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This week’s question

Will Obama be able to override

the immigration storm?

Last week’s result

YES 86% NO 14%

Top Stories

CONTENTS

AMI BERA RE-ELECTEDTO U.S. CONGRESS

Details on page 5

Bollywood ---------------------- 28-29

Classifieds ------------------------- 48

Community Post -------------- 16-20

Date Book -------------------------- 47

Edit Page --------------------------- 54

HealthScience Post --------- 30-34

Horoscope ------------------------- 44

Immigration Post ------------- 35-39

Life Style ----------------------- 50-52

Perspective ------------------------ 49

Philosophy ------------------------- 53

Publisher’s Diary ------------------ 4

Real Estate -------------------- 22-23

TechBiz Post ------------------- 24-27

Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 40-43

Details on page 6

Details on page 8

Details on page 5

Obama honorsIndian-originscientist

Details on page 6

Details on page 37

Details on page 35

Obama provideslegal status to5m illegals

WASHINGTON: Indian-American Congressman Ami Berahas been re-elected to the US House of Representatives inone of the closet congressional races from California.

More than two weeks after the Congressional electionson November 4, Bera led his Republican rival Doug Oseby a close margin of 1,432 votes.

According to the election officials, Bera got 92,394votes against Ose's 90,962.

Virtually all ballots have been counted.On the election night on November 4, Bera was trailing

by more than 3,000 votes."It's been my honor serving this community as a doc-

tor for the last 19 years. I am grateful I will have the oppor-tunity to continue serving as the representative forCalifornia's 7th Congressional District in Congress," 49-year-old Bera said in a statement.

Re-election of Bera, who was elected for the first timein 2012, has its own significance given that it was consid-ered to be a Republican wave.

Details on page 5

BEARD SHAKE: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama interacts with C. V. Vigneswaran (Sri Lanka) at the inauguration of

World Hindu Congress 2014 in New Delhi on November 21

450,000 illegalimmigrants in USare from India

Modi amongTime's 'Person ofYear' contenders

Mangalyaanamong bestinventions

Cohen seesnew energy,hope in India

Lawmakerscelebrate Diwaliat US Congress

Details on page 8

Obama to beChief Guest atIndia R-Day

Modi has given boost to

India’s image?

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HIGHLIGHTSPublisher’s Diary

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Bollywood:Aamir the baddie?The director of 'Robot', Shankar has ap-proached Aamir Khan for playing theantagonist opposite Rajinikanth

5Cover Story:Re-elected

16Community:Chinmaya Mission

35

50Life style:

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's sis-ter Arpita Khan tied the knot with busi-nessman Aayush Sharma

24Techbiz:

India-US seminar concludes a tech-en-abled smart city must also incorporatefoundational principles of sustainability

40Travel:PorbandarPorbandar, along the Arabian Sea inGujarat,western India, is famous as thebirthplace of Mahatma Gandhi

Smart city

The Fundraising Banquet for ChinmayaMission harmoniously blended inspira-tional thoughts and sumptuous food

Ami Bera has been re-elected to US Houseof Representatives in one of the closetcongressional races from California.

Sister’s wedding

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Immigration:

Obama unveiled expansive executive ac-tions to spare nearly 5 million people inthe U.S. illegally from deportation

Obama acts

Last week, two important announcements came out of the White House -one is of course the President's Executive Order on Immigration, and thesecond, the setting up of an Interagency Initiative on Hate Crimes.

While the steps announced as part of the immigration reform may benefitsome among the community's undocumented members, a majority of the legalimmigrants stuck in the endless backlog of employment based green card pro-cess, and those aspiring for an increased quota of H1B visas would still have towait to be addressed.

Right now, I am more interested in the hate crimes initiative where the WhiteHouse has launched a Bullying Prevention Task Force for Asian American PacificIslander (AAPI) community that directly addresses the plight of thousands of Sikhyouth in our schools, who routinely get bullied for the way they look.

Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Ameri-cans and Pacific Islanders, writes on the White House blog that bullying of AAPIstudents is rampant. For these students, the classroom, which should be thesafest place, can be a very dangerous environment, she says.

More than one-quarter of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reportedbeing bullied at school during the 2010-11 school year, that is nearly 7 millionstudents. Citing a study conducted this year, Ahuja points out that two-thirds ofturbaned Sikh youth in Fresno, California reported experiencing bullying andharassment; and another recent study found that half of the 163 Asian AmericanNew York City public school students reported experiencing some kind of bias-based harassment, a significant increase from only 27% in 2009.

Ahuja says that with increasing concerns about the high rates of bullyingamong Sikh youth, the Task Force will help ensure that the community is awareof federal resources and remedies available to them.

While it must be said for the administration for all its initiatives to tackle theissue, if hate crimes have been exponentially increasing, there is an obvious lagbetween intention and implementation. But the question really is, how does onechange perceptions and prejudices that are beyond the scope of any law?

India PostNovember 28, 2014 5

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Cover/Top Stories

Ami Bera re-elected to US CongressWASHINGTON: Indian-Ameri-

can Congressman Ami Bera hasbeen re-elected to the US Houseof Representatives in one of thecloset congressional races fromCalifornia.

More than two weeks after theCongressional elections on No-vember 4, Bera led his Republicanrival Doug Ose by a close margin

of 1,432 votes.According to the election offi-

cials, Bera got 92,394 votesagainst Ose's 90,962.

Virtually all ballots have beencounted.

On the election night on No-vember 4, Bera was trailing by

more than 3,000 votes."It's been my honor serving

this community as a doctor for thelast 19 years. I am grateful I willhave the opportunity to continueserving as the representative forCalifornia's 7th CongressionalDistrict in Congress," 49-year-oldBera said in a statement.

Re-election of Bera, who was

elected for the first time in 2012,has its own significance giventhat it was considered to be a Re-publican wave.

Not only this, Republicanshad pumped in quite a substan-tial amount of money against Beraand that his challenger was a

three-term Congressman."I want to make one thing

clear: real success in life is notsomething to be demonized orlooked down upon. No amountof TV or radio will ever changethat," Bera said.

"With a good education, hardwork, investing in your own fu-ture, and chasing your dreams -a person can achieve real suc-cess. I regret that one of thethemes in this election appearsto have been that successfulpeople by the very nature of theirsuccess are unworthy of electiveoffice.

"In fact, people who are suc-cessful in the private sector areexactly the people we want tostep forward and run for publicoffice," he said.

Former President Bill Clintonhad campaigned for him and FirstLady Michelle Obama had phonecalls seeking votes in his favor.

Bera is only the third ever In-dian-American to be elected to theHouse of Representatives. -PTI

Re-election of Bera, who was elected for thefirst time in 2012, has its own significancegiven that it was considered to be aRepublican wave. Not only this, Republicanshad pumped in quite a substantial amountof money against Bera

Ami Bera

Obama felicitates Indian-American scientist

WASHINGTON: US PresidentBarack Obama has felicitated In-dian-American scientist ThomasKailath with the top presidentialmedal for transformative contribu-

tions to the fields of science andtechnology.

Kailath, 79, received the Na-tional Medal of Science at a WhiteHouse function here.

"Thomas Kailath came to thiscountry from India at the age of22, with a research assistantshipthat took him to MIT, and then

Stanford, where he made criticalcontributions in informationtheory and statistics, andmentored more than 100 scholarsalong the way," Obama said.

Kailath received the award fortransformative contributions tothe fields of information and sys-tem science, distinctive and sus-tained mentoring of young schol-ars and translation of scientificideas into entrepreneurial ven-tures that have had a significantimpact on industry.

Awarded annually, the medalrecognizes individuals who havemade outstanding contributionsto science and engineering.

Born in 1935 to a Malayalam-speaking Syrian Christianfamily who hailed fromKerala, Kailath has authoredseveral books includingwell-known Linear Systems.

After graduating fromthe University of Pune in1956, Kailath received hisMaster's degree and hisdoctorate degree in 1961,both from the Massachu-setts Institute of Technol-ogy.

He was the first India-born student to receive adoctorate in electrical engi-neering from MIT.

Kailath joined StanfordUniversity as AssociateProfessor of Electrical Engi-neering in 1963 and was pro-moted to Professor in 1968,and was appointed the firstholder of the Hitachi

America Professorship in 1988.He is also known for his con-

tributions to the information andsystem sciences.

He was conferred with thePadma Bhushan award in 2009 bythe Indian government for hiscontribution to science and engi-neering. -PTI

US President Barack Obama presents Thomas Kailath of Stanford University with

the National Medal of Science in the East Room of the

White House November 20

Modi among Time's'Person of Year' contenders

NEW YORK: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is among 50 glo-bal leaders, business chiefs andpop icons named as contendersby Time magazine for its annual'Person of the Year' honor.

The Time 'Person of the Year2014' will be announced nextmonth and the publication saidthe title will be"bestowed tothose who have,for good or for ill,most influencedthe news and ourlives in the pastyear".

D e s c r i b i n gModi as "once acontroversial re-gional leader",Time said he be-came India'sprime minister af-ter leading his Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) to a "landslide elec-toral victory on a platform of eco-nomic development".

Time has asked its readers tovote for the individual who theythink should get the title of Per-son of the Year and the winner ofthe reader's choice poll will beannounced next month beforeTime's editors choose the indi-vidual from the 50 candidates asthe honoree.

Modi has so far got 3.8 per centof the votes, the fourth highest

after Russian President VladimirPutin, teenage Pakistani NobelPeace Prize laureate MalalaYousafzai and Ebola doctors andnurses "who are risking their livesto treat and contain the outbreakin the hot zone".

In a separate "Face-off" poll,Modi has been pitted against

Indonesia's newpresident JokoWidodo.

The other can-didates in the frayfor the 'Person ofthe Year' title areUS PresidentBarack Obama,Iran's SupremeLeader AyatollahKhamenei, IsraeliPrime MinisterB e n j a m i nNetanyahu, IS

chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Chi-nese President Xi Jinping, US Sec-retary of State John Kerry andformer US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton.

Among the business chiefsand artists in the fray are AmazonCEO Jeff Bezos, Chinese e-com-merce site Alibaba founder JackMa, auto major GM's first femaleCEO Mary Barra, Apple CEO TimCook and singers Beyonce, Tay-lor Swift, reality star KimKardashian and actress JenniferLawrence. -PTI

Narendra Modi


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India's Mangalyaan among best inventionsNEW YORK: Mangalyaan has

been named among the best in-ventions of 2014 by Time maga-zine which described it as a tech-nological feat that will allow Indiato flex its "interplanetarymuscles."

"Nobody gets Mars right onthe first try. The US didn't, Russiadidn't, the Europeans didn't. Buton September 24, India did. That'swhen the Mangalyaan ...went into

orbit around the Red Planet, atechnological feat no other Asiannation has yet achieved," Timesaid about Mangalyaan, calling it"The Supersmart Spacecraft."

Mangalyaan is among the 25'Best Inventions of 2014' listed by

Time magazine that are "makingthe world better, smarter and - insome cases - a little more fun."

Developed by the IndianSpace Research Organization, theMars spacecraft cost India justUSD 74 million, less than the bud-get for the multi-Academy Awardwinning science fiction thriller filmGravity. Time said at that price, theMangalyaan is equipped with justfive onboard instruments that al-

low it to do simple tasks like mea-sure Martian methane and surfacecomposition.

"More important, however, itallows India to flex its interplan-etary muscles, which portendsgreat things for the country's

space program and for science ingeneral," Time said.

The list also includes inven-tions by two Indians for develop-ing an exercise space for prison-ers in solitary confinement and atablet toy for kids.

Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecolo-gist and college professor helpeddevelop the 'Blue Room' withSnake River Correctional Institu-tion in Oregon for inmates in soli-tary confinement, who for 23 hoursa day see nothing but a tiny, white-walled cell, an experience some re-search suggests heightens mentalillness and makes prisoners proneto suicide attempts and violence.

Last year, officials began let-ting some of them spend their freehour in a first-of-its-kind BlueRoom, an exercise space where aprojector plays video of opendeserts, streaming waterfalls andother outdoor scenes. Nadkarnisays the imagery is designed tocalm prisoners, "much in the waywe walk through a park" to relax.

Former Google engineerPramod Sharma developed

'Osmo', a tablet toy that getsphysical. Sharma got the inspira-tion when he saw his daughterplaying with the iPad, but did notwant her to be glued to the tabletall day long.

The toy, which debuted in Oc-

tober, has helped Osmo raise USD14.5 million in capital and is nowbeing sold in the Apple Store.

The other inventions are a re-

actor developed by aerospacecompany Lockheed Martin thatcould realize nuclear fusion,Apple's smart watch that besidestelling time, can send messages,give directions, track fitness andmake wireless payments and

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, a "hy-brid" that bundles laptop into a12-inch tablet and can run desk-top apps. -PTI

Former Google engineer Pramod Sharmadeveloped 'Osmo', a tablet toy that getsphysical. Sharma got the inspiration when hesaw his daughter playing with the iPad, butdid not want her to be glued to thetablet all day long

Lawmakers celebrateDiwali at US Congress

WASHINGTON: Diwali wascelebrated here at the US Con-gress for the second consecutiveyear with lawmakers, cuttingacross party lines, pledging tostrengthen India-US relationship

and praising the role of Indian-Americans in enriching the socio-cultural milieu of their adoptedcountry.

"And it's our second year, andI believe this is going to continueas a tradition into perpetuity," JoeCrowley Democratic Congress-man and Co-Chair of Congres-sional Caucus on India and In-dian-Americans told a gatheringat the Rayburn House in the USCapitol.

For the Indian-Americans, itwas a special Diwali too as thenews of re-election of Ami Berafrom the seventh CongressionalDistrict of California came whilethe festival of lights was being

celebrated at the Hill.Bera is the only serving Indian

American in the current Con-gress. He was declared winner bya wafer-thin margin of a little over1400 votes in one of the closestraces in California.

Bera and Crowley were joinedby several other lawmakers inlighting of lamp and Diwali cel-ebrations at the Capitol Hill.

Congresswoman TulsiGabbard, Senator Mark Warner

and Congressman Ed RoyceChairman of the House ForeignAffairs Committee also attendedthe function.

"It is an exciting time in theUS-India relationship," Crowleysaid.

"India has become a globalpower, and the US is happy aboutthat. I am personally happy aboutit. And, we want to see it con-tinue," he said.

"The India Caucus is going toplay a critical role in our relationsgoing forward, whether it is forg-ing ties between our Congressand their parliament, securinghate crimes protections for Hin-dus and Sikhs here at home, andmuch more," he added.

Crowley said it is time that In-dia join the UN Security Councilas a permanent member.

"With nearly one-fifth theworld's population, India shouldbe a member already. So let's finda way to make that happen," hesaid.

"Events like tonight help laythe groundwork for this type ofaction. Because tonight isn'tabout having a party - it's aboutlearning about one another, re-specting differences, and beingproud of our unique traditions.This is what we stand for as acountry," Crowley said. -PTI

US lawmaker seeks earlyvisas for India docs

WASHINGTON: In an effort tomeet the shortage of qualified phy-sicians in the US, a top Americanlawmaker has introduced legisla-tion in the Congress to expeditevisas for doctors from India andPakistan.

Democratic Congresswomanfrom New York, Grace Meng, whois also member of House ForeignAffairs Committee, hasintroduced a legislationthat would require theState Department tospeed-up the visa ap-proval process for In-dian and Pakistani phy-sicians who are sched-uled to work at hospi-tals in the US.

The bill seeks tocounter the difficultythat international physicians, es-pecially doctors from India andPakistan have in securing J-1 vi-sas from American Embassies intheir countries.

Entitled the Grant Residencyfor Additional Doctors (GRAD)Act of 2014, Meng's legislationalso requires that the expeditedreview of J-1 visa applicants bethe sole responsibility of a desig-nated officer or employee fromMarch to June, since most resi-dency programs begin in July.

"The lengthy and excessivevisa delays that physicians from

India and Pakistan are forced toendure is unacceptable," saidMeng.

The problem, primarily experi-enced by doctors who are set todo their residencies in the US, hascreated major dilemmas for thephysicians and the American hos-pitals at which they're set to work.

In many instances, the long

delays in the issuance of visashave resulted in hospitals beingforced to withdraw offers to for-eign physicians, effectively pre-venting these doctors from enter-ing the US at all, Meng said in astatement.

"The long waits not only im-pact the plans and commitmentsthat these physicians have madeto US hospitals but also affect themillions of Americans who dependon these facilities for critical medi-cal treatment, particularly in com-munities where there is a short-age of doctors," Meng said.-PTI

The bill seeks to counter thedifficulty that internationalphysicians, especiallydoctors from India andPakistan have insecuring J-1 visas

Ami Bera lighting the lamp at Diwali celebration


November 28, 2014


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Cohen sees new energy, optimism and hope in India India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: "In the last fewdays that I have been here, onesees a sense of energy, optimismand hope that I did not see a yearago. Just about a year back whenI was here, I felt a sense of mal-aise in India," said William Cohen,President and CEO, the CohenGroup, delivering the keynote ad-

dress at the India-US TechnologySummit, organized by the Confed-eration of Indian Industry (CII) inpartnership with the Departmentof Science and Technology, Gov-ernment of India and the UnitedStates as the Partner Country, atGreater Noida.

Mr Cohen, former US Senatorand former Defense Secretary, hashad the honor of being elected sixtimes in a row to the US Congress,

and was chosen as Defense Sec-retary by the then US PresidentBill Clinton, making him the first-ever opposition leader to be madea minister.

Elaborating on the changes, MrCohen said: "Prime Minister Modihas tapped into this desperateneed of hope. He has tapped intothe hearts of people. At Madisonhe said that 'India is open for busi-

ness'. I feel that the Indians inAmerica wanted to hear some-thing like that."

Praising the infectious opti-mism that he witnesses now inIndia, Mr Cohen also had wordsof advice for Indians. He said thatif the country wants to achievewhat the Indian Prime Minister hasbeen talking about, India will haveto remove roadblocks like ambi-guity in laws. "Hope is so funda-

mental… you have to work to-wards the ideas that Prime Minis-ter Modi has talked about," add-ing that India is witnessing sucha demand for progress, for hopebecause, "you have a leader whowants that."

He drew parallels and para-doxes between the two countries.He said: "We are natural partners.We share the same ideas andthreats. We want to see food se-curity, energy security and cybersecurity… we want a clean envi-ronment and reduce carbon emis-sions. We had 9/11 and you had26/11."

Highlighting the paradoxes, hesaid: "We have so much in com-mon then why can't we do moretogether?" Answering his ownquestion, he said: "Because wehave a strategic distrust. India hasa strategic distrust of us. It feelsthat the Congress may do this, itmay do that… we have a distrustof India… we say that India hasrelations with Russia and Iran."

Moving on to global affairs, MrCohen said that we have to learnhow to reconcile differences be-cause differences will always bethere. But the US cannot ignorewhat is happening around the

world-Ukraine, Syria and the situ-ation in the Middle East. Re-sponding to questions, he saidthat there are lessons to be learntfrom Iraq for Afghanistan so that

an American pull-out from Af-ghanistan does not result in acomeback of terror groups as hashappened in Iraq.

On North Korea, Mr Cohensaid that the US hopes that China,which is the only possible ally of

the communist country, will, in thelong run, bring about some sensein North Korea. He said that Chinais needed to avoid potentiallydangerous situations that may

arise in that region.About Iran, he

said that he is con-vinced that theObama administra-tion will try to arriveat some kind of a dealwith Iran on thenuclear issue. "Wewant a cap on theirnuclear enrichmentwhile Iranians want abreak from sanc-tions."

The two-day In-dia-US TechnologySummit saw wide par-ticipation from UScompanies and alsothe US government.It identified manufac-turing, IT, clean & re-

newable energy, life sciences,pharmaceuticals, biotechnology& healthcare, sustainable cities,natural resources & earth sciencesas the focus areas for discussionsand collaboration between thetwo countries.

‘India has a strategic distrust of us.It feels that the Congress may do this, it maydo that… we have a distrust of India… wesay that India has relations withRussia and Iran’

William Cohen, President and CEO, the

Cohen Group

Obama to be Chief Guestat India R-Day

NEW DELHI: In a major diplo-matic victory for the NarendraModi led NDA government whichcan also boost the India-Americarelationship, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has invited USPresident Barack Obama to join asChief Guest on Republic Day cel-ebrations next year.

According to reports, the US

President has given his confor-mation and will be coming to In-dia in January 2015.

On micro-blogging websiteTwitter PM Modi wrote - "ThisRepublic Day, we hope to have afriend over…invited PresidentObama to be the 1st US Presidentto grace the occasion as ChiefGuest."

US court seeks response over Modi's immunityNEW YORK: A US court has

asked the State Department to re-spond by December 10 to the ob-jections raised by a rights groupover the immunity granted to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi in con-nection with a lawsuit filed againsthim for his alleged role in the 2002Gujarat riots.

The American Justice Center(AJC) had filed a memorandumlast week providing legal justifi-cation on why the case againstModi should move forward, andwhy Modi should not be granted

immunity for the alleged humanrights abuses committed duringhis tenure as Chief Minister ofGujarat.

In response to AJC's brief, theUS District Court for the South-

ern District of New York has di-rected the US State Departmentto respond to AJC's legal briefchallenging the US position onModi's immunity. The order re-quires the State Department to

respond by December 10 to AJC's"objection to the suggestion ofimmunity".

AJC President JosephWhittington expressed confi-dence of the sound legal basis forthe case against Modi and saidhe expects the court to allow thelawsuit to move forward.

"Survivors of the horrificGujarat massacres expect the USto uphold its own laws as well asinternational norms of justice," hefurther added.

The group said Modi is beingsued for acts committed as ChiefMinister of Gujarat and not forany acts that he committed asIndia's Prime Minister.

"It is undisputed that foreignsovereign immunity extends only

to the 'head of the foreign gov-ernment' for the actions commit-ted during tenure as' head of for-eign government'," AJC's Memo-randum of Law said.

AJC said Modi is not immuneunder Foreign Sovereign Immu-nity Act (FSIA), as the US Su-preme Court decided that the term"foreign state" does not includeindividual government officials. Inthe Tort case against Modi, it isthe individual who is being suedand not the Republic of India, thegroup added.

The lawsuit against Modi hasbeen filed by AJC along with twosurvivors of the post-Godhra vio-lence under the Alien Tort Claims

Act (ATCA) and Torture VictimsProtection Act (TVPA).

Last month, US Attorney PreetBharara had told a federal courthere that the Executive Branch ofthe US government "has deter-mined that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, as the sittinghead of a foreign government,enjoys head of state immunityfrom the jurisdiction of US courts"for his alleged role in 2002 com-munal riots in Gujarat when he wasthe state's chief minister.

As such "Modi is entitled toimmunity from the jurisdiction ofthis Court over this suit," Bhararasaid in his submission before a UScourt. -PTI

The lawsuit against Modi has been filed byAJC along with two survivors of thepost-Godhra violence under the Alien TortClaims Act (ATCA) and Torture VictimsProtection Act (TVPA)


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Black money can destabilizeworld peace: PM

NEW DELHI: Warning thatblack money can destabilize worldpeace and harmony, Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi has assertedthat democratic nations have an

obligation of collectively fightingthis evil as it does not affect anycountry selectively.

A day after his return from aforeign tour during which the is-

sue of black money was flaggedat the G-20 Summit in Australia,Modi wrote a blog saying that "In-dia placed the issue of existenceand repatriation of black money

at the forefront of the world com-munity."

The Prime Minister said he wasglad that the world communitytook note of this "because this is

an issue that does not selectivelyaffect one nation."

Warning that "the menace ofblack money has the potential todestabilize world peace and har-mony," Modi said, "black moneyalso brings with it terrorism,money laundering and narcoticstrade."

Pitching for a united globalfight against the menace, he said,"As democracies firmly commit-ted to the rule of law, it becomesour obligation to collectively fightthis evil and there was no betteroccasion than the G-20 to raisethis." Referring to the outcomeof the G-20 Summit, he said, "Ourefforts paid off with the officialcommuniqué reflecting this is-sue."

Modi, who attended five Sum-mits and met 38 world leaders dur-ing his 10-day tour of Myanmar,Australia and Fiji, said, "I noticedone thing - that the world is look-ing at India with renewed respectand immense enthusiasm! I see aglobal community that is tremen-dously keen to engage with In-dia." -PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Indian graduates'enrollment in US up 27%

WASHINGTON: The enroll-ment of first-time graduate stu-dents from India in the US univer-sities has registered a 27 per centgrowth this year even as Chinawitnessed a decline in comparisonto last year, a report has said.

"The first-time enrollment of stu-dents from India increased 27 percent, marking the second year in arow of double-digit growth in first-time enrollments of students fromthat country," the Council of Gradu-ate Students has said in its report.

According to the report, in2013 the increase was a whopping40 per cent.

The increase in Indian enroll-ment offset a one per cent dip infirst-time enrollments of studentsfrom China in 2014, the first de-cline measured since the surveywas initiated in 2004.

The change in Chinese first-time enrollment concerns a rela-tively large number of students,since Chinese students constitute33 per cent of the total enrollmentof international graduate studentsin the US, the report said.

According to the report, be-

tween 2013 and 2014, the first-timeenrollment of international gradu-ate students increased by eight percent, while total graduate enrollmentalso increased by eight per cent.

The growth trends may alsoreflect the fact that US graduateinstitutions have become morestrategic about recruiting interna-tional students to their campuses,President of Council for GraduateStudents Suzanne Ortega said.

"Given the growing interna-tional competition for top stu-dents, US institutions have beendeveloping new ways of commu-nicating with prospective stu-dents and offering students whomatriculate stronger support ser-vices after they arrive.

"Universities understand thatthey can't afford to lose the contri-butions of these talented studentsto research and innovation on theircampuses," the report said.

According to the report, thefirst-time enrollment of studentsfrom Brazil increased 91 per centin 2014, following a 17 per centincrease in 2013 and a 14 per centincrease in 2012. -PTI


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South Asian group welcomes action by ObamaWASHINGTON: A leading South Asian

organization has welcomed the executiveaction taken by US President Barack Obamato provide legal status to more than fivemillion illegal immigrants, including thosefrom India.

"The proposed Executive Order couldprovide relief for over four million undocu-mented aspiring Americans, including tensof thousands - if not more - South Asians,"said South Asian Americans Leading To-gether (SAALT) executive director SumanRaghunathan.

Coupled with proposals to expand avail-able visas and address long wait times for

many immigrants, this relief is welcomenews to South Asians nationwide as wecontinue to work toward a legislative solu-tion, she said.

"In addition, we welcome the President'scommitment to pivot away from the flawedand ineffective Secure Communities pro-gram and to reorient federal enforcementpriorities to rebuild trust and keep all com-munities safe," the SAALT director said.

"We remain hopeful that this announce-ment will include the parents or immediatefamily members of those eligible for De-ferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(DACA). Unfortunately, many aspiring

Americans will remain excluded from theAffordable Care Act health care ex-changes," she said.

"We can and must ensure immigrantfamilies that they can live in their communi-ties with dignity and respect, and we muststop deportations that are tearing our com-munities apart," she said.

Congress must widen the circle of inclu-sion by passing comprehensive immigra-tion reform that includes an affordableroadmap to citizenship, widens the visapipeline while eliminating backlogs and waittimes, and clearly prohibits discriminatoryprofiling, Raghunathan added.

Obama used his executive power to an-nounce a series of administrative measuresto provide legal status to over five millionillegal immigrants in the country, includingthose from India.

The executive actions, said to be one ofthe largest measure by a US President onimmigration, are expected to help a signifi-cant number of Indians in the technologyfield, especially those having H-1B visas. -PTI

NRI donates100,000 poundsfor Gandhi statue

LONDON: An Indian-origin entrepreneurand social activist has taken the lead bydonating the biggest sum of money yet forthe proposed statue of Mahatma Gandhi atthe Parliament Square in London.

Rami Ranger, director of Sun Mark Lim-ited, has contributed 100,000 pounds to theGandhi Statue Memorial Trust, which iscoordinating the public fundraising pro-cess for the sculpture expected to be inau-gurated here by early next year.

"The world owes Gandhiji a huge debtof gratitude for liberating one fifth of man-kind through non-violence thereby creat-ing a better world," said Ranger, whosebusiness interests range from shipping tobeverage manufacturing to property devel-opment.

The trust said other donors from aroundthe world are also stepping forward to con-tribute towards the iconic statue, taking itcloser to its aim of raising around 750,000pounds.

"There are pledges of large amounts dueto be realized in the next month while smallerdonations continue to flow into the websitewith its online donation facilities," the trustsaid in a statement.

"This is more good news which adds tothe steady flow of donations which havebeen coming in from all around the worldthrough our website as awarenessspreads," added Lord Meghnad Desai, thechair of the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust.

"It is the combination of lots of smalldonations and a few large ones which istaking us swiftly to our final goal.

But, of course, we still welcome all thosewho would like to donate. As Gandhiji said:'If the cause is right, the means will come,'"he added.

The bronze statue, created by sculptorPhilip Jackson based on Gandhi's last visitto London in 1931, will be the last one to beplaced on Parliament Square. Britain's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill andSouth African anti-apartheid campaignerNelson Mandela is already placed on thesquare.

The statue depicts Gandhi without astick, draped in a heavy shawl, but barelegged and contemplative.

