asian voice

25th September to 1st October 2010VOL 39. ISSUE 21 80pLet noble thoughts come to us from every side

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WelshschoolgirlwinsAmerica'sPerfect Teenpageant

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see page 6

Anysha Panesar

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India on tenterhooks

India is literally on‘Rambharose’ (at themercy of God) just 12days ahead of the show-piece CommonwealthGames to be held in NewDelhi. While the prepara-tions of the CWG havebeen under clouds, thesuspected terrorist attackon foreign tourists inDelhi has added to the

security concerns, forcingUK and at least threeother countries to issuetravel alerts to theirnationals intending to visitIndia.

New Delhi witnessedshooting of two foreigntourists from Taiwan on

Sunday and within hours,a car catching fire just asmall distance away fromthe site of shooting. Theother possible triggercould be the AllhabadHigh Court verdict on a 60year old title suit on dis-puted structure in

Ayodhya, to be announcedon Sept 24.

This apart, the prepa-rations for theCommonwealth Gameshave earned flak frommany leaders of majorinternational teams,including Scotland, NewZealand and Canada toname a few.

Cranes remove debris of a collapsed bridge at theJawaharlal Nehru stadium on Tuesday in New Delhi

A file picture of the Babri Masjid demolition at Ayodhya in the year 1992

CWG, Ayodhya verdict cast shadow on security situation

Scotland, NZ Chief de Mission find CWGvillage shoddy, not fit for human habitation

Continued on page 22

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 20102 UK

People■ It was Ladies Dayduring Prime MinistersQuestions last weekwhen for the fisrt timeever two Asian WomenMPs questioned DavidCameron in succession.Priti Patel MP askedabout Fidel Castro andValerie Vaz MP askedabout the sitauion inBurma and Iran.

■ Curry King SirGulam Noon MBE wasbusy dining with DavidMiliband MP this week.

They are due to meetagain next week at theLabour PartyConference.

■ Tory MP Paul Uppallwas one of several MPsattending the launch ofthe 2010 Tiffin Cup atthe Red Fort in Soho.Paul's nominated restau-rant was none otherthan the Red Fort inWolverhampton.

one to oneKeith Vaz MP with

Roger Howard, CEO UK Drug Policy Commission1) What inspired you tobegin your career inyour chosen field?

I come from what youwould call a traditionalworking class family butone which valued theimportance of educationfor self improvement. Isaw how economic andsocial impoverishmentjust fuelled problems likecrime or drugs and Iwanted to do somethingabout it.

2) What are your proud-est achievements?

That I continue to letresearch, facts and evi-dence guide my actionsrather than be steered byideology, blind faith orprejudice. On a practicallevel this has meant thatI have helped, in somesmall way, thousands ofdrug addicts and offend-ers rebuild their ttlives.It can be done.

3) Please tell us aboutthe report on ethnicminorities that the com-mission recentlyreleased?

The report provides anoverview of the differingneeds and challengesassociated with drug useamong diverse ethniccommunities in the UK.We found that a betterunderstanding of druguse is needed to reducedrug problems and couldalso provide warning of‘new’ or emergent pat-terns of drug use.

4) What has been thebiggest obstacle in yourcareer?

Undoubtedly it is myLondon ‘cockney’accent!! Once in India, agroup of Chinese touriststhought I was fromAustralia-I suspectbecause Britain oncetransported its convictsout there in the 19 cen-tury.

5) Who has been thebiggest influence onyour career to date?

First my father, becauseof his deep ethicalapproach to life. Theother was a historyteacher, Ken Weech, wholater became a Labour

MP. He fired up my inter-est in history and under-standing about the rootsof social injustice.

6) What is the best thingabout your current role?I have the opportunity towork with the people whoreally know about drugproblems as well as thosewho can make somethinghappen to reduce theharms that can go hand in

hand with drugs. So manyof them are truly inspira-tional.

7) And the worst?

The highly polarised pub-lic debate that goes onabout drugs. It is veryhard to get a balanced andaccurate discussion about‘what works’ best toreduce the harms that areassociated with drugs,

such as ill-health andcrime.

8) What are your longterm goals?

To continue making apositive contribution tohow society responds toits most vulnerablemembers.

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

I would somehow ‘abol-ish’ the stigma, preju-dice and shame associat-ed with those whobecome addicted todrugs or alcohol. Theseare 21st century publichealth problems, notbubonic plague or lep-rosy. It does not meanwe condone people’sbehaviour but respondwith practical help, com-passion and insightabout the condition.

10) If you weremarooned on a desertisland, which historicalfigures would you like tospend your time withand why?

I wonder how a collec-tion of philosophers,radical politicians, scien-tists, sports figures,musicians, writers,painters, actors and soon would all get on witheach other? In truththere are so many figureswho intrigue and inspirein equal number it ishard to draw up the invi-tation list!

Imran Farooq, pictured- aleading member of thecountry's MQM(Muttahida QuamiMovement) party - wasambushed in the streetand stabbed to death.

Detectives investigat-ing the murder of a leadingPakistani politician innorth London are examin-ing the possibility it was apolitical assassination.

His death sent shockwaves through Pakistanand brought Karachi, thecountry's second largestcity, to a standstill. A postmortem took place atFinchley Mortuary, on lastFriday, and gave cause ofdeath as multiple stabwounds and blunt traumato the head.

Officers, lead by theMetropolitan PoliceService's SpecialistOperations CounterTerrorism Command, havebegun house to houseinquiries to trace any wit-nesses to the attack, andhave handed out appealnotices urging anyonewith information to comeforward.

Chief SuperintendentNeil Basu, BoroughCommander of Barnet

told Harrow Times: “Themurder of Dr Farooq isshocking for the Edgware,Pakistani and Muslimcommunities.

“I would like to reas-sure these communitiesthat specialist detectivesfrom New Scotland Yardare working around theclock to catch thoseresponsible.

“We have briefed sen-ior community leaders andwill continue to keep themupdated with any develop-ments. Additional uniform

police officers willbe patrolling inEdgware over thenext few days toreassure the commu-nity, and I am work-ing closely withC h i e fSuperintendent DalBabu in Harrow toensure both our bor-oughs remain calmand safe.

“The location ofthis tragic event is inthe heart of a strongJewish communityand I would like tothank them for theircompassion andunderstanding atthis very importanttime of the year.”

Anyone with impor-tant information that mayassist the investigationshould call the incidentroom on 0208 721 3784or, Crimestoppers anony-mously on 0800 555 111.

Friends said Dr Faroogwas “a family man, a gen-tleman and a perfecthuman being”.

His death has sparkedrioting back in Pakistanand the country's seniorofficials have descried thedeath as an assassination.

Pakistani politician stabbedto death at London home

Paul Uppall

Gulam Noon

Sir Mota Singh, UK'sfirst Sikh and Asianjudge, knighted byQueen Elizabeth II ear-lier this year, receivedthe 'Pride of IndiaAward' 2009 institutedby an organisation thatpromotes science andculture of India.

India's HighCommissioner to theUK, Nalin Surie, pre-sented the trophy at the6th Annual Awards ofthe India InternationalFoundation at theMarriott Hotel here lastnight in the presence ofa distinguished gather-ing including NRI

industrialist LordSwaraj Paul, Lord IltafSheikh and Gurdip SGujral, CBE.

Mota Singh heldvarious responsiblepositions in Kenya andthe UK in the legalfields such asSecretary, Law Society,D i s c i p l i n a r yCommittee, Member,Kenya Council of LegalEducation in Kenya.

He was Knighted bythe Queen this year.

He said "the UK hasbeen a good host coun-try and India-UK rela-tions which has beengood, has now moved

into a higher trajectory- a strategic partnershipat higher level."

Manek Dalal OBE,Chairman of theBharatiya VidyaBhavan, was given theaward for his outstand-ing achievement in'Administration'.

