early age,provides a perspective.Q: What training andexperience have you hadto head up what someconsider to be the mostimportant Asian institu-tion in the UK?A: My experience is ineducation and arts pro-gramming and my workat Asia House has beenfocused on publicengagement. I previouslyworked at the Tate andthe National PortraitGalleries and this gaveme good experience inworking across differentart forms from film toperformance, visual artand history. A key to run-ning any non-profitorganisation is under-standing your audience.My work in the cash-strapped arts sector hasalso given me a very goodgrounding in financialmanagement.Q: I understand AsiaHouse has sister institu-tions in the USA. A: Asia House is inspiredby the Asia Society inNew York but we don’t

have any formal ties, andwe are smaller in size -but equally ambitious.Both institutions coverbusiness, policy and cul-ture from a truly pan-Asian perspective. It isinteresting that the term‘Asian’ refers to EastAsians in America butSouth Asians over here.

Q: How has Asia Housebeen shifting in focusrecently?A: Asia House is 16 yearsold. I believe that the ideathat Asian culture is tra-ditional but Western cul-ture is contemporary isgradually being eroded.Knowledge now flows inboth directions andthought leadership andinnovation will comefrom Asia. I recently metthe microfinance pioneerMohammad Yunus. Hefounded Grameen bankto solve a particularsocial issue inBangladesh yet now themodel is being intro-duced in Glasgow - anexample of how Asianthinking can lead the

way. We often hear aboutthe environmental prob-lems caused by Asianeconomic and populationgrowth - I rememberCalcutta banning plasticbags as long ago as 2002,way before British super-markets. The UK needsto stop seeing Asia as athreat and see the greatopportunities that strongand enduring partner-ships can bring. AsiaHouse hosted a dinnerfor Ratan Tata last year atwhich the Deputy PrimeMinister Nick Cleggpraised Tata for hisinspiring business leader-ship. Tata Group is now

the biggest single employ-er in the Manufacturingsector in the UK.Q: What one culturalevent embodies your per-sonal ethos and vision forAsia House?A: I loved an exhibitionof South Asian contem-porary art that we organ-ised with GrosvenorGallery last year, entitled‘Step Across this Line’.The line referred tonational borders on theIndian Subcontinent andalso to the cricket bound-ary. The exhibition fea-tured work by contempo-rary artists fromBangladesh India, andPakistan and exploredhow there is a new ‘post-national’ generationgrowing up that is unitedby sport, pop music andBollywood, leaving theold political and religiousdivisions behind.Q: Which artists havegrabbed your attentionrecently?A: I love the music ofSusheela Raman - aBritish Asian singer withIndian Tamil roots whohas recently been per-forming with Sufi musi-cians in Pakistan.Q: What is your visionfor the institution youcurrently run?A: I aim to make AsiaHouse a sustainable,influential organisation, aplatform for the under-standing of Asian cul-tures and economies, abeacon for inter-culturalunderstanding and globalcitizenship.

Leading Lightsby Rani SinghSpecial Assignment Editor

Sumantro Ghose, 47

Sumantro Ghose

Sumantro Ghose is the acting Chief Executive Officer of Asia House, London. AsiaHouse is the leading pan-Asian organisation in the UK and it covers over 40 countriesfrom the Persian Gulf to the Pacific. It aims to shape the understanding of Asia throughprogrammes across business, culture and policy. Sumi has over 15 years of experiencein third sector administration and management, public engagement and creative pro-gramming, audience development, cultural strategy and international relations. He hasconsulted for a range of cultural bodies including Sotheby’s Institute and the AmericanInstitute for Foreign Study. Sumi was the winner of the Guardian/Modern Painters ArtWriters’ Prize in 2004.

“I aim to make AsiaHouse a beacon for inter-culturalunderstanding

and globalcitizenship.”

Pakistan among others. The LAFF showcases

independent cinema, doc-umentaries, and shortfilms from South Asia,particularly from India,Pakistan and Bangladesh.Conceived in 1999 by DrPushpinder Chowdhryand Mrs Harvinder Nath,the LAFF goes beyond‘Bollywood’ films whichmost of the Asian filmindustry is widely miscon-ceived as. While the festi-val tries to provide aunique international plat-form for the small scale,independent cinema tack-ling social challenges andpopular paradigms thusexposing the grim realitiesof life, it is the Indian filmswith some projects fromPakistan and Bangladeshwhich hog the limelight.