It is being created on the lost wax pro-cess, which dates back to the Graeco-Ro-man times and follows the same procedureas that of the famous Renaissance sculp-ture of David created by Donatello. -PTI


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Modi had an extraordinarilysuccessful visit: US officialWASHINGTON: Terming

Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sUS visit as "extraordinarily suc-cessful", a top official in theObama administration has saidUS-India relationship has come "aremarkable distance".

"We've just had the extraordi-narily successful visit of PrimeMinister Modi here to the UnitedStates, and an agenda that is work-ing across virtually every issue ofimportance to us with India thatwe're carrying forward," AnthonyBlinken, nominee for US DeputySecretary of State, told Senatorsduring his confirmation hearing.

Blinken was responding toquestions from Senators on India-US relationship.

"I think we've seen the US-In-dia relationship come a remark-

able distance," he said referringto the recent visit of Modi to theUS.

"It started with the end of theClinton administration.

The Bush administration did atremendous job in carrying the re-lationship forward," he said.

Republican Senator Tim Kainesaid the US-India relationship isentering a new phase for a varietyof reasons, where there's a hugeupside opportunity on economiccooperation and trade, on militarycooperation, on cooperation oncyber issues.

The United States is seekingto forge new global partnershipswith India, said Senator RobertMenendez, Chairman of the pow-erful Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee. -PTI

India needs to improveenergy efficiency: UN

India must be preparedto use might: Prez

TEZPUR: Cautioning againstvarious threats facing the subcon-tinent, President PranabMukherjee has said it was impera-tive for India to have an effectivedeterrence and strong defense topromote development and it mustbe prepared to use its "might" ifthe need arises.

"Today, our nation is on thepath of growth in all fields. Whilethe nation grows and develops inall realms, the subcontinent alsofaces varied threats especiallyfrom non-state actors.

"To preserve peace and har-mony and promote all round de-velopment, it is imperative for usto have an effective deterrenceand a strong defense," Mukherjeesaid at the Tezpur Air Force base.

The President, who is also thesupreme commander of the armedforces, said though as a nationIndia was "firmly" committed topeace, "we must be prepared touse our might to safeguard thesovereignty of our nation, shouldthe need ever arise."

"We are a nation which be-lieves in equality in all realms. Themen and women who stand be-fore us today epitomize our gritand determination towards thisunderlying cause. I am immenselyproud of our Armed Forces forleading the path in this respect,"he said.

Saarang helicopters andSukhoi fleet performed maneuversat the function where Air ChiefArup Raha was also present. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Nearly one lakhpremature deaths take place an-nually due to air pollution in Indiaand some other countries whichcan be avoided by 2030 by im-proving energy efficiency mea-sures in transport and industrialsectors, a UN report has said.

The fifth Emissions Gap Re-port 2014 by the United NationsEnvironment Program (UNEP)said that countries across theglobe need to "shrink" green-house gas emissions to net zerobetween 2080 and 2100 in order tolimit global temperature rise to twodegree Celsius.

The report said that improvingenergy efficiency can be an excel-lent opportunity for linking sus-tainable development with climatemitigation.

Launching the report in India,report co-author and professor atTERI University Ritu Mathur saidthat given the frequencies ob-served of extreme events takingplace in the world as well as de-veloping countries like India,

there is a need to improve the pre-paredness level as countries likeIndia have lesser coping capaci-ties with such extreme events.

"Improving energy efficiencyalso has important positive socialimpacts. It reduces, for example,

air pollution and its public healthrisks...

"...Nearly 100 000 prematuredeaths related to air pollution insix regions - Brazil, China, the EU,India, Mexico and the USA - could

be avoided annually by 2030through energy efficiency mea-sures in the transport, buildingsand industrial sectors," the reportsaid.

In many cases these benefitshave a higher priority for govern-ments than climate change miti-gation. Hence improving energyefficiency can be seen as an ex-cellent opportunity for linkingsustainable development with cli-mate mitigation, it said.

The report, released ahead ofUN Conference on ClimateChange in Lima, Peru, said that inorder to limit global temperaturerise by two degree Celsius andhead off the worst impacts of cli-mate change, global carbon neu-trality should be attained by midto late century.

"Taking into account non-CO2greenhouse gases, includingmethane, nitrous oxide andhydroflurocarbons, total green-house gas emissions need toshrink to net zero between 2080and 2100," the report said. -PTI

‘...Nearly 100 000premature deathsrelated to air pollutionin six regions - Brazil,China, the EU, India,Mexico and the USA- could be avoidedannually by 2030through energyefficiency’

Kerry urges Senate to confirmambassadorial nominations

WASHINGTON: US Secretaryof State John Kerry has urgedmembers of the Senate to acceler-ate the process of confirming am-bassadorial nominations, includ-ing to India, before the end of theyear, State Department official hassaid.

"The Secretary has been incontinued contact with his formercolleagues on Capitol Hill aboutthis. It's very important to him. Heneeds to have his team and he also

feels it's important that these non-controversial nominees be con-firmed before Thanksgiving aswell. It's the right thing to do forthem, for their families, and forAmerica's interests," the StateDepartment spokesman JeffRathke said.

Among the pending ambassa-dorial nominations is that of Ri-chard Verma whom PresidentBarack Obama has nominated for

US Ambassador to India.There are 55 State Department

nominees waiting, 30 of whom arecareer Foreign Service officers, hesaid. "The vast majority of theseremaining nominees could be con-firmed quickly en bloc. We willlook forward to continuing toworking with the Senate to getthis done.

"The Secretary has always saidthere are great public servants upthere in the Senate, and he knows

that none of them want to see thisgridlock continues at the expenseof career Foreign Service profes-sionals," Rathke said.

"We are making some headwayand we're grateful for that," hesaid adding that a day earlier theSenate confirmed five more am-bassadors, all career diplomats,including Marcia Bernicat toBangladesh, Leslie Bassett toParaguay, James Zumwalt to

Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, CraigAllen to Brunei, and William Roe-buck to Bahrain.

However, one of the most im-portant positions for the StateDepartment that is yet to be con-firmed, he said.

"Ambassador Arnold Chaconis our nominee for director gen-eral of the Foreign Service anddirector of human resources,"Rathke said.

Chacon would be responsiblefor strengthening our workforceand the Foreign Service throughprofessional development and re-cruitment and increasing diver-sity, as well as for the welfare ofour people here and those staff-ing some of the highest-risk postsacross the world, he said.

"He is greatly qualified to doso, serving in the Foreign Servicesince 1983, over 30 years. And he'sserved in Western Hemisphereposts and here in Washington.

"He is a real star. He also hap-pens to be the first Hispanic everelevated to this position, which isimportant particularly for a Secre-tary who wants a State Depart-ment that reflects all of our coun-try. This matters for many reasons.

Let's get Ambassador Chaconconfirmed," Rathke said. -PTI

Among the pending ambassadorial nomina-tions is that of Richard Verma whom PresidentBarack Obama has nominated for USAmbassador to India.There are 55 StateDepartment nominees waiting


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Legitimacy of unreformed UNSC at stake: IndiaNEW YORK: Describing the

composition of an unreformed UNSecurity Council as "anachronis-tic", India has said the legitimacyof the United Nations itself willbe at stake if its most powerfulbody is not representative of the

international community."The Security Council is, un-

doubtedly, one of the most impor-tant institutions of global gover-nance. If its legitimacy is in doubt,then so would be the legitimacy

of the United Nations. And, in fact,of the notion of global gover-nance itself," Speaker of LokSabha Sumitra Mahajan said here.

She was speaking at the sec-ond meeting of the PreparatoryCommittee of the Fourth World

Conference of Speakers of Parlia-ments.

Addressing a session on 'Keychallenges to world peace anddemocracy', Mahajan said the UNSecurity Council owes its compo-

sition to the structure that was setup in 1945.

"Is that composition still rep-resentative of the internationalcommunity? The United Nationsthen had 51 members. The figurenow is 193," she said, adding, theUnited Nations of 1945 had threeAfrican members while today ithas 54.

Mahajan further questionedhow many permanent members ofthe Security Council were fromAfrica and what was being doneto bring more legitimacy to thepermanent membership of theCouncil.

"While improvement in work-ing methods, or a code of conducton use of the veto, are important,can they substitute for reform ofthe composition? Can improve-ment in working methods legiti-mize a structure that is not legiti-mate? To say that is anachronis-tic is only an understatement.

"We obviously do not wantattention to be diverted away fromthe substance to what is periph-eral," she said.

She recalled that world leadershad committed themselves to theearly reform of the Security Coun-cil in 2010 on the occasion of the65th Anniversary of the UnitedNations, questioning, "When

would early be?"India would like UN Secretary

General Ban Ki-moon to informthe international community of thecontribution he intends to makefor the 70th Anniversary Summitof the United Nations next year,she said.

"Will the Secretary Generalpronounce himself on the othertwo pillars of the United Nationsalso? Will he provide some basisfor leaders to take stock of thechallenges the world is facing inmatters relating to peace, securityand human rights and to considerways of addressing them," she

said.In a separate session on the

theme for the Fourth World Con-ference of Speakers of Parliamentto be held in 2015, Mahajan sug-gested that 'Democratic Gover-nance and Sustainable Develop-ment: Role of Parliaments' could

be the theme.She said the Fourth World

Conference of Speakers of Parlia-ment next year would provide anopportunity to galvanize politicalwill for the new global agenda.

It will be appropriate for theconference to stress on linkingdemocratic governance with sus-tainable development and to de-fine the role of parliaments in help-ing to achieve the goals that maycome into shape in the post-2015Development Agenda.

Stressing the linkages betweenthe two is in keeping with theavowed objectives of the Inter-

Parliamentary Union (IPU)."Closer cooperation between the

UN and IPU, envisaged to be en-hanced through a new cooperationagreement to be adopted, will alsohelp mainstream the United Nationsagenda through IPU and its mem-ber Parliaments," she said. -PTI

‘While improvement in working methods, or acode of conduct on use of the veto, areimportant, can they substitute for reform ofthe composition? Can improvement inworking methods legitimize a structurethat is not legitimate?

Sumitra Mahajan

'Terrorism from outside main challenge for Afghans'NEW DELHI: Stressing that

terrorism perpetrated and sup-ported from "outside" is the mainchallenge for Afghanistan, itsformer President Hamid Karzaihas criticized dualism in Americanpolicy towards Pakistan saying hehad told Barack Obama that USshould not run with the hare andhunt with the hound.

Karzai also asked New Delhi "todo more" in defense cooperationwith Afghanistan and hoped thatNew Delhi will adopt a "more pro-active" policy in the future.

He said India and China shouldjoin hands to fight extremism inthe region.

The former Afghan Presidentrued that he had made 20 trips toPakistan but was unable to suc-ceed completely in improving tieswith that country, which he hasoften accused of promoting ter-ror in Afghanistan.

When asked about his earliercomment on asking a house ownerto catch a thief and leaving thedoor open for the thief while de-scribing US policy on Pakistan,Karzai, who was speaking at HTLeadership Summit here, said itwas a Persian proverb and therewas a similar meaning Englishproverb of "running with the hare

and hunting with the hound"."That is what I believed they

did and that is what they shouldnot be doing," he said.

Asked if he had conveyed thesame to the US, Karzai said he hadtold American President Obamaduring a video conference and theresponse he got was "silence".

"We moved to other subjects,"he quipped.

Karzai said US should havegone after the terror sanctuariesin Pakistan.

Thanking India for the contin-ued support to his country, Karzaisaid, "We need India to do moreas to engage in bringing strongercapacity to the Afghan forces,Afghan military".

He said India is well suited totrain Afghan officers and civil ser-vices.

"India is also industrially, interms of production of militaryequipment, well placed to fulfillAfghanistan's need and India nowhas the ability to do that," he said.

Stressing that it has beenAfghanistan's desire, rather thandemand, he had placed it beforethe Indian government repeatedly.

"They did come forward withsome assistance but then India,like any other old civilization

would be, is quite a cautiouscountry. I hope it will overtimegive rise to a more proactivepolicy," he said.

Asked if Indian boots soldiers

should have been deployed inAfghanistan, Karzai said, "Wedon't need Indian boots onground. As a matter of fact wedon't need any boots".

He said that New Delhi re-sponded very well by providingthousands of scholarships andthis has been a very satisfactoryrelationship.

The former Afghan Presidentsaid India has been a "valid part-ner" in nation building. "I thankPrime Minister Modi for his com-mitment" to Afghanistan's future,

he said.Karzai, who met with Modi,

said the Afghan people count onIndia as a "true friend, strategically and a great anchor of stabil-ity and prosperity".

He underlined that it is ex-tremely important for India andChina to join hands in fightingextremism and terrorism as bothare suffering from it as is the re-gion.

"My great advocacy in this tripis that India and China (should)join hands to fight extremism andwork towards peace and stabilityin the region," he said.

He said security and prosper-ity in Afghanistan depends prima-rily on the region becoming freefrom radicalism and terrorism.

"All our vision partners, spe-cially India, China and Russiamust work together to define anddeal with the forces that driveradicalization and terrorism in thisregion and we must address thesources from which such forcesterrorism draws their suste-nance".

He said the region has alreadyseen that the "use of terrorism asa foreign policy has boomerangedand caused severe consequencesto security and for all of us". -PTI

The former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai calling on Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on November 20


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Top StoriesUN must demonstrate zero tolerance for terrorism: IndiaUNITED NATIONS: India has

said the fight against terrorism hasto be "unrelenting" and the worldcommunity cannot afford selec-tive approaches in dealing withterror groups and in dismantlingtheir infrastructure, as it de-manded that the UN must showzero tolerance for the menace.

India's Permanent Representa-tive to the UN Ambassador AsokeMukerji said at a Security Councilopen debate on 'International Co-operation on Combating Terror-ism and Violent Extremism' herethat the infrastructure of terrorism,including physical structures aswell as financial and ideologicalwellsprings does not exist in avacuum.

He said that "it is an inescap-able conclusion" that memberstates have an obligation to actswiftly to prevent their sovereignterritory from being used by ter-rorists.

"No member state can hope tobe immune to the threat of suchterrorism, and the infrastructure ofterrorism therefore needs to beerased urgently if we are to avoida doomsday scenario," he said.

He asserted that there can beno justification for terrorism, andthat the UN must demonstratezero tolerance for terrorism if themenace has to be successfullycountered.

"We would reiterate that thefight against terrorism has to beunrelenting and fought across allfronts. The immediate lesson allof us must draw... is that the inter-national community cannot affordselective approaches in dealingwith terrorist groups or in disman-tling the infrastructure of terror-

ism. There can never be any justi-fication of terrorism," he said.

He said the phenomenon of theForeign Terrorist Fighters is not arecent one adding that the UNSCneeds to act robustly using theinstruments of law, informationavailable to it to counter terrorismand maintain international peaceand security.

He urged the Council to addits collective voice to the earlyconclusion of the ComprehensiveConvention on International Ter-rorism, so that member states arelegally to either prosecute or ex-tradite terrorists.

With thousands of foreignfighters traveling to conflict hitcountries, and groups such as theISIS garnering hefty revenuesfrom new illegal sources, theUNSC urged states to target theroot causes of terrorism as theyredoubled efforts to eradicate thatscourge in all its forms and mani-festations.

The Council reiterated its graveconcern about ISIS, Al-NusraFront and other terrorist entitiesassociated with Al-Qaeda, and thenegative impact of their presence

on the stability of Iraq, Syria andthat region.

It expressed concern that morethan 15,000 foreign terrorist fight-ers from more than 80 countrieshad traveled to join such groups

in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Yemen,as well as countries in theMaghreb and Sahel regions.

Recalling the 2008 Mumbai at-tacks, Mukerji said increasinglysophisticated use of technologyand communications is being un-dertaken to commit ever more bar-baric acts of terror.

He said the Mumbai attackswere carried out by foreign terror-ists in the "full glare of the inter-national media".

"We believe that if we are seri-ous about countering this chal-lenge in an effective manner, wemust agree on necessary adjust-ments to be made in the way theglobal internet infrastructure iscurrently managed in order tocounter the exploitation of theinternet by terrorists," he said.

India also expressed concernover the threat posed by terroriststo UN peacekeepers, specificallyin the Golan Heights and in Mali,saying that unless effectively de-terred, such threats will only in-crease in number and scope.

"We call on the Security Coun-cil to take urgent and visible stepsto use its authority to investigate,prosecute and penalize the perpe-trators of such terrorist acts. Aclear obligation for all memberstates to act against foreign ter-rorist fighters who attack UNpeacekeepers should become anintegral part of the peacekeepingmandates approved by the Coun-cil," he said. -PTI

He said that ‘it is aninescapable conclu-sion" that memberstates have anobligation to actswiftly to prevent theirsovereign territoryfrom being usedby terrorists’

Recalling the 2008Mumbai attacks,Mukerji said increas-ingly sophisticateduse of technologyand communicationsis being undertakento commit ever morebarbaric acts of terror

United States welcomesestablishment of TAPIWASHINGTON: The US has

welcomed the decision of estab-lishing the ambitious TAPI gaspipeline project, a joint venturecompany for the transportation ofgas through four countries in-cluding India and Pakistan.

"The United States govern-ment welcomes the establishmentof TAPI Ltd. and the ongoingcommitment all fourTurkmenistan- Afghanistan-Paki-stan-India (TAPI) countries havemade to the project," aState Department offi-cial said.

The project, if real-ized, would further di-versify Turkmenistan'senergy market options,provide revenue andjobs for Afghanistan ata crucial time in its eco-nomic development,and bring clean fuel to the grow-ing economies of Pakistan andIndia, the official said.

The US also stressed on theneed for the four countries to en-gage an international energy com-pany in the successful completionof the project.

"It will be important for the par-ties to engage an international en-ergy company in the project,which can work in cooperationwith Turkmengaz in the develop-

ment of the gas supply and serveas commercial champion for theproject," the official said.

"The United States continuesto support TAPI, which we see asan important component of ourNew Silk Road initiative that seeksto link South and Central Asia,"the official added.

When completed, TAPI gaspipeline project will supply 15 bil-lion cubic meter of gas to Indiafrom Turkmenistan through Af-

ghanistan and Pakistan.It will export up to 33 billion cu-

bic meters of natural gas a yearfrom Turkmenistan to Afghanistan,Pakistan and India over 30 years.

The total length of the pipelinewill reach 1,735 kilometers. Some200 kilometers of which will runthrough Turkmenistan, 735 kilo-meters through Afghanistan, 800kilometers through Pakistan to thesettlement of Fazilka, located onthe border with India.-PTI

When completed, TAPI gaspipeline project will supply15 billion cubic meter of gasto India from Turkmenistanthrough Afghanistan andPakistan

US House passesMalala Yousafzaischolarship act

WASHINGTON: The USHouse of Representatives haspassed a legislation named afterPakistani Nobel laureate MalalaYousafzai which expands thenumber of scholarships to girlsfrom her country.

Authored by Republican Con-gresswoman from Florida, IleanaRos-Lehtinen, the MalalaYousafzai Scholarship Act ex-pands the number of scholarshipsavailable to Pakistani women un-der USAID's Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program byrequiring that at least half of thescholarships that are made avail-able go to women.

"For years, I've expressed con-cern about the appalling state ofeducation in places like Afghani-stan and Pakistan, and the subse-quent rise of madrasas that preyupon the disenfranchised andbreed radicalism," said Congress-man Ed Royce, Chairman of theHouse Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The situation for women in ar-eas where access to education isactively suppressed is particularlygrim. It's fitting that today's legis-lation was named for MalalaYousafzai, who at the age of fif-teen dared to defy the Taliban, sur-vived a brutal assassination at-tempt, and ultimately inspired ageneration of women and girls todemand their fundamental right tobe educated," he said.-PTI

Will consult Kashmiris beforetalks with India: Sharif

ISLAMABAD: Ignoring India'sopposition, Prime Minister NawazSharif has said Pakistan will holddialogue with Kashmiri separat-ists to take them into confidencebefore engaging in peace talkswith India.

"It is our fundamental beliefthat the Kashmir issue should beresolved through dialogue. Mygovernment started dialogue withIndia but it cancelled the sched-uled talks between the foreignsecretaries," he said addressingthe Kashmir Council inMuzaffarabad, the capital of Paki-stan- occupied Kashmir.

He said "before starting dia-logue with India, I have decidedto consult the Kashmiri leaders".

Sharif asked the international

community to play its role to pressIndia for starting talks for the reso-lution of Kashmir issue.

He said Pakistan army gave abefitting response to Indiantroops' recent unprovoked firingacross the Line of Control (LoC).

He said Indian firingharmed the confidencebuilding measures.

Sharif said his gov-ernment was pro-ac-tively highlighting theissue of Kashmir at ev-ery forum, including atthe United Nations Gen-eral Assembly meeting inSeptember.

He expressed concernover the silence of theUN and internationalcommunity on the issueand urged them to takeinitiative for resolutionof the dispute according

to UN Security Council's resolu-tions and the aspiration ofKashmiri people.

He said India has always ex-hibited its traditional stubborn-ness regarding the Kashmir issue.He said declaring the struggle ofKashmiris as terrorism is wrongapproach of India, which is astruggle for right to self-determi-nation.

Sharif said Pakistan is render-ing great sacrifices in the fightagainst terrorism.-PTI

Nawaz Sharif


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Spiritual leaders discuss service as Pathway to PeaceRAJINDER MAGO

PALATINE: Sikh Religious So-ciety Palatine Illinois hosted anInterfaith Peace Conference,along with an Open House at theirGurdwara Sahib facilities in Pa-latine on Saturday, November 15,touching upon the topic of "Ser-vice: A Pathway to Peace".

About 250 neighbors, friendsand spiritual leaders of other faithsgathered at the Gurdwara for theevent which was free and open topublic.

The conference featuredeleven speakers from Baha'i, Bud-dhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic,Jain, Jewish, Pagan, Sikh and Zo-roastrian faiths representing a ka-leidoscope of religious and spiri-tual perspectives.

The open house, fellowshipand refreshments began at 2 pmin the Langar Hall. Several exhibi-tion tables with displays of rarebooks and historical photos in-cluding Bhagat Puran Singh wereset up in the main lobby for thevisitors to browse around.

The Interfaith Conferencestarted with Sikh prayers led byBhai Gurjant Singh for the wellbeing of humanity. The traditional"Hukam" (order for the day) fromSiri Guru Granth Sahib was recitedin Punjabi and translated in En-glish by Ms. Jasvir Kaur. Gurbanishabad "Ek Pita Ekas Ke HamBaarak" (we are children of thesame Father) was recited by theS.R.S. Gurmat School children.

Prof. Mohanbir SinghSawhney, McCormick professorof Kellogg School of BusinessNorthwestern University tookover as the master of ceremoniesfor the conference.

The conference began with a

welcome address by Dr. JasbirKaur Saluja, President of the SikhReligious Society. She welcomedthe participants and talked aboutthe importance and uniqueness ofhaving a gathering of such di-verse and distinguished religiousand spiritual leaders. Arun Gandhikicked off the conference by shar-

ing perspectives from his grand-father Mahatma Gandhi. He re-minded us that wasting resourceswas a form of violence againstnature and discriminating againstfellow humans was a form of pas-

sive violence against humanity.We must practice non-violence inour thoughts as well as our ac-tions.

Ms. Shayda Safapour talked ofthe Baha'i tradition and urged usto spread service as a river of love.Ms. Asayo Horibe, representingthe Buddhist faith, told us to be astrong link in the chain of love. Ifwe are all strong links, the chainof love will be strong and peaceshall prevail.

Reverend Dirk Ficca shared theinsight from Jesus' teachings onservice - we need to serve the leastamong us, not the most powerful.He also reminded us that serviceis worship in the Christian faith.

Anil Deshpande shared the per-spective from the Hindu traditionthat the entire universe is a familyand it is therefore our duty to

serve all humanity. He alsoshared the work that his organi-zation Seva International is doing.Iman Kareem Irfan shared ProphetMohammed's teachings that weneed to serve the Creator and weneed to serve the Creation.

Molly Horan, the Communica-tions Manager for the Council for

a Parliament of the World's Reli-gions, recounted the great tiesthat she has shared with the Sikhcommunity and invited everyonepresent to the 2015 Parliament ofthe World's Religions to takeplace from October 15 - 19 in SaltLake City.

Dr. Hema Pukharna from theJain faith expanded the notion ofservice beyond humanity to all liv-ing creatures. Non-violence andservice to all living beings is a fun-damental tenet of Jainism. Dr.Drake Spaeth, representing thePagan tradition, expanded theidea of service even further to in-clude service to Mother Earth andrespect for our environment, be-cause Earth sustains us all.

Rabbi Lisa Bellows from theJewish faith exhorted us to put to-gether the shattered pieces of

glass that represent fragmentedhumanity into one vessel of light.Mr. Rohinton Rivetna from theZoroastrian faith talked about themost ancient of religions and itsmessage of choosing good overevil and right from wrong.

Pastor Herbert Martin spokewith great emotion about the beat-

ings he endured as part of the CivilRights movement and how helearned to forgive those who hadhated and beaten him. He sharedthe profound insight that servicebegins with us, and that servicebegins with forgiveness.

Gaurav Singh, representing theSikh religion, reminded that ser-vice requires us to serve withoutexpectation of any return. He alsoshared the importance of servicein the Sikh religion as a fundamen-tal tenet of Sikh life.

"It was striking how muchresonance the major faiths of theworld have among them on theconcept of service, despite thedifferences in the beliefs and tra-ditions they represent. The con-ference inspired us to be of ser-vice to all humanity, living beingsas well as Mother Earth," com-

mented Dr.Mohanbir SinghSawhney of North-western Univer-sity, the master ofceremonies.

Dr. BalwantSingh Hansra con-cluded the confer-ence by sharing amoving story ofthe "langar" (com-munity meal) pro-vided by Sikh vol-unteers at the 2004Parliament ofWorld Religionsconference inBarcelona.

The eventended with the final prayer ofthanking the Lord. The attendees,many for the first ever time, expe-rienced sitting on the carpetedfloor with head covered, shoes re-moved, observing Sikh worshipservice, and partook "langar" avegetarian community meal servedwith dignity & respect to all.

Participants at Interfaith Conference at Gurudwara in Palatine

President Sikh Religious Society Dr Jasbir Kaur Arun Gandhi Kareem Irfan

‘It was striking how much resonance the ma-jor faiths of the world have among them onthe concept of service, despite the differ-ences in the beliefs and traditions theyrepresent. The conference inspired us to beof service to all humanity, living beings aswell as Mother Earth,’


www.indiapost.com

Top Stories

Kids appeal to PM: 'Please give back our park'

India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: About 150 chil-dren from various colonies nearAsiad Village participated in ademonstration in front of AsiadTower Restaurant against the ille-gal possession of the district parkand green area.

The children belonged to

South Delhi colonies Shahpur Jat,Gulmohar Park, Asiad Village,Hauz Khas, Panchsheel Park, NitiBagh and Anand Lok. Carryingplacards saying, among others,"Modi Ji, give us back our park"the children shouted slogans de-manding early action.

Speaking on behalf of the chil-dren, 14-year old Suraj, a student

of Sarvodaya School, Shahpur Jat,said, "Our open space and publicgreen area had been illegallyhanded over by DDA to a privatebanquet owner for wedding func-tions and parties in connivancewith certain political partiesaround Asiad Tower. It was sealedfor over three years by the Su-preme Court, but recently Jhankar

Banquets has been trying to againopen the place.

"We are not even allowed toenter the park which is meant forpublic and children. We the chil-dren of neighbourhood coloniesrequest the Lt Governor of Delhiand Prime Minister Modi to helpus, so that we can play in the openspace. There is hardly any openspace left in our area for us toplay."

Appealing directly to PrimeMinister Modi, he said, "We havefull faith in you and we think thatGod has sent you to help us getour park back."

Giving his own experience,Suraj said, "I was pushed awaywhen I tried to enter the Park once.We children are very scared to gonear this place. I hope our newPrime Minister can help. I thinkhe likes children."

Eight year old Siya of AsiadVillage, student of class 4 at DPSVasant Kunj, said, "I would like tocome here and play in this park,as there are very few places toplay." Yashvi (7) of Uday Park andclass 2 student at G D GoenkaSchool said she wanted to comeand play here with her parents asthere are not many areas in Uday

Park to play.Sanjana (9), student of class 4

at MCD School in Shahpur Jat,said "The guards posted at theAsiad Tower scare the childrenaway whenever we want to playhere. They don't allow us to enterthe premises."

Anya Mehra, 3-1/2 yrs old stu-dent of Step by Step in Hauz Khas,said she liked to come and playhere with her friends, but theguards don't allow

Sriya (10) of Asiad Village, stu-dent of Convent of Jesus andMary, said, "Why can't we enterour park when it is meant for pub-lic use. I will write to Prime Minis-ter Modi for help."

www.indiapost.com November 28, 2014

COMMUNITYACROSS AMERICA

16 India Post

Desi News

Details on page 17

'Echoes'celebrates with

mesmerizingKuchipudi

Cont’d on page 18

Cont’d on page 19

Details on page 20

Chinmaya Mission holds fundraisinggala for Chicago centers

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: Living up to itstheme, "Living in Harmony", theAnnual Fundraising Banquet forChinmaya Mission Chicago har-moniously blended inspirationalthoughts, spirited fundraising,sumptuous food, and artistic per-formances during a fundraisingevent at Waterford Banquet inElmhurst on November 9.