Asavari Pawar,daughter of India's wellknown Kathak dancerPratap Pawar, receivedthe award in the field ofArt and Culture. Pawaris a writer on dance andmusic and runs musicand dance classes inKalaashish in India.

Pride of India Awardsheld in London

Sir Mota SinghHE Nalin Surie Manek Dalal OBE

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Thought for the WeekPartitioning Afghanistan: Wisdom or folly?Robert Blackwill is one of America's high-fliers. Hewas Condolezza Rice's deputy as national securityadviser in 2003-04 and became US ambassador toIndia, where he played a seminal role in fashioninga closer relationship between the two countries,whose bedrock was the Indo-US civilian nuclearaccord. Mr Blackwill was quick to recognise the truedimension of the Islamist terrorist threat emanatingfrom Pakistan and the danger this posed to regionalsecurity. He was forthright on this score and hisrobust attitude was much appreciated in Delhi. MrBlackwill left India for the bowers of academe inHarvard, where he also made a considerable impact.

Mr Blackwill's latest gambit is his plan to parti-tion Afghanistan along its ethnic faultlines. As theTaliban consists overwhelmingly of Pashtuns fromthe country's south, whose presence straddlesPakistan's north-western region, Mr Blackwill sug-gests the creation of an sovereign Taliban-ruledPashtun homeland. Uzbeks and Tajiks and othersmaking up the Northern Alliance and the Hazaras inwestern Afghanistan, who are mostly Shia, can havetheir separate states. Mr Blackwill's thinking stemsfrom his recognition that, for all the brave Nato mil-itary-speak of surges and much else, “The Talibanare winning, we are losing. They have high moraleand want to continue the insurgency. Plan A is goingto fail. We need a Plan B. Let the Taliban control thePashtun south and east, the American and alliedprice for preventing that is far too high,” MrBlackwill said.

He pointed to the crippling $100 billion per yearit was costing the US for its Afghan operations.Hence, the US should seek only to defend theUzbek, Tajik and Hazara territories and leave thePashtuns to their own devices. “How many peoplebelieve that Kandahar is central to Western civilisa-tion?”he asks. Nobody who is sane, if the truth betold. But that isn't the question. What needs mullingover is whether Mr Blackwill's partition plan forAfghanistan work. Partitions seldom deliver theresults their progenitors seek. The case of the Indian

subcontinent comes readily to mind. Partition mayhave saved the Indian republic from a catastrophe,judging by the dysfunctional state of Pakistan, but ithasn't brought the expected regional peace.

American policies in Asia as a whole have beena litany of disasters, from the Chinese civil war in1946-49 to the Vietnam war, 1960-75 and beyond tothe intervention in Iraq in 2003 – the last a trilliondollar war, according to Nobel laureate JosephStiglitz.

Prior to Robert Blackwill's trumpet call forAfghanistan's partition, the respected Pakistaniwriter and journalist Ahmed Rashid, who has unri-valled knowledge of the country and its broaderenvirons, warned in his article in the FinancialTimes that the Blackwill plan would turn out to be arecipe for yet another US disaster. What seemedplausible on paper would be unworkable on theground because, in his view, none of the parties wereagreeable to accepting Afghanistan's partition . Howdid he know? By simply speaking to their leaders -he knows them all personally – and learnt their res-olute opposition to such a deal. They would standtogether rather than hang separately.

The US and its allies are in a desperate situation,but Robert Blackwill's partition plan, it wouldappear, is unlikely to be the solution. Mr Blackwillin his haste has omitted to mention Pakistan's cur-rent woes and its deepening infirmities. The govern-ment in Islamabad barely functions; the country'sfloods have crippled its economy and ruined the thelivelihood of millions of Pakistanis most, desperate-ly poor. Pakistan's declining fortunes are nowtwinned with those of Afghanistan. Mr Blackwill'sshot gun divorce for Afghanistan and the exit he rec-ommends from there is a luxury America can nolonger afford since he excludes Pakistan from hisendeavours. And people like Mr Blackwill wouldrather not think of Pakistan for fear of aggravatingtheir ulcers. Yet Pakistan's seemingly slow disinte-gration and its possible consequences have also tobe faced.

Spat which exposes an infantile disorderThe Times appears to be in a spat with the Indianauthorities. Its Mumbai-based India CorrespondentRhys Blakely writes: “India is threatening to rejecthundreds of millions of British tax-payers' money topre-empt expected Whitehall cuts to anti-povertyschemes in the country.” No authoritative Indiansource, say, a minister, has delivered an official state-ment on this issue. Mr Blakely was the recipient of asharp message from an Indian finance ministry offi-cial who informed him that “India did not require it[British aid].” The man had described the £295 mil-lion India received last year as a “petty amount”,which it clearly is not.

It is possible that the official was needled by thetone of Mr Blakely's enquiry, which appeared to sug-gest that without such aid India would collapse.

When in bad humour Mr Blakely ritually relaysthe statistic that 800 million Indians live on $1 a day.On a better day this figure is reduced to 700 million.Either way, this would suggest that India is in the gripof famine. Some in the British media do have a prob-lem with India. One recalls a report in TheIndependent in early June 1999 by the paper's PeterPopham, whose front-page report predicting a faminein Gujarat, following a severe drought, was supple-mented with a sneering critique of the Indian devel-opment story as a fake. The predicted famine failed tomaterialise and the Popham reports duly disappeared.

Returning to the dyspeptic Mr Blakely, he seemsto think that the possible rejection of British aid toIndia “threatens David Cameron's ambitions of a 'newspecial relationship' between the countries”. It comesas a considerable surprise to learn that this 'new spe-cial relationship' was predicated on British aid.

Andrew Mitchell, Britain's InternationalDevelopment Minister, struck a radically differentnote. He said: “In India there is a development para-dox. On the one hand there are more poor people inIndia than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. On theother India has a space programme, it is a nuclearpower, it is roaring out of poverty because of eco-nomic policies. They have their own aid programmeof, I think, $1 billion in Afghanistan.”

Pakistan, “increasingly unstable and a source ofterrorist attacks on Britain, is set to become thelargest recipient of British overseas aid in the comingyears, the Minister told The Times....”

That settles it, then. Not quite. Rhys Blakely's col-league in London, Richard Beeston, fired a support-ing broadside in India's direction. Why bother givingIndia aid when it isn't appreciated? He then turnedthe screw. “The international community could alsoput greater effort into encouraging a change of atti-tude in India itself. The authorities and a growingnumber of Indian multinationals and billionairesneed to be persuaded that charity begins at home.”Poor man, he seems blissfully unaware of the wide-ranging projects funded by the Indian private sectoralone to help the disadvantaged individuals and com-munities.

Our scribe, in full flow on his pulpit, sermonised:“A modern superpower is not simply the country withthe strongest army and the best weapons; it is anation capable of feeding and educating its peopleand making sure that, as the country grows rich, thewealth is shared.”

It is such patronising drivel that puts India's backup. There is wisdom in silence.

Pakistan's politics of murder in LondonThe brutal murder of Pakistani politician ImranFarooq near his home in north London should set thealarm bells ringing. Scotland Yard's Counter-Terrorism Command, which investigates politicalassassinations has been called in to investigate thekilling, but officials have warned that the gruesomedeath of Mr Farooq reflected the violent factionalstruggles in Karachi, Pakistan's principal port city,and signals the arrival in Britain of this bloody-stained brand of politics. It also tells of the deterio-rating situation in Pakistan.

Mr Farooq was a founding member of theMuttahida Quami Movement, which is in a fiercestruggle for power with the Taliban. The MQM repre-

sents the mohajirs, who migrated to the new state ofPakistan in 1947 from undivided India. Their effortsfor the creation of this homeland for the Muslims ofthe subcontinent contributed in no small way towardits eventual establishment. It is a tragedy that theMQM is now engaged in a ferocious struggle withother ethnic communities. The people of Pakistandeserve better.