“We do try to show-case films which are par-ticularly produced inSouth Asia, but because alarge number of films areproduced in India and it isthe hub of film industrythat you see many filmsfrom this part in the festi-val,” said Dr Chowdhry.She added that the LAFFwould like to expand itscontent and reach toinclude more Asian filmsand film-makers that aredoing ground-breakingcinema. “Unfortunatelywe are struggling withfunding and resources.The festival is run by vol-unteers and by personalfunding. It took us £100,000 to organise the14th LAFF but there hasbeen no private sponsor-ship or funding.”

The LAFF is widelysupported by the Britishand the Indian film frater-nity but Dr Chowdhry issceptical on the future ofthe festival in its 15th yearin 2013, in the face ofincreasingly tough finan-cial situations.

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The Sun transits your firsthouse and this affects your

personal identity, appearance, outward behaviour, and self-expression. This marks the peak of your physical solar cycle,and you are in the position to make an impression on others,and to assert your personal influence. Increased energy and arenewed feeling of confidence is with you now, so take advan-tage of your charisma to achieve your goals.

The Sun travels throughyour twelfth house now, marking a time of retreat and

regeneration. This also heralds a time for research and unfin-ished behind-the-scene activities. Matters which have draggedon for a while should now be re-assessed and put to rest.Some of you will be looking to spiritual enlightenment and take

up yoga and meditation.

The Sun illuminates yoursector of friends, social gatherings and group activities. Youwill be in constant demand and will be in a position to networkwith new-found friends who will promote your cause. Personalrelationships are also to the fore and some of you might evenfind true love. This is a time to follow your dreams and ideals.

More than any othertime of the year, your focus is drawn to your career and

standing in the society. This is the time when you are moreinterested in, and focused on, accomplishing something impor-tant. Contact with authority figures is more likely during thisperiod. Recognition will come your way whether you ask for itor not, and the responsibility that goes with it.

You are feeling most adven-turous and willing to achieve higher knowledge and spiritualgrowth. This is a good time to broaden your horizons throughtravel and higher learning. This may take you to far off landsin pursuit of your new-found goals. You must distance your-self from the mundane grind of life and take on somethingwhich is more meaningful for your inner growth.

The Sun energizes yoursector of change, transforma-

tion and regeneration. On a more practical level, you may bedealing with joint finances and shared resources now morethan usual. You should also make sure that your tax affairsare in order. You are more willing than usual to explore anddelve deeper into life's secrets and arrive at meaningful con-clusions.

As the Sun transits yourseventh house, you have a greater need than usual to be

in a relationship. The emphasis is on "us" rather than "me".Social interactions of a personal nature are highlighted. This islikely to be an extremely busy time for most of you. Use tactand diplomacy in your dealing, otherwise you are likely tocome across as over confident and egotistical.

The Sun transits yoursolar sixth house and highlights your health and also

makes you take pride in your day to day work. Hence, youshould enhance your skills, get organized and take up a healthregime for your wellbeing. This transit highlights the need forefficiency and as such you should bring in the new and get ridof the old ideas that do not work.

After a period of rel-ative inactivity, you are coming out of your shell, ready

to perform and to express yourself creatively. This is a veryprogressive period of the year, when you are inspired emo-tionally. You take more pride in your your love affairs, yourchildren, and your hobbies and are generally very sociableand make friends easily.

With the Sun tran-siting your solar fourth house of family and home, theseareas are highlighted during this period. Buying or sellingof property or even renovating it will be uppermost in yourmind as you will be trying to put your roots down perma-nently. It is also a time when family life will be charged withemotions so be diplomatic and respect other people'sviews.

You are exploring andsearching now, making con-

nections, and paying attention to your immediate environ-ment. Socially you are very popular and your communica-tions strengthen your connections. You will be busy witherrands, paperwork, phone calls, and light socializing.Siblings, close relatives and friends may play an importantrole in your life during this period.