The goal was to raise funds tosupport activities of the twoChinmaya Mission centers in theChicagoland-Badri Center inWillowbrook and Yamunotri Cen-ter in Grayslake. With over seven

hundred people in attendance andmore than two hundred thousanddollars raised, the event wasdeemed a huge success

Swamis and guests SwamiPrakashananda, SwamiSharanananda, Acharya JetindraNayar, Acharya Swapna Nayar,Acharya Shanker Pillai and ShriDhiren Khatri (serving ChinmayaMission Chicago after completingthe two-year Vedanta Course inMumbai) were received with the

traditional purna-kumbha welcomeceremony. This was followed bylighting of the lamp in front ofSwami Chinmayananda's portrait,invoking his blessings.

Swami Sharanananda gave theinaugural welcome with his usualhumor and charm. He mentionedthat the highest form of charity,

which is much above providingfood or donating money, is the giftof knowledge. He said thatChinmaya Mission helps indi-viduals understand their true na-ture. Once a person realizes his/her divine nature, actions followaccordingly.

Swami Prakashananda broughtout the importance of harmony inthis world by emphasizing thateven though evil cannot be re-moved from the world, humanitycan neutralize its effect by teach-ing people the values that cancounter it. It is organizations likeChinmaya Mission that enablehumanity to reverse its decline byimparting the right values.

Acharya Shanker Pillai outlinedthe goals, activities, expansionplans, and the need for funds tocontinue meeting the growingneeds of the community. He elabo-rated on the proposed idea ofbuilding well-planned retirementhomes adjacent to the Badri Cen-ter, to support the physical andspiritual needs of senior citizens.

The entertainment for theevening was an enchanting mix ofdances and music presented bychildren from the Bala Vihar that isan integral part of Chinmaya Mis-sion started by SwamiChinmayananda to instill goodvalues right from childhood. In hisown words, "Children are not ves-sels to be filled, but lamps to belit."

Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (Col-lege students and young profes-sionals) members-popularly re-ferred to as CHYKs-captured theaudience with their energetic pre-sentation on the various avenuesavailable to college students andyoung professionals to serve andgrow spiritually.

The event ended with thechanting of Bhagavad Gita Chap-ter XV, followed by a deliciousmeal. A complementary souvenirbook with inspiring articles, infor-mation about classes offered atChinmaya Mission Chicago, classpictures, and advertisements fromlocal supporting companies wasgiven to each family as a token ofappreciation for attending the ban-quet.

Lamp Lightigng by Swamis before the portrait of Swami Chinmayandandainvoking his blessings

Chinmaya Missión youth and kids

Dance Performance by Bal Vihar artists Cont’d on page 19

Kadva PatidarSamaj celebratesDiwali

SURESH SHAH

CHICAGO: Kadva PatidarSamaj (KPS) organized a GalaDiwali Celebration Dinner andBollywood Music Night on No-vember 8 at Ashyana Banquets inDowners Grove, a southwest sub-urb of Chicago

Over five hundred KPS mem-bers, families, friends, communityleaders and well wishers fromacross Chicago gathered to cel-ebrate this Gala Diwali DinnerNight. The live music was pro-vided by Bhupinder Singh and histeam.

The evening started with socialhour. The Emcee was Raj Patelsupported by Harmil Patel andNarendra Patel, and they wel-comed all to celebrate Diwali. KPSpresident Vijay Patel and his ex-ecutive committee and Board ofdirectors, trustees, and advisorycommittee had worked very hardto bring the best Diwali program.

PCS celebratesanniversary withDiwali mela

RAJINDER MAGO

FORT WAYNE, IN: The PunjabiCultural Society of Fort Wayne,Indiana celebrated its tenth anni-versary by organizing "DiwaliMela 2014" on November 15 atCommunity Hall, Fort Wayne, In-diana.

More than 300 guests at-tended the sold out event. In ad-dition to the Punjabi and Indiancommunity members many localAmerican friends also came andenjoyed the festival, food, cultureand entertainment.

Abhyankar lectureon Indian Army'srole in World War I

SURENDRA ULLAL

BLOOMINGTON, IN: The In-diana University and Bloomingtoncommunities will come together at3 p.m. December 2 in the IndianaMemorial Union for "What Did theGreat War Mean to Indians?," alecture on the significance ofWorld War I for the Indian Armyand in particular for its role in thebattles at the Somme and Verdun.

The talk is free and open to thepublic and will take place in StateRoom East of the Indiana Memo-rial Union, followed by a receptionin State Room West.

India Post 17November 28, 2014 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

'Echoes' celebrates with mesmerizing Kuchipudi


DALLAS, TX: It was a celebration of thefifth anniversary of Echoes of India, a non-profit organization dedicated to the serviceof rural India, in collaboration with theNatynajali School of Dance in Dallas, atGranville Arts Center, Garland, TX, on No-vember 15.

The celebration was memorable, en-chanting, and mesmerizing. It consisted ofa Kuchipudi dance ballet, Sri KrishnaSaranam Mama, a story of Lord Krishna,and performed by well over ninety studentartists of Natyanjali School of Dance trainedunder the admirable tutelage of Srilatha Suri,the Artistic Director of the school. About600 plus art lovers attended the event alongwith many community leaders

The participants ranged from a very ten-der age of 4 or 5 to almost adult age to fitthe various roles of the play, from baby boy

Krishna to Vasudeva, Gopkas, and Kamsaetc. Parts of the dance drama were adoptedfrom Guru Padmasri Sobha Naidu's originalchoreography Srikrishna Sharanam Mama.

The event started with a traditionalKuchipudi prayer and followed up withShuklam Baradaram Vishnum and Jathis bythe juniormost students of Natyanjali.

As the event is the celebration of the fifthanniversary of the Echoes ofIndia, a short presentationabout the services by Ech-oes of India was done be-fore the main dance. It was ashort movie depicting - 1) asuccessful installation of 11reverse osmosis (RO) waterplants benefiting almost60,000 villagers in Nalgondadistrict, 2) establishment ofKuchipudi rural clinic serv-ing daily 20-30 villagers and3) Three medical camps

treating 110 diabetic patients and conduct-ing health checks. The presentation also in-cluded a list of donors and sponsors whohave helped thus far.

The dance drama took the audience fromgarland Texas to Gokulam and Brindavanfrom birth to the romantic and playful actsof Krishna with Gopikas and Gopa balas andthe Rasa Kreedas with his wives, withSreeragini as Narada playing the impressivekalaha priya role. Pallavi Shah and Dr RajeshAdusimili played the roles of Devaki andVasudeva very well.

Gopikas and Gopa Balas ex-celled in their reverberating per-formance of childhood plays withyoung naughty Krishna playedby Manasvik. Srilatha Suri asYashoda won the hearts of manywith her ease in abhinaya. Kaliyaby Priyanka mesmerized the au-dience while Vatsalya as TandavaKrishna danced with graceSpruha and Samhita as Krishna inrasakreeda played Krishna rolewith dignity and Pranhuti Surias Radha Satyabhama stole play-ing two different roles but fittingthe character perfectly showcas-ing her experience and talent . Thespecial effects of moon light jiff,waterfalls jiff made it very naturaland realistic.

The unique feature of the play

was the display of all the five stages of LordKrishna, each Krishna along with each ofhis wives. Suman Vadlamani, Sobitha,Trilokta, Apporva, Annanya, Pallvi made therasakreeda colorful and energetic. Specialmention has to be made to the portrayal ofKamsa by Silptha Pochiraju.

The ballet concluded with a traditionalmangalam. This was specially choreo-graphed and directed by Smt Srilatha Surifor this occasion.

The assiduous and extreme care exercisedby Smt. Srilatha Suri in meticulously design-ing each scene, and paying attention to theminutest details added much to the glory of

the presentation and is highly commend-able.

The thematic special effects designed byher, the backdrops befitting the theme ofeach scene to represent reality are especiallynoteworthy. It was a task of immense pro-portions, effort, and patience to train almost90 disciples to perfection, and speaks elo-quently of her dedication to the Kuchipudidance form. Their performance with verylively and pleasant facial expressions andfine footwork and coordination endearedthem to the audience.

Echoes of India thanked all donors andmedia sponsors.

Group of artists

Yashoda upbraiding Krishna

Krishna Raas Leela

November 28, 2014India Post18 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Kadva Patidar Samaj celebrates DiwaliSURESH SHAH

CHICAGO: Kadva PatidarSamaj (KPS) organized a GalaDiwali Celebration Dinner andBollywood Music Night on No-vember 8 at Ashyana Banquets inDowners Grove, a southwest sub-urb of Chicago

Over five hundred KPS mem-bers, families, friends, communityleaders and well wishers fromacross Chicago gathered to cel-ebrate this Gala Diwali Dinner

Night. The live music was pro-vided by Bhupinder Singh and histeam.

The evening started with socialhour. The Emcee was Raj Patelsupported by Harmil Patel andNarendra Patel, and they wel-comed all to celebrate Diwali. KPSpresident Vijay Patel and his ex-ecutive committee and Board ofdirectors, trustees, and advisorycommittee had worked very hard

to bring the best Diwali program.The KPS President invited

Sponsors on stage and recognizedthem. Thanking the responsegiven by the sponsor ShreeChhotalal Patel for this event they

were called on stage and lightedDiwas while in the backgroundStuti was done. Also invited onthe stage were some communityleaders and well wishers.

Addressing the gathering, cur-rent President Vijay Patel said, "Weare glad to be serving the ChicagoMetropolitan area for many years.Our goals are to encourage peopleto explore and learn about richGujarati culture. Together let uskeep this light lit for life and joyfor many years to come."

Chhotalal Patel also shared histhoughts and KPS visions to allinvited guests. He announced thatthe Samaj will be working withother organizations to bring ShreeUmiya Mata Rath from India for

building a temple in future.Narendra Patel and Dipak Desai

recognized and thankedJayantibhai Oza as media friend foralways covering KPS programs.Jain of Ashyana Banquets was

honored with a plaque for his sup-port. Narendra Patel and Presi-dent Vijay Patel recognized thecontributions of KPS pioneer DrVK Patel back in 1990s; sayingthat KPS lost him this year and "wepray for him and his family."Narendra Patel then introduced the2015-16 KPS team to be led byRajesh Desai. He also appreciatedgreat work done by current presi-dent Vijay Patel, Vice PresidentBharat Patel and KPS team.

Kadva Patidar Samaj of Chi-cago, formed in 1988, is one of thelargest communities of Chicago. Itprovides an excellent platform forsocializing among all age groupsas well as personal and profes-sional networking.

At the lamp lighting ceremony, new President for KPS Rajesh Desai,Community leader Chhotubhai Patel and his wife Harshaben, Jayanti Oza,

Babu Patel, Dr Hemant Patel, Dr Heena Patel, outgoingPresident Vijay Patel and others

Local artists presenting a dance; Chicago singer Bhupinder Singh andhis team rendering Bollywood songs

KPS members having Diwali bash

India Post 19November 28, 2014 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

Chinmaya Mission wasfounded in the 1950s by the devo-tees of a great Vedantic scholar,Swami Chinmayananda. It hasover 400 centers worldwide. Itspurpose as stated in the words ofSwami Chinmayananda is, "Toprovide to individuals from any

Chinmaya Mission holds fundraisinggala for Chicago centers

background the wisdom ofVedanta and the practical meansfor spiritual growth and happiness,enabling them to become positivecontributors to society." The cur-rent worldwide head of ChinmayaMission is Swami Tejomayananda.For over 37 years, Chinmaya Mis-sion has been servingChicagoland.

Chinmaya Missión youth and kids

Cont’d from page 16

PCS celebrates anniversary with Diwali melaRAJINDER MAGO

FORT WAYNE, IN: The PunjabiCultural Society of Fort Wayne,Indiana celebrated its tenth anni-versary by organizing "DiwaliMela 2014" on November 15 atCommunity Hall, Fort Wayne, In-diana.

More than 300 guests at-

tended the sold out event. In ad-dition to the Punjabi and Indiancommunity members many localAmerican friends also came andenjoyed the festival, food, cultureand entertainment.

About a dozen variety talentshow cultural items were pre-

sented by the youth and adultsof the local Punjabi community.The items included Bhangra,Giddha, skits, songs and music.The stage was managed byParvinder Singh Nanua andKrishan Singh.

The youth took turns to be themasters of ceremonies making an-

nouncements speaking inPunjabi. Aman Banwait, JaslinNanua, Sandeep Kaur, RajbirBadwal, Jaspreet Badwal, SoniGarcha, Amandeep Kaur, AnureetSekhon, Ravdeep Gill, AmritGarcha, Jaspreet Kaur, RiyaKhatana, Yuvraj Chaudhary,Poonam Chaudhary, Pawandeep

Bola and Simeren Girn took turnsto be the youth announcers forthe stage activities.

"I am relishing the colorfuldance performances and music,without understanding a word ofwhat they are saying.

Dance presentations by local artists

Cont’d on page 20

November 28, 2014India Post20 Community Across Americawww.indiapost.com

But let me tell you, don't worryabout me, keep on doing this, thisis a great thing you are doing tokeep your culture and languagealive in your next generation," saidDavid Herdrick, a German Ameri-can of Herdrick Petroleum Corp,who was one of the sponsors ofthe event.

"Mehak Punjab Di", "Shakeen

Gabru", "Imperial Bhangra" and"Shaan Mutiaran Di" Giddhadance, and a hilarious skit byMukhtiar and Rajdeep Gill won thehearts and earned thunderous ap-plause from the audience.

The Diwali Mela started withthe spectacular cultural perfor-mances followed by delicious din-ner. The third part of the party wasdancing to the DJ music till mid-night where everyone participated

PCS celebrates anniversarywith Diwali mela

and celebrated Diwali festival totheir heart's content.

The outgoing committee mem-bers Balbir Singh Banwait,Kulwinder Singh Nagra, Satish K.Khatana, Ranbir Singh Sekhonand Amarjit Singh Dhaliwal werehonored with plaques for their ex-cellent services provided to thecommunity.

The original committee mem-bers Resham Singh, Mukhtiar

Singh Gill, Parvinder Singh Nanua,Mohinder Singh Chera, KarnailSingh, Dalbir Singh Lidder andBachitar Singh Virk were also hon-ored with plaques for their visionto create such a community orga-nization to keep the local familiesand children in touch with Punjabiculture.

The next event by the PCS FortWayne will be a community picnicduring the 2015 summer.


Group of youth participants with PCS officials

Abhyankar lecture on Indian Army's role in World War ISURENDRA ULLAL

BLOOMINGTON, IN: The In-diana University and Bloomingtoncommunities will come together at3 p.m. December 2 in the IndianaMemorial Union for "What Did theGreat War Mean to Indians?," alecture on the significance ofWorld War I for the Indian Armyand in particular for its role in thebattles at the Somme and Verdun.

The talk is free and open to thepublic and will take place in StateRoom East of the Indiana Memo-rial Union, followed by a receptionin State Room West.

The lecture will be presentedby Rajendra M. Abhyankar, pro-fessor of practice in the IU Schoolof Public and Environmental Af-fairs.

Before coming to IU,Abhyankar was the Indian secre-tary of external affairs and servedas Indian ambassador to the Eu-ropean Union, Belgium and Lux-

embourg, Azerbaijan, Turkey,Syria and Cyprus. He was also theconsul general of India in San Fran-cisco.

"On the occasion of the cen-tennial, we are exploring many dif-ferent aspects of the war, not justits historical causes," said AndreaCiccarelli, coordinator of "WorldWar I: 100 Years," IUBloomington's 2014-15 academicyear exploration of the Great War."Our intention is to examine thewar's effects and its legacy for allthe countries involved. Many ofthese countries, at the time wereunder the rule of European colo-nial powers. AmbassadorAbhyankar's lecture focuses onone of the major events related tothis historical legacy, as more than1 million Indian soldiers fought inthe war," she added.

Indian Army at 1stWorld war


November 28, 2014

India Post November 28, 2014www.indiapost.com

Real Estate22

Realty Tidbits US homebuilder sentimentrallies in November

Low mortgage rates fail to perkCalifornia home sales


LOS ANGELES: The lowestmortgage rates in 18 months failedto spark the California housingmarket in October as sales stayedflat and home prices increased atthe slowest pace since early 2012,the California Association Of Re-altors (C.A.R.) has said.

Closed escrow sales of existing,single-family detached homes inCalifornia totaled a seasonally ad-justed annualized rate of 396,220units in October, according to in-formation collected by C.A.R. frommore than 90 local Realtor® asso-ciations and MLSs statewide.Sales in October were unchangedfrom a revised 396,400 in Septem-ber but were down 1.9 percent froma revised 404,000 in October 2013.October marked a full year thatsales were below the 400,000 level.

The statewide sales figure rep-resents what would be the totalnumber of homes sold during 2014if sales maintained the Octoberpace throughout the year. It isadjusted to account for seasonalfactors that typically influencehome sales.

"As we move into the off-peakhome buying season, prospectivebuyers who may have delayedtheir purchase earlier in the yearshould take advantage of the cur-rent favorable market conditionsand resume their home search,"said 2015 C.A.R. President ChrisKutzkey. "With home prices sta-bilizing and interest rates dropping

back down to levels not seen sincemid-last year, housingaffordability should improve to

benefit buyers."The median price of an exist-

ing, single-family detached Califor-nia home decreased 2.3 percentfrom September's median price of$461,370 to $450,620 in Octoberbut was up 5.4 percent from therevised $427,540 recorded in Oc-tober 2013. The statewide medianhome price has been higher on a

year-over-year basis for more thantwo years. The median sales priceis the point at which half of homes

sold for more and half sold for less;it is influenced by the types ofhomes selling as well as a generalchange in values.

"While home sales essentiallywere unchanged statewide, therewere pockets of strong salesgrowth, especially in coastal re-gions. The Bay Area, for example,continued to exhibit strong pricegains, decent sales growth, andextremely low housing inventory,"said C.A.R. Vice President and ChiefEconomist Leslie Appleton-Young."If current price and rate conditionspersist, overall home sales shouldimprove for the rest of the year."

Other key facts from C.A.R.'sOctober 2014 resale housing re-port include:

• Housing inventory slipped inOctober, with the available supplyof existing, single-family detachedhomes for sale dropping from 4.2months in September to 3.8months in October. The index wasa revised 3.3 months in October2013. The index indicates the num-ber of months needed to sell thesupply of homes on the market atthe current sales rate.

Indiabulls debtrises 67% to Rs5,083 cr

NEW DELHI: Indiabulls RealEstate's net debt has increased by67 per cent to Rs 5,083 crore at theend of the second quarter of thecurrent fiscal mainly due to acqui-sition of prime property in CentralLondon.

Mumbai-based developer en-tered the London market with ac-quisition of 22, Hanover Square inMayfair, Central London, a 87,444sq ft commercial property, for Rs1,630 crore.

According to an analyst pre-sentation, Indiabulls Real Estate'snet debt increased to Rs 5,083crore as on September 30, 2014from Rs 3,051 crore at the end ofJune quarter.

"Change in debt profile, prima-rily on account of the London ac-quisition (22 Hanover Square) fora total cash outflow of Rs 1,810crore (including cash bank guar-antee of Rs 180 crore)," the com-pany said.

"Completed the acquisition of22 Hanover Square, London for Rs1,630 crore, excluding additionalcash bank guarantee of Rs 180crore submitted for financing," itadded.

The company had announcedthe acquisition on June 20. Theproperty was purchased fromScottish Widows Investment Part-nership (now part of AberdeenAsset Management). -PTI

Kolte-Patil joinshands with NOWRealty

MUMBAI: Kolte-Patil Devel-opers says it has entered into adevelopment management agree-ment with NOW Realty to developa residential project in Pune.

"Kolte-Patil has been ap-pointed as a development managerby NOW Realty to collaborate anddevelop its residential project -Sereno at Baner in Pune," a releaseissued here said.

The project, on which con-struction has already commenced,will offer 6 lakh sqft of saleabledevelopment area.

As per the agreement, Kolte-Patil will lend its brand '24K' to theproject and jointly collaborate withNOW Realty to oversee all aspectsof the project lifecycle includingproject conceptualization and ex-ecution, product design, sales,marketing, project infrastructureand residential development andhandover, the release said.

In return, the company will re-ceive a development managementfee and all costs would be borneby the project.-PTI

WASHINGTON: US homebuilders' confidence re-bounded in November as both sales expectations andbuyer traffic improved.

The National Association of Home Builders/WellsFargo index rose to 58 this month, up from 54 in October.That puts the index just short of September's reading of59, which was the highest level since November 2005,shortly before the housing bubble burst.

Details on Page 23

"As we move into the off-peak home buyingseason, prospective buyers who may havedelayed their purchase earlier in the yearshould take advantage of the current favor-able market conditions”

Cont’d on page 23

Heritage buildings to be tax-free in north DelhiNEW DELHI: With the aim to

help Delhi win the World Heri-tage City tag, the North Corpo-ration has exempted all heritagebuildings and land in its areafrom property tax.

The announcement wasmade by Municipal Commis-sioner of North Delhi Munici-pal Corporation (NDMC)Praveen Gupta in the Budgetspeech, a news that is likely tobring cheers to history aficio-nados in the national capital.

The day incidentally also co-incided with the first day of theWorld Heritage Week, cel-ebrated from November 19-25.

"With an aim to get Delhi thetag of a Heritage City, the corpo-ration under the Section 115 (1)(IV) of the DMC Act in Septem-ber made heritage buildings and

lands, exempt from property tax."This decision will greatly

benefit old buildings falling in

northern part of the city, espe-cially the Civil Lines area," Guptasaid.

A UNESCO team had visitedthe capital last month to examine

the city's bid to earn the WorldHeritage City tag.

A sum of Rs 2.06 crore has alsobeen allotted forrestoration andmaintenance ofheritage build-ings in the his-toric Hindu RaoHospital pre-mises, with thehelp of a con-sultant, Guptasaid.

The Heri-tage Committeeof the Munici-pal Corporation

of Delhi, which still oversees thework for all three civic bodieseven after the MCD's trifurcationin 2012 had earlier this year hadinitiated the process of making

such properties exempt fromproperty taxes.

"We have initiated the pro-cess of upgrading our list of heri-tage buildings, so that we canidentify and assess the statusof such structures and work ontheir preservation plans as soonas possible," member HeritageCommittee, Municipal Corpora-tion of Delhi, Vartika Sharma hadsaid earlier.

While the MCD has been tri-furcated into three municipalcorporations -- NDMC, SDMC(South Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration) and EDMC (East DelhiMunicipal Corporation), theHeritage Committee, constitutedduring the unified MCD periodis still overseeing the heritage-related work taken up by the threecivic bodies. -PTI

23India PostNovember 28, 2014

www.indiapost.comReal Estate Post

A six- to seven-month supplyis considered typical in a normalmarket.

• The median number of days ittook to sell a single-family homeedged up in October, up from arevised 40 days in September to41.9 days in October and from 33.4days in October 2013.

• According to C.A.R.'s newesthousing market indicator measur-ing sales-to-list price ratio*, mul-tiple bid offers for properties haswaned, and properties are againgenerally selling below the listprice. The statewide measure sug-gests that homes are selling at 97.5percent of the list price. This isdown from a 99.1% ratio at thesame time last year. The Bay Areais the only region where homes areselling above list prices and aregenerally selling about 1.3 percentmore than asking price.

• The median price per square

foot** for an existing single-fam-ily California home was $216 inOctober 2014, an increase of 0.2percent from the previous monthand a 6.4 percent increase fromOctober 2013. Price per squarefoot at the state level has beenshowing an upward trend sinceearly 2012. In fact, it has been ris-ing on a year-over-year basis for33 consecutive months. SanMateo County had the highestprice per square foot in Octoberwith $659/sq. ft., followed by SantaClara ($521/sq. ft.), and Santa Cruz($399/sq. ft.). The top three coun-ties with the lowest price persquare foot in October wereSiskiyou ($104/sq. ft.), Glenn ($110/sq. ft.), and Madera ($111/sq. ft.).

• Mortgage rates fell in Octo-ber, with the 30-year, fixed-mort-gage interest rate averaging 4.04percent, down from 4.16 percentin September and down from 4.19percent in October 2013, accord-ing to Freddie Mac.

US homebuilder sentiment rallies in NovemberWASHINGTON: US

homebuilders' confidence re-bounded in November as bothsales expectations and buyer traf-fic improved.

The National Association ofHome Builders/Wells Fargo indexrose to 58 this month, up from 54in October. That puts the indexjust short of September's readingof 59, which was the highest levelsince November 2005, shortly be-fore the housing bubble burst.

Readings above 50 indicatemore builders view sales condi-tions as good rather than poor.

The index found sentiment hadimproved in the Northeast, Mid-west, South and West. Buildersexpect sales to increase throughthe next six months.

Still, other indicators show thatrising builder optimism has notnecessarily been paired with a sig-nificant improvement in sales. Pur-

chases of new homes were nearlyflat in September, the CommerceDepartment reported. The pace ofsales for newly built homes hasimproved a mere 1.7 percent so far

this year compared to 2013, put-ting it below overall economic

growth.When the builder index was at

a similar level in early 2006, thenumber of single-family housingstarts was about 60 percent higher,

noted Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S.economist at the forecasting firm

MFR.``There remains a big discon-

nect between what homebuildersare saying and what they are ac-tually doing,'' Shapiro said.

Most economists expect thatthe National Association of Real-tors will report that sales of exist-ing homes fell slightly in October.A survey by the data firm FactSetprojects sales at an annual rate of5.15 million for the month, downfrom 5.17 million in September.

Despite improved buying ac-tivity in recent months, sales in2014 are still projected to lag lastyear's total of 5.1 million. Sales ofabout 5.5 million homes are gen-erally associated with a healthyreal estate market.

Rising prices in 2013 have cutinto affordability for would-bebuyers, limiting sales growth fornew homes and cutting into salesfor existing homes. On averagelast year, home prices rose at

roughly six times the pace ofwages, which limited the benefitsof historically low mortgage rates.

Even as home price growth hasmoderated in recent months, theprices continue to rise at morethan double the annual increasein wages. Average hourly pay fornon-supervisory workers hasrisen a meager 2.2 percent overthe past year to $20.70, the LaborDepartment reported earlier thismonth.

Just 59 percent of homes soldacross the United States are af-fordable on a middle class in-come, compared to 62 percent lastyear, the real estate data firmTrulia said.

``Affordability is likely toworsen,'' said Jed Kolko, chiefeconomist at Trulia. ``Unless in-comes increase substantially,homeownership will slip furtherbeyond the reach of many house-holds.''

How to reply to lowball offeron your home

STEVE MCLINDEN

Dear Real Estate Adviser,In general, is it better for me

to counteroffer or just simply turndown lowball offers when sellingmy home? If I counter, I feel I'mrevealing that I may be desper-ate or am not serious about myprice. But if I just turn them down,I may signal lack of interest.

- SkeletonDear Skeleton,

Veteran agents will tell you thatany offer can jump-start an ulti-mately successful negotiation. Butdon't be afraid to play hardballwith these lowballs. Unless you'rereally time-pressured to sell dueto financial or relocation circum-stances, etc., you wield the clout.

What constitutes a lowball of-fer? Some agents say it's 25 per-cent or more below list while oth-ers have revised that to 20 percentin this current limited-inventoryenvironment. All things being un-equal, the lowball definition var-ies from market to market and evensubmarket to submarket, but cer-tainly from price range to pricerange. To wit, an offer of $80,000on a $100,000 home is more likelyto be quickly dismissed than $1.6million offer on a $2 million home.

Focus on the goal: To sellDon't worry about how your

willingness to counter is beingperceived. What matters is the re-sult. Remain gracious to all com-ers. Some sellers get so wrappedup in righteous indignation follow-

ing an "insulting" offer that theytell their agents to refuse all fur-ther communication from the of-fender. The only winner there isego gratification, which has a mon-etized value of precisely zero.

A sage agent will tell you that"lowbies" who are truly enamoredwith a home are often willing toraise their offers by hefty -- andeventually acceptable -- incre-ments. In other words, never let adeal die on your end unless it'splainly ridiculous. Make sure to tellyour agent you want to hear all

offers. When you do counter, givea little ground but not much,which should scare off the bottomfishers and quick-buck flippers.

Always return the ball to thebuyer's court

If you don't feel comfortablecountering a seemingly absurdoffer, you can convey to the

lowballer that while you appreci-ate the offer, you'll have to passon it. That shifts the ball to thebuyer's court to come back with abetter offer. If pressed, your agentcan always tell the buyers thatyou're confused by their far-un-der-list offer and would be morethan willing to entertain a figurebefitting the market. Your agentmight even ask for a logical rea-son behind that initial low offer,assuming there is one. You mayalso learn something about yourproperty this way.

Listen and be realisticWhen assessing an offer, be

sure to consider all of the buyingparty's terms -- such as whenthey're willing to close, what re-pair credits they request and theirfinancial wherewithal to perform.You may not be as far apart as youthink. Of course, homes are sell-ing fast, making lowballers a littleless relevant at his point in thecycle.

Realize you may need to ratchetdown expectations somewhat ifyour house has lingered on theblock well past the local time-on-the-market average. Pricing a homereasonably accurately from theget-go is still an industry bestpractice.

Here's hoping you get top dol-lar for your place and that youdon't let those lowballers makeyou see red, Skeleton. Good luck!