Like people in every part of the world, the major-ity of Pakistanis seek security of life, which includesadequate food, housing, education and employment.This assures their families of a better life. Pakistan'sleaders have not fulfilled the trust reposed in them.They have failed their people.

COMMENT

Alpesh Patel’s

Political Sketchbook:

The Politics of Business‘We’re in a hole, and it’snot your fault, but you’regoing to suffer. Sorry’.That’s essentially was themessage to the TUC by thehead of the Bank ofEngland. It’s also the mes-sage from Clegg at theLibDem Party Conference.It’s the message fromObama to the Americans.

To add insult to injury,the banks who caused thecredit crunch, are actuallyquite profitable, and thosewho lost their jobs (as longas they were being paidlots of money and notcashiers and tellers) got re-hired elsewhere. We lookafter our own in financialservices after all. Sorry.

The political mess aswell as economic mess leftby the credit crunch hasleft Harvard’s MBA pro-gramme to offer a pledgeby their students: ‘I willrefrain from corruption,unfair competition, orbusiness practices harmfulto society.’ Ummm...okayso they are promising notto break the law in thefuture when they areunleashing the latest deriv-atives instrument and sell-ing it for more than it’sworth to a bigger fool. Orif it’s legal, because theyare one step ahead of thelaw, they are promising notto act in their self-interestbut be charitable to therest of society, like TUCmembers or attendees ofthe LibDem conference.Words are cheap.

So here are some oathsI thought others may wantto take: The LloydsTSBOath; ‘We pledge thatshould we ever againbecome a strong bank,then any pressure on ourBoard by the thenGovernment will lead us tobuy any load of rubbishbank in exchange for hon-ours in due course andstuff our shareholders .’

The BP pledge: ‘Wewill never again employ aCEO who doesn’t knowhow to speak with regretto Americans, even if it’s

not our fault entirely. Weshall always take the blamefor anything Americansaccuse us of’.

The Indian PoliticianPledge: ‘I promise onlytake as much money asabsolutely possible and nomore. I promise never tohandle it myself, but havea relative take receipt. Ipromise to launderthrough Switzerlandbecause it makes me feelWestern and sophisticated.I pledge never to bid forthe Olympic Games.’

The British PoliticianPledge: ‘I pledge not tobelieve or buy everythingAmericans are selling me.If we ever get gold reservesever again, we promise notto sell them £7billioncheaper than we couldhave done. Also I pledge toundo and reverse every-thing the last Governmentdid – good or bad andmake lots of laws, whetherthey are needed or not.And I pledge to under-stand a collatoralised debtobligation and inverseyield curve at some pointin the next 50 years andhow market crashes hap-pen. ‘

The PakistaniCricketer Pledge: ‘I pledgeto sell my balls, cricketballs, to the highest bidder,and blame everyone else.’The Pakistani PoliticianPledge: ‘I promise noth-ing.’

The LibDem Oath: ‘Wepledge never to let go ofpower again, engineerthrough the electoral sys-tem permanent hung par-liaments and be in bedwith Lab or Con foreverand ever. Amen’

The journalists’ oath:‘I pledge not to make stuffup...unless totally out ofideas.’ The readers’ pledge:‘I pledge to email pledgesto the write of this piece.’

My pledge: ‘I promiseto accept more friends onmy Facebook page.’

Alpesh PatelAlpesh.pate l@trader -mind.com

Appreciation is a wonderful thing.

It makes what is excellent in others

belong to us as well.

- Voltaire (1694-1778)

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 20104

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VOICEFIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

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

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

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

‘Smile Pinky’ too gets the Oscar

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When previously we had local hospi-tals at our doorsteps, now the generalhospitals are in remote places which canonly be reached by travelling on a numberof buses or trains. How else can you gothere except by taking your car? But theparking charges are so high that you donot get away without paying in the regionof £5 -£10. For the first couple of hours,the charges are tolerable but if you needto stay longer, you will not see muchchange out of a £20 note!

We are under a misconception thatNHS treatment in this country is free.Not when you have to pay through thenose to visit a hospital. This charges putoff people from going there. We only gothere out of necessity and not for shop-ping or entertainment. Incidentally, carparking is free at supermarkets. Havingsaid this, please don’t get me wrong. I amnot slagging the treatment we receive atour hospitals. The service and equipmentat British hospitals are un-paralleled inthe world.

Asian Voice and Gujarat Samacaharhave the reputation for taking up thecause by mounting orchestrated cam-paigns against such matters. Surely onesuch campaign could be initiated by usGujaratis through the medium of AV andGS.

Dinesh ShethNewbury Park, Ilford

Daylight Robbery

This is in reference to HirenDhangar’s letter in A.V. of 11-9-2010,about three frequent writers in YourVoice and subsequent debate.

Please note that any letter printed inAsian voice is an honour and a privilegebut not a right.

A.V. has no shortage of writers, videcurtailing letter to 200 words. Number ofwriters attending the conference atKarma Yoga House indicates pool of writ-ers feeding Your Voice.

A.V. does not favour frequent writers,vide the fact that even 200 word lettersare meticulously edited, censured oromitted as per discretion of editorialteam.

Letters written by us are meant fordifferent sets of readers, and age groups.Thus what appears to be a repetition tosome may be first reading for others.Writers try to collate text from varioussources and present it in an intelligibleorder under a single heading.

We focus on prevalent problems atpedestrian level, on non partisan basis,and suggest solutions. Writers have free-dom of expression towards Hindu orGujju bias, but the editor decides itsplacement as per company policy.

I try to variegate themes in letters tocheer and inform. I assume that Hirenwould join writers to Your Voice.

Ramesh Jhalla Via Email

Join the frequent letterwriters I am really concerned about Indian

government's decision to incorporatecaste in the ongoing national census is asignificant one and it will have far-reaching consequences.

The last caste based census wastaken during the British rule in 1931.India was divided on the basis of reli-gion and now the politically corruptIndian politicians want to bring casteinto Indian politics. Perriyar inTamilnadu fought for removing thecaste system and hence he made sure inTamilnadu caste names which are attrib-utes as surname ( eg.Iyer, Iyengar,Nadar, Devar) are removed from thename.

In order to increase their share inthe reservation some castes may pro-duce more children and some of theupper castes may fight for inclusion asOBCS. This is due to the fact that thereis no hard and fast rule which casteshould be included in which category.Now jats want to considered themselvesas OBCS and some castes in Rajasthanwant to include them as Dalits andthere is no end to this.

I request the readers to write toIndian papers to urge the Indian gov-ernment to drop the caste census sincethe present government is turning Indiainto a caste ridden society.

Amitabh Bachan has rightly saidthat he is not going to mention his castein the census form and it is the funda-mental right of any individual to do so.Indian politicians are going back to darkages.

Arun VaidyanathanVia Email

Caste Census of India

According to HMRC tax payer statis-tics, they collected ￡157 billion inIncome Tax paid by 31,300 million tax-payers on total income of ￡871 billion in2008/09.

The top 2% that is 651,000 earnerswho declared ￡100K or more shared33% of the total tax burden, but thenearned 18% of the total national income.Their effective rate was 33% (tax) and35% (tax & NI Employee). The averagegross earnings were ￡2.4 million p.a.

The next 24% that is 7,470,000 earn-ers who declared ￡30K or more shared38% of the tax burden while earning 38%of the national income. Their effectivewas 19% (tax) and 23% (tax and NI-EE)respectively. The average gross earningswere ￡44,000 p.a.

The bottom 74% that is 23,150,000who declared income below ￡30K or lessshared 44% of the tax burden while shar-ing 44% of the national income. Theireffective rate was 11% (tax) and 18%(tax and NI). The average gross earningswere ￡16,000 p.a.

True, the benefit system distorts theabove results. But then why not mergethe two systems and legally require all the31,300 million earners to submit one taxreturn annually rather than the current 8million only? There seems to be a lot ofcheating going on according to the mediaand the coalition government in declaredincome and/or benefits returns.