The Sun highlights yoursecond house of finance, and

your focus is on material affairs and comfort issues. This isa good time to plan your future investments carefully tomaximise your profits. If travelling make sure you keepyour documents safe as there is a possibility of misplacingthem. Some of you might change your travel itinerary.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201230

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

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CB LIVE Every Thursday on MATV (SKY 793) 7pm to 8pmFor more information email: cblive_matv@yahoo.co.uk or call Alka Shah on 07944 151 893

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7pm to 8pm Every ThursdayIf you do not have a SKY, go to www.tvunetworks.comand watch CB Live on TVU Player Channel 75203

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Coming Events! Charity dine and dance: A fundraising dinner anddisco event by Kishorbhai Vadhia and his son Chetanin aid of Midlands Air Ambulance. Venue: Unity Clubin Newtown (B19 3 RD) Birmingham on 31 Marchfrom 6.30pm onwards. Contact: Kishorbhai on 07941373 822.! Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, LondonW1K 1HF. Contact: 020 7491 356- 27 Mar 2012 Exhibition of Gemstone Paintings:Mountainscapes Fareen Butt- 27 Mar 2012 Illustrated Talk: India’s Best KeptSecret? The Sarasvati Mahal Library PradeepChakravarthy- 30 Mar 2012 Book Launch/Music: Param PratapiPratimavli Charanjeev Singh Chana and HaminderSingh Chana! Shri Sanatan Hindu Mandir, Wembley- Ramnavmi - 1st April 2012 Sunday- Hanuman Jayanti- 6th April 2012 Friday! Shrinathji Sanatan Hindu Mandir, Leytonstone- Ramnavmi- 1st April 2012 Sunday.- Hanuman Jayanti- 6th April 2012 Friday! Sunday 25th March 2012 - Bhajans from 3.00pm to5.15 by Shree Budhdevbhai, Shree Manubhai Kotakand Various Artists followed by Arti and MahaPrasad. Adhya Shakti Mataji Temple, 55 High Street,Cowley, Middlesex UB8 2DX. Tel: 07882 253 540! International Women’s Day at BochasanvasiAkshar Purshotam Sanstha (BAPS), SwaminarayanMandir, Ashton, Manchester. 29 Russell Street, OL69QS. Contact (0161) 330 5196. Sunday, 25th March2012, 10.00 to 15.00

CompetitionIf you want to win a pair of tickets to the BollywoodSpectacular Dhamaka starring Sonu Nigam and AtifAslam, answer this simple question.

Where is Dhamaka 2012 with Sonu Nigam & AtifAslam taking place?

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The correct answer should be emailed to aveditori-al@abplgroup.com by 9th April 6pm along withname, full address and phone number.

Please note: the two winners will be chosen on firstcum first basis from the right answers received.

Editor: CB PatelAssociate Editor: Rupanjana DuttaTel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.comSenior News Editor: Dhiren KatwaFreelance Correspondent: Rudy OtterChief Operating Officer: Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 Email: george@abplgroup.comChief Financial Officer: Surendra Patel Tel: 020 7749 4093 - Mobile: 07875 229 220Email: surendra.patel@abplgroup.comAccounts Executive: Akshay Desai Tel: 020 7749 4087 Email:accounts@abplgroup.comAdvertising Managers: Alka Shah Tel: 020 7749 4002 - Mobile: 07944 151 893Email: alka.shah@abplgroup.comKishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.comBusiness Development Managers:Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.comRovin J George - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219Media Consultant: Nihir Shah - Email: nihir.shah@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4089 - Mobile: 07875 229 111Design and Layout: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086Email: graphics@abplgroup.comCustomer Service: Ragini NayakTel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com

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Lords, MPs and experts debate on effortsto boost Indo-British trade relation

Continued from page 73. A target to reduce

the highest level of person-al income tax to 35% by2015 – so you know not tomove today, only to wantto come back later.Because those who man-age to get such pay are theones who contribute the

most economically andwe’ll just have to incen-tivise and reward them elsethey will move abroad.

4. A target to reduceemployer payroll taxes byhalf by 2015 – so you canstart now making longterm plans – because ouremployers make jobs, not

government taxes.5. VAT to 15% by 2015.6. How will we pay for

this? The inward invest-ment and export boostresulting from companiesbeing given a 3 year Govttax plan (not 12 monthbudget which chops andchanges). And if we need

to issue national bonds topay for this to increaseentrepreneurs and busi-ness exports and inwardinvestment, then we will.But we will put the coun-try on a war footing. Thisis national building and wewill not be found want-ing.”

In this week CB Live, Dipti Desai, singer and wellknown Tushar Joshi will be interviewed by CB Patelabout the music and entertainment industry. AnilBagi from Skylink Tour and Traveller will be inter-viewed by Alka Shah, Advertising Manager, GujaratSamachar in the second half of the programme.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 2012 31

The otherwise flawless dis-play was marred whenEngland players reactedangrily to Dilruwan Pererabeing given not out, after he'dedged a low slip catch offJames Anderson to AndrewStrauss, a catch the Englandcaptain indicated had carried.