-Courtesy Bankrate.com

When assessing anoffer, be sure to con-sider all of the buyingparty's terms -- suchas when they'rewilling to close, whatrepair credits theyrequest and theirfinancial wherewithal

Builders work on the roof of a new home under construction in UpperMakefield, Pa. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo

releases its monthly index of builder sentiment

Low mortgage rates fail toperk California home sales


24 India Post November 28, 2014www.indiapost.com

TechBizTech News

US Companies to play leading rolein smart city development


NEW DELHI: In a discussionon boosting India-US partnershipin manufacturing, trade and in-vestments in sustainable cities,natural resources and earth sci-ences sectors, an expert panel com-prising US government officialsand Indian industry representa-tives concluded that a tech-en-abled smart city must also incor-porate foundational principles ofsustainability in early stages ofdevelopment.

The discussion was part of theIndia - US Technology Summitbeing organized by the Confedera-tion of Indian Industry (CII), theDepartment of Science and Tech-nology, Government of India andthe US Department of state here.

Jamie Merriman, Country Man-ager- South Asia, US Trade andDevelopment Agency (USTDA)explained that efficient use of re-sources, lifecycle costing and longterm prospects are among the criti-cal factors that USTDA takes intoconsideration during its projectplanning process.

While technology would be asignificant piece of smart city de-velopment, an executable model thatintegrates environmental, develop-mental and aspirational consider-

ations would be the key to drivingsuch an initiative. Venkatesh Valluri,Chairman - CII National Committeeon Technology and Chairman andPresident, Ingersoll Rand (India) said"What technologies can we bringin that are relevant and affordable?The US is a technology-exportingcountry and India is a technology-

absorbing country. We need to findfinancial models that make a win-win situation for both the countries."

However, he cautioned that UStechnology could not just be

transplanted in India and thatreengineering and reverse innova-tion would be necessary for it tofit the Indian context.

David Miller, NASA Chief Tech-nologist presented a "perspectivefrom space" through three lenses:science, business and education.He explained that US-India col-

laboration in science such as Earthremote sensing data could bestrengthened; the emphasis on theuse of smaller space craft and sat-ellite constellations is creating new

business opportunities aroundthe world; there is a strong pas-sion for space exploration amongthe student community and if theyare taught to embrace disruptivetechnologies, they would nolonger see it as risky, rather itwould be business as usual.

Dan Beardsley, Project Man-ager - International Activities, Na-tional Weather Service, NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Admin-istration, US Department of Com-merce, brought to attention an-other area of US-India collabora-tion in earth science technologies.

The US National Weather Ser-vice has just launched "WeatherReady Nation" initiative, in whichthey not only focus on investingin weather forecasting and accu-racy, but also on improving theunderstanding of impact and en-hancing the resilience and pre-paredness of societies by localiz-ing the knowledge.

Since the US and India haveboth suffered from extreme weatherevents, a collaboration in this areawill stimulate action on disastermanagement by planning re-sources, communicating re-sponses and reacting better in caseof weather-related emergencies.

L-R: Ajay S Sriram, President, CII; Eric L Hirschhorn, Undersecretary ofCommerce for Bureau of Industry and Security, United States of America andSujatha Singh, Foreign Secretary, Government of India at the 9th Meeting of

India-US High Technology Cooperation Group held on 20 Novemberat New Delhi

Cont’d on page 27

India scraps defense deal with S Korean firmNEW DELHI: The Defense

Ministry has scrapped the Rs2,700-crore deal for acquiring twominesweeper vehicles from aSouth Korean firm after it wasfound that there were violationsof tender conditions as agentswere in the play.

The Ministry has terminatedthe tender for the Mine Counter-measure Vessels (MCMVs) andhas written a letter to South Ko-rean firm Kangnam Shipyard.

Official sources said DefenseMinister Manohar Parrikar hassigned the recommendation forterminating the tender. The rec-ommendation had been made

during the tenure of Arun Jaitleywho was in charge of Defense

portfolio till early this month.The deal had been stuck for

long because of allegations of in-volvement of middlemen and the

new govern-ment hadsought an opin-ion from Attor-ney GeneralMukul Rohatgi.

The Attor-ney General inhis opinion lastmonth said ten-der conditionshave been vio-lated, thesources said.

India's defense procurementprocedure does not allow agents

in deals and the governmenthas already encashed Rs 3crore bank guarantee furnishedby Kangnam.

Vendors have to sign a pre-contract integrity pact statingthat there will be no middlemeninvolved.

As per the deal, the SouthKorean firm was to build twoships while the remaining sixwere to be manufactured by GoaShipyard Limited (GSL) underthe transfer of technology pact.

The deal with Kangnam wasfor about Rs 2700 crore whilethe entire project would havecost over Rs 7,000 crore.-PTI

Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar

AirAsia Indiaadds Pune toits network

MUMBAI: Low-cost carrierAirAsia India has announced ad-dition of Pune to its network andoffered an all-inclusive promo-tional one-way fare starting fromRs 1,499.

The daily direct flights fromBangalore to Pune, Pune to Jaipurand vice versa would commenceon December 17, the company saidin a release.

"With the surge in businessand leisure travel, we truly believePune has tremendous potential.We have done a complete analy-sis of this sector and it is a partour growth strategy to provideconvenient, comfortable and en-joyable flying experience via directflights to first time and frequentflyers," AirAsia India CEO MittuChandilya said.

Booking for these routes isopen until November 26, for thetravel period from December 17,2014 to January 17, 2016.

The carrier has offered a one-way promotional fare of Rs 1,499from Bengaluru to Pune as well asRs 2,999 from Pune to Jaipur andvice versa. -PTI

Alibaba facing itsmost dangerousmoment: Jack Ma

BEIJING: After its record IPO,e-commerce giant Alibaba is fac-ing its "most dangerous moment,"founder Jack Ma has said, evenas the firm was working out plansto help small businesses in Chinaand across the world.

"Even two months before theIPO, people didn't think we wouldmake money," Jack Ma said at theWorld Internet Conference inWuzhen City.

"Now the problem is peoplethink we are too good - we can doanything. This is the most danger-ous moment," 50-year-old Ma,also China's richest man, said.

The warning reminds of previ-ous remarks from the tycoonabout the challenges facing thecompany, from employees turningcomplacent and stopping innova-tion to failing to embrace oppor-tunities in the mobile age.

He is leading Alibaba into newbusinesses of digital entertain-ment and healthcare as it adjuststo post-Initial Public Offer (IPO)euphoria as the 10th-largest com-pany by market value, surpassingCoca-Cola Company andFacebook Inc. Referring to the in-novations in the pipeline, he said:"Traditionally, all we think aboutis how to sell products to othersand how to get money out of thepockets of consumers." -PTI

(L to R) Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, CJayaram, Executive Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak, Executive

Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak, Uday Sareen, CEO Designateof ING Vysya Shailendra Bhandari and Vaughn Richtor, CEO of ING direct

during a press conference announcing the merger between Kotak MahindraBank and ING Vysya Bank in Mumbai on November 20

25India PostTechBiz PostNovember 28, 2014

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India inks euro 13 milliondeal with Airbus

NEW DELHI: India has signeda euro 13 million deal with AirbusDefense and Space for the deliv-ery of a dedicated facility in thecountry for the maintenance andrepair of its submarine fleet peri-

scopes.The project is due to be com-

pleted in September 2016."When a product is serviced, a

lot of time is lost during the trans-port between different facilities.Once maintenance work can be

done locally, the operators canspeed up this process and en-hance the operational readiness ofthe Indian fleet," said HaraldHansen, Director Business Devel-opment Sea at Airbus Defense and

Space's Optronics business unit.The maintenance facility con-

tract demonstrates the firm's com-mitment to not only supply sys-tems and technologies to custom-ers, but also to equip them withthe necessary operational mainte-

nance capability, a statement bythe company said.

The establishment of the peri-scope maintenance facility and thetraining of technicians from theIndian Navy in Germany and In-dia can be seen as a first step inestablishing an in-country servicecapability for future naval opera-tions, it said.

For the implementation of thefacility, Airbus Defense and Spaceis partnering with TataConsultancy Services and H&HPrecision Private Limited.

The company has previouslyestablished periscope maintenancefacility in Germany, South Korea,Italy and Greece. The optronic prod-ucts are used for land, air, sea andspace missions on a variety of plat-forms. These include submarinesand armored vehicles as well as air-craft, satellites and UAVs. -PTI

‘When a product is serviced, a lot of time islost during the transport between differentfacilities. Once maintenance work can bedone locally, the operators can speed up thisprocess and enhance the operationalreadiness of the Indian fleet’

Jaitley tells PSU banks toact without fear or favor

NEW DELHI: Concerned overrising bad loans, Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley has asked thechiefs of PSU banks to deal sternlywith the issue of rising non-per-forming assets without any fear orfavor.

He also said the governmenthas already taken various steps tostreamline the appointment of PSUbank chiefs, whichwill help in makingPSBs professionalorganizations.

The ministerwas addressingthe heads of Pub-lic Sector Banks(PSBs) and finan-cial institutionshere.

B a n k e r sshould "work in aprofessional man-ner without anyfear or favor",Jaitley said, add-ing that the gov-ernment has takensteps to stream-line the process of appointment ofChief Executive Officers and Ex-ecutive Directors of the PSBs tointroduce objectivity in the pro-cess.

The decision making processmust be influenced by profes-sional reasons and not collateralones, he said, adding that any ex-ternal influence would be consid-ered as a disqualification.

He further asked the bankers to

take necessary corrective mea-sures in order to bring down theirNon-Performing Assets.

Later, talking to reporters,Jaitley said: "Over the last 2-3years, on account of slowdown,one area of concern is that theNPA has risen. Therefore, the pro-active steps to be taken to ensurethat NPAs come down have been

discussed."He also asked the bankers to

take steps to increase the creditflow to various sectors of theeconomy and exuded optimismthat credit growth would pick upin the second quarter as large num-ber of projects are queuing up forcredit.

On the condition of theeconomy, Jaitley said that globalgrowth is quite patchy.-PTI

Arun JaitleyYahoo replaces Google asFirefox's default search

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo willsupplant Google's search engineon Firefox's Web browser in theU.S., signaling Yahoo's resolve toregain some of the ground that ithas lost in the most lucrative partof the Internet's ad market.

The five-year alliance will enda decade-old partnership in theU.S. between Google Inc. and theMozilla Foundation, which over-

sees the Firefox browser. The ten-sions between Google and Mozillahad been rising since Google's in-troduction of the Chrome browserin 2008 began to undercut Firefox.Google's current contract withMozilla expires at the end of thismonth, opening an opportunity forYahoo to pounce.

Even though Chrome is nowmore widely used, Firefox still hasa loyal audience that makes morethan 100 billion worldwide searchrequests annually.

Yahoo is hoping to impressFirefox users as the Sunnyvale,California, company sets out toprove that it's still adept at Internetsearch after leaning onMicrosoft's technology for mostof the results on Yahoo's ownwebsite for the past four years.

Financial details of Yahoo'sFirefox contract weren't disclosed.In a blog post, Mozilla CEO Chris

Beard said the new deal offers``strong, improved economicterms'' while allowing Mozilla ̀ `toinnovate and advance our missionin ways that best serve our usersand the Web.''

Google accounted for 90 per-cent, or about $274 million, ofMozilla's royalty revenue in 2012.Mozilla hasn't released its annualreport for last year.

Besides dropping Google in theU.S., Mozilla is also shifting Firefoxto Baidu's search engine in China

and Yandex in Russia. Firefox us-ers still have the option to pulldown a tab to pick Google andother search engines as their pre-ferred way for looking up informa-tion online.

Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer,a former Google executive, hailedthe Firefox agreement as Yahoo'smost significant partnership sinceforging the Microsoft deal in 2009.

``We believe deeply in search -it's an area of investment and op-portunity for us,'' Mayer wrote ina blog post.

Yahoo plans to unveil a ``cleanand modern'' search engine onFirefox next month and then roll outthe new model on its own websiteearly next year, Mayer wrote.

The redesign will primarily af-fect how Yahoo's search engine'sresults are displayed, and not theway that requests are processed.The search technology will con-tinue to be provided by MicrosoftCorp. as part of a 10-year deal Ya-hoo signed in 2009, according toMel Guymon, Yahoo's vice presi-dent of search.

In various public remarks sincebecoming Yahoo's CEO two yearsago, Mayer has expressed disap-pointment with Microsoft's searchtechnology. That has spurredspeculation that she might rene-gotiate or end the Microsoftsearch partnership next year whenYahoo has an option to re-evalu-ate the deal. -AP

26 India Post TechBiz Post November 28, 2014

www.indiapost.com

WhatsApp messages get end-to-end encryptionSAN FRANCISCO: An online

privacy tool endorsed by EdwardSnowden is being used to protectWhatsApp messages from snoop-ing by encrypting them as theytravel the Internet.

Open Whisper Systems hasannounced a partnership withFacebook-owned WhatsApp touseTextSecure protocol to essen-tially scramble messages in tran-sit, hiding whatever is inside fromprying eyes.

"WhatsApp deserves enor-mous praise for devoting consid-erable time and effort to thisproject," Open Whisper Systemssaid in a blog post.

"Even though we're still at thebeginning of the rollout, we be-

lieve this already represents thelargest deployment of end-to-endencrypted communication in his-tory."

WhatsApp confirmed the an-nouncement to AFP but declinedto comment further.

TextSecure encryption enabledautomatically as a default settingis already built into most recentversion of WhatsApp for mobiledevices powered by Google-backed Android software, with bil-lions of messages being ex-changed daily, according to OpenWhisper.

"(WhatsApp co-founder) BrianActon and the WhatsApp engi-neering team has been amazing towork with," Open Whisper said.

Agency contractor Snowdenpraised encryption tools offeredby Open Whisper.

Snowden connected to thegathering remotely from Russia,where he took refuge after leakinginformation about wide-scaleonline surveillance by the NSA.

Facebook in October com-pleted its buy of mobile messag-ing application WhatsApp, withthe mostly stock deal tallyingnearly USD 22 billion.

Facebook, the world's biggestsocial network, announced thebuyout of the WhatsApp messen-ger service, used by 600 millionpeople, in February and US au-thorities approved the deal inApril. -AFP

"Their devotion to the projectas well as their thoroughness ingetting this done are inspiring in aworld where so many other com-panies are focused on surveillanceinstead of privacy."

Open Whisper is an open-source project supported by do-nations and grants.

While taking part in a South BySouthwest conference earlier thisyear, former National Security

Cyber attacks to fall, but willbe more sophisticated

NEW DELHI: The volume ofcyber attacks are expected to de-cline in 2015, but will become moresophisticated with such intrusionstargeting specific sectors likehealthcare, says the cyber secu-rity solutions firm Websense.

According to Websense'scybersecurity predictionsfor 2015, as mobile apps areusing auto-login capabilitythese devices will face moreattacks from cyber criminalsfor more credential-stealingor authentication attacksthat can be used at a laterdate.

"The nature of cyber at-tacks is changing with crimi-nals going for personallyidentifiable information (PII),which can be used at a laterdate. Such attacks are ex-pected to escalate as we goahead," Websense Manager SalesAjay Dubey told PTI.

PII is an information that canbe used to uniquely identify, con-tact or locate a single person.

Cyber criminals are using PII toget answers to security questionsthat are used to verify a user'sidentity. Also they keep this infor-mation with them and use it at alater date or also try to use thevictim's profile to get personal in-formation of their contacts, familyor friends, he added.

The report states thathealthcare sector will see a rise indata stealing attack campaigns asthe records hold a treasure troveof PII that can be used in a multi-tude of attacks and various typesof fraud.

"In an environment stilltransitioning millions of patientrecords from paper to digital form,

many organizations are playingcatch-up when it comes to the se-curity challenge of protecting per-sonal data. As a result, cyber-at-tacks against this industry will in-crease." it added.

The report further said withauto-login capability of mobile

apps, mobile devices will increas-ingly be targeted for broader cre-dential-stealing or authenticationattacks to be used at a later date.

These attacks will use thephone as an access point to theincreasing Cloud-based enterpriseapplications and data resourcesthat the devices can freely access,it added.

Another serious developmentis that there will be new (or newlyrevealed) players on the globalcyber espionage/cyber war battle-field, which will also include coun-tries with higher projected eco-nomic growth, the report said.

Techniques and tactics of na-tion-state cyber espionage andcyber warfare activities have pri-marily been successful. As a re-sult, additional countries will lookto develop their own cyber-espio-nage programs, particularly in

countries with a high rate of fore-casted economic growth, it added.

"In addition, because the bar-rier of entry for cyber activities isminimal compared to traditionalespionage and war costs, we be-lieve we will see an increase inloosely affiliated cells that conduct

cyber-terrorist or cyber warfareinitiatives independent from, butin support of, nation-statecauses," the report said. -PTI

India's steel outputgrowth highest in Oct

NEW DELHI: India's steel pro-duction grew at the fastest paceamong the top producing nationsin October at 8.5 per cent even asworld's average growth remainedstagnant.

India produced 7.080 milliontonnes (MT) steel last month com-pared to 6.523 MT in the year agoperiod, data prepared by WorldSteel Association (WSA) said.

On the other hand, productionof steel declined during the monthin major producing nations such asChina, Japan and the US, barringRussia which posted a 1.6 per centgrowth in October output com-pared to the same month last year.

China, the world's largest pro-ducer of steel, reported a 0.3 percent fall in production. Output fellby 1.7 per cent in Japan and by 0.7per cent in the US.

China, Japan, the US and Indiaare world's top four steel produc-ing nations. The order has re-mained unchanged for quite someyears now.

These four countries contrib-

uted over 91 million tonnes (MT)to the world's total production of136.7 MT steel during October,which remained flat during themonth.

China produced 67.5 MT steel,Japan 9.4 MT and South Korea 6.2MT, up by 4.5 per cent. The USproduced 7.3 MT of crude steel inOctober.

Among the European Unionnations, Germany produced 3.5MT of crude steel in October, adecline of 5.9 per cent comparedto the same month last year. Italyproduced 2.1 MT, France 1.5 MTand Spain 1.3 MT.

Turkey's crude steel productionfor October 2014 was 2.7 MT,down by 11 per cent over the samemonth last year. Brazil produced3.1 MT, up by 2.7 per cent.

"The crude steel capacity utili-zation ratio in October, 2014 was74.7 per cent," WSA said.

During the first 10 months ofthe current year, world's steel pro-duction was up by two per cent to1,367.50 MT. -PTI

India Post eyes $9 bn e-com biz; live trackingNEW DELHI: Eyeing USD 9 bil-

lion business opportunity inbooming e-commerce business,India Post, which has the biggestnetwork and serves the last mile,is boosting its infrastructure forreal-time tracking of parcelsthrough satellites using a newtechnology.

The Postal Department willalso soon start an SMS facility toinform customers about deliverystatus of their parcels.

India Post, which is already intie-ups with e-commerce majorsAmazon and Snapdeal, will also

have security gadgets like CCTVand access control systems toensure safety of articles.

Telecom Minister RaviShankar Prasad in a meeting withofficials in the Department ofPosts has directed them to focuson opportunities in e-commerceand tune infrastructure to facili-tate growth of the sector whichhas huge potential to bring in-vestments and generate newjobs.

"The Minister has asked IndiaPost to leverage is reach to pro-vide special facilities to local

weavers, craftsmen/women,painters and artists so that theyalso benefit from e-commerce," aministry official told PTI. TheMinister wanted their products tobe picked up from their doorstepsand delivered to end-customers,the official added.

The official said that "postaldepartment has started workingon development of road transportnetwork for parcel movement onmajority routes with GPS facility.It is augmenting facility of securearea for parcels with access con-trol and CCTV around it".-PTI

27India PostTechBiz PostNovember 28, 2014

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US Companies to playleading role in smartcity developmentCont’d from page 24

Picking up on the case of business col-laboration, John McCaslin, Minister Coun-selor for Commercial Affairs, US ForeignCommercial Service highlighted the bilateralIndia trade and investment initiatives un-derway. "US companies would be playing aleading role in supporting sustainable in-frastructure development," he said.

He specified that Ajmer, Allahabad andVizag were the three identified urban areasfor smart cities development through a for-malized agreement, in which US companieswould provide expertise and support inmanaging traffic, water, energy etc.

He also mentioned that several bilateralinitiatives were underway that focus onenhancing digital infrastructure, creatingsmart villages, supporting India's renewableenergy mix through a recently signed agree-ment between the US EXIM bank and theMinistry of New and Renewable Energy, aswell as capacity building by sharing exper-tise in professionally training urban plan-ners and developers.

Representatives from Indian industry,CH2MHill and United Technologies Corpo-ration further supported the business casefor sustainable cities by introducing an ele-ment of competition among states to im-prove the social fabric and people's lives aswell as taking into account the translatabil-ity of technologies to the Indian context.

Indian eCommerce market to hit $15 bn: GoogleNEW DELHI: Increasing Internet pen-

etration and growing preference for shop-ping online will drive the eCommerce mar-ket in India to USD 15 billion by 2016 with awhopping 100 million people going onlineto shop, tech giant Google has said.

Compared to 8 million in 2012, about 35million people are now buying everythingfrom apparel to electronics to cosmetics andfurniture from online stores.

This number is expected to grow almostthree times to 100 million in the next twoyears. India is estimated to have 302 millionInternet users by December 2014, overtak-ing the US as the world's second largestonline user base.

"The online shopper base will grow 3Xby 2016 and over 50 million new buyers willcome from tier I and II cities. The confidenceto shop online is on the rise as 71 per centnon-buyers (respondents) from tier I and IIcities said they plan to shop online in thenext 12 months," Google India ManagingDirector Rajan Anandan told reporters here.

India's etailing market is at an inflectionpoint and will see rapid growth to become aUSD 15 billion market by 2016, he added.

According to analysts, the eCommercemarket in India is currently estimated to beworth about USD three billion.

Of the 100 million online shoppers, about40 million are expected to be women. Al-ready, women buyers in tier I cities are driv-ing growth, outspending men by 2X.

They are shopping across categories like

apparel, beauty and skincare, home furnish-ing, baby products and jewellery.

Also, over two-thirds respondents high-lighted that they preferred shopping onlinefor convenience and variety along with dis-counts.

The research was conducted byForrester Consulting across 6,859 respon-dents. Over 60 per cent respondents saidbuying online was directly correlated withsocial status. Mobile phone also emergedas an important access device for onlineshoppers with one in three online buyerstransacting online on their mobile phones

in tier I and II cities.In tier III, one in two respondents said

they use mobile phones to purchase online.This is also reflected in Google search

trends where mobile queries have grown 3Xin the last three years. Over 50 per cent ofshopping queries are now coming frommobile phones, compared to 24 per cent twoyears back. "Consumer confidence to shoponline has grown significantly in last oneand a half years and our objective was tounderstand the factors that are driving thisgrowth and arrive at indicators that will pro-pel the industry forward," Google India In-

dustry Director for eCommerce, Local andClassifieds Nitin Bawankule said.

The eCommerce industry needs to actnow to cater to this strong user growthtrend, he added.

"Improved customer experience acrossall touch points, easy to use mobile appscan create a strong pull for non-buyers toshop online in tier I and II cities," he said.

In terms of challenges, 62 per cent buy-ers said they were not satisfied with theironline shopping experience, while 67 percent said the current return process was toocomplicated and expensive.PTI

www.indiapost.comIndia Post

TOP TENHINDI FILM SONGS1 Manwa Laage : Happy New Year

2 Lovely : Happy New Year

3 Meherbaani : The Shaukeens

4 Meherbaan: Bang Bang

5 India Waale : Happy New

Year

6 Kill Dill : Kill Dil

7 Jaise Mera Tu : Happy Ending

8 Sajde : Kill Dil

9 Tu Meri : Bang Bang

10 Tere Hoke Rahenge: Raja

Natwarlal

28 November 28, 2014

Superstar Aamir Khan is known for his ability tochoose interesting projects and to make the mostout of them. All of his last few films have been very

different from one another. His film 'PK' is about to re-lease in the next month and already there is huge interestabout his next project.

It looks like Aamir may have landed another plumproject in the form of the sequel of 'Robot' (Enthiran).Few months back rumors began circulating that the di-rector of 'Robot', Shankar has approached Aamir Khanfor playing the antagonist opposite Rajinikanth. As perlatest reports, Aamir has given his nod to the project.

However, some sources claim that thefilm is not a sequel of 'Robot' but a com-pletely different story. As per reports,Shankar and Aamir Khan have been in touchrecently and have decided on a story. There

are no words on Rajini's involvement in theproject and nothing has been officially con-firmed. However, if indeed Aamir andRajinikanth come together, it will be a greatmoment in Indian film history.

Deepika Padukone wasrecently in Kolkata toshoot for the Shoojit

Sircar film 'Piku'. The film alsostars Amitabh Bachchan andIrrfan Khan. However there isanother Bollywood star who paida surprise visit to the sets. It wasDeepika's alleged boyfriendRanveer Singh.

Both Deepika and Ranveerhave been very busy with theirrespective commitments. WhileDeepika was shooting for 'Piku',Ranveer was busy promoting hisfilm 'Kill Dil'. Ranveer got somefree time and flew to Kolkata tospend some time with Deepika.

A source from the sets in-forms, "Ranveer reached Piku'sset around 9 am. He went straightto her vanity van and even be-tween shots or during set breaksthe couple tried spending qual-ity time with each other." Theylunched together and also wentout for sometime in the evening.

She is someone who enjoys star sta-tus in Bollywood but the critically-acclaimed actress Priyanka Chopra

wishes to become a zombie for their inability tofeel.

The actress took to social networking siteTwitter to express her peculiar wish.

"I too want to be a zombie... Easy life must bewhen u don't feel... Or at least it seems so while ur in zombie land!" she tweeted.

Priyanka, who has shown her acting cali-bre in films including "Barfi!"and "Mary Kom", has nowstarted shooting for SanjayLeela Bhansali's "BajiraoMastani", which alsostars Ranveer Singh.

India Post 29November 28, 2014

www.indiapost.com

Bollywood

Tiger Shroff, who made his debut earlier this year with Heropanti, has been making headlines for various

reasons since then. Now we hear that Tiger is all set toplay a superhero in choreographer turned director Remo D'Souza's next.

Though Bollywood is relatively new to the concept of superhero films with Krrishbeing the sole original Indian super hero, we guess Tiger will add on by becoming theyoungest Bollywood actor to play superhero.

Simultaneously though, refraining from revealing much about the film, Remoadds, "Yes Tiger and I will be doing the film but it is still too early to discussdetails of the same."

Siblings Huma Qureshi and SaqibSaleem will star in a horror flick,

and yes, they will play siblings inthe film.

The brother-sister duo who haveearned critical acclaim for their perfor-mances in films like Gangs Of Wasseypurand Hawa Hawaai respectively, are now team-ing up for a film.

Director Prawaal Raman, who has madehorror films like Darna Mana Hai,

Jungle and Gaayab, and is currentlyworking on the Randeep Hooda-

starrer Main Aur Charles, will behelming it.

A source revealed that thestory is about two siblings whoget caught in a creepy, unsettlingenvironment. "How they navigatetheir way out of the paranormal situ-ation is what the story is all about,"adds the source.

Huma has already acted in a horrorfilm, Ek Thi Daayan. This time bothSaqib and she had a joint narrationand they were impressed by thescript.

"Also they were excited at theprospect of acting together," saysthe source.

Aditya Roy Kapur who celebrated his birthday this year in Kashmir shooting for hisnext was in for a big surprise.

While he was away, Aditya learnt from his team that ahuge fan of his had sent him an unusual letter at home. Itcame from a girl who expressed her wish to marry theheartthrob and used her own blood to write the letter.

A source close to the actor revealed that the girlhails from Aligarh.

When contacted, Aditya Roy Kapurshared, "I did not know how to re-

act when I got to know aboutthis. It was surprising and at

the same time overwhelming.I owe everything to myfans. I'm extremely gratefulfor all the love but to thisextent is worrisome."

www.indiapost.com30 India Post November 28, 2014

Health ScienceHealth Line

Details on Page 34

A look at

Arizona health

insurance open

enrollment

Plasma study will test survivors'blood to treat Ebola

A coalition of companiesand aid groups has announced plans to test ex-

perimental drugs and collectblood plasma from Ebola survi-vors to treat new victims of thedisease in West Africa.

Plasma from survivors con-tains antibodies,substances the im-mune systemmakes to fight thevirus. SeveralEbola patientshave received sur-vivor plasma andrecovered, butdoctors say thereis no way to knowwhether it reallyhelps without astudy like the onethey are about tostart within amonth.

The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation is giv-ing $5.7 million to scale up pro-duction of the treatments for theproject in Guinea and other Ebola-affected countries in Africa.More than a dozen companies,universities and others are con-tributing supplies, staff andcash, and are working with thecountries and the World Health

Organization on specific proce-dures and locations.

Besides helping Ebola pa-tients now, plasma ``could be atool for a future epidemic as well''from different viruses, Microsoftco-founder Bill Gates said in aninterview with The Associated

Press.``You might not have drugs

and vaccines for some newthing'' and it would be good tohave capabilities in place to col-lect and give plasma to fill the gapuntil those other tools can bedeveloped, he said.

There are no drugs or vac-cines approved now for Ebola,

which has killed more than 5,000people this year in West Africa,most of them in Guinea, Liberiaand Sierra Leone. Doctors With-out Borders last week also said itwould host studies of experimen-tal treatments and plasma at threeof its West Africa treatment cen-

ters.The drugs to be tested by

both groups includebrincidofovir, an antiviral medi-cine that has been tried in a few

Ebola cases so far. Its maker,North Carolina-based ChimerixInc., developed it to treat othertypes of viruses and lab testssuggest it might help fight Ebola.