It is no good to use the public sectoras a scapegoat. Tax system needs to beprogressive, e.g. 10%, 20%, 30% and soon.

Nagindas Khajuria, FCCAVia Email

Is the UK tax system fair?

The Kashmir valley is burning. The chil-dren are trained by Islamist fanatics todefy curfew, attack police stations, burndown railway stations, pelt stones onsecurity forces. The rulers tolerate all thisin the name of pseudo-secularism.

The people of Jammu and Ladakh arehappy. Even in the valley only four dis-tricts, Srinagar, Srepore, Baramuulah andAnantnag in the protest. They are mostlySunni muslims fed in Wahabi fanaticism.The Shias of the valley do not join theprotests.

The Hindus in the valley have havebeen hounded out. Now Sikhs areChristians are in grave danger. The stateadministration has already becomeIslamic. Article 370 is the main culprit.Under this article a Kashmiri cannotmarry a non-Kashmiri and if so happens,they lose their right to vote and property.

It is believed that Kashmir has therichest politicians in the country owingvillas, hotels etc around the world. It alsobelieved most of the development moneyto Kashmir is siphoned off by politiciansand part fund the insurgency of theIslamists.

To protect the integrity of the country,abolish article 370. If not the Kashmirvalley will sooner or later go to Pakistanin the name of religion.

A L SharmaWembley

Will India lose Kashmir?

It was pleasing to read media report,(MN. 30/7/2010) that few weeks ago 20Muslim women across the U.K. attendedan armed forces memorial. This was inappreciation to show their respect forthose men who died in the war servingtheir country.

As a Muslim I must stress my feelingsof gratitude to these young women fortheir unselfish action epitomised as goodMuslims, following fundamental teach-ings of their religion, Islam.

The initiative, intention and coura-geous action of visiting memorial, indeedput them in the forefront of members oftheir community. Their confidence andappreciative gesture must have shamedthe group of fanatic Muslims who hadcertainly done more harm to the rest ofBritish Muslims by holding an anti-warmarch in Wotton Bassett when dead sol-diers were honoured.

The reason of their visit was,” toshow the grief of a mother losing her sonis shared, and that loyalty of those whohave been lost is remembered.”

A.M.A. PiraVia Email

Muslim women attendArmed forces memorial

I must appreciate that Asian Voice isplaying very important role for bringingthe news relating to India.

The recent news published in AsianVoice on 18th September on page 25 thatMr. Kamal Nath the minister of roads andtransport faces trial in US court over rolein 1984 anti -Sikh riots.The court inSouthern district of New York has issuedan order asking the parties to appear inthe court on 22nd September for a pre-trial conference to discuss the settlementand further action.

India is an Independent country andis not ruled by the US. How can a gov-ernment of a foreign country issue anarrest warrant for something that is com-pletely internal for India?

We Punjabi, Hindu and Sikhs are onepeople and no one on the earth can sepa-rate us. Yes there are some foolish peopleor rather greedy people or hungry peoplefor political power tried to separate usbut they failed .

Please do not forget that if IndianGovernment does not give clear messageto US then next will be the turn for ourPrime Minister Manmohan Singh toappear in other foreign courts and Indiawill not remain Independent.

If Manmohan Singh has not read thesmall prints in signing the treaties withUS then he should be brave enough torefute these orders and cancel thetreaties.

Dharam Sahdev Ilford

Arrest of Kamal Nath

DisclaimerAsian Business Publications Ltd

(ABPL) is not in any way responsiblefor the goods and services rendered byits advertisers. The ABPL managementaccepts all advertisements in good

faith and it is entirely up to readers toverify advertisers’ products and servic-es, should they feel the need to do so.

YOUR VOICE

I do not understand why any one,either readers or the active participants inthe struggle to restore direct flightsbetween London and Ahmedabad shouldbe surprised at the let down, the betrayalby Praful Patel, the puppet Indian CivilAviation Minister who is no more than amouthpiece of the Congress, or ratherSonia Gandhi who pulls all the strings.

Manmohan Singh, although a sincere,honest and able politician is no morethan a puppet on a string, dancing to thetune of Sonia who will be forced to retireonce Dr. Singh has passed his sell bydate, help her to win the next election.

If Praful Patel has an ounce of dignityor self respect, then he should resign,leave the government. But the lure ofoffice and the perks associated with hisposition are too great, too tempting to bethrown away and put his political futurein jeopardy.

Now it is up to the people of India, inparticular Gujarat to teach this arrogantGovernment a lesson at the next election.As long as Congress rules India, therewill not be any direct flights betweenAhmedabad and London, New York orany major city in Europe.

Bhupendra M GandhiVia Email

Judas of Gujarat

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 5

Leicester VoiceDo you have any comments, news or photographs about

Leicester? If you do, please send them to Leicester Voice at

[email protected]

In the last seven weeks,Save the Children hasreached over 740,00children and adults inflood stricken regions ofPakistan with food,medical aid, shelter andhygiene kits. But thereare tens of thousandsmore - many of themchildren - who are stillin critical need of help. The crops they

depend on for food werewashed away by thefloods leaving them vul-nerable to acute malnu-trition and, as their

immune systemsbecome weaker, to dis-ease. In the temporarycamps that have becomehome they are constant-ly exposed to contami-nated water whichbrings with it deadlymalaria, diarrhoea andrespiratory infections. In order to help

them, Save the Childrenneeds another £15 mil-lion for more clinicsand places for childrento be safe. We can onlyachieve this with yourhelp.

Need you to helpthe children

If you’ve ever dreamt ofstarting your own creativebusiness now might beyour chance. The team at Leicester

Creative Business Depotare launching an enterprisesupport project, taking par-ticipants from a good ideato launching their ownbusiness – in just ninemonths.The project, called

Creative Enterprise Hub,launches its first pro-gramme this month, atPhoenix Square, with newprogrammes starting regu-larly over the next twoyears. It will not only pro-vide its participants with a

place to work, completewith computers and inter-net access, but will workwith Business Link to pro-vide business start-upworkshops and advice.The project will also

offer bespoke businessdevelopment workshopsand networking opportuni-ties to help get businessesoff the ground. There willbe a panel of establishedcreative and supportiveentrepreneurs on hand tohelp new businesses moveforward: think more ofwise owls than a dragon’sden. Creative Enterprise

Hub builds on the success-

ful Start Me Up project,also managed by LCBDepot, that helped 17 cre-ative businesses to launchin an 18-month period. In addition to its work

with start up businesses,the project will also aim todeliver support to existingcreative businessesthrough business coachingand a range of initiatives tohelp local businesses tothrive and grow. It is hopedthat these interventionswill assist Leicester’s cre-ative businesses to becomemore successful and gener-ate more wealth and cre-ativity for the city.Leicester City Council

leader, Councillor VeejayPatel, said: “We are keen topromote and nurture localbusinesses, and this kind ofinitiative shows thatLeicester is open for busi-ness. I’d urge any buddingbusinesses to take advan-tage of the help and guid-ance on offer and make themost of this scheme.To be eligible for the

scheme applicants willneed to 18 or over and bestarting or growing a cre-ative business. Other eligi-bility criteria apply.For more information

please [email protected] or ring on 0116 2616800.

Chance to start your own businessStudent is jailed fortrying to murder

peacemaker in streetA student has been jailedfor 15 years for attemptingto murder a man who wasacting as a peacemaker ina dispute in the street.Tanvir Arkate, pic-

tured, stabbed the victimseven times leaving himwith a punctured lung.Arkate, a 21-year-old

De Montfort Universitystudent from Highfields,Leicester, was sentencedat Northampton CrownCourt after being foundguilty of attempted mur-der at an earlier trial.The court heard the

victim arranged to meet agroup of people in StPeter's Road, Leicester, onAugust 27 last year to tryto resolve the disagree-ment over a woman.As he was approaching

the meeting point, a groupof men chased him and hewas stabbed with a knife.Judge Charles White

QC told Arkate: "He was apeacemaker who wanted

to do nothing more thanresolve it (the dispute)without violence. What hedidn't know was that youand your co-defendantsarrived intent on violence."You launched yourself

in an attack without hesi-tation, attacking a man onhis own who wanted noth-ing more than to keep thepeace."The judge said the

offence was aggravatedbecause it took place inthe street during Ramadanwhen many people weremaking their way to prayat mosques in the area.