The incident happenedwhen the home side were 63-7 in their second innings andwell on their way to aninnings defeat. Strauss, sens-ing the ball might fall short ofhim at first slip, dived forwardbut looked to have made aclean catch, something sug-gested by his teammates’immediate celebration.

Perera, a stocky all-rounder, saw things different-ly and held his ground. Theumpires conferred beforeRavindra Wimalasiri, theumpire at square leg, indicat-

ed that he had not seenwhether the ball had carriedor not so couldn’t confirm thecatch.

His decision saw Pereraimmediately surrounded byhalf a dozen England playersmaking their obvious dis-pleasure known. Strauss isnot in the business of claim-ing catches that don’t carry

and his players obviously felttheir skipper’s good reputa-tion had been impugned.

“It was just frustrating,and Strauss being the honestupstanding citizen that he iswouldn’t lie about somethinglike that,” said Andersonafterwards. “Add the heat intothe equation and situationslike that are going to be key

for us during the Test series.Anderson added: “It’s

one of those catches that,because of the scoopingmotion, created doubt. Youcan’t tell without a replay andyou needed to take Strauss’sword for it. The other slipfielder and the wicket-keeperthought he’d caught it.”

In a cooler clime the ani-mosity might have continuedfor the rest of the match butin this sapping heat it is bet-ter to save your energy andemotions for more importanttasks. There was a quip ortwo over the next few balls,and another dig fromAnderson the over after, butthis was a remarkably shortspat and one that theDecision Review System,used in the Tests but nottoday, would probably havesorted out.

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India received a major setback as theyfailed to qualify for the Asia Cup finalafter Bangladesh registered a sensational5-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their lastleague match of the Asia Cup.

Nasir Hossain (36*), Mahmudullah(32*) shared unbeaten 77 runs partner-ship for the sixth wicket to guideBangladesh reach their first ever AsiaCup final.

India's stunning victory over arch-rivals Pakistan went in vain as Bangladeshset up the summit clash with Pakistanwhich will be played on Thursday.

As per the rules of the tournament, iftwo teams are tied on points, head-to-head record will be considered, soBangladesh made it to the final as theyhad beaten India in their league match.

Chasing a revised target of 212 (40overs), Bangladesh were reduced to 40/3in seven overs. However, birthday boyTamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasanscripted a terrific comeback and pow-ered the side with their fiery shows.Both batsmen struck half-centuries eachto rescue their side from a poor start.

Spinner Sachithra Senanayakeremoved Shakib Al Hasan and TamimIqbal in quick succession to help SriLanka fight back in match.

Both batsmen slammed half-centuryeach, to lift their side from a poor start,before falling to Senanayake.

Iqbal scored 59 off 57 deliveries andshared a solid 76-run stand with ShakibAl Hasan for the fourth wicket after pac-ers dented Bangaldesh's run-chase withquick wickets. Hasan on the other handmade 56 off 46 balls.

The duo destroyed Sri Lankan attackwith their fiery shows before Senanayakestruck with his magical spin. The spinnergot Iqbal caught by Thirimanne and thentrapped Hasan leg before wickets to givethe hosts fifth blow.

Earlier, chasing a revised target of212, Bangladesh were reduced to 40/3 inseven overs by the Lankan pacers.

Nuwan Kulasekara removedNizamuddin to give Bangladesh firstblow before Suranga Lakmal endedJahurul Islam's challenge.

Kulasekara bowled out Nazimuddin(6) in the second over after gameresumed. Lakmal then got Islam caughtby Chamara Kapugedera in the seventhover.

In the next over skipper MushfiqurRahim then became second victim ofKulasekara to give Sri Lanka control.Bangladesh need to chase 212 in 40overs to set final date with Pakistan.

The target was revised as rainfalldelayed hosts' run-chase after Sri Lankawere bundled out for 232 in 49.5 overs.

For Sri Lanka Chamara Kapugedera(62), Lahiru Thirimanne (48) and UpulTharanga (48) made significant contri-butions in the middle-order after a top-order collapse saw the islanders reelingat 32 for three in 10 overs.

Comeback man Nazmul Hossain wasthe pick of the bowlers with figures ofthree for 32 while left-arm spinnersShakib-al Hasan (2/56) and AbdurRazzaq (2/44) also got important break-throughs.