``We said to them, `well, ifmoney was no constraint, howmuch could you make?' and theygave us a number,'' Gates said.``So we said, `OK, we'll take therisk that maybe nobody will everbuy this from you. So we'll helpyou scale up the manufacturing.'''

Making plasma available is acomplex task. Plasma is the clearpart of blood, and the part thatcontains antibodies. In Africa,donors' blood will be filteredthrough a machine to removesmall amounts of plasma and re-turn the rest of the blood to thedonor - a process that allowssomeone to donate as often asevery two weeks.

One of the first patients suc-cessfully treated for Ebola in theUS - aid worker Dr. Kent Brantly -received plasma from a 14-year-old boy he treated in Africa,where he was infected. Brantlyhas donated plasma several timesto Ebola patients in the U.S.

A plasma recipient must havea compatible blood type with thedonor.

The inside a mobile donation unit at the Raleigh-DurhamInternational Airport in Raleigh, N.C. The unit was headedto Africa for use in a study of blood plasma treatment for

Ebola patients.

Dr. Ada Igonoh during a medicalconference in New Orleans.

Igonoh was a doctor in Nigeriawho caught Ebola when she

treated a man who flew to thatcountry from Liberia in July. Igonoh

recovered and hopes to recruitfellow survivors to donate blood

plasma to treat people newlyinfected with the Ebola virus.

Wikipedia could predict disease outbreaksWASHINGTON: Wikipedia

page views can predict diseaseoutbreaks, including dengue fe-ver and influenza, around theglobe nearly a month before of-ficial health advice, according tonew research.

Analyzing such online trendscould help scientists stay onestep ahead of outbreaks aroundthe globe, researchers said.

Researchers from LosAlamos National Laboratorysuccessfully monitored influ-enza outbreaks in the US, Poland,Japan and Thailand, dengue fe-ver in Brazil and Thailand, andtuberculosis in China and Thai-

land.The team was also able to fore-

cast all but one of these outbreaks(tubercu-losis inChina) atleast 28days inadvance.

T h er e s u l t ss u g g e s tt h a tp e o p l es t a r tsearching for disease-related in-formation on Wikipedia beforethey seek medical attention.

The research shows the poten-tial to transfer models across dif-ferent regions; that is, one can

"train" acomputermodel us-ing pub-lic healthdata inone loca-tion andi m p l e -ment themodel ina n o t h e r

region.For example, researchers could

create models using data from Ja-

pan to track and forecast dis-ease in Thailand. This is particu-larly important for countries thatdo not offer reliable diseasedata, researchers said.

"A global disease-forecast-ing system will change the waywe respond to epidemics. In thesame way we check the weathereach morning, individuals andpublic health officials can moni-tor disease incidence and planfor the future based on today'sforecast," said Dr Sara Del Valle,who carried out the study.

The study was published inthe journal PLOS Computa-tional Biology. -PTI

Cont'd on Page 32

New approachesfor health careenrollment

LINCOLN: With enrollmentnow open for the federally runhealth insurance marketplace,Nebraska community groups aretaking a new approach to reachout to those who lack coverage.

Community groups havehanded out flyers at farm and craftshows, staffed booths at Ne-braska county fairs and distrib-uted bookmarks at libraries andcoffee shops.

A Community Action group inLincoln is once again participat-ing in a televised ̀ `phone-a-thon''to catch the public's attention.Insurers are using online videosand mailings to remind customers.

The renewed publicity is partof a push to attract people whomissed the first nationwide enroll-ment period and are still unin-sured. Amber Hansen, executivedirector of Community Action ofNebraska, says the groups expecta smoother process than the firstenrollment period, which initiallyfaced technical problems. -AP

Insurancepremiums politicallightning rod

MIAMI: As the second enroll-ment period for health insuranceunder the federal health law gotunderway, critics and supportersare seizing on premium prices.

Premiums are politically con-troversial and both sides haveused data to bolster their argu-ment. Critics say premium in-creases signal the AffordableCare Act isn't working, but healthinsurance rates have risen asmuch as 20 or 30 percent in re-cent years.

State officials have said con-sumers could expect an averagepremium increase of 13 percentin 2015. But the feds pointed outthat a 40-year old Floridian mak-ing $30,000 per year who boughtthe second-lowest silver plan in2014 and does the same in 2015will pay slightly less after tax cred-its in 2015. The majority of Flo-ridians purchased silver plans.The second-lowest cost silverplan is especially popular be-cause it's the benchmark plan tocalculate subsidies.

An Associated Press analysisfound that average monthly pre-miums for mid-range health insur-ance plans increased as much as20 percent in Florida with the big-gest increases seen in rural ar-eas. But South Florida saw onlymeager increases and premiumsdecreased ever so slightly in Mi-ami-Dade County. -AP

Tamil Nadu agreementwith MIT for schemes

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadugovernment has entered into anagreement with MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, USA, forimplementing various schemes insectors like education, healthcareand poverty alleviation.

"The MoU with the Abdul LatifJameel-Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) of Massachusetts Instituteof Technology, USA and the In-stitute of Financial Managementand Research (IFMR), Chennai,will enable the involvement ofeconomists and social scientistsin the formulation and evaluationof various schemes in sectors likeschool education, health, povertyalleviation and skill develop-ment," an official release said.

The signing of MoU comes inthe backdrop of the then ChiefMinister J Jayalalithaa's an-nouncement in the assembly earlythis year that the government willlay emphasis on proper monitor-ing and evaluation of ongoingschemes.

IFMR, Chennai, is the localhost institute for J-PAL in Indiaand also a 44-year-old not-for-

profit organization engaged in re-search, training and education.

The MoU is a step towards re-alizing the VISION 2023 documentof becoming India's most prosper-ous and progressive state andhaving fully eradicated poverty,it said.

The draft MoU would identifytop policy priorities and come upwith solutions that can be "field-tested", identify policy innova-tions practiced globally and couldbe replicated in Tamil Nadu.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Scientists find new wayto make drugs

MELBOURNE: In a break-through, researchers have devel-oped a revolutionary new way tomanufacture natural chemicalsand used it to assemble a scarceanti-inflammatory drug with po-tential to treat cancer and malaria.

The advance could lead to newand cheaper ways to produce raredrugs in large quantities.

"We took small molecules andclipped them together like Lego,"said lead researcher ProfessorMichael Sherburn, from the Aus-tralian National University(ANU).

"The buildingblocks are carefullydesigned in such away that the first re-action generates aproduct perfectlyprimed for the sec-ond. It's quite magi-cal. This means youcan efficiently buildlarge and complexmolecules," saidSherburn.

Medicines of thistype have tradition-

ally been made in a cumbersomeway. Chemists take a related mol-ecule and renovate it. This is alengthy process, with unwantedstructural features being rippedout and replaced.

"This leads to a lot of waste,"Sherburn said.

The group trialed their innova-tive new method by makingpseudopterosin, a powerful anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug,which is currently only availablein tiny quantities extracted fromfan coral found in the Bahamas.

The work began as blue-skyresearch, with the researchers try-ing to work out a way to makesupposedly impossible moleculesof cross-conjugated hydrocar-bons.

Before trying the experimentsthe team ran simulations on theRaijin supercomputer, which indi-cated that their method had po-tential.

"Ours is an empowering andenabling technique, allowing asmarter and faster way to makeimportant substances," said DrChris Newton, who did the re-search in the laboratory as a PhDstudent.

"The pseudopterosin synthe-sis is the tip of the iceberg.

We are well on the way to effi-cient syntheses of other impor-tant drugs.

"There is a potential for indus-trial-scale manufacture, too,which will take the pressure offspecies which are being har-vested for drugs," Newton said.

The research was publishedin the journal Nature Chemistry.-PTI

Minnesota health careworkers to join Ebola fightMINNEAPOLIS: As a nurse,

Doris Parker says she is used tobeing exposed to AIDS, tubercu-losis and other infectious dis-eases, so she's not afraid to re-turn to Liberia to help her nativecountry fight a deadly Ebola out-break.

`Ì have a strong convictionthis is what I need to do,'' saidParker, a Minnesota medical sur-gical nurse who left with a groupof medical responders bound for

the West African nation. `Às anurse, we're trained to help, totake care of the sick.''

After living in the U.S. for 28years, Parker, a resident of aMinneapolis suburb, is makingher first trip home to Liberia,where she was born, grew upand attended high school and

still has relatives. She is moti-vated to treat her fellowLiberians and to help stop thevirus from spreading. Ebola haskilled more than 5,000 people inWest Africa, mostly in Liberia,Guinea and Sierra Leone.

`Ìf it's not contained at thesource, there's a strong possi-bility it could be a major, globalcrisis,'' Parker said while sittingin the offices of the Minneapo-lis-based nonprofit American

Refugee Committee, which is or-ganizing the mission.

The initial group of 11 beingdeployed includes four Liberian-Americans, said DanielWordsworth, the humanitarianorganization's president andCEO.

Nurse Doris Parker of Brooklyn Park, Minn., in the offices of the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee. Parker is among a group of health-careworkers the ARC is sending to Liberia to treat Ebola patients and help stop

the spread of the deadly virus.

India PostHealth Science Post 31

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November 28, 2014

J-PAL will assist the state gov-ernment to carry out monitoringand evaluation of ongoing or newschemes, provide training and as-sist Government in adopting out-come based initiatives.

Planning, Development andSpecial Initiatives, Principal Sec-retary, S Krishnan exchangeddocuments with J-PAL South AsiaExecutive Director, ShobiniMukherji in the presence of ChiefMinister O Panneerselvam, the re-lease said. -PTI

Cont'd on Page 32

'Huqqa' not safer than'bidi' smoking: Study

JAIPUR: On the occasion of WorldChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD) Day, the Indian Asthma Care Soci-ety debunked the myth that smoking a'huqqa' is safer than a 'beedi', saying thatten times more carbon monoxide is inhaledin a single huqqa puff.

"Single puff by 'huqqa' smoking is notsafer than 'beedi'(Indian cigarettes)at any cost as bothare injurious tolungs causing se-vere asthma lead-ing to chronic ob-structive pulmo-nary disease," ad-dressing a patient-doctor interactionmeet, Dr VirendraSingh, Presidentof IACS and Edi-tor of internationaljournal 'Lung In-dia' said.

Singh, whoconducted a re-

search here recently, debunked the long-held belief that huqqa smoking is safer thanbeedi smoking as the tobacco is inhaled af-ter being filtered through water by a longpipe attached to it.

Singh, quoting the study, said about 10per cent more carbon monoxide was inhaledin a single puff by huqqa smokers and saidit settles more deeply in lungs than by smok-ing a beedi.

Twenty per cent of villagers in Rajasthanwere addicted to beedi or huqqa which wasproved to cause severe COPD in addictsaged 40 to 50 years, he said.

Twelve per cent people in rural areas dieof COPD, followed by 8 per cent deaths

which were caused by heart attacks, Singhsaid, quoting national data.

In India, approximately 30 million peopleare estimated to be suffering from COPDand half a million die every year from it,Singh said.

COPD which is the fourth leading causeof death worldwide after heart diseases,stroke (paralysis), diabetes, would rank

third in the 21st century, Singh added.COPD is a non-communicable lung dis-

ease caused due to smoking, from smokeof 'chullah' in villages, vehicles' smoke, anddust in mines and factories, he said, add-ing the disease progressively robs suffer-ers of the ability to breath.

However, recent studies indicate that 25to 50 per cent of smoking addicts do noeven know they have it, because its diag-noses often goes unrecognized, he said.

Advising patients Singh said, a painlessfive-minute test 'spirometry' could addressthe problem of under-diagnosis of this se-rious lung disease. -PTI

Ebola death toll rises to 5,420: WHOGENEVA: The World Health Organiza-

tion has said that 5,420 people had so fardied of Ebola across eight countries, out ofa total 15,145 cases of infection, since lateDecember 2013.

The UN health agency had reported5,177 deaths and 14,413 cases.

The WHO believes that the number ofdeaths is likely far higher, given that thefatality rate in the current outbreak is knownto be around 70 per cent.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever con-tinues to affect Guinea,Liberia and Sierra Leone themost.

But the fresh toll came asthe spread appeared to beslowing in the capital ofLiberia, allowing the hardest-hit country to lift its state ofemergency.

In its latest toll, WHO saidthat through November 16,2,964 people had died inLiberia, out of 7,069 cases.

In Sierra Leone, 1,250people had died as of Novem-ber 16 out of 6,073 cases,WHO said.

Guinea, where the outbreak began latelast year, counted 1,192 deaths and 1,971cases.

Data from Mali, the latest country to behit by Ebola, showed six cases of the deadlyvirus and five deaths.

Data from Nigeria and Senegal remainedunchanged, and both countries have been

declared Ebola free.Nigeria had eight deaths and 20 cases,

while Senegal had one case and no deaths.There has been one case of infection in

Spain, where an infected nurse has recov-ered.

In the United States, four Ebola caseshave been recorded and one person - aLiberian - had died from the virus.

Ebola, one of the deadliest virusesknown to man, is spread only through di-rect contact with the bodily fluids of an

infected person showing symptoms suchas fever or vomiting.

People caring for the sick or handlingthe bodies of people infected Ebola aretherefore especially exposed.

WHO says that a total of 568 healthcareworkers were known to have contracted thevirus, and 329 of them had died. -AFP

Red Cross volunteers receive training in Paris, France, onhow to handle the deadly Ebola disease.

Survivors who give plasma also must betested to make sure they are cured of Ebolaand don't have other diseases such as hepa-titis, syphilis or HIV.

The Africa study will take an added step- use of an experimental system by CerusCorp. for inactivating viruses in blood.

Dr. Ada Igonoh, a doctor in Nigeria whogot Ebola from a patient and recovered,expects to donate plasma and recruit oth-ers for the study.

``Survivors will be willing if they un-derstand the goal,'' she said.

She and Brantly met with Gates to dis-cuss the project earlier this month at anAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine &Hygiene conference in New Orleans.

Dr. Luciana Borio, who is leading theFood and Drug Administration's Ebola re-sponse, spoke at the conference aboutplasma. Even though it seemed to help in

some cases, ``The bottom line is that wedon't really know if it helps and to whatdegree it might help,'' she said.

``We would love to not be in the samesituation in the future,'' and a study is theonly way to know for sure, she said.

Clinical Research Management Inc., aNortheast Ohio company that contractswith sponsors to run clinical trials, will leadthe plasma study in Africa. Plasma will becollected through three bloodmobiles do-nated by another Microsoft co-founder,Paul G. Allen, and the Greenbaum Foun-dation. The bloodmobiles have been flownto Africa.

The U.S. Army Medical Research Insti-tute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)will provide Ebola testing for the study.Several universities will help, as will theBlood Centers of America and the SafeBlood for Africa Foundation. About adozen companies donated equipment andsupplies.-AP

Plasma study will test survivors'blood to treat Ebola

Cont'd from Page 30

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November 28, 2014

Another 25 people from across theU.S. might be deployed over the next sixmonths, he said.

The initial goal is to establish an Ebolatreatment center or ``mini-hospital'' in aremote area of far eastern Liberia, nearthe border with the Ivory Coast,Wordsworth said. By locating the centerin the rural community of Fish Town,Wordsworth said, they hope to preventthe disease from spreading eastward intothe Ivory Coast. The ultimate goal is toset up a treatment center in every county,or state, in Liberia, which will help getpeople infected with Ebola away fromfamilies and communities and into a quar-antined space, he said.

`Ìf we can do that, we can contain thedisease and stop it from spreading,''Wordsworth told The Associated Pressin a telephone interview.

Group members will attend specializedEbola training and learn rigorous safetyprocedures. Then, they'll serve a three-month rotation where they will be caringfor patients and helping prevent thespread of the virus.

Parker already has completed training

by the U.S. Centers for Disease Controland Prevention in Anniston, Alabama,and will undergo more training when shearrives in Liberia. When she returns tothe U.S., she will be quarantined at homefor 21 days, the incubation period forEbola.

As part of the tight-knit community ofLiberians living in the Twin Cities, Parkersaid she knew Patrick Sawyer of CoonRapids, the first American to die of Ebola.Sawyer died on July 25 in Nigeria, daysafter he traveled from his native Liberia.He left behind a wife and three youngdaughters in Minnesota.

``We all are interconnected in the com-munity,'' Parker said. `Ìt was just tooclose to home, very close to home whenthat happened.''

Wordsworth said his organizationwants to bring `à depth of cultural com-petence and an understanding of thecountry and the society'' to treating Ebolain Liberia.

``The fact that you can have a Liberianface treating you'' in a hospital might com-fort patients, he said. ̀ Ìt's already an alienenvironment and the more you can seewhat's common to you and real to you, thebetter. You're frightened enough already.'' -AP

Minnesota health careworkers to join Ebola fight

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November 28, 2014

Ten second kiss can transfer80 million bacteria

LONDON: Couples, take note! As manyas 80 million bacteria are transferred during10 seconds of kissing, according to a newstudy that found partners who kiss at leastnine times a day share similar communitiesof oral bacteria.

With the mouth playing host to more

than 700 varieties of bacteria, the oralmicrobiota also appear to be influenced bythose closest to us.

Researchers from Micropia museum andthe Netherlands Organization for AppliedScientific Research (TNO) in the Nether-lands studied 21 couples, asking them tofill out questionnaires on their kissing be-havior including their average intimate kissfrequency.

They then took swab samples to inves-tigate the composition of their oralmicrobiota on the tongue and in their sa-liva.

The results showed that when couplesintimately kiss at relatively high frequenciestheir salivary microbiota become similar.

On average it was found that at leastnine intimate kisses per day led to coupleshaving significantly shared salivarymicrobiota.

"Intimate kissing involving full tonguecontact and saliva exchange appears to bea courtship behavior unique to humans andis common in over 90 per cent of knowncultures," lead author Remco Kort, fromTNO's Microbiology and Systems Biologydepartment, said.

In a controlled kissing experiment toquantify the transfer of bacteria, a memberof each of the couples had a probiotic drinkcontaining specific varieties of bacteria in-cluding Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

After an intimate kiss, the researchersfound that the quantity of probiotic bacte-ria in the receiver's saliva rose threefold,and calculated that in total 80 million bac-teria would have been transferred during a10 second kiss.

The study also suggests an importantrole for other mechanisms that select oralmicrobiota, resulting from a shared lifestyle,dietary and personal care habits, and thisis especially the case for microbiota on thetongue.

The researchers found that while tonguemicrobiota were more similar among part-ners than unrelated individuals, their simi-larity did not change with more frequentkissing, in contrast to the findings on thesaliva microbiota.

The research was published in the jour-nal Microbiome. -PTI

Hawaii to use federal fundsfor migrants' health

HONOLULU: Hawaii will save about$21.5 million by tapping into federal fund-ing to pay for health care for people livingin the state under the Compact of Free As-sociation, a newspaper reported.

Roughly 7,500 adult migrants from theFederated States of Micronesia, Palau andthe Marshall Islands will be able to sign upfor medical coverage under the AffordableCare Act, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser re-ported.

Under the compact, Pacific Island citi-zens freely live and work in the U.S. withno time constraints in exchange for allow-ing the U.S. military to control strategic landand water areas in the region.

The federal government used to pay forhealth care for the migrant group, whichqualified for benefits such as Medicaid. Butthe Welfare Reform Act of 1996 stoppedthat eligibility. Hawaii filled the funding gapfor more than a decade.

In 2009, Gov. Linda Lingle's administra-tion sought to slash benefits with a pro-gram to deny coverage for chemotherapyand dialysis treatments, and limit doctorvisits and prescriptions.

Implementation of the plan was blocked

by a federal court injunction that was lateroverturned. However, state officials indi-cated they did not want to proceed withthe plan.

Officials say medical expenses forHawaii's Compact of Free Association resi-

dents will be now be subsidized on a slid-ing scale based on income levels.

Children and pregnant women who arepart of the migrant group will remain cov-ered by Medicaid, using state and federalfunds.

To avoid a gap in coverage, residentsliving in Hawaii under the compact mustenroll by Feb. 15 by signing up with theHawaii Health Connector. -AP

The federal governmentused to pay for health carefor the migrant group,which qualified for benefitssuch as Medicaid. But theWelfare Reform Act of 1996stopped that eligibility.

After an intimate kiss, theresearchers found that thequantity of probiotic bacte-ria in the receiver's salivarose threefold - 80 millionin 10 secondes

Group asks Baker to acton mental health

BOSTON: Governor-elect Charlie Bakershould move quickly after taking office toaddress issues surrounding mental healthtreatment, including disparities between in-surance payment rates for behavioralhealth and other medical services, an ad-vocacy group said.

The Massachusetts chapter of the Na-tional Alliance on Mental Illness unveiledseveral recommendations for the first 100days of Baker's administration. His inaugu-ration is Jan. 8.

The advocates cited federal statisticsthat show mental illness affects more thanone in five adults in the U.S. and said asurvey it conducted of Massachusetts vot-ers in July revealed dissatisfaction withwhat state government was doing to helpthose suffering from mental health or ad-diction issues.

`Ìt's clear from the survey that voters wantaction on the issue,'' Laurie Martinelli, execu-tive director of the Massachusetts chapter,said in a statement. `Òur hope is the nextadministration deeply commits to dramaticimprovement in the area of mental health.''

The group recommended that Baker, aRepublican who formerly headed HarvardPilgrim Health Care, should work with otherstate officials to bridge gaps in what pri-vate and public insurers reimburse for men-

tal health treatment as opposed to othertypes of medical treatments.

Baker's first state budget proposalshould outline priorities for mental healthand addiction services and provide ad-equate funding to achieve those goals, the

group said, adding the incoming governormust also take steps to end what it calledthe `òver-incarceration'' of people withmental illness.

Baker served as the state secretary ofHealth and Human Services in the 1990s,helping lead a drive to close some of thestate's antiquated mental health institutionsand move many patients into community-based programs. -AP

Governor Charlie Baker

A look at Arizona health insurance open enrollmentPHOENIX: Open enrollment for

the second phase of PresidentBarack Obama's health care lawopened over the weekend withless fanfare than the originalrollout that was plagued by com-puter glitches. But this enrollmentperiod will bring about manychanges for Arizona residents,including the prospect of lowerprices but shifting insurance pro-viders.

Here is a look at some of thekey facts, changes and issues:

FEWER UNINSUREDArizona began its second open

enrollment under the AffordableCare Act with an estimated 780,000uninsured residents out of 6.5 mil-lion people in the state, based onestimates done by the Kaiser Fam-ily Foundation and the numberwho gained insurance this year.

About 422,000 Arizonans

gained insurance in the past year,302,000 through an expandedstate Medicaid program and120,000 through the federal healthinsurance marketplace created byObama's health care overhaul law.

Arizona chose to let the fed-eral government run its insurancemarketplace. Residents purchasepolicies through the federalwebsite, www.healthcare.gov.

FALLING PREMIUMS,MORE CHOICES

Three new insurance compa-nies are entering the individualmarket in Arizona on Jan. 1, includ-ing the nation's largest health in-surer, United Healthcare. Thatbrings to 13 the number of insur-ers in the market.

Premiums for a mid-range planin Phoenix, called a silver-levelplan, dropped 10 percent this year,making Arizona one of the least

expensive states for individualhealth insurance.

Prices in rural areas may behigher, but a 40-year-old non-smoker can get a plan in Phoenixfor $170 a month _ before a sub-sidy that people earning less than400 percent of the poverty line canreceive. There are seven networkpricing zones in the state.

DIFFICULT, BUT HELP'S AVAILABLE

With more than 100 plans inPhoenix alone, picking an insur-ance plan can be incredibly com-plicated.

Besides premium price, peopleneed to consider maximum out-of-pocket costs, whether their doc-tor or hospital is a preferred pro-vider, and what kind of prescrip-tion coverage is included.

But don't worry: Help is avail-able.

Two large community groupshave received grants to provide``navigator'' services, essentiallyeducation and handholding tohelp people figure out how to ap-ply and what plan to choose.

And it's easier to find help thanin the last enrollment period. Agroup called Covered Arizona hasupgraded its website to link navi-gators with those who need help.

If you don't have access to a com-puter, dial 211 and they'll do it foryou.

ALREADY INSURED?If you signed up for health in-

surance for 2014 during the firstopen enrollment period, thatdoesn't mean you should ignorethis enrollment period.

A large number of the 120,000Arizonans who bought insurance

this year get subsidies based ontheir income, so it is important thatthey update their information atwww.healthcare.gov . That willupdate people's subsidy amount,avoiding a potential repayment.

Also, because so many plansare changing next year and premi-ums have changed, now's the timeto shop around.

ODDS AND ENDS• Those in the country illegally

don't qualify to buy a planthrough the healthcare exchangesand don't qualify for Medicaid.

• Expect to hear about this moreas the federal government, Cov-ered Arizona, and nonprofitgroups conduct ad campaigns andoutreach on social media. TheHispanic community in particularcan expect a bigger effort, sinceenrollment among Latinos fellshort last year, and that is a key

market for insurers.• The last day to pick a new

plan for it to take effect on Jan. 1is Dec. 15. Open enrollment endsFeb. 15, locking most people outof the market for another year.

• Penalties for those withoutinsurance in 2015 go to $325 perperson or 2 percent of income,whichever is higher. In 2014, it is 1percent or $95. The penalty mustbe paid when you file your taxes.-AP

Three new insurance companies are enter-ing the individual market in Arizona on Jan.1, including the nation's largest health in-surer, United Healthcare. That brings to 13the number of insurers in the market.

A large number of the 120,000 Arizonanswho bought insurance this year get subsidiesbased on their income, so it is important thatthey update their information atwww.healthcare.gov

Anthem, Blue Shield criticized for doctor networksSACRAMENTO: Anthem Blue

Cross and Blue Shield of Califor-nia, two of California's largesthealth insurers, misled customersabout the number of doctors intheir networks under plans soldthrough the state's insurance mar-ketplace, according to a state re-port.

The California Department ofManaged Health Care began in-vestigating in May after patientscomplained they were told thatcertain medical providers were in-cluded when they chose a healthplan, only to find out after theirappointment that their doctor wasnot part of their network. Seeingan out-of-network doctor in-creases costs significantly forpatients.

About 200 complaints werefiled against the companies ear-lier this year based on plans soldthrough Covered California, theentity created to carry out the pro-visions of the federal AffordableCare Act.

The department cited the insur-ers for various deficiencies in howthey publicized their physiciannetworks. It found the insurers'online provider directories listedphysicians that were outside theirnetworks and that they failed to

correct inaccuracies. They issuedstatements ``that were either un-true or misleading and which weredisseminated, at least in part, forthe purpose of inducting personsto enroll in the plan.''

Anthem and Blue Shield saythe state's survey is flawed andnoted that doctors were not obli-gated to participate in the survey.The insurers said there is oftenconfusion within doctors' officesabout which health plans theyaccept.

The state ``relied on an un-sound methodology to obtain itsraw data, and then made mislead-ing and inappropriate conclu-sions based on inaccurate data,''Anthem wrote in its response tothe state's findings.

Both insurers have acknowl-edged they made mistakes but saythey have tried to fix them andhave added thousands of newproviders. Anthem spokesmanDarrel Ng said the health plan fol-lowed up with the doctors whosaid they didn't accept the planand found that 99 percent hadcontracts with the insurer.

``We're not saying that every-thing is perfect,'' he said. ``We'vetaken great steps to try to remedythat situation.''

There are 10 private healthplans selling on the exchange.Together, Anthem Blue Cross andBlue Shield of California ac-counted for nearly 58 percent of

those who signed up the firstyear.

The state said that while it un-derstands the insurers' concerns,``they do not change the fact thatthe significant inaccuracies con-tained in the plan's online pro-vider directory resulted in a highlyunacceptable customer experi-ence, nor do they change the factthat California consumers couldnot reach or did not have accessto providers who were repre-

sented as being part of the plan'snetwork.''

Its investigation found that18.2 percent of doctors listed inBlue Shield's directory were notat the location listed for them, andnearly 9 percent of doctors werenot willing to accept the CoveredCalifornia plans. Despite follow-up calls by its investigators, thestate found that just 57 percent ofthe 1,360 plan providers wereavailable to Covered Californiaenrollees.

In the case of Anthem, 12.5percent of doctors were not at theaddress listed for them, while 12.8percent were not willing to acceptthe plans purchased on the ex-change. The survey also foundthat only about 60 percent of the3,272 plan providers were avail-able to Covered California enroll-ees.

The state will conduct a follow-up survey in six months, and thedepartment's enforcement arm cantake corrective action if needed.Both Anthem and Blue Shieldhave resubmitted updated pro-vider lists.

One consumer advocate calledfor fines and tough enforcementagainst the insurers.

``The results of the investiga-

tion of these insurers are deeplytroubling,'' said Anthony Wright,executive director of Health Ac-cess California, a health care ad-vocacy group. ``If significantnumbers of doctors listed aren'twhere the insurers say they are,that's a big violation of trust topremium-paying patients.''

Open enrollment began Nov. 15and runs through Feb. 15. Thestate's exchange has set a targetof enrolling 1.7 million people forprivate health coverage next year,which would include re-enrollingthe 1.1 million people who signedup during the first season.

Peter Lee, executive director ofCovered California, said the ex-change will continue to work withthe two health plans, networkdoctors and physician supportstaff to stay informed about indi-vidual plans.