Jigar Naik tops nationalbowling averages

Jigar Naik provided onehalf of a notable end-of-season double forLeicestershire.While opener Greg

Smith topped the nationalbatting averages havingscored 652 first-class runsat 93 per innings, includ-ing his appearances forDurham University, off-spinner Naik finished atthe head of the bowlingstatistics with 35 wicketsat just 17 each.The last four victims of

that haul enabled theCounty to round off theirseason with a 10-wicketwin at Northampton onThursday, a second con-secutive success forLeicestershire in a heart-ening end to the campaign."I've come on year by

year with ClaudeHenderson and Tim Boon

around," said 26-year-oldNaik. "But I have got to berealistic. When I joined thestaff at Grace Road five orsix years ago I was stillplaying park cricket forZodiacs. It was Tim whopulled me out of that."Until this season Naik

had been looked upon as adeveloping spin bowler.He is not yet the finishedarticle, but he has provedduring the summer that healready has match-winningcapabilities.

GIVE NOW BY PHONE, ONLINE OR SEND THIS COUPON

0800 009 4002www.savethechildren.org.uk/floods

I SURVIVED THE FLOODSI LOST MY HOME

HELP ME FIGHT DISEASEHuge parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan aregoing through an unprecedented crisis and we urgently need your help. Aid is gettingthrough – we have hundreds of workers making sure of that – but there are now somany children like Muhammad in desperate need of medical help and basic supplies.

£55 could provide enough hygiene kits to protect 30 children from potentially deadlydiseases. Please donate and show them you care.

Photo:JasonTanner/Save

theC

hildren

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Please return to: FREEPOST RSCJ-SLCC-GECC, Save the Children,Valldata House, 2a Halifax Road, Melksham SN12 6YYFor security reasons, please do not send cash through the post.It is critical to our work with children that we can communicate with our supporters. By providing your details, you agreeto receive information about our work and how you can help via post and telephone. If you would rather not hear from usplease email : [email protected] or telephone 020 7012 6400 or write to: Supporter Services,Save the Children, 1 St John’s Lane, London EC1M 4AR.

Increase the value of your giftby 28%!

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Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 20106 YOUR VOICE

UK NEWS

Kapil’s

KHICHADIby Kapil Dudakia - email: [email protected]

Clegg theBlagger?

Having sold their soulfor a few pieces of silver,the question arises ‘howfar will he go in sellinghis party for the sake ofpower?’ I was trying toassess how many funda-mental policies and val-ues had already beensacrificed at the altar ofsubalternity? I gave up,too many to list!

They have alreadygiven up all hope of get-ting ProportionalRepresentation – thevery bed rock of theirbeing. Given the wideranging aggressive cutsto come in the publicservices, we can safelyassume the pillar ofsocial responsibility hasalso now gone. EvenVince Cable - no lessthan the Government’snew business ministeri-al guru came out andsaid that the new ‘cap’on immigration wasalready hurting Britishbusinesses. In fact, thevery business leaderswho came out openly intheir support of theTories before the elec-tion are now getting areality check. Theyhave realised thatunwittingly they mighthave cut their nosedespite their face.

Yes, we must becoming to the Party con-ference season. The LibDems meet this week inLiverpool to discussmatters of nationalimportance – well that iswhat Nick Clegg will betelling the party faithfulanyway. One is leftwondering, will the art-ful dodger be blaggingit? Or will the truthabout what we are aboutto receive actually comeout? Time will tell ofcourse.

The faithful arecaught between a rockand a hard place. Howshould they act or react?If they don’t stand upfor their core valuesnow, then gone are anyexcuses when electiontime comes that theystood for anything at all.If they are to be true totheir core, rise up andchallenge the heinouspolicy crimes beingcommitted in theirname – will the leader-

ship forgive them?Rocking the boat whenyou have one foot in theseat of power is amighty undertaking -but is there anyone tobrave the leadershiponslaught? In the pollsit has become clear thatthe electorate have dis-owned the Lib Dems intheir droves. Currentlytheir rating simmers atabout 12% - frankly theywill be lucky to getbeyond 20 seats nexttime if this is a measureof their gravitas inpower.

Aid to India -why?

Under Gordon Brownand through DFID itwas agreed by theBritish Governmentthat some £800m wouldbe given in aid to Indiaover a period of threeyears. That deal comesto an end in 2011 andhence there is now adebate raging in India asto whether it shouldcontinue to accept thischarity as beggars’bounty, or if it might bebetter to retain somenational pride andintegrity, and say NO.

My message toPrime MinisterManmohan Singh andForeign SecretaryNirupama Rao would bea simple one – say NO.How can India becomethe so-called emergingsuper power if it needssuch help from its impe-rial master? Of course Ihave been told thatoften such aid whengiven by westernGovernments tends tobe a type of a ‘incentive’to foreign Governmentsto tow the line on someinternational issue orother. I cannot possiblycomment on the veraci-ty of such claims, but itdoes seem odd thatIndia cannot find a fewhundred million from itsown resources to com-plete these charitableprojects.

If I was FinanceMinister, PranabMukherjee or ForeignSecretary NirupamaRao – I would politelysay to Britain, no thankyou. Maybe the moneyis needed more inPakistan given the

recent calamity that thenation has undergone.One assumes of coursethat any aid going intoPakistan would be usedfor the people, and notin supporting the terror-ists, or in lining thepockets of the politi-cians.

France leads theway?

The French parliamentpassed a law prohibitingthe wearing of the full-face veil in public by 246votes to one. It hadalready cleared the lowerhouse in July of this yearand subject to its legalitybeing checked by theirConstitutional Council –we can assume that earlynext year the ban willcome into force.

Threats have alreadybeen made, most vehe-mently from clerics inIndonesia that there willbe a serious back lash ifthis law is enforced.2011 promises to be achallenge to the veryessence of France and itsconstitution. Othercountries in Europe arenot too far behind either.Don’t be too surprised ifin 2011 we see at leasttwo other countries fol-lowing in the footsteps ofFrance. There is a seri-ous danger that in 2011we may witness a seriousre-alignment inEuropean politics thatwill target Islam directly.

Across the pond, andeven with the first BlackPresident in power,Americans seems to havelost their patience whenthe mere mention of anIslamic Centre nearGround Zero was men-tioned. The adversereaction is significantand serious. Follow thatwith the threat to burnthe ‘Koran’ at a publicevent; and you can seethat a people who mighthave controlled theirprejudices can at a whimrevert back to theirinherent natural state.The fragility of theworld order shouldnever be taken for grant-ed. We witnessed twoworld wars in the 20thcentury but not for anygood reason, have welearnt enough to avoidthe third in the 21st cen-tury?

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National and religious sentimentshave reached dirty hands. In Americaanti-Islam feeling has been bubbling forsome time, and culminated to the point ofburning holy Quran, which has woundedand destroyed the esteem of the Muslims.

This is in relation after America suf-fered indignity, degradation throughrepeated burning of American flag, wellsupported by the politicians. This willinevitably risk churches and burning ofBibles in India. This has never happened,but may spread to India some day, asthere burning of effigy is quite popular.

Dr K R N MoorthyHandsworth

Burning of Quran

I would like to congratulate GS andAV for their excellent issue on MedicalTourism.I am proud and surprised byhow far India has emerged as a nation inproviding World Class healthcare.