Medium pacer Hossain, who wasdrafted into the playing XI in place ofShafiul Islam, struck triple blow toreduce Sri Lanka to 32 for three withinthe first 10 overs after Bangladesh cap-tain Mushfiqur Rahim opted to field.

Nazmul, who played his last ODIback in October last year, bowled with lotof control as he rocked the Lankan top-order removing the seasoned trio ofMahela Jayawardene (5), TillekaratneDilshan (19) and Kumar Sangakkara (6).

Virat Kohli helps India crushPakistan by 6 wicketsEarlier on Sunday Virat Kohli (183 off148 balls) helped India to a stupendousrun chase to master a powerful Pakistanibowling machine trying to defend amore-than-impressive 329 under lightsat the Sher-E-Bangla Stadium. Kohli iscompletely in a different zone sinceHobart and there's nothing that can stophim at the moment. And if there are twosuch brilliant assists in the form ofSachin Tendulkar (52 off 48 balls) andRohit Sharma (68 off 83 balls) playing attheir best, life really becomes easy.

When Tendulkar and Kohli cametogether at 0-1, things looked reallytough. The Pakistan bowlers were breath-ing fire, the field was in, and the crowdwas strongly behind the Men in Green.

But the master craftsman and theyoung aggressor were judicious. Therewere no undue risks taken, it seemed theyknew that it was just a matter of stayingat the wicket and the runs would come.

After the exit of Tendulkar Kohli tookup the charge as if like a man possessedand the Pakistan bowlers ran out ofanswers. Against Ajmal, he used theinside out shot over extra-cover's head toperfection and Rohit, too, followed cue.

True, there were a couple of edgeshere and there, but that takes nothingaway from the authority with whichKohli and Rohit batted during their 172-run third-wicket stand that took thegame away from Pakistan.

Asian Voice - Saturday 24th March 201232

Bangladesh spoil India's hope,beat Sri Lanka to reach finalThe London Organising Committee of the

Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)has confirmed that 7,300 people will be car-rying the Olympic Flame as Torchbearers inthe London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. TheTorchbearers include those that were suc-cessful through the public nominationprocesses run by LOCOG and thePresenting Partners, Coca Cola, Lloyds TSBand Samsung. Each Torchbearer has alsohad confirmed the details of what day and inwhich community they will be carrying theFlame. LOCOG has endeavoured to slotTorchbearers within an hour of their nomina-tion address so family and friends can cheerthem on. The Torchbearers are listed by thecommunity they are carrying the OlympicFlame together with a selection of their inspir-ing stories. The remaining Torchbearers willbe confirmed over the coming months.

An average of 115 Torchbearers a daywill carry the Olympic Flame during its8,000 mile journey around the UK before itarrives at the Olympic Stadium on 27 July2012 for the lighting of the cauldron at theopening ceremony, signifying the officialstart of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The streets along which theTorchbearers will carry the Olympic Flamewere also revealed to help communitiesplan for lining the route and business conti-nuity. Plans for the last two days in Londonwill be confirmed in the next month. The on-line map gives street-by-street details andthe approximate start times for how andwhen the Flame will travel through over1,000 villages, towns and cities in the UKthat were announced at the end of last year.Communities can view the journey of theOlympic Flame in detail now and can findout when it will be travelling along theirnearest high street, through their townsquare or past their local village shop.

Saina Nehwal ended her title drought bywinning the Swiss Open Grand Prix Goldtitle in Basel at the expense of former worldNo. 1 Shixian Wang. The Hyderabad girl'slast international title was at the same event(March 20, 2011) and by making a suc-cessful title defence, Saina has reasons tofeel happy in the run-up to the LondonOlympics, especially for the way she got thebetter of two Chinese stars - Xin (F) Liu(quarters) and Wang - here. "I am reallythrilled to win a title again. I feel good nowand am a lot more confident. I was desper-ate for this victory. I needed one major titleto get back my rhythm and beating a playerwho was world No. 1 just two months backis very satisfying. It will put me back ontrack and this major victory ahead ofOlympics will help me a lot," Saina.

The Indian star, who celebrated her22nd birthday on Saturday, trounced Wang21-19, 21-16 in 48 minutes to complementher 21-16, 21-18 semifinal win over MinatsuMitani of Japan. In the final, Saina facedstiff resistance from Shixian in the firstgame. But by sticking to basics and playingan all-round game, Saina looked in omi-nous touch all through the match.

Young people from

London to run in

Olympic torch relay

Tempers flare up in England – Sri Lanka match

Saina's year-long title

drought comes to an end