``We're really confident as wego into the second round of openenrollment that they are notchanging networks, where we'vegot some stability,'' Lee said.``We're going to actually be muchbetter off in terms of consumershaving a clear understandingabout who's in, and being able tomake the informed choices wewant consumers to make.'' -AP

In the case of An-them, 12.5 percent ofdoctors were not atthe address listed forthem, while 12.8percent were notwilling to accept theplans purchased onthe exchange.

India Post Health Science Post34

www.indiapost.com

November 28, 2014

35 India Post November 28, 2014www.indiapost.com

In Brief ImmigrationDetails on page 37

Obama

warned against

bypassing

Congress

Defying GOP, Obama announcesexpansive immigration orders

WASHINGTON: Spurning fu-rious Republicans, PresidentBarack Obama unveiled expansiveexecutive actions on immigrationThursday night to spare nearly 5million people in theU.S. illegally from de-portation and refocusenforcement efforts on"felons, not families."

The moves, affectingmostly parents andyoung people, markedthe most sweepingchanges to the nation'sfractured immigrationlaws in nearly three de-cades and set off afierce fight with Repub-licans over the limits ofpresidential powers.

In a televised ad-dress to the nation,Obama defended the le-gality of his actions andchallenged GOP law-makers to focus theirenergy not on blockinghis measures but on approvinglong-stalled legislation to take theirplace.

"To those members of Con-gress who question my authorityto make our immigration systemwork better, or question the wis-dom of me acting where Congresshas failed, I have one answer: Pass

a bill," Obama said, flexing his presi-dential powers just two weeks af-ter his political standing was chal-lenged in the midterm elections.

As Obama spoke from the

White House, immigration sup-porters with American flagsdraped over their shouldersmarched on Pennsylvania Avenueoutside carrying signs that read,"Gracias, Presidente Obama."

The address marked the firststep in the White House effort topromote the executive actions to

the public. On Friday, Obama willspeak at a campaign-style rally inLas Vegas.

Despite Obama's challenge toRepublicans to pass a broader im-

migration bill, his actions and theangry GOP response could largelystamp out those prospects for theremainder of his presidency, en-suring that the contentious debatewill carry on into the 2016 elections.

Republicans, emboldened bytheir sweeping victories in the mid-terms, are weighing responses to

the president's actions that in-clude lawsuits, a government shut-down, and in rare instances, evenimpeachment.

"The president will come to re-gret the chapter history writesif he does move forward," Sen.Mitch McConnell, the Ken-tucky Republican who issoon to become the Senatemajority leader, said beforeObama's address.

House Speaker JohnBoehner, R-Ohio, who hasrefused to have his membersvote on broad immigrationlegislation passed by theSenate last year, said Obama'sdecision to go it alone "ce-mented his legacy of lawless-ness and squandered whatlittle credibility he had left."

While Obama's measuresare sweeping in scope, theystill leave more than half ofthe 11 million people livingin the U.S. illegally in limbo.The president announced

new deportation priorities thatwould compel law enforcement tofocus its efforts on tracking downserious criminals and people whohave recently crossed the border,while specifically placing a lowpriority on those who have beenin the U.S. for more than 10 years.

President Barack Obama announces executive actions on immigration during a nationallytelevised address from the White House in Washington

Full text of Obama's immigration speechMy fellow Americans, to

night, I'd like to talk withyou about immigration.

For more than 200 years, ourtradition of welcoming immi-grants from around the worldhas given us a tremendousadvantage over other na-tions. It's kept us youthful,dynamic, and entrepreneur-ial. It has shaped our charac-ter as a people with limitlesspossibilities - people nottrapped by our past, but ableto remake ourselves as wechoose.

But today, our immigra-tion system is broken, andeverybody knows it.

Families who enter our coun-try the right way and play by therules watch others flout the rules.Business owners who offer their

workers good wages and benefitssee the competition exploit un-documented immigrants by pay-ing them far less. All of us take

offense to anyone who reaps therewards of living in America with-out taking on the responsibilitiesof living in America. And undocu-

mented immigrants who des-perately want to embracethose responsibilities seelittle option but to remain inthe shadows, or risk theirfamilies being torn apart.

It's been this way for de-cades. And for decades, wehaven't done much about it.

When I took office, I com-mitted to fixing this brokenimmigration system. And Ibegan by doing what I couldto secure our borders.

Illegal immigrationrising in NJ,Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON: Immigrantsentering illegally into the U.S. areincreasingly making states alongthe East Coast their home ratherthan states closer to the Mexicanborder.

A new report by the Pew Re-search Center finds that New Jer-sey, Florida and Pennsylvaniawere among seven states to regis-ter gains in unauthorized immi-grants from 2009 to 2012. Thatcame even as the total number ofimmigrants in the U.S. unlawfullywas unchanged at 11.2 million.

New Jersey had the biggest gain,jumping 75,000 to 525,000. Many ofthem were from India and Ecuador.

It was followed by Florida andPennsylvania.

The Keystone State saw in-creases from several regions in-cluding Honduras, India and theDominican Republic.

Other states with increases inillegal immigration were Maryland,Virginia, Idaho and Nebraska. -AP

Florida sees bigrise of residentsin US illegally

MIAMI: The total number ofimmigrants living in the UnitedStates illegally hasn't changedmuch since 2009, but where theyare choosing to settle, accordingto a new report from the nonprofitPew Research Center.

The report shows Florida withamong the biggest increases inresidents without legal immigra-tion status. Between 2009 and2012, some 55,000 new immigrantsin the country illegally came toFlorida. That brings the state's to-tal to an estimated 925,000. Theincrease highlights a broader shiftfrom the West and Southwest.Only New Jersey saw a larger in-crease, with about 75,000 people.

Some East Coast states likeNew York and Alabama saw de-clines, but Maryland, Pennsylva-nia and Virginia also had sharp in-creases. California, Colorado, Ari-zona and New Mexico saw the big-gest drops in new arrivals, al-though their overall populationsremain among the largest. Califor-nia has more than 2.5 millionpeople without legal status. Texasremains in second place with 1.6million. Florida comes in third.

Florida's agriculture, construc-tion and hospitality industriestend to draw those in the countryillegally. So, too, does Florida'sthriving legal immigrant popula-tion, especially in South Floridawhere Spanish is frequently spo-ken and has traditionally beensympathetic to new arrivals re-gardless of their status. -AP Cont'd on Page 46

Cont'd on Page 36

India Post36 November 28, 2014Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

The president spent monthstrying to gain a House vote on theSenate bill, frustrating immigrationadvocates and some Democratswho wanted him to instead takeaction on his own. While Obamahad long insisted that his powers

to halt deportations were limited,the White House began seriouslyexploring options for unilateralaction.

Still, that process has been be-set by delays, especially Obama'sdecision to hold off on announc-ing the executive orders until afterthe midterms. Some Democratshad feared that thrusting the im-migration debate to the forefrontof the campaign would hurt their

chances of keeping control of theSenate, though the White House'sdelay ultimately did little to stemtheir defeats.

Obama insisted that his actionsdid not amount to amnesty.

"Amnesty is the immigrationsystem we have today - millionsof people who live here without

paying their taxes or playing bythe rules, while politicians use theissue to scare people and whip upvotes at election time," he said.

The main beneficiaries of thepresident's actions are immigrantswho have been in the U.S. illegallyfor more than five years but whosechildren are citizens or lawful per-manent residents. After passingbackground checks and payingfees, those individuals will soon

be able to seek relief from depor-tation and get work permits. Theadministration expects about 4.1million people to qualify.

Obama is also broadening his2012 directive that deferred depor-tation for some young immigrantswho entered the country illegally.Obama will expand eligibility topeople who arrived in the U.S. asminors before 2010, instead of thecurrent cutoff of 2007, and will liftthe requirement that applicants beunder 31. The expansion is ex-pected to affect about 300,000people.

Applications for the new depor-tation deferrals will begin in thespring. Those who qualify wouldbe granted deferrals for three yearsat a time.

Immigration-rights activistsgathered at watch parties aroundthe country to listen to the presi-dent announce actions they havesought for years.

"This is a great day for farmworkers. It's been worth the painand sacrifice," said Jesus Zuniga,a 40-year-old who picks tomatoesin California's Central Valley andwatched the speech at a uniongathering in Fresno.

In New York City, however, acouple of protesters held "no am-nesty" signs outside a New Yorkunion office where advocates ofthe president's plan were gather-ing to watch him and celebrate.

"We have a lot of unemployedAmericans right now, and I don'tunderstand why unemployedAmericans can't be hired to do thejobs these illegals are doing," said

John Wilson, who works in con-tract management.

The White House insistsObama has the legal authority tohalt deportations for parents andfor people who came to the U.S.as children, primarily on humani-tarian grounds. Officials also citedprecedents set by previous immi-

gration executive actions byDemocratic and Republican presi-dents dating back to DwightEisenhower.

A senior administration officialsaid the decision to protect parentsof citizens or lawful permanent resi-dents is in line with an existing lawthat allows adult citizens to spon-sor their parents for immigration.Obama's plan goes a step furtherbecause the sponsoring citizen

doesn't have to be an adult.GOP lawmakers disagree with

Obama's claims of legal authority,calling his actions an unconstitu-tional power grab.

Republicans are weighing arange of responses, including fil-ing legal challenges and usingmust-pass spending legislation

this fall to try to stop Obama's ef-fort. One lawmaker - RepublicanRep. Mo Brooks of Alabama - hasraised the specter of impeachment.

GOP leaders have warnedagainst such talk and are seekingto avoid spending-bill tactics thatcould lead to a government shut-down. They say such moves couldbackfire, angering many votersand alienating Hispanics for thenext presidential election.-AP

Defying GOP, Obama announcesexpansive immigration orders

People chant during a demonstration in front of the White House inWashington, Thursday, Nov. 20, as President Barack Obama announcedexecutive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. listens at left as Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid of Nev. speaks during a news conference on immigration reform,Thursday,Nov. 20, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Cont'd from Page 35

Number of immigrants illegally in Arizona dropsTUCSON: The population of

immigrants in Arizona who lacklegal status has dropped duringthe last few years while remain-ing steady nationwide.

New figures by the Pew Re-search Center show that theplaces where immigrants in thecountry illegally live has shiftedbut that the overall populationhas leveled off.

In Arizona, once a battle-ground for the debate about ille-gal immigration, the number hasdropped from about 350,000 in2009 to about 300,000 in 2012. Na-tionally, there remain about 11.2million immigrants who lack le-gal status living in the U.S. - thesame figure as 2009.

Arizona is among 14 states

where populations of immigrantslacking legal status have shrunk.The other states are Alabama,California, Colorado, Georgia, Il-

linois, Indiana, Kansas, Ken-tucky, Massachusetts, Nevada,New Mexico, New York and Or-egon. California and New York

had the steepest drops.The population has grown in

seven states, particularly inNew Jersey and Florida.

But Arizona still ranks highon the list of states where stu-dents have at least one parentwho lacks legal status. Accord-

ing to the report, 11 percent ofArizona K-12 students have aparent who resides in the coun-try illegally, placing the statefourth after Nevada, Californiaand Texas. Nationwide, only 6.9percent of students have a par-ent who lacks legal status. Mostof those students are U.S.-born,the study shows.

The report was released asPresident Barack Obama is ex-pected to announce executiveaction that will provide relieffrom deportation and work per-mits to as many as 5 millionpeople. Many believe the direc-tive will protect parents of U.S.-born children. The programcould be similar to one issuedto students who were brought

Republicans have threatened action if thepresident moves forward with the plan. Immi-grant advocates have been pushing thepresident and say the midterm election gainsmade by Republicans was in part becauseof Obama's and the Democrat Party's inac-tion on immigration

to the states illegally as childrenand who meet certain qualifica-tions. That program, DeferredAction for Childhood Arrivals,launched in 2012, protects stu-dents from deportation and al-locates them a Social Securitynumber for two years. In Ari-zona, 66,000 students qualify,according to the MigrationPolicy Institute.

Republicans have threatenedaction if the president movesforward with the plan. Immi-grant advocates have beenpushing the president and saythe midterm election gains madeby Republicans was in part be-cause of Obama's and the Demo-crat Party's inaction on immigra-tion. -PTI

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450,000 illegal immigrants in US are from IndiaWASHINGTON: Indians con-

stitute four per cent of the totalillegal immigrants living in the US,a country where the overall unau-thorized immigrant population hasremained unchanged since 2009,a latest report has said.

According to a report by PewResearch, more than 450,000 un-authorized Indian immigrants livein the US, constituting four percent of the total illegal immigrantsin the country.

The estimated figures are of theyear 2012, the report said.

There was considerable declinein the number of illegal immigrants

from Mexico between 2009 and2012, but the overall number of11.2 million unauthorized immi-

grants living in the US in 2012, re-mained unchanged from 2009.

Indians are the largest unau-thorized immigrants in New Hamp-shire.

While the Indian illegal immi-grants comprise second largest

population in Indiana with four percent, the percentages in otherstates were Michigan (14 percent), Minnesota (nine per cent),New Jersey (11 per cent), Ohio (11per cent), Pennsylvania (11 percent) and Washington (five percent), the report said.

Indians were the third largestunauthorized immigrants inAlaska (four per cent), Arizona(two per cent), Delaware (sevenper cent), Illinois (five per cent),Kansas (five per cent), Massa-chusetts (ten per cent), Missouri(nine per cent) and Oregon (twoper cent).

Although the US populationof unauthorized immigrants wasstable from 2009 to 2012, the num-ber of Mexicans in this popula-tion fell by about half a millionpeople during those years.

Unauthorized immigrant popu-

There was considerable decline in the num-ber of illegal immigrants from Mexico be-tween 2009 and 2012, but the overall num-ber of 11.2 million unauthorized immigrantsliving in the US in 2012, remained un-changed from 2009.

lations from South America andfrom a grouping of Europe andCanada held steady between 2009and 2012, whereas it grew slightlyfrom Asia, the Caribbean, CentralAmerica and the rest of the worldfor the same period.

Rounding out the top 10 in 2012are China (300,000), the Philippines(200,000), South Korea (180,000),the Dominican Republic (170,000)and Colombia (150,000).

Five East Coast states wereamong those where the numberof unauthorized immigrants grewwere Florida, Maryland, New Jer-sey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Numbers also rose in Idahoand Nebraska.

Six Western states where theunauthorized immigrant popula-tions declined were Arizona, Cali-fornia, Colorado, Nevada, NewMexico and Oregon. -PTI

Obama warned againstbypassing Congress

WASHINGTON: Top Republi-can leadership has cautioned USPresident Barack Obama againstbypassing the Congress on immi-gration reform that would allow 11million illegal immigrants, includ-ing 2.4 lakh Indians, to stay in thecountry.

"The President has alreadymade a number of unilateralchanges in US immigration policywith disastrous results. We haveseen literally thousands of con-victed criminals released from US

custody, including those with vio-lent records, and, of course, itwasn't that long ago we saw whathad been called a genuine humani-tarian crisis unfold along thesouthern border in my state," al-leged top Republican Senator,John Cornyn.

Questioning the plans on im-migration reform, Cornyn, who isco-chair of the Senate India cau-cus, asked, "What about thepeople who have been waitingpatiently in line complying withimmigration laws to have thesemillions of other people jump rightahead of them and be given someform of legal status?"

"It's just not fair to them, and itcertainly doesn't encouragepeople's compliance with the rulesor the law," he said.

After a poll drubbing at thehands of Republicans whosnatched control of the Senate,Obama struck a defiant tone say-ing he is ready to work with Re-publicans but could bypass Con-gress on issues like immigrationreforms.

The President said he wouldtake executive action this year,

without waiting to see whether thenew Congress makes progress to-ward a comprehensive bipartisanimmigration reform bill.

Opposing the move, Cornynsaid criminal organizations wouldbe one of the biggest beneficia-ries of the President's executiveorder.

"And yet again, PresidentObama just doesn't seem to care.He also doesn't seem to care thathis executive action would harmour opportunity to reform ourbroken legal immigration sys-tem," he said.

Cornyn said Republicans andDemocrats alike have ideas for

how to reform the immigrationsystem, and many of them havebipartisan support.

"So in the President's desper-ate attempt to placate some veryvocal activist groups and tomake up for years of hollow prom-ises, he has decided to flout therule of law and end up makingreal immigration reform thatmuch harder to pass," he said.

The Democratic leadership,however, argued the possible ex-ecutive actions by Obama say-

ing several presi-dents in the pasthave also done so.

"Instead of look-ing for commonground and workingto compromise, a fewextreme Republicansare more interestedin threats and ultima-tums.

And why? Be-cause these radicalRepublicans objectto President Obamausing his constitu-tionally-establishedauthority to do what

Presidents Ronald Reagan andGeorge H W Bush did before him- fix as much of the system as hecan to protect families sufferingunder our broken immigrationsystem," Senator Harry Reid said.

Meanwhile, several Demo-cratic Senators in a letter sup-ported the President on his ex-ecutive actions on immigrationreform.

"Because House Republicanshave not acted, we fully supportyour decision to use your well-established executive authorityto improve as much of the immi-gration system as you can," theSenators said. -PTI

India Post 37November 28, 2014 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

India Post38 November 28, 2014Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

Today, we have more agentsand technology deployed to se-cure our southern border than atany time in our history. And overthe past six years, illegal bordercrossings have been cut by morethan half. Although this summer,there was a brief spike inunaccompanied childrenbeing apprehended at ourborder, the number of suchchildren is now actuallylower than it's been innearly two years. Overall,the number of people try-ing to cross our border il-legally is at its lowest levelsince the 1970s. Those arethe facts.

Meanwhile, I workedwith Congress on a com-prehensive fix, and lastyear, 68 Democrats, Repub-licans, and Independentscame together to pass abipartisan bill in the Sen-ate. It wasn't perfect. It wasa compromise, but it reflected com-mon sense. It would have doubledthe number of border patrolagents, while giving undocu-mented immigrants a pathway tocitizenship if they paid a fine,started paying their taxes, andwent to the back of the line. Andindependent experts said that itwould help grow our economy andshrink our deficits.

Had the House of Representa-tives allowed that kind of a bill asimple yes-or-no vote, it wouldhave passed with support fromboth parties, and today it wouldbe the law. But for a year and ahalf now, Republican leaders in theHouse have refused to allow thatsimple vote.

Now, I continue to believe thatthe best way to solve this prob-lem is by working together to passthat kind of common sense law. Butuntil that happens, there are ac-tions I have the legal authority totake as President - the same kindsof actions taken by Democraticand Republican Presidents beforeme - that will help make our immi-gration system more fair and morejust.

Tonight, I am announcing thoseactions.

First, we'll build on our progressat the border with additional re-sources for our law enforcementpersonnel so that they can stemthe flow of illegal crossings, andspeed the return of those who docross over.

Second, I will make it easier andfaster for high-skilled immigrants,graduates, and entrepreneurs tostay and contribute to oureconomy, as so many business

leaders have proposed.Third, we'll take steps to deal

responsibly with the millions ofundocumented immigrants whoalready live in our country.

I want to say more about thisthird issue, because it generatesthe most passion and contro-versy. Even as we are a nation of

immigrants, we are also a nationof laws. Undocumented workersbroke our immigration laws, and Ibelieve that they must be held ac-countable - especially those whomay be dangerous. That's why,over the past six years, deporta-tions of criminals are up 80 per-cent. And that's why we're goingto keep focusing enforcement re-sources on actual threats to oursecurity. Felons, not families.Criminals, not children. Gang mem-bers, not a mother who's workinghard to provide for her kids. We'llprioritize, just like law enforcementdoes every day.

But even as we focus on de-porting criminals, the fact is, mil-lions of immigrants - in every state,of every race and nationality - willstill live here illegally. And let's behonest - tracking down, roundingup, and deporting millions ofpeople isn't realistic. Anyone whosuggests otherwise isn't beingstraight with you. It's also not whowe are as Americans. After all,most of these immigrants havebeen here a long time. They workhard, often in tough, low-payingjobs. They support their families.They worship at our churches.Many of their kids are American-born or spent most of their liveshere, and their hopes, dreams, andpatriotism are just like ours.

As my predecessor, PresidentBush, once put it: "They are a partof American life."

Now here's the thing: we expectpeople who live in this country toplay by the rules. We expect thatthose who cut the line will not beunfairly rewarded. So we're goingto offer the following deal: If

you've been in America for morethan five years; if you have chil-dren who are American citizens orlegal residents; if you register,pass a criminal background check,and you're willing to pay your fairshare of taxes - you'll be able toapply to stay in this country tem-porarily, without fear of deporta-

tion. You can come out of theshadows and get right with the law.

That's what this deal is. Nowlet's be clear about what it isn't.This deal does not apply to any-one who has come to this countryrecently. It does not apply to any-one who might come to Americaillegally in the future. It does notgrant citizenship, or the right tostay here permanently, or offer thesame benefits that citizens receive- only Congress can do that. Allwe're saying is we're not going todeport you.

I know some of the critics ofthis action call it amnesty. Well,it's not. Amnesty is the immigra-tion system we have today - mil-lions of people who live here with-out paying their taxes or playingby the rules, while politicians usethe issue to scare people and whipup votes at election time.

That's the real amnesty - leav-ing this broken system the way itis. Mass amnesty would be unfair.Mass deportation would be bothimpossible and contrary to ourcharacter. What I'm describing isaccountability - a commonsense,middle ground approach: If youmeet the criteria, you can come outof the shadows and get right withthe law. If you're a criminal, you'llbe deported. If you plan to enterthe U.S. illegally, your chances ofgetting caught and sent back justwent up.

The actions I'm taking are notonly lawful, they're the kinds ofactions taken by every single Re-publican President and everysingle Democratic President for thepast half century. And to thoseMembers of Congress who ques-

tion my authority to make our im-migration system work better, orquestion the wisdom of me actingwhere Congress has failed, I haveone answer: Pass a bill. I want towork with both parties to pass amore permanent legislative solu-tion. And the day I sign that billinto law, the actions I take will no

longer be necessary.Meanwhile, don't let adisagreement over asingle issue be a dealbreaker on every issue.That's not how our de-mocracy works, andCongress certainlyshouldn't shut downour government againjust because we dis-agree on this. Ameri-cans are tired ofgridlock. What ourcountry needs from usright now is a commonpurpose - a higher pur-pose.

Most Americanssupport the types of

reforms I've talked about tonight.But I understand the disagree-ments held by many of you athome. Millions of us, myself in-cluded, go back generations in thiscountry, with ancestors who putin the painstaking work to becomecitizens. So we don't like the no-tion that anyone might get a freepass to American citizenship. Iknow that some worry immigrationwill change the very fabric of whowe are, or take our jobs, or stick it

to middle-class families at a timewhen they already feel like they'vegotten the raw end of the deal forover a decade. I hear these con-cerns. But that's not what thesesteps would do. Our history andthe facts show that immigrants area net plus for our economy andour society. And I believe it's im-portant that all of us have this de-bate without impugning eachother's character.

Because for all the back-and-forth of Washington, we have to

remember that this debate is aboutsomething bigger. It's about whowe are as a country, and who wewant to be for future generations.

Are we a nation that toleratesthe hypocrisy of a system whereworkers who pick our fruit andmake our beds never have a chanceto get right with the law? Or arewe a nation that gives them achance to make amends, take re-sponsibility, and give their kids abetter future?

Are we a nation that acceptsthe cruelty of ripping children fromtheir parents' arms? Or are we anation that values families, andworks to keep them together?

Are we a nation that educatesthe world's best and brightest inour universities, only to send themhome to create businesses in coun-tries that compete against us? Orare we a nation that encouragesthem to stay and create jobs, busi-nesses, and industries right herein America?

That's what this debate is allabout. We need more than poli-tics as usual when it comes to im-migration; we need reasoned,thoughtful, compassionate debatethat focuses on our hopes, not ourfears.

I know the politics of this issueare tough. But let me tell you whyI have come to feel so stronglyabout it. Over the past few years, Ihave seen the determination ofimmigrant fathers who worked twoor three jobs, without taking adime from the government, and at

risk at any moment of losing it all,just to build a better life for theirkids. I've seen the heartbreak andanxiety of children whose moth-ers might be taken away from themjust because they didn't have theright papers. I've seen the cour-age of students who, except forthe circumstances of their birth, areas American as Malia or Sasha;students who bravely come out asundocumented in hopes theycould make a difference in a coun-try they love.

Full text of Obama's immigration speechCont'd from Page 35

Cont'd on Page 39

These people - our neighbors,our classmates, our friends - theydid not come here in search of afree ride or an easy life. They cameto work, and study, and serve inour military, and above all, con-tribute to America's success.

Tomorrow, I'll travel to Las Ve-gas and meet with some of thesestudents, including a youngwoman named Astrid Silva.Astrid was brought to Americawhen she was four years old. Heronly possessions were a cross,her doll, and the frilly dress shehad on. When she startedschool, she didn't speak any En-

glish. She caught up to the otherkids by reading newspapers andwatching PBS, and became agood student. Her father workedin landscaping. Her mothercleaned other people's homes.They wouldn't let Astrid applyto a technology magnet schoolfor fear the paperwork would outher as an undocumented immi-grant - so she applied behindtheir back and got in. Still, shemostly lived in the shadows -until her grandmother, who vis-ited every year from Mexico,passed away, and she couldn'ttravel to the funeral without riskof being found out and deported.It was around that time she de-cided to begin advocating for

East Coast popular for immigrants in US illegallyWASHINGTON: Immigrants

entering the U.S. illegally are in-creasingly making states along theEast Coast their home rather thanstates closer to the Mexican bor-der.

New Jersey, Florida andPennsylvania were amongseven states to registergains in unauthorized immi-grants from 2009 to 2012,even as the total number ofimmigrants here in the U.S.unlawfully was unchangedat 11.2 million, according toa report by the nonpartisanPew Research Center.

New Jersey had the big-gest gain, jumping 75,000 to525,000 as many immigrantsfrom India and Ecuadorcrossed illegally into thestate.

It was followed byFlorida, increasing 50,000to 925,000. Pennsylvaniawas third, rising 30,000 to170,000. It saw increasesfrom several regions includingHonduras, India and the Domini-can Republic, many of whommoved into the rapidly diversify-ing southeastern part of the state.

Other states with increaseswere Maryland, Virginia, Idaho andNebraska.

In the early to mid-2000s, mi-grants primarily from Mexicodrove much of the nation's illegalimmigration into Western states.Now, 14 states including Arizona,California, Colorado, Nevada, New

Mexico and Oregon are seeingdeclines.

Mexicans still make up the bulkof immigrants here illegally -roughly 52 percent, down from 56percent in 2009 - but increasinglyother countries, particularly fromCentral America, Asia and the Car-

ibbean, are contributing to the mix.The report comes as President

Barack Obama seeks to move for-ward with executive actions thatpotentially could shield from de-portation about 5 million immi-

grants here illegally. Congres-sional Republicans are in an up-roar over the plans and are debat-ing how to thwart the president.

Pew said it was too soon to saywhether the shifting pattern of il-legal immigration indicated alonger-term trend.

A crowd of Measure 88 supporters wave signs during a rally in Portland, Ore.

Illegal immigration peaked in2007 at 12.2 million before the U.S.recession hit. Since then, fewerMexicans have crossed into theU.S. while many here have cho-sen to return, due to a combina-tion of factors including an im-proving Mexican economy, height-ened U.S. attention on border en-forcement and an aging Mexicanworkforce.

``We've seen a continued de-cline in the number of unautho-rized immigrants from Mexico,which shows up in two key indi-cators: The number of new arriv-als from Mexico has slowed, and

at the same time, the number ofMexicans apprehended hasreached a 40-year low,'' said Jef-frey Passel, senior demographer atPew.

The Pew analysis is based oncensus data. Because the CensusBureau does not ask people abouttheir immigration status, the esti-mate on immigrants living in theU.S. illegally is derived largely bysubtracting the estimated legal im-migrant population from the totalforeign-born population. It is amethod that has been used by thegovernment and Pew for many yearsand is generally accepted. -AP

Full text of Obama'simmigration speech

Fewer immigrants liveillegally in Kansas

Are we a nation that kicks out a striving,hopeful immigrant like Astrid - or are we anation that finds a way to welcome her in?Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress astranger, for we know the heart of a stranger -we were strangers once, too.

WICHITA: While the overallnumber of immigrants living in theUnited States illegally has beenrelatively stable since 2009, farfewer of them are choosing to livein Kansas, according to a reportby the Pew Research Center.

The report by the nonprofitgroup shows Kansas is among 14states with sharp declines in thenumber of residents living with-out legal immigration status.Seven other states had increases.

Between 2009 and 2012, some20,000 immigrants without legalstatus left Kansas. That lowersthe state's total to an estimated75,000.

The report attributes the popu-lation decreases among those inthe country illegally to a declinein the number of Mexican-bornimmigrants. People from Mexicoaccount for 75 percent of thoseliving in Kansas without lawfulimmigration status.

Immigration activist SulmaArias, executive director of Kan-sas People's Action, also pointed

to increased deportations andlack of employment opportunitiesin Kansas.

``Families leave due to oppor-tunities for jobs in other states, andother states are sometimes morewelcoming as well,'' Arias said.

But Ed Hayes, who runs thewebsite Victims of Illegal AlienCrime Memorial from his Olathehome, said the immigrant popula-tion loss means more jobs for U.S.

citizens.``It is good - that is jobs that

Americans can work or get back,''Hayes said.