This issue highlights the importanceof Marketing these Health Services to thepatients abroad. Patients are now lookingfor better,economical,faster or experi-enced medical care.India now offers thesame world class procedures and surger-ies at very reasonable costs compared toWestern Countries.

Pradip Kotecha, Pharmacist, Hoxton

Medical tourism magazine

A British private school-girl has caused a stormafter being namedAmerica's Perfect Teen.

Anysha Panesar, 16,beat a host of Americanbeauties to win the con-test while on holiday inFlorida.

But the families ofother contestants areallegedly furious at thesnub to the US girls -because Anysha is from atiny village in Wales.

Parents of theAmerican girls haveallegedly protested to theorganisers of the pageant,which has a $2,000 (￡1,300) first prize - and an$18,000 (￡11,500) schol-arship to train as a TVbroadcaster.

But Anysha has hitback - arguing the outcryis just sour grapes.

'Some people did say Ishouldn't have wonbecause I'm British,' shesaid.

'But really I think thepeople who said that justsaid it because they didn'twin.'

Anysha - who goes tothe same private school inCardiff that singerCharlotte Church used toattend - entered theteenage beauty pageantwhile at the family holidayhome in Kissimmee,Florida.

The America's Perfect

Teen contest, whichincluded girls as young as13, has a big following inthe States.

But Anysha wasstunned to beat the other30 contestants fromacross America.

She said: 'I think I wasa bit different.

'The pageant is like noother in that there are norules for what you wear.It's more like America'sNext Top Model.

'One year a girl evencarried a panther cubdown the runway.

'I didn't think I wouldactually win because I'mBritish, so I thought therewas no chance I was goingto win an American pag-eant.

'So when it got to meand one other person Ithought I was going tocome second.

'Then they announced

Welsh schoolgirl wins America'sPerfect Teen pageant

the first runner up and Ibegan walking forwardbefore I realised it wasn'tmy name.

'My mum was sittingthere crying her eyes outand my dad didn't knowwhat to do with himself.My grandparents were onthe phone - they were allso proud.'

Anysha lives with herfamily in the village ofLlangan in Vale ofGlamorgan - and is nowback in classes at HowellsSchool in Cardiff.

She said: 'I've takenpart in quite a few pag-eants now.

'They started off asjust a bit of fun because Iwent on a school trip toThe Clothes Show inBirmingham and won acatwalk competitionthere, and that got methrough to the finals of myvery first pageant.

'It just somehow grewfrom there and I gotaddicted to them.

'The pageants them-selves can be really over-whelming because thegirls do them every singleweekend and they've beendoing them since theywere four years old.

'I wasn't as experi-enced as the other girlsand didn't know as muchas they did - so I still can'tbelieve I actually won.'

The pageant's founderMichael Galanes, whosetoddlers' pageant LittleMiss Perfect has become aTV hit in the US, admit-ted it has caused fury,reports Daily Mail.

He said: 'Yes, her wincaused a bit of a stirbecause she is, of course,British.

'But that is perfectlywithin the rules of thecompetition and thosepeople are just nay-sayers.

'One of the judges toldme they liked Anyshabecause she was a breathof fresh air.

'She has natural beau-ty but she isn't afraid to bea bit wild. Anysha - whata beautiful girl.'

Anysha won the schol-arship to learn broadcast-ing in the US, which sheplans to take up after herA-levels.

She is also in talks tohave her own TV show

about her year asAmerica's Perfect Teen.

Her mother Caroline,41, said: 'We're so proudof Anysha, she's such atalented girl and wecouldn't be more support-ive of what she's doing.

'At the end of the day,we just want her to behappy.'


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News in BriefCharity cheat caught red-handedMalik gets slap on wristEx-minister Shahid Malik, pic-

tured, has been told to apologise toParliament for claiming expenses tocover the cost of insuring his wife’s£8,000 engagement ring. This is thesame politician who had last yearfailed to respond to my enquiry,despite several calls, on disparity infunding to different ethnic groups.

Black History MonthNext month marks annual Black History Month.

Throughout October activities celebrating multicul-turalism will take place up and down the country.Black History Month is intended to celebrate AfricanCaribbean and Asian influences across the UK andencourage all communities to come together.

Lyons calls it a dayBBC Trust chairman Sir Michael

Lyons, 60, is to step down after fouryears in the post. The former chiefexecutive of Birmingham City Council,pictured, has written to CultureSecretary Jeremy Hunt to explain thathe will not seek reappointment nextMay when his term ends.

Chamber dinnerraises 6k for charity

The newly-created Birmingham Chamber ofCommerce Group was officially launched at its annu-al dinner held at the ICC last Thursday evening. Theprestigious event, attended by over 700 guests, raised£6,650 from a prize draw for Ladies Fighting BreastCancer, a charity. The Group includes five Chambersof Commerce and represents over 6,000 businessesand their 200,000-plus employees.

Ethnic Business AwardsCongratulations to Smruti Lodhia, pictured cen-

tre, of Pride Beauty Clinic who was crowned BusinessPerson of the Year at the annual Ethnic MinorityBusiness Awards ceremony in Nottingham last Friday.Natasha Elaine Bryan of Tick Tock Mobile Crechescooped the Most Positive Contribution title whileformer councillor Mohammed Riasat was recognisedfor Promoting Community Spirit. Also, well done toevent manager Kim Waring for managing yet anothersparkling event.

Eid MelaAll are invited to Birmingham’s free annual Eid

Mela which will take place this Sunday (Sep 26) inCannon Hill Park, Edgbaston from 12.30-6.30pm.Now in its tenth year, the festival will celebrateIslamic culture, entertainment, sport, art and food.Also at hand will be representatives from charity theBritish Heart Foundation offering free health checksand advice. Research by the BHF shows that morethan 851 men and 632 women die from coronaryheart disease each year in the city, with the SouthAsian community 50 per cent more likely to die.

Shahid Aslam, 38, ofBenmore Avenue,Edgbaston, pleaded guiltyto nine charges of fraudand asked for 48 similarcharges to be taken intoconsideration. JitinderMatharu, prosecuting,said Aslam had knockedat the doors of around 70homes in Harborne andadjoining areas betweenJuly 30 and August 12,this year. Mr Matharusaid the defendant alwayswore a suit and the vic-

tims, mainly retired peo-ple, described him lookinglike a “young professionalmale”. He said in somecases money was handedover straight away and inothers he returned the fol-lowing day to collect thecash when he pretendedhe had completed theride. He collected a totalof around £500. He saidthat Aslam had neverdone a ride and that amagistrate who becamesuspicious about his

A bogus charity collector from Birmingham who false-ly claimed he was going to do a sponsored bike ride toraise cash for victims of the Pakistan floods, but in factused the money to feed his drug addiction, hasappeared in court.

Contact: Dhiren on 07970 911 386 or [email protected] Katwa

Midland Voice

Car ‘buyer’ jailedA car thief who led police on a 110mph rush-hour

chase along the M6 motorway has been jailed forthree years and four months. Drug addict WahidMahmood, 37, of Oldbury, pleaded guilty to robbery,dangerous driving and two charges of theft.Mahmood, who was posing as a car buyer, was on therun in a stolen £14,000 Audi A4.

Thumbs up from Imran Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-

politician, paid tribute to the Britishfundraising effort to help victims ofthe Pakistan floods during his flyingvisit to Birmingham last Monday. MrKhan, 57, pictured, was attending afundraising dinner in Streetly, SuttonColdfield.

One vision, one nationAll are invited to a free lecture themed, Should India

be declared a Hindu nation? The talk by DhirajbhaiShah, Head of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK, thenationalist movement, will take place at the Arya SamajVedic Centre in Birmingham (B7 4SA) this Sunday (Sep26) between 11am and 1pm followed by lunch.

College chief scoops award

Three cheers for Asha Khemka OBE, principal andCEO of West Nottinghamshire College who received agold medal and certificate for her outstanding achieve-ments and contribution to education in the UK. She washonoured by the NRI Welfare Society of India at an eventhosted by Baroness Sandip Verma at the House of Lordson Friday a fortnight ago. Indian-born Mrs Khemka, whotied the knot at 15, and moved to the UK in 1975 withher husband and three young children, said: “There areso many people in this world who achieve much in lifebut don’t get the recognition they deserve so I feel verylucky to have my achievements recognised in this way.”

Man knifedA Birmingham man is “serious but stable” in hospi-

tal after being stabbed outside his home. The 48-year-oldwas set upon by two middle-aged black men who werewearing fluorescent jackets. The incident happened inColville Walk, off Stoney Lane in Sparkbrook, around6pm last Friday.

Terror suspects in BrumA Muslim fanatic described by the MI5 as the

most dangerous terror kingpin in Britain is livingunder a control order in Birmingham. The suspectedAl Qaeda plotter, known only as AY, was accused ofbeing a major player in the 2006 plan to use liquidexplosives to bring down 10 transatlantic airliners.He is one of four terror suspects living in theMidlands under control orders, according to a reportin the Sunday Mercury.

Promoting entrepreneurshipMotivational speaker Rajeeb Dey,

pictured, shared his extraordinarystory of success with over a dozenaspiring entrepreneurs from acrossthe Midlands at a training day inBirmingham last Saturday. Founderof online recruitment portalEnternships-dot.com, Rajeeb, 24,offered help, advice and support inan attempt to inspire and instil energy and drive in allpresent. The all-day event at Aston University wasorganised by the National Consortium of UniversityEntrepreneurs, or NACUE.

New role for Ranjit Mother-of-three Ranjit Kaur, 40, has

been appointed an area manager in Walsall.She will work closely with the local author-ity, NHS, police and other organisations tobring people and services together, address-ing issues that affect local communities.Ranjit, pictured, has worked in social hous-ing for over 20 years.

Girish up for awardBest of luck to reporter Girish Gupta,

pictured, from Manchester University whohas been shortlisted in the DigitalJournalist of the Year category in this year’sGuardian Student Media Awards. Winnerswill be announced later this month.

activities alerted thepolice.

Aslam was arrestedon August 12 - accordingto the front-page lead inthe Birmingham Mail onMonday this week –after officers saw himcalling on homes in aroad in Edgbastonclutching a number ofsponsorship forms.When quizzed Aslamadmitted that what hewas doing was wrongsaying he was “desper-ate” and that he hadchosen “big houses”

because he thought theoccupants would haveplenty of money. MrMatharu said: You maythink this is a mean anddespicable offence bear-ing in mind the crisisthat has hit Pakistan. Heseems to be takingadvantage of a situationelsewhere in the world.”He added that Aslamhad a number of previ-ous convictions for dis-honesty and had previ-ously committed a simi-lar offence. Aslam, hesaid, gave a positivereading for opiats andcocaine when he wasdrug tested and went on:“It may well be he hadcollected this money inorder to further fund adrug addiction.”

The case atB i r m i n g h a mMagistrates’ Court wasadjourned by the magis-trates for reports to beprepared on Aslam whowas told that as far assentencing was con-cerned all options wereopen and that it was aserious case because“vulnerable people wereexploited”.

Guilty: Shahid Aslamleaving BirminghamMagistrates’ Court

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Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 9UK

India’s Independence Daycelebrations are always amajor event in theBhavan’s calendar, with aglittering array of digni-taries invited to the centrein London every year.

The event this timeround took place onFriday 17th September2010 and marked the 63rdyear of independence,with the audience madeup of people from theIndian diaspora in Londonand its outskirts. Thoseassembled got a chance tohear from the Bhavan’sChairman Mr ManeckDalal OBE, Indian HighCommissioner, HisExcellency Sri Nalin Surieand the newly appointedMayor of Hammersmithand Fulham Cllr AdronieAlford.

In his opening speech,Mr Dalal talked about hisutmost pride for his coun-try of birth and

the speed with which itis progressing on theworld stage in all arenas.He said “there was ampleevidence of the opinionand attitude of the newcoalition when PrimeMinister David Camerontook such a high poweredteam from his Cabinet andothers to India.”

Mr Dalal went ontotalk about the importantrole the Bhavan was play-ing in keeping alive thetraditions of India in theUK through its culture. He

re-iterated this fact bymentioning the news ofBhavan’s very first gradu-ates of the unique Indianmusic degree run at thecentre in association withTrinity College of Musicand City University.

The Mayor, CouncillorAdronie Alford, conveyedgreetings fromHammersmith and

Fulham Council and con-gratulated us on the occa-sion of IndianIndependence. She wenton to say “thank you verymuch on behalf of the bor-ough, which I am privi-leged to represent for

being here”. The boroughhas been home to theBhavan for the last 30years.

The main speech of theevening was given by theHigh Commissioner, HisExcellency Sri Nalin Suriewho talked about thenumerous successes andsetbacks India has seensince its independencein1947. He also talkedabout the important rolenon-resident Indians hadto play in the progress ofIndia and commented onthe privileged positionpeople of Indian originswere in, saying they havean honoured part to play.

He said, “As India con-tinues through the path ofprogress, the need tomaintain our traditionsand cultural diversity isequally important.Institutions such as theBharatiya Vidya Bhavanplay an important role inthis.” He went onto say hefelt the Bhavan in Londonspared no efforts inspreading Indian culture,not only to the Indiancommunity but the peopleof the United Kingdom. Atwhich point he acknowl-edged the efforts ofDirector of the Bhavan, DrNandakumara showeringspecial praise for his work.

A vote of thanks wasgiven by Sir Mota Singhand the evening was con-cluded with a short cultur-al performance by stu-dents of the Bhavan,which was followed by theIndian national anthem.

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Bhavan celebrates Indian Independence Day

Mr Rajesh N Prasad, Deputy High Commissioner, MayoressMs Lavendar Hastie, His Excellency Mr Nalin Surie, HighCommissioner of India, Mr Maneck Dalal, OBE, Bhavan's

Chairman, Mayor Cllr Adronie Alford and the Hon Sir Mota Singh QC

Bhavan's Bharatanatyam students performing a colourful dance

A school bus driver whosliced off the roof of hisdouble-decker as he triedto squeeze under a rail-way bridge while drunkhas narrowly avoidedgoing to jail.

Gurdeep Singh Sagoo(pictured) was threetimes over the drink-drive limit when he 'for-got' he was driving a dou-ble-decker.

He had earlierdropped off 46 collegestudents.

The accident inLangley, Berkshire, led tothe main rail linebetween London and theWest being closed and abill of £250,000 beinghanded to the coach com-pany by Network Rail for180 cancelled services.

At Reading CrownCourt, a judge criticisedhim as 'thoughtless' andthe college principal saidit was a miracle thatnobody had been hurt.

Joanne Belsey, prose-cuting, told the hearingthat on May 12 he col-lected the students fromChalfonts CommunityCollege in Gerrards Crossand drove the normalroute.

After dropping off allhis passengers, heapproached the bridge.

'The bridge was 12ft9in high, and this wasclearly signposted alongwith a number of yellow

and black chevronsaround it,' she said.

'The defendant drovethrough the bridge andthe collision took place,removing the top sectionof the bus.'

Sagoo called police,who breathalysed himand found he had 97mgof alcohol in his breath,nearly three times thelimit.

Rachel Adams,defending, said her clientwas now jobless andcared for his elderlymother.

Sentencing, JudgeGordon Risius saidSagoo's driving was'thoughtless' rather thanreckless.

He gave Sagoo, ofSouthall, west London,an eight- month jail termsuspended for two years.

He also ordered himto carry out 200 hours ofunpaid work and bannedhim from driving for twoyears.

Drunk school bus driver who slicedroof off double-decker avoids jail


By Spriha Srivastava

A 16-member delegationfrom the Indian state ofGujarat was in the UK toattract investment inGujarat with a strongfocus on the infrastructuresector.

During an investors'meeting at financial serv-ices firm KPMG’s officesin London last week,Guruprasad Mohapatra,C o m m i s s i o n e r ,Commercial tax,Government ofGujarat, said invest-ment from the UK isnot at a high level. “Wehave at least 15German companies,three or four Dutchcompanies andJapanese companiesinvesting in Gujarat.But we find that theUK is lagging behind inmaking investments inIndia,” he said.

He also claimedthat government inGujarat works like theprivate sector andbureaucratic hurdlesare not experienced.

The delegationmentioned thatGujarat was the firstIndian state to haveintroduced public-pri-vate partnership routein Infrastructure andalso the first state toprivatise its ports. It isalso the first state toenter into a carbontrading agreement withWorld Bank and theonly state to providepower supply on a24x7 basis.

Currently, Gujarathas infrastructureinvestment of $37 bil-lion in the process ofbeing put to work, adelegate revealed. Thegovernment is lookingfor further investmentin sectors such aspower, ports, transportand renewable energy.

The presentation atthe conference com-prised of three sections

– Urban sector, Ports andSpecial InvestmentRegions (SIR). Organisedby Confederation ofIndian Industries (CII)and hosted at KPMGoffice in Salisbury Square,the conference showcaseda sense of seriousness onthe part of the State andits government in the areaof economic and urbandevelopment.

Recently, in an ambi-tious report – TheBlueprint for

Infrastructure in Gujarat2020(BIG 2020) - the gov-ernment said that it isseeking investments fromthe private sector acrossall areas in infrastructure.According to the report,the government is consid-ering an investment ofINR118,091 billion ($2.5trillion) across 19 infra-structure sectors withinthe state up to the year2020.

The report says the“bulk of the funding (79

per cent) has to comethrough the public-privatepartnership (PPP) route”.Hence: “All actions withrespect to enabling privateinvestments need to beaccelerated.”

Meanwhile, the reportalso mentions setting up aprivate equity fund ofRs50 billion ($1.1 billion)in order to invest in infra-structure projects in theearly stages of implemen-tation. The role of thisfund will be to catalyse

other sources of equityfund investment in theprojects.

Along with settingup the equity fund, thegovernment also plansto amend the GujaratI n f r a s t r u c t u r eDevelopment Act,1999 to appoint devel-opers through directnegotiations for specif-ic projects instead oftaking the competitivetender route that exist-ed previously.

Identifying landacquisition as one ofthe main hurdles indelaying infrastructureprojects, the reportproposes to amendregulatory acts toensure quick move-ment of projects.Pointing out that theproblem still remainsan emotional issuewith farmers, thereport admits: “Earlier,the opposition resultedin delays in acquisitionof individual landparcels, creating spa-tial discontent. Now,entire groups of affect-ed land owners cometogether in highlyorganised resistance.”

This is the secondinfrastructure visionreport launched by thegovernment ofGujarat. It previouslylaunched a report enti-tled Vision 2010,which was the firstholistic report onGujarat’s infrastruc-ture development plan.

Key delegates presentMr. G MohapatraIAS.Commissioner,Commercial TaxGovt. of Gujarat

Mr. MahendraPatelChairman andManaging Director,Mamata Group

Mr. Arpit J VyasWhole-TimeDirector,Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Ltd.

Mr. Suresh D. PatelChairman,The Gujarat Institute of Housing & Estate Developers (GIHED),Chairman and Managing Director,Surya Group (Real Estate Developer

Mr. Sandeep SaveDirector,Neptune Industries Ltd

Mr. S C GoyalDirector (Projects),Alok Industries Limited

Mr. Kapil Malhotra Business Development- Europe,Abellon Clean EnergyLimited

Mr. Sahil ShahManager, BusinessDevelopment – UKAbellon Clean EnergyLimited

Ms. Milina BoseVice President,Global Markettingand BusinessDevelopmentClaris Lifesciences Ltd.

Mr. Ranjit ParmarDirector,Suzlon Group ofCompanies

Mr. ShaleenSharmaManaging Director,Gujarat GasCompany andGujarat GasFinancial ServicesLtd.

Mr. Kalpesh ShethAssistant GeneralManager (Projects),iNDEXTb

Mr Sushil HandaChairman,The Fifth VedaEntrepreneurs

Gujarat looks to UK for investment

The Mayor of London,Boris Johnson, invites allLondoners to come andshare in the celebrationsfor the Muslim festival ofEid-ul-Fitr in TrafalgarSquare on Sunday 26September. The jubilantEid celebration followsimmediately after themonth long fasting duringthe holy month ofRamadan.

Statutory DeputyMayor, Richard Barnes,will join excited crowds ofLondoners at the fifthannual event, which isorganised by the Mayor ofLondon in partnershipwith Muslim communityorganisations. The eventhas grown to become oneof the key cultural high-lights of London eventscalendar and sees crowdsof over 25,000 attend toenjoy the festivities.

Eid on the Square issupported by Lycamobileand the official mediapartner is Zee TV.

The programme ofexciting and diverse per-formances on the day

reflects the diversity, cul-ture and language of thevaried Muslim communi-ties in London. There willbe performances in differ-ent languages; French,Arabic, English, Urdu,Spanish and many more.Performers and artistscome from various coun-tries and backgroundsincluding Pakistan,London, North Africa,Somalia, Egypt,Venezuela and the MiddleEast.

Highlights of thisyear's event include popu-lar Nasheed artists AmirAwan, KhaleelMohammad &Mohammaddiyya SomaliNasheed group. Otherartists include hip-hopMC, Quest-Rah, ChebNacim, a band of mixedNorth African artists fromthe UK performing Raimusic, Akeem, a Frenchbased, rap/hip hop andspoken word band,Acoustic Sufi Rock bandSilk Road, Islamic WorldMusic band Fursan andmany more such acts.

Now Mobile had its official launch at the City Hall,Lounge Room on 15th September 2010. It was behosted by a series of celebrity guests, includingChannel 4’s The Grewals.

Now Mobile has competitive rates for UK andInternational calling helping free users from lengthymobile contracts and save money when callingfavourite destinations.

Immigration limits arecosting the UK thousandsof jobs and hurting thecountry’s fragile economicrecovery, Vince Cable saidin his comments that laybear tensions on the issuein the coalition.

“A lot of damage isbeing done to Britishindustry,” the businesssecretary told theFinancial Times onThursday.

He claimed that com-panies were relocatingjobs overseas in responseto punitive caps that leftthem unable to hire keystaff. “I’ve got a file full ofexamples. This is not justpeople whingeing,” hesaid.

The cap on non-European Union workerswas a manifesto pledge forDavid Cameron and

proved popular with vot-ers; it was reluctantlyaccepted by Lib Dems inthe May coalition negotia-tions.

Mr Cable’s complaintsreflect business anger atthe way the coalition hasimposed an interim cap onwork visas for people com-

ing from outside theEU, leaving manycompanies able torecruit only a handfulof non-Europeanstaff.

Mr Cable said hewas fully signed upto the coalition’splan for a permanentimmigration cap butwanted it appliedflexibly.

Companies saythat the interim cap,launched in Julyamid fears of a floodof visa applications

ahead of the introductionof a permanent limit nextApril, was rushed in tooquickly and places dracon-ian limits on hiring foreigntalent.

Their biggest com-plaint centres on the wayborder officials have calcu-

lated how many work per-mits each company shouldhave this year based onthe number they used in2009, although many com-panies were then locked ina recession-enforced hir-ing freeze.

Mr Cable said in oneinstance a UK companyneeded 500 specialistengineers but was given aquota of four. He spoke ofan entrepreneur whoditched plans to open afactory and create 400jobs in the north after fail-ing to secure visas for keystaff.

Mr Cable said that thetemporary quota cap hadbeen wrongly fixed at2009 levels. “The econo-my is now recovering butcompanies can’t get accessto the