The Pew Research Center alsoestimated in its report that immi-grants without legal status ac-count for 3.5 percent of the Kan-sas labor force while comprising2.6 percent of the state's popula-tion. About 7 percent of elemen-tary and secondary schoolchil-dren in Kansas have a parent whois unlawfully in the United States.

Other Midwest states wherethe report indicated declines wereIndiana and Illinois. Six Westernstates - Arizona, California, Colo-rado, Nevada, New Mexico andOregon - also saw decreases. TheNortheastern states of Massa-chusetts and New York also hada decline.

States drawing the biggest in-creases in immigrants withoutlawful immigration status areFlorida, Idaho, Maryland, Ne-braska, New Jersey, Pennsylvaniaand Virginia. -AP

The report attributesthe population de-creases amongthose in the countryillegally to a declinein the number ofMexican-born immi-grants. People fromMexico account for75 percent illegals

Cont'd from Page 38

India Post 39November 28, 2014 Immigration Postwww.indiapost.com

herself and others like her, andtoday, Astrid Silva is a collegestudent working on her third de-gree.

Are we a nation that kicks outa striving, hopeful immigrant likeAstrid - or are we a nation thatfinds a way to welcome her in?

Scripture tells us that we shallnot oppress a stranger, for weknow the heart of a stranger - wewere strangers once, too.

My fellow Americans, we areand always will be a nation ofimmigrants. We were strangersonce, too. And whether our fore-bears were strangers whocrossed the Atlantic, or the Pa-cific, or the Rio Grande, we are

here only because this countrywelcomed them in, and taughtthem that to be an American isabout something more than whatwe look like, or what our lastnames are, or how we worship.What makes us Americans is ourshared commitment to an ideal -that all of us are created equal,and all of us have the chance tomake of our lives what we will.

That's the country our parentsand grandparents and genera-tions before them built for us.That's the tradition we must up-hold. That's the legacy we mustleave for those who are yet tocome.

Thank you, God bless you, andGod bless this country we love.

India Post40 November 28, 2014www.indiapost.com

Porbandar is situated along the Arabian Sea in thewestern Indian state of Gujarat. Famous as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, the city is well connectedto the other parts of the country by rail, road, and air.

Best time to visit: The climate of Porbandar is generallypleasant. The summer season continues from March to Junewith the daytime temperature crossing 42ºC. The monsoonsenter this region in July and remain there till September.Winter comes in from October and stays till February. Dueto the cyclonic storms or depressions in the Arabian Sea inthe post monsoon months, and to a lesser extent in Mayand June, the city faces strong winds, heavy rain, and occa-

sional thunderstorms. The summer temperature ranges be-tween 24ºC and 42ºC and the winter temperature range from10ºC to 24ºC.

History: Porbandar was a historic port of the JetwaRajputs, a dynasty that ruled vast areas of the Kathiawadpeninsula for approximately 2000 years. After facing defeatat the hands of the Jadeja Rajputs in the late 16th and early17th centuries, the Jetwas came back to power in the 1630s.

They shifted their capital from Ranpur to Chaya duringthat time and by the 18th century, the Jetwas finally settledin Porbandar, which occupied a unique position as a portcity. It was strategically situated south of the ports ofNawanagar and the Kutch state, and north of Veraval inJunagadh state.

The Walker Treaty in the early 19th century brought peace

in Saurashtra and this was the time of developmentfor Porbandar. The period saw the construction of afresh water reservoir, separate schools for boys andgirls, a post office. The old fort walls were pulled downto enlarge the city and a town hall, railway station,light house and Jubilee Bridge were constructed.

The Gandhi family were the hereditary Diwans ofPorbandar. On October 2, 1869, Karamchand Gandhihad a son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Ma-hatma Gandhi as he later came to be known the worldover. But Mahatma Gandhi was not the only mahatmaassociated with Porbandar. Swami Vivekanand haddone much of his research in Porbandar, andRabindranath Tagore visited the city for a consider-able period in 1923.

Cont’d on page 42

Mahatma Gandhi’s birth place

India PostNovember 28, 2014 41Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

Delhi-Lahore bus service fare raised by 60%NEW DELHI: Traveling to Pa-

kistan by road has now got cost-lier with the Delhi Transport Cor-poration (DTC), which operatesthe Delhi-Lahore bus service, in-creasing the fare by a steep 60 percent after a gap of almost sevenyears.

Now, one has to shell out Rs2400 for a one way ticket from Delhito Lahore as per the revised farewhich came into effect from No-vember 1.

The last time the fare was in-creased was in February 2008when the ticket cost was set at Rs1500.

Corporation's spokesperson R

S Minhas has confirmed the hike.This is the steepest increase in

the fare of DTC's Lahore bus ser-vice since March 16, 1999, whenits fare was just Rs 800.

According to a DTC official, thefare of Delhi-Lahore bus servicewas increased from Rs 800 to 1250on February 17, 2004.

The service was launched bythe then Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee in March 1999.

As part of its inaugural run onFebruary 19, 1999, Vajpayee wentto attend a summit in Lahore inDTC's Delhi-Lahore bus servicewhere he was received by PakistanPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif at

Wagah."Delhi-Lahore bus leaves for

Pakistan at 6 AM every Monday,Wednesday and Friday fromAmbedkar Stadium Bus Terminalwhile PTDC (Pakistan TourismDevelopment Corporation) busleaves for Pakistan at 6 AM everyTuesday, Thursday and Saturdayfrom the same bus terminal," offi-cial also said.

The DTC official said thatDelhi-Lahore bus service was nothalted even after the Kargil War,but it had to be halted in the after-math of the 2001 Indian Parliamentattack, which led to a serious con-frontation between the two neigh-bors.

The bus service was resumedin July, 2003 when bilateral rela-tions between India and Pakistanimproved. -PTI

Nepal, China agree todevelop mountain tourism

KATHMANDU: Nepal andChina have signed an agreementto promote bilateral cooperation inthe areas of mountaineering andtourism.

President of Nepal Mountain-eering Association (NMA) AngTshering Sherpa and Leader ofDelegation and General Secretaryof China Tibet MountaineeringAssociation (CTMA), Zhang Min

Sien, signed the protocol agree-ment in presence of Tourism Sec-retary Suresh Man Shrestha.

The agreement aims to ex-change projects by sharing infor-mation on mountain climbing andother techniques.

Information related to moun-tain environment and its effectson climate would also be shared.

The agreement would also pro-mote exploration of ideas and ap-proaches to boost tourism in both

the countries.In a bid to make mountaineer-

ing a safe profession, training andrescue techniques would also beexchanged between the nations,a joint statement released byNMA and CTMA said.

Common issues and agendasaffecting mountain tourism wouldalso be explored, the statementsaid.

In order to develop creativemountain climbing activities, it isvery important that CTMA andNMA deepen their friendship byforging mutual understanding, itsaid.

"The friendly relationship be-tween the two organizations willhelp in providing livelihood to thepeople residing in the mountainregion of both the countries," saidAng Tshering Sherpa, President ofNMA. -PTI

India Post November 28, 201442 Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

BADAMIFamous as birthplace of Mahatma GandhiPORBANDARCont’d from page 40

TOURIST ATTRACTIONSThe Huzoor Palace is a massive

structure like a European mansion,sprawling, with a large garden atthe edge of the sea. The palace hasvarious wings in a zigzag forma-tion, which created space for nu-merous forecourts and rear court-yards, which were used for gar-

dens and fountains. The structureis of a very modern style, crownedby trussed timber roofs andbalustraded terraces offering afabulous view of the beach and thesea. Semi-circular porticoes onneo-classical pillars offer entry to

the palace from different sides.A short walk from the Huzoor

Palace leads to Daria Rajmahal,Probandar's sea facing city palace,built in a style that blends Arabic,Indian, Gothic, and Renaissancearchitecture. The entrance isthrough a Gothic style archway,crowned by a tall tower that offersa marvelous view of the palacecourtyards, the beach beyond,

and the sea. Nothing remains ofthe Darbar hall now, and the pal-ace has been turned into a college.

The mid 19th century Haveli ofthe Gandhi family has three sto-ries around a courtyard with akitchen, 17 rooms and a wooden

shrine. Next to the Haveli is theKirti Mandir, built in 1950 by NanajiBhai Kalidas as a memorial to Ma-hatma Gandhi. This monument haspaintings of the Mahatma and hiswife Kasturba. There is a movingphotographic and pictorial displayof the life of the Mahatma and hispart in the struggle for India's free-dom, a library of books related tothe Mahatma's life and philoso-

phy.Walking down from Kirti

Mandir one comes to DarbargadhPalace, built in 1784 by MaharanaSartanji in the typical wood andstone carved style of Gujarat. Agreater example of the architecture

of this period is theGrishmabhuvan, a pleasure pavil-ion with impressive domes, exquis-ite pillars and delicate arches, set

in a pleasant garden. This pavil-ion, called Sartanji Choro becauseof its four part representing differ-ent seasons, was Sartanji's refugefrom the crowds of Porbandar.

Porbandar is a paradise for birdwatchers. Great flocks offlamingoes, both greater andlesser, can be seen at a remarkablyclose range around the coastal

marshes.There are a number of lakes

around Porbandar. Two of them,Jolingkong and Anchherital are

situated at a height of 4,634 metersand 3,658 meters, respectively.Some beautiful old temples are alsoscattered around the district. Avisit to the shrine at Purnagiri, 20kilometers from Tanakpur, is be-lieved to lead to fulfillment of one'swishes.

Kirti Mandir

Hari Mandir

Sudama Temple

Cont’d on page 43

India PostNovember 28, 2014 43Travel & Hospitality Postwww.indiapost.com

There is also a Sikh shrine nearLohaghat called Ritha Sahib, as-sociated with the visit of GuruNanak. It is believed that the bitterritha turned sweet after the touchof the Guru.

The white Manu temple is alsoan oft visited site. In it is enshrineda powerful goddess known to bringrain to these mountains if properlyinvoked. There is also a large swingerected on the field at the base ofa flight of steps leading to the

temple. Here the goddess and hersister from a distant temple swingplayfully when the other goddesscomes visiting. No one can seethem, but the swing moves!

Places aroundKuchdi is a 20-minute drive

away from the city center. Theplace has a bird sanctuary and isquite popular with bird lovers andphotographers.

Ghumli was the capital of theJetwas long before they moved toPorbandar. The place is famous forits Naulakha temple, considered tobe the oldest sun temple in Indiabuilt around the 8th century, andthe 12th century Vikia Vav (stepwell), with numerous flights ofsteps and string coursed carvings.

Gope, 50 km northeast ofPorbandar has a 6th centurytemple with a sanctuary on a plat-form and the usual pyramidalshikhara roof. The temple is in aterribly dilapidated condition butis important, as it is one of the firstto have a roof of this design.

A 30-minute drive fromPorbandar takes one to Barda Hillscovered with forests where onecan find the Khambala Dam withits intricate, decorated kiosks.

Fairs & festivals: Along thecoast at Madhavpur near

Porbandar, the Madhavrai Fair isheld in the month of Chaitra(March/April) to celebrate LordKrishna's elopement with Rukmini.

HOW TO REACHAir - Gujarat Air connects

Porbandar with Ahmedabad. FromAhmedabad, one can take flightsto other important cities of Indiasuch as Delhi and Mumbai.

Rail - Porbandar is a railway sta-tion and is connected to manyplaces in Gujarat and western In-dia. The Saurashtra Express linksPorbandar with Mumbai.

Road - Luxury bus services toRajkot, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad,Junagadh etc. from Porbandar canbe arranged.

PORBANDARCont’d from page 42

Porbandar Airport

Travelers find loos at railway stations 'dirtiest'NEW DELHI: Almost 90 per cent

of travelers in the country find toi-lets at railway stations to be dirti-est apart from being smelly andunhygienic, according to a survey.

As many as 88.31 per cent trav-elers found toilets at railway sta-tions to be dirty, while 74 per centpeople in Kolkata said the loos inthe city were "dirtiest", and 72 percent Mumbaikars and 47 per centDelhiites noted that the lavatoriesin their cities were also smelly.

The survey was conducted byHolidayIQ.com, a travel website,to understand the current sce-nario and importance of cleanrestrooms, while traveling.

We covered six top cities tak-ing views of about 10,000 peopleover the last week and releasedthe report today on the occasionof World Toilet Day, said NihalShaikh of HolidayIQ.com.

The United Nations has dedi-cated November 19 as 'World Toi-let Day' to focus attention on acritical health need for 2.5 billionpeople in developing countries,including India, for sanitary toi-let conditions.

Of the 1 billion people in theworld who have no toilets, Indiaaccounts for nearly 600 million.

According to the survey,people found dirty stinking loos

at heritage and tourist places also,and choose or have changed theirtravel plans based on therestroom experience they can ex-

pect.At least 49 per cent of travel-

ers said they have changed theirtravel plans, for example from trainto flight/bus, because of unhy-gienic toilets.

"Those who have traveled thecountry will understand the fussabout toilets in India too well,"Shaikh said, adding "Even atsome of the world's most fre-quented sightseeing sites in In-dia, travelers often complainabout standing in long lines out-side stinking toilets and rank itamongst the worst tourist experi-ences in the world."

Chennai accounts for 71 percent in dirtiness quotient whilePune clocks 50 per cent followedby Hyderabad 31 per cent, thesurvey observed.-PTIQatar Airways launches

2-for-1 ticket offerMUMBAI: Gulf carrier Qatar

Airways has rolled out a 2-for-1ticket offer for Indian customers,under which travelers booking onebusiness class ticket will receive asecond business class ticket forfree on select global destinations.

In the five-day promotionalscheme, the journey can be under-taken up to March 31 next year,Qatar Airways said in a release.

"We received an overwhelmingresponse from the Qatar AirwaysPrivilege Club members and socialmedia fans in India on the 'Doublethe Luxury' promotion.

"We consistently strive to of-fer the most exceptional and entic-ing promotion for our travelers andgiven the popularity of this pro-motion and so decided to re-intro-duce it for the benefit of our pas-sengers," Qatar Airways Vice

President for Indian Sub continentIhab Sorial said.

Qatar Airways is confident thatits business class travelers willtake advantage of this great two-for-one opportunity, he said.

The airways offers flights from

12 cities in India via its hub in Dohato global destinations such as

Barcelona, Chicago, Dallas, Hous-ton, London, Miami, New York,Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Wash-ington DC besides other destina-tions.

The Doha-based airline oper-ates across 145 business and lei-sure destinations spanning over theMiddle East, Asia Pacific, Africa,

North America and South Americawith a fleet of 139 aircraft. -PTI

Snowfall gives hope to Southwest ski resortsALBUQUERQUE: Spirits were

high at New Mexico's ski resortsafter a weekend storm broughtmore than two feet of snow tosome spots, and crews were tak-ing advantage of freez-ing temperatures asthey cranked up theirsnow-making ma-chines.

Following a string oflackluster years andnegative perceptionsspurred by a persistentdrought, ski resorts inthe Southwest are look-ing to make a come-back.

``With over two anda half feet of pre-seasonsnowfall to date, we're

anticipating some of the best open-ing conditions in years,'' said EdCohen, chief marketing officer atAngel Fire Resort in northern NewMexico.

At the resort's summit, morethan 29 inches of snow fell as thefirst widespread storm of the sea-son moved across the state lastweekend. A wave of cold air fromthe north combined with moistureover the higher elevations to makefor wet, heavy snow.

At least a foot of snow fell inTaos during a 10-hour period, andseveral inches fell near Red RiverSki Area.

Parts of northern Arizona re-ceived a dusting, while 6 inchesfell over the weekend at SunrisePark Resort. There was no snow-fall at Snowbowl near Flagstaff,but resort officials said the coldtemperatures provided a greenlight necessary to start makingsnow.-AP


www.indiapost.com

Horoscope44

Your Weekly Future

(March 21 to April 20)

Good deeds and bless-

ings of a holy person

will come to your

rescue and suddenly like may

take a complete turn for better.

All problems and stress of the past may just evaporate

and the new opportunity should not be less than a fi-

nancial jackpot. Avoid taking any hasty decision about

a property as better deals are also in the air.

PANDIT PARASHAR, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA isalso available for individual consultations.He can be reached at: [email protected]

510-886-4370www.parashar.com

(July 23 to August 22)

Major victory in ongoing

legal matters is indi-

cated. Planets will

help those seeking for a possible

change in career. Freedom from

all ailments of the past also possible. You may be do-

nating for a noble cause. Some money will go to govern-

ment also. It will be better to listen to your own instincts

rather than what other close family member say.

(November 23 to December 22)

It will be another easy week

with no remarkable activities.

You may visit a close relative

to attend a dinner. Money will

mostly go on buying gifts for oth-

ers. Physical activities will get you back in shape and

you will feel more energetic. Boss may decide not to

add more pressure of work on you. You may slowly

work on a small family trip.

(April 21 to May 20)

Obstacle will be severe

but if you stay calm,

solution will be quick

and better than anybody of think

of. Brokers will have a fruitful

week. Value of your assets will

grow fast and you may purchase

another vehicle at a great price. Bachelors may find a

right match, most probably connected with health or

finance industry this week.

(August 23 to September 22)

In spite of everything going

your way, mind will be slightly

restless maybe because so

many things happening at the

same time. You will continue to

take bold actions as the positive outcome will keep

boosting your self confidence. You may also call an

old confidant to seek his opinion on an important is-

sue. Bank balance will grow suddenly.

(December 22 to January 19)

If you take rational decision

you may avert a tricky situa-

tion in career to your advan-

tage. Seek outside help and opin-

ion if possible to be more confi-

dent about your choices. Financially you will continue

to very well and may make final payment on an old

debt. Visitors may confirm about the date of their ar-

rival upcoming holidays.

(May 21 to June 20)

The decision in ongoing

case will come in your fa-

vor and you may quickly

start the procedure for recovery.

An old health issue may flare up

again making you very uncomfortable to function. Bank

balance will grow but you will be writing couple of checks

to government in shape of taxes this week. You may

also attend a big social event with family.

(September 23 to October 22)

Money you need for your

project will become

available as promised.

You may make minor changes in

the contract and send for ap-

proval. The person you have been looking for

outside,already exists in your very close circle. Meet-

ing with boss will go very well and the application will

be approved without any change big or small.

(January 20 to February 18)

Time spent on phone or writ-

ing mail will get the de-

sired results. Business trip

willbe fruitful. You will get full help

from people holding important po-

sition. A middle age person but going bald will be very

helpful. Try to cut down on caffeine if possible. Some

of you may also make appointment with your doctor

for annual check up this week.

(June 21 to July 22)

Go ahead and take your

chances, planets will

help you achieve

your goals without any problem.

Midas touch should continue es-

pecially for another two weeks.

family will start preparing for an upcoming long dis-

tance trip. News you had been waiting for, will finally

come causing extra excitement in life. Bank balance

will shoot up suddenly.

(October 23 to November 22)

An exalted Mars in third will

suddenly motivate you

to take necessary ac-

tions to get out of rat race. Ad-

vise from an old confidant or an

older person will help you make

better choices. Just stay away from a well known fe-

male trouble maker. Value of your stocks will continue

to appreciate and will be a good idea to hold on to

them.

(February 19 to March 20)

You will continue to enjoy

the Midas touch provided

by the favorable planets.

Any change in career at this point

will be favorable and financially

beneficial in long term. You may

invite an old friend for dinner this week. An older family

member may need to see a doctor for some complica-

tions. You may also dispose off some money making

stocks.

November 28th - December 4th, 2014

by Pandit Parashar

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Nov 9, 16, 23, 30• Vivekananda Vedanta SocietyChicagoSwami Ishatmananda: Why WeShould Meditate: Yoga AphorismsTuesdays: Swami IshatmanandaFridays: Swami VaradanandaVenue: 14630 Lemont Road HomerGlen, IL 60491Time: 7:30 pmShivanama SankirtanTime: 06:30pmContact : chicagovedanta.org

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• J K Yog Satsang and BalMukund Hindi Classes are heldevery 2nd and 4rth Sunday ofMonthChicago Satsang Information:J K Yog, Chicago - Swami MukundanandaVenue: Clarion Inn/Waterford Banquets,Board Room, 933 South RiversideDrive, Elmhurst, IL 60126Time: 3:30pm-5:30pmContact: Ajay & Arti Chandhok@ 630-561-4807Website: www.jkyog.org

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PerspectiveNovember 28, 2014

Rising anarchy & Islamist extremismin Pak ideal ground for IS

AJIT KUMAR SINGH

On November 12, 2014,Security Force (SF) per-sonnel reportedly con-fiscated a few flags,

bearing the Islamic State (IS, for-merly Islamic State of Iraq and alSham, ISIS) monogram, near themain entrance to the Pakistan Ord-nance Factory (POF), based in aclosely-guarded part of the his-toric city of Taxila, near Islamabad.Some more flags were recoveredfrom nearby electricity poles.

On the same day, FahadMarwat, a 'spokesman' forJundullah, an al Qaeda affiliatedanti-Shia terrorist group, claimedthat a 'delegation' from the IS hadvisited the organization's leadersin Quetta, the capital ofBalochistan Province, in the pre-ceding week.

He added that the purpose ofthe visit was to see how IS couldwork to unite various Pakistanimilitant Islamist groups. Signifi-cantly, the Balochistan Govern-ment had submitted a 'secret' re-port, dated October 31, 2014, inwhich it had noted,

"It has been reliably learnt thatDAISH (al Dawlah al Islamiyah fial Iraq wal Shâm, ISIS) has offeredsome elements of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Ahl-e-Sunnatwal Jamat (ASWJ) to join hands inPakistan. DAISH has also formeda ten-member Strategic PlanningWing and now seek to inflict ca-sualties on Pakistan Army outfitswho are taking part in operationZarb-e-Azb."

Meanwhile, on November 13,2014, wall-chalkings welcoming ISappeared on City Road, Canton-ment Road, Dera Ismail Khan Roadand Miran Shah Road in theBannu District of KhyberPakhtunkhwa. There were similarreports from other parts of thecountry, including Karachi andPeshawar, regarding emergingsupport for IS.

Again, on October 14, 2014, sixtop 'commanders' of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), includ-ing its 'spokesman' ShahidullahShahid, announced their alle-giance to Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadiaka Khalifa Ibrahim, the chief ofthe IS.

The TTP leaders included thegroup's chiefs for the OrakzaiAgency, Saeed Khan; KurramAgency, Daulat Khan; KhyberAgency, Fateh Gul Zaman;Peshawar, Mufti Hassan; andHangu, Khalid Mansoor.Shahidullah pledged "allegiance toAmirul Momineen Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi" and declared that he

would "abide by all his (alBaghdadi's) decisions ... whateverthe circumstances I shall be loyalto him and obey his directives".The TTP later sacked all these lead-ers, reiterating support for AfghanTaliban leader Mullah Omar.

Significantly, in June 2014, whileannouncing the formation of the

Islamic State, the group had re-leased a map purportedly show-ing the areas IS planned to bringunder its control within five years.These areas included all of Paki-stan within the projected 'IslamicCaliphate'. In a decisive step to-wards the goal, in September 2014,IS appointed Abdul Raheem Mus-lim Dost chief of its 'Khurasan' re-gion.

Soon after his appointment,Dost started extending IS outreachinto Pakistan and Afghanistan, dis-tributing IS propaganda bookletsin the Afghan-Pakistan tribal beltand in some Afghan refugeecamps in Peshawar. Several reportsemerging since suggest that IS hassucceeded in extending its influ-ence in pockets across Pakistan.

Unsurprisingly, the BalochistanGovernment's report clearly statesthat IS has claimed to have "gath-ered 10-12 thousand followers fromthe Hangu and Kurram Agency".Referring to the widespread influ-ence of the IS, Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) chief, AltafHussain, on October 31, 2014,stated, "IS flags were visible fromthe south of Pakistan's Punjab allthe way to the Federal capital ofIslamabad." Another commentatornoted,

"If the Pakistan security appa-ratus fails to check their footprints,it could be a setback for them infuture. It appears that the IS wantsto focus on Pakistan and Afghani-stan, particularly at the time whenUS Forces begin to withdraw fromAfghanistan. If not checked, IS willpose a major threat to South Asiaand the Persian Gulf."

At least 330 Pakistani terrorists

are already known to be fightingalong with IS Forces in Iraq andSyria.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda terroristoffshoot, Jamaat Qaiadat al Jihadfi Shibhi al Qarrat al Hindiya (Or-ganization of the Base of Jihad inthe Indian Subcontinent or AlQaeda in the Indian Subcontinent,

AQIS) has made deep inroads intoPakistan. On September 6, 2014,attackers planned to hijack Navyfrigate PNS Zulfiqar from theKarachi West Wharf Dockyard.Naval Commandos from PNS Iqbalrushed to the incidents site and agun battle ensued. One Navytrooper was killed and anotherseven were injured. Three attack-ers were killed.

On September 11, AQIS claimedresponsibility for the attack, claim-ing that the dead attackers in-cluded Pakistan Navy officers.Subsequently, Defense MinisterKhawaja Asif told Parliament, onSeptember 10: "We cannot rule outinside help in this attack becausewithout it the miscreants could notbreach security. The operationnear Karachi shore was an attackby al Qaeda in the subcontinent."

Significantly, on September 3,2014, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a 55-minute videoposted on the Internet, an-nounced the launch of AQIS tospread Islamic rule and "raise theflag of jihad" across the Indiansubcontinent, including Pakistan.Maulana Asim Umar, chief of alQaeda's Sharia Committee in Paki-stan, was named leader of AQIS.

IS, which has captured largeswaths of territory in Iraq and Syriaand is striving to establish a glo-bal 'Caliphate', is a breakaway fac-tion of al Qaeda, and is deeplyaware of the fact that Pakistan pro-vides it an alternate sanctuary inany 'adverse situation'.

Moreover, the rising anarchyand Islamist extremism across Pa-kistan offer ample opportunity torecruit more fighters, as well as to

establish a base in the region,which accounts for over 31 percent of the world Muslim popula-tion. Conscious of these 'advan-tages', IS and AQIS are vying withone another to fill the vacuum cre-ated by the failure of governancein Pakistan.

It is useful to note that thereare a total of 60 banned organiza-tions in Pakistan, according to theGovernment's National InternalSecurity Policy (NISP) 2014-18document. The document notes,

"Pakistan's economy has suf-fered a loss of more than US$ 78billion in last 10 years only. Morethan 50,000 Pakistanis, includingcivilian, Armed Forces and Law-Enforcement Agencies (LEAs)personnel, were affected or sacri-ficed their lives... Pakistan is fac-ing serious traditional and non-traditional threats of violent ex-tremism, sectarianism, terrorismand militancy... Subversive activi-ties and a pattern of targeting thenational security apparatus andkey installations by the terroristsand non state armed groups havecompounded the challenge."

Further, a report prepared by theUS Congressional Research Ser-vice for distribution to multiplecongressional offices in February2013 noted, "Islamist militantgroups operating on and from Pa-kistani territory are of five broadtypes: Globally-oriented militants,Afghanistan-oriented militants,India- and Kashmir-oriented mili-tants, Sectarian militants, and Do-mestically-oriented militants."

The South Asia Terrorism Por-tal has listed 37 terrorist outfits as'Trans-national Organizations'(which carry out operations inneighboring countries); 12 groupsas 'Domestic Terrorist Organiza-tions' (which engage in violence

within Pakistan), and another fouras 'Extremist Groups' (engaged inthe propagation or imposition ofIslamist extremist doctrines andcodes).

Islamabad has been forced totake some actions against domes-tically-oriented terrorist organiza-tions, as the internal security en-vironment deteriorated, creatingan existential threat to the state.

Nevertheless, as the NISP docu-ment notes, even in this regard,"Traditionally, the entire internalsecurity apparatus acts in a reac-tive rather than proactive manner".

Pakistan's orientation to the ex-ternally directed terrorist forma-tions, however, remains malefic, asstate agencies, prominently in-cluding the Army and its Inter Ser-vices Intelligence (ISI) directorate,continue to provide covert andovert support to terrorist forma-tions that serve their purported'strategic objectives'.

In its latest (October 2014) six-monthly report on the current situ-ation in Afghanistan, the Pentagonobserved, "Afghan-and Indian-focused militants continue to op-erate from Pakistan territory to thedetriment of Afghan and regionalstability. Pakistan uses these proxyforces to hedge against the lossof influence in Afghanistan and tocounter India's superior military."

Despite the enormous domes-tic costs of terrorism, the Pakistanistate and its agencies continue tocreate an environment that allowsa range of Islamist terrorist forma-tions to operate from and flourishon its soil, even as the state con-tinues to promote radical Islamistideologies through its various in-stitutions and polices.

It is this environment - and sub-stantial direct support to a rangeof terrorist formations, includingal Qaeda - that has made the coun-try extraordinarily vulnerable to theconsolidation of global jihadist or-ganizations such as AQIS and IS.

Since state agencies are yet toabandon Islamist terrorism as aninstrument of domestic politicalmanagement and strategic exten-sion, it is unlikely that a focusedstate action will effectively blockthe expansion of AQIS and IS

across the country.Indeed, current orientations

suggest that the Government isinclined to deny, rather than con-front and solve the problem, withFederal Minister of the Interior,Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, on No-vember 11, 2014, dismissing evi-dence of the presence of IS in thecountry, declaring, "No organiza-tion of this name exists in Paki-

Despite the enormous domestic costs of terror-ism, the Pakistani state and its agencies con-tinue to create an environment that allows arange of Islamist terrorist formations to operatefrom and flourish on its soil

www.indiapost.com50 India Post November 28, 2014

HYDERABAD: Bollywood superstarSalman Khan's sister Arpita Khan tied theknot with businessman Aayush Sharma ona star-studded evening at the Taj Falaknumahotel here on Nov 18.

The celebrations, which kicked off withthe 'baraat' at 4.30 p.m., continued till late inthe night at the heritage hotel located in theold city area.

The 'baraat' included horses and twobands, one from Delhi and one fromHyderabad.

It was followed by the 'jaimala' and'phere'. The wedding rituals were performedas per Punjabi Hindu traditions.

Salman's father Salim Khan, motherSalma, brothers Arbaaz, Sohail and otherfamily members received the baraat andblessed the couple, who exchanged gar-lands.

The entire Bollywood gathered to wishthe couple a happy married life. Accordingto a report in Mumbai Mirror, Arpita was

dressed in a lehenga by Abu Jani andSandeep Khosla and entered the DurbarHall, which once hosted the likes of KingGeorge V and Czar Nicholas II, around 5pm. The couple was wed as per Hindu tradi-tions with the rituals of a Punjabi wedding.

The rituals were followed by a party,where Salman, his step-mother Helen, sis-ter-in-law Malaika Arora Khan performed tosome popular numbers. Punjabi singersMika and Yo Yo Honey Singh livened upthe party.

Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and KaranJohar were among top stars from Bollywoodwho attended the marriage. Stars fromTollywood and businessmen were amongthe 250 guests invited for the wedding.

Seven folk artists from Rajasthan andmany more from Mumbai were speciallyflown in for the party.

Hundreds of Salman fans, includingyoung girls, gathered outside the hotel tocatch a glimpse of the stars.

The fans, including some fromMumbai, mobbed the vehicles enteringthe hotel.

The menu for the party includedDeccani cuisine, especially Biryani andHaleem and double ka meetha.

Falaknuma is one of the most beautifulpalaces of the Nizam, the ruler of erstwhileHyderabad State.

The palace, which the Taj Group con-verted into a luxury hotel and opened fouryears ago, has 60 lavish rooms, decoratedhalls and a 101-seat dining hall, said to bethe biggest in the world.

New girlfriendAfter Sangeeta Bijlani, Somy Ali,

Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif, SalmanKhan once again introduced a lady as his"girlfriend" at his sister Arpita Khan's

wedding, reports Mumbai M i r r o r.No one was left in doubt about thefact that Salman Khan and L u l i aVantur are a couple. The tabloid quoted asource present at the wedding, "Salman andLulia were always together. There have beenrumors linking him to Jacqueline Fernandezand Daisy Shah, but the fact is that Salman isin love with Lulia. She is very comfortablewith his family too." Back in Mumbai, Lulia isstaying in a 5-star hotel in Bandra, which is ata distance of a stone's throw from Salman'sapartment. "And Salman is paying the bills,"added the source, says Mirror. He met Luliain 2011 when he was shooting for Ek Tha Ti-ger in Dublin.

Blessing ArpitaAccording to a report in Mumbai Mirror,

the bride-to-be had arrived on Monday withher famous family and checked into Falaknuma,which has reportedly been booked at the costof Rs 1 crore per day. Cont'd on Page 52

India Post

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51November 28, 2014

Actresses flourishing without HindiWhen Hema Malini and

Sridevi came from theSouth to Bollywood,

clueless about the stree-ling andpul-ling of the Hindi language,they worked on their Hindi to be-come no.1. Katrina Kaif got therewithout making an effort to mas-ter the language. That's a bit likebatting for India without knowinghow to hold the bat...Or doing anitem song without knowing howto wriggle and pout. But Katrinahas managed it. She isn't alone.Here's looking at other shuddh-angrezi memsahibs of Bollywood.

1. Lisa Haydon: On KapilSharma's show Lisa Haydon spentall her time nudging Anupam Kherasking him what everyone wassaying. Next time, try learning

some Hindi before you come onthe show. You are a Hindi film ac-tress, right Lisa? In her turn-around film Queen, she played adesi girl settled in Paris and gotaway with her tuti-phuti boli. Againin The Shaukeens she plays a girlof Indian origin and therefore al-lowed to speak broken Hindi. Buthow long will she get roles thatcamouflage her conversationalhandicap? Get a Hindi tutor. Fast.

2. Ileana DCruz: At least thislissom lass is trying. Ileana admitsher Hindi is ....umm... theek nahin.Having a firang boyfriend doesn'thelp the cause of the rashtra-

bhasha at all. But poor girl, she'strying. To be full-on ekdum-jhakaas Hindi phillum heroine,

Ileana needs to THINK in Hindi.That's not happening in the near-future. But again to her credit,Ileana dubs her own lines.

3. Nargis Fakhri: When itcomes to speaking the languageof Bollywood cinema, the verybeautiful Nargis Fakhri throws inthe towel. Not that she isn't try-ing! Nargis has hired staffs who

are purely desi. But woe of woes,even her maid insists on speakingto her in angrezi! Nargis admits hercomplete unfamiliarity with Hindilargely ruined her performance inImtiaz Ali's Rockstar. Candidly,Nargis admitted those lengthylines of dialogues were to her like

Chinese or any other language shedidn't know anything about.

4. Giselli Monteiro: Nargis hascompany. She isn't the only beautyImtiaz Ali imported arbitrarily intoBollywood. Before Nargis, the Bra-

zilian Giselli was seen playing aPunjabi kudi in Imtiaz's Love AajKal. Giselle couldn't speak or fol-low a single word of the languagethat she was supposed to be act-ing in. Can we imagine an actressin French or Chinese cinema whocan't speak the language? We area liberal nation.

5. Katrina Kaif: Arguablytoday's no.1 actress with onlyDeepika Padukone as competitionKatrina Kaif mugs up her lines anddoesn't know what most of thosemean. For a very long time, her dia-logues were dubbed by a profes-sional dubbing artiste. Now shespeaks her lines. Maybe one dayshe will be able to tell her children

her ajab prem ki ghazab kahaani inHindi.

Contrary to the way the firangiactresses are allowed to take lin-guistic liberties, a Freido Pinto hadto master the American accent toget mainstream roles in Holly-wood.

Writer Javed Akhtar explainswhy we don't mind Bollywoodleading ladies who can't speakHindi. "Hum British hukumaat kesachche ghulam hai. A French,Japanese or German man speaksEnglish in his own way. But anIndian man cannot mispronounceone English word, as he will be ridi-culed. But it is perfectly fine tomispronounce Hindi or Urduwords. It's okay if a foreigner can'tspeak Hindi. But if an Indian can'tspeak English he's considereddown-market," says Akhtar.

-Courtesy bollywoodhungama

Zeenat Aman wants to marry again

As she turned 63, veteranactress Zeenat Aman hasexpressed her wish to

settle down again with someoneafter her sons settle down.

"Of course I want to settle downwith someone once again. Whywouldn't I? You see, all these yearsI've single-mindedly focused onmy sons Azaan and Zahaan. Theirwell-being and happiness are allthat mattered to me while they weregrowing up.

"Now that they have matured

and have a life of their own, I canbegin to think about my own lifeonce again," says Zeenat with asweet smile.

Zeenat worked round the clockbefore she settled down withMazhar Khan in 1985. "You mustunderstand I worked relentlesslyfor 15 years. When I got married Ihad reached a sort of saturationpoint. I wanted to focus on mymarriage, husband and then the twoboys. Now my sons are grown upand have a life of their own. They

are both multi-talented.""The older one has graduated.

The younger one is qualified in theculinary arts, and in music andacting. Let's see which way theygo. At the moment their future isfluid," she said.

Zeenat admits there is room forlove and marriage.

"I hold no grudges against any-one. I believe there are goodpeople out there. And I believethere is always room for love andcompanionship," says Zeenat.

Lisa Haydon

Ileana DCruz

Nargis Fakhri

Giselli Monteiro

Katrina Kaif

India Post

www.indiapost.com

52November 28, 2014

After dropping his sister andmother, Salman made another tripto the airport to pick up his soon-to-be brother-in-law. The groom,who had arrived in a horse-drawncarriage flanked by musicians andrelatives, was waiting for her. Andso, with the saat pheras andsindoor, Arpita wed Aayush inwhat has become the most talked-about wedding this year.

'Kalira' ceremonyAmong all the glitz and glam-

our, the biggest highlight of thewedding rituals was Arpita's'Kalira' ceremony. The 'Kalira' cer-emony is one of the rituals of aPunjabi wedding during which thewould-be bride shakes her hands(which has 'Kalira' tied to thebangles) over the heads of unmar-ried girls. If a leaf or a part of the'Kalira' falls on the head of any girl,it is believed she will be the nextto get married. According to a re-port on pinkvilla.com, duringArpita's wedding, the leaf from the'Kalira' fell on Katrina Kaif's head!With the news about Kat-Ranbir'shousewarming parties floating inthe media, Katrina's marriage cer-tainly looks next on the cards.

Pagdi friendsSalman and Aamir Khan are

known for their friendship inBollywood. Both the actors have

Rajinikanth impressed by Sonakshi dance movesWhen it comes to bring

ing terrific attitudewhile dancing, one

name that has been most notablein the film industry is Rajinikanth.The 63 year old actor continuesto have the kind of agility and flu-idity in dance movies that couldwell put a 30 year old establishedactor to shame. Now imagine be-ing required to match steps witha legendary actor like him! Well,Sonakshi Sinha pretty much knewwhat she was getting into whenshe signed Lingaa as she had todance to the beats while match-ing pace with Rajinikanth; some-thing that was clearly a Herculeantask in itself.

On her part, Sonakshi madesure that she didn't giveRajinikanth any reason to com-plain, more so since the time wasat premium as the makers had adeadline of six months to finishand release the film. As it hap-pened, she managed it right insome quick takes and did enoughto make sure that the actor him-self stepped in and showered

ample praises."After seeing the rushes of the

song that they were shooting,Rajinikanth reached out to cho-reographers Chinni and Rekha

Prakash and told them that hedidn't want to stand in the sameframe as Sonakshi as she washogging away all the attention.Of course he was being

humble but then compli-ments like these need tohave some basis behindthem," an assistant chore-ographer informs, "Nowonder, Sonakshi was flat-tered."

For Sonakshi, it waspretty much a trial by fireexperience. Though shehas danced since the daysof Dabangg, her moveshave started getting ag-gressive only now. Lastyear she danced away toglory in songs like 'SareeKe Fall Sa' and 'Gandi Baat',all thanks to PrabhuDheva's R... Rajkumar. Theeffort has started payingoff now as it was just somehomework before shefound herself facing noneother than Rajinikanth forLingaa.

Quiz Sonakshi about this andshe is visibly embarrassed."Come on, can you really imag-ine him saying that in all serious-

ness? I am sure he was being justnice. In fact I literally fell off mychair when I heard that. I said to

him that by no means he couldmean that; after all people look atjust him when he is there onscreen."

On the other hand feedbackfor her dance moves in 'Keeda'for Prabhu Dheva's ActionJackson have already broughtin comparisons with noneother than Karisma Kapoorand Raveena Tandon, who intheir heydays were known forsuch 'masala' movies for themasses.

"Well, this is one compli-ment that I am going to cher-ish; after all Karisma andRaveena have enticed us withtheir dance moves for so long,"she smiles, "When even yourcontemporaries come and com-pliment you that you are danc-ing so freely that it reminds ofthese actresses, it is somethingto feel good about."

With some dancing num-bers waiting to be unveiled for

Tevar as well, one waits to seewhat Sonakshi's contemporarieshave to say for that.

A sister's weddingwon many hearts with their cama-raderie. Even though Aamir missedthe lavish sangeet and haldi cer-emony, he made sure to be a partof the grand wedding. Aamir like aperfect ladki waala was seen tyinga pagdi on his head. Not onlyAamir, Salman was also seen pa-tiently getting his pagdi done.Both the actors looked dashing inan off white pagdi.

Emotional speechThe most touching moment of

the wedding was Arpita's letter forher family. Salman's little sister gotso emotional and choked withemotions that she requestedPriyanka Chopra to read the letter.As per a report in Bombay Timesthe letter read, "I am the luckiestgirl to be brought up in a familylike mine," Arpita wrote in herspeech, adding that her brothersare her pillars of strength. "Sohailbhai and I shared the same room

until he got married - he's like afriend to me. Arbaaz bhai is likemy guide, he always told me what'sgood and what's bad. Salman bhai,though, has the biggest heart. Forhim, I can do no wrong. EverythingI did, he was there to support me."

Son's performanceBefore Arpita and Aayush

Sharma's wedding took place,there were reports in the media thatArpita's brothers will be giving aspecial performance for the sister.All the three brothers along with

S a j i dNadiadwala per-formed a specialtowel dance onSalman's famoussong 'Jawaniphir na aaye.'

However, ac-cording a reportin BombayTimes, the mainattraction of thewedding nightwas the perfor-mance of Arbaaz

Khan and his son Arhaan. Arbaaz,who is a good singer in real-lifegave company to Mika Singh onstage. Further to the BombayTimes report, Arbaaz's son Arhaanmade a smashing entry on thestage stripping off his jacket andhurling on the ladies sitting besidethe stage. The crowd cheered forthe junior Khan as he performedsome fantastic moves. A guestwas heard saying, "He will soongive Shahid and Hrithik a run fortheir money."

Cultural historian traceshistory of baby food

NEW YORK: Where did babyfood come from and where has itbeen?

Cultural historian Amy Bentley,mom of three teenagers and an as-sociate professor in the Depart-ment of Nutrition, Food Studiesand Public Health at New YorkUniversity, answers that questionand more in a sweeping newbook tracing how Americansfeed their infants.

Her ̀ `Inventing Baby Food:Taste, Health and the Industri-alization of the American Diet,''was published in September bythe University of CaliforniaPress.

A conversation with AmyBentley:

AP: What did families do be-fore commercial baby foodcame along?

Bentley: Before the 20th cen-tury, the age at which one fedan infant solid food was muchlater - somewhere between nineand 12 months. The age today isbetween four and six months. Inthe 1950s and `60s, it was four tosix weeks after birth, so it'schanged dramatically between the18th century, mid-20th century andtoday.

It was thought that youshouldn't feed infants fruits andvegetables until after the age of 2.There was a lot of distrust over

fruits and vegetables. It harkensback to medieval and earlier theo-ries of the body.

A lot of them were wet and wa-tery, which were negative quali-ties. Plus some vegetables havelaxative effects and there was sucha worry about dysentery, cholera,other types of intestinal infections

that really raised infant mortalityrates, especially in the summer.People didn't really know what wascausing it. Was it something in-side the fruits and vegetables?Germs weren't understood.

It was also thought that fruitsand vegetables didn't really havefood value. It was only with thediscovery of vitamins in the early20th century that it was really un-derstood they had value.

Rajinikanth

Sonakshi Sinha

Cont'd from Page 50

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Philosophy

The body/mind is not thesubject of experience

Reality has power to project,sustain & withdraw creation

Logically if you tell a sad person to give upsadness it will not have the required result be-cause sadness rests at the level of the subcon-scious and not the conscious mind.

RUPERT SPIRA

The artist and poet WilliamBlake said, "If the doors ofperception were cleansed,

every thing would appear to manas it is, Infinite. For man hasclosed himself up, till he sees allthings through narrow chinks ofhis cavern."

What did he mean by this? Howcan a finite object, such as a tree,table, chair, person, or house beinfinite?

Let us understand to begin withthat the word 'perception' includesall five senses: seeing, hearing,touching, tasting and smelling.

Conventional thinking tells usthat the experience of perceptionis divided into two essential ingre-dients: one, a subject that per-ceives and two, an object that isperceived. This understanding isenshrined in the structure of lan-guage with phrases such as, "I seethe tree," "I hear the wind," "Itouch the person," "I taste theapple" and "I smell the flower."

In each case, a subject - 'I,' theself - is joined to an object - thetree, wind, person, apple or flower- through an act of perceiving, thatis, through an act of seeing, hear-ing, touching, tasting or smelling.

Now, in order to understand thenature of perception, we need to ex-plore both sides of this equation - 'I',the subject, and the object or world.Traditionally, mystics have explored

SWAMI NIKHILANANDASARASWATI

Reality has certain innate,inherent powers, whichcan be broadly termed as

shakti. It has the power to project,sustain and withdraw the world.The Upanishads explain this withthe example of the spider's web. The spider has the ability toproject or create its own web outof itself, stay in it or sustain it andin the end take it back into itselfor swallow it. The Sanskrit wordsrishti is normally understood ascreation.

But strictly speaking the worldis not created it is projected, likethe dance of the dancer. Thedance though not separate fromthe dancer remains with her in anunmanifest form, when she is notdancing.

She has the ability to projectthe dance at will, very much likethe spider weaves its web. Simi-larly the world is created throughShiva's dance of creation.

Shiva or the Supreme Realityhas the power to project, sustainand withdraw the dance of cre-ation. We say dance becausedance conveys movement, fluid-ity and change. Like the dance,the world is constantly changing.The dancer goes through various

movements, while she herself re-mains unchanged. So too, theLord remains unchanged throughthe whole process of creation.

The Lord or the Supreme Real-ity has two other major powers. Ithas the power to delude itself andalso the power to remove the de-lusion. Despite perfect vision the

blindfolded person is not able tosee when the scarf is round hiseyes. In a similar fashion the Re-ality deludes itself or plays withitself, by projecting itself as thelittle beings of the world.

We have all the powers of Godbecause we are cast in His mould.Through the process of sadhanawe shower grace on ourselvesand come out of this self inflicteddelusion. The Supreme Con-sciousness is the very core of our

Mystics have tended to face inwards, direct-ing their attention to the heart of their being oressential nature, and scientists and artistshave tended to face outwards

Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati

Rupert Spira

the nature of 'I', the self, and artistsand scientists have explored thenature of the object or world.

In other words, mystics havetended to face inwards, directingtheir attention to the heart of theirbeing or essential nature, and sci-entists and artists have tended toface outwards towards the objectsof nature and the world.

At first glance it may seem thatthese two set out in opposite di-

rections. However, if each partyexplores deeply enough, they in-evitably come to the same conclu-sion. Indeed, it is only because inmost cases, each party doesn't ex-plore deeply enough, that the con-clusions of mystics on the onehand, and artists and scientists onthe other, tend to differ so radically.

The painter Paul Cézanne said,"A time is coming when a singlecarrot, freshly observed, will trig-ger a revolution." The revolution

to which he referred is the comingtogether of these two perspectives- the convergence of the mystic's,artist's and scientist's deepest un-derstanding - and the implicationsthis has for all aspects of our lives.

The Nature of the SelfConventional thinking tells us

that it is 'I,' the body/mind, that isaware of objects and the world.However, one simple, clear look at

experience indicates that we areaware of the body and mind in justthe same way that we are aware ofobjects and the world.

In other words, the body/mindis not the subject of experience.The body/mind is an object of ex-perience, that appears and disap-pears like all other objects. Nowwhat is the perceiving subject thatwe call 'I,' that knows or is awareof all these perceived objects, thatis, that body, mind and world?

'I' refers to whatever it is that isaware of the objects of the body,mind and world. This 'I' cannot befound as any kind of object, thatis, as a thought, feeling, sensationor perception. And yet 'I' am unde-niably present and aware.

Hence, to be present and awareis inherent in 'I,' which for this rea-son is sometimes referred to as'Awareness,' which simply meansthe presence of that which is

aware. This Awareness that is ouressential nature is like an aware,empty openness in which all expe-rience takes place, but is not itselfan experience.

Awareness is not located in timeand is thus eternal or ever-present;it cannot be found in space and isthus infinite, that is, it has no fi-nite or observable qualities.

Rupert Spira, born in 1960, isa British potter and non-dualityteacher

If patience is worth any-thing, it must endure tothe end of time. And a liv-ing faith will last in themidst of the blackeststorm.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Faith is taking the firststep even when you don'tsee the whole staircase.

- Martin Luther King,Jr.

Be faithful in small thingsbecause it is in them thatyour strength lies.

- Mother Teresa

Faith consists in believingwhen it is beyond thepower of reason to be-lieve.

-Voltaire

To have faith is to trustyourself to the water.When you swim you don'tgrab hold of the water,because if you do you willsink and drown. Insteadyou relax, and float.

- Alan Watts

God, our Creator, hasstored within our mindsand personalities, greatpotential strength andability. Prayer helps us tapand develop these pow-ers.

- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

To one who has faith, noexplanation is necessary.To one without faith, noexplanation is possible.

- Thomas Aquinas

personality. Like the sun or lightit is self-luminous, conscious byitself and not dependent on any-thing for support. It is surroundedby a layer of ignorance or vasanaswhich can be termed as uncon-sciousness. It is a state in whichwe are not conscious of anything.Sleep is a part of this layer.

This layer is surrounded by thelayer of sub-consciousness inwhich all our thoughts and emo-tions exist. This is the layer thatprojects the dream world andholds as it were all our ideas, phi-losophies and visions about our-selves as well as the world. Theconscious mind exists in the out-ermost layer of our personality.

Logically if you tell a sad per-son to give up sadness it will nothave the required result because

sadness rests at the level of thesubconscious and not the con-scious mind. Unless we are ableto reach the sub conscious levelof our mind the desired result willelude us and the negative emo-tions will remain unaltered.

The subconscious level canbe reached through faith; deep

convictions can transform thenegativities stored at this level.But even faith cannot reach theunconscious level. Only gracecan touch this layer - God's graceor the grace of the Guru.

A spiritual master of theChinmaya lineage, SwamiNikhilananda Saraswati is theRegional Head of ChinmayaMission in New Delhi and itscenters in Noida, Gurgaon andFaridabad.

54 Edit Pagewww.indiapost.com

November 28, 2014India Post

India Post

A defense managementagenda for Parrikar

PR CHARI

Being a RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh(RSS) mukhyapracharak (chief

preacher) endeared ManoharParikkar to Modi and earned himthe Defense portfolio. Parikkar isa modern man.

He graduated in MetallurgicalEngineering from the Indian Insti-tute of Technology, Mumbai, andhas proven his administrative ca-pabilities as a two-term Chief Min-ister of Goa.

Parikkar's shift to New Delhiresembles that of YB Chavan, thehighly regarded Chief Minister ofMaharashtra, who was brought toNew Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru

following India's traumatic defeatin the Sino-Indian border conflictin 1962.

Parikkar would need to displaythe same acumen as YB Chavandid when he joined the UnionCabinet. India's defeat in the bor-der conflict had left the prestigeof the defense apparatus in tatters.What was the situation obtaining?

I have noticed elsewhere that"A blame game started with the po-litical, civilian and military estab-lishments accusing each other ofincompetence, naïveté and worse.Civil-military relations had, in fact,crumbled…"

Chavan sought initially to as-suage the bruised egos in SouthBlock, adjudicate between mutualaccusations, and restore a sem-blance of normality in the higherechelons of the defense apparatus.

The very first change effectedwas to start the institution ofMorning Meetings that providedan informal setting for interactionsbetween the Ministers in the MoD,Chiefs of the three Services, Sec-retaries in the Ministry of Defense,and the Financial Adviser.

The unstated purpose of thesemeetings was to develop a rapport

between the estranged segmentsof the higher defense apparatusand persuade them to work to-gether harmoniously.

Civil-military relations haveagain reached a new low in NewDelhi following the date of birthcontroversy raised by the formerChief of Army Staff, General VKSingh. His approaching the Su-preme Court and later, prosecutionfor criminal defamation, are un-precedented.

Charges and counter-chargesof malfeasance made against thehighest officials in the military hi-erarchy have also been unprec-edented, taking a huge toll on thearmed forces' morale. The Modi

Government, in its wisdom, gavea ticket to General VK Singh, gothim elected, and inducted him intothe Council of Ministers.

How will these actions heal thewounds inflicted on Army moraleand civil-military relations? Thisproblem needs to be faced headon by the new Defense Minister.

Parikkar would have been welladvised to make soundings anddevelop cogent views on the de-fense apparatus before indulgingin policy declarations. But, he hasopined that user trials and com-mercial negotiations must be com-pleted quickly to expedite procure-ment decisions.

Thereby, equipment would bedelivered quickly, greater trans-parency would be ensured, andcosts reduced, since suppliers doinflate costs to allow for delays.

Coming to maintenance of ad-vanced weapon systems, Parikkarfelt that "the best solution is toask the company to manufacturein India," which raises severalawkward negative issues like thegeneral state of the economy, tech-nical education standards and skillsets available in the country.

However, there are three other

supervening and conceptual is-sues that he should address in theinterests of higher defense man-agement.

• First, a realistic effort is neededto recognize the variegated threatsto national security that requirecountering by the Services. In fu-ture, internal security challengeswould multiply beyond the capac-ity of the paramilitary forces tohandle them.

This is already occurring withLeft Wing Extremism in Central In-dia. The Army and Air Force havesteadily expanded their roles here,despite their reservations. A clearpolicy in this matter will enable ap-propriate decisions being taken onfuture armed forces' training, equip-ment and force structures.

• Second, personnel manage-ment requires urgent attention fortwo major reasons. Parikkarshould get details of the litigationthat has rocked the Ministry ofDefense and Services Headquar-ters over the years, analyze theircontent, and take pre-emptivesteps to mitigate the underlyinggrievances.

Apart from the time and energyinvolved in dealing with a hugevolume of litigation, their numbersis a sad reflection of the dissatis-faction in the armed forces. An-other aspect of personnel manage-ment relates to retention of offic-ers, especially at the cutting edgelevel of Captains/Majors in theArmy and the two other Services,which has become a serious issue.

• Third, the ubiquitous subjectof economy in defense expendi-ture cannot be ignored. Govern-ments are notoriously remiss incontrolling their own expenses andDefense establishments lead thisinsouciance. A serious exercise toaddress waste could provide somesurprises. For instance, it wouldbe found that different units us-ing the same equipment, e.g. MiG-21 aircraft, have different manningpatterns.

More serious thought is alsorequired on whether units like ra-dar stations or electrical and me-chanical workshops could be man-aged by civilian personnel. Cur-rently, they are manned by uni-formed pe rsonnel who costsome three times as their civiliancounterparts, without any com-mensurate improvement in effi-ciency or reliability.

These issues and examplescould be multiplied, highlightingthe value of bringing a fresh mindto bear on old issues.

The writer is Visiting Profes-sor, IPCS

Defense Minister Manohar Parikkar with PM Modi

Modi abroadEven after a hectic 10-day three-nation tour where he attended

the East Asia and ASEAN-India Summits in Myanmar, theBrisbane G20 Summit and held bilateral meetings with his

Australian and Fijian counterparts, Prime Minister Narendra Modihad the energy left to spring a surprise on returning home. In a coupof sorts he announced on Twitter that US President Barack Obamahas accepted his invitation to be the Chief Guest at India's RepublicDay celebrations on 26 January in New Delhi.

It is a comment on the state of media that leaders of the twocountries, India and USA, chose to make important announcementson the social media and left the print and visual media wringing theirhands. Obama made his announcement on legalizing 5 million illegalimmigrants on Facebook while Modi took to Twitter to throw thesurprise about Obama as Chief Guest on Republic Day.

Modi also seems to be one step ahead of his detractors, whichare many. While the Congress continues to be in reactive mode,here for the first time is a leader of India who is pro-active.

After the dull movie of Manmohan Singh and UPA, Modi's ishigh action drama with never a dull moment. From an isolationistforeign policy played by India so far, Modi seems to be playing forhigh stakes in the international arena. He hugged Australian PrimeMinister Tony Abbott as if long lost friends have met again. Austra-lian newspaper The Age commenting on the hug said, "The standout shake so far has been India's Prime Minister Modi, who gaveAbbott a hug. An 'awww' could be heard across the media center."

What was the signal success of his foreign tour? An importantpoint about dangers of black money made by Modi was acceptedby the G-20 and it was incorporated in the joint statement. Writingin his own blog on his return, Modi said, "India placed the issue ofexistence and repatriation of black money at the forefront of theworld community." And the world community took note of this "be-cause this is an issue that does not selectively affect one nation."He also said, "black money brings with it terrorism, money launder-ing and narcotics trade."

Expressing satisfaction, he said," Our efforts paid off with theofficial communiqué reflecting this issue."

After attending five Summits and meeting 38 world leaders, Modireturned with new confidence about India's place in the world. Aboutthe tour he said in his blog, "I noticed one thing - that the world islooking at India with renewed respect and immense enthusiasm! Isee a global community that is tremendously keen to engage withIndia."

Truly, in just six months Modi has transformed himself into aworld figure with even the Time magazine listing him as one of thecontenders for Man of the Year title for 2014.

During his four-city tour in Australia, Modi and his counterpartTony Abbott agreed on a landmark framework for security coopera-tion across the spectrum in defense, cyber and maritime securityand combating terrorism, including the threats posed by foreignfighters joining extremists groups.

The two countries also decided to conclude a long-pending FreeTrade pact and an "early closure" of the civilian nuclear deal thatwill facilitate uranium imports to India.

At the East Asia summit in Myanmar, Modi asserted that theworld community must reject any linkage between religion and ter-rorism while formulating a "genuinely international" partnership inthe fight against all forms of terror acts.

He promised "major improvement" in India's trade policy andenvironment and proposed a special facility for speedy implemen-tation of connectivity projects with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc.

Strengthening trade and commerce was never far from histhoughts and drawing industry to India was a central part of hisdiscussions. This is only the beginning of Modi era. At his pace wecan foresee lot of good developments for India.


November 28, 2014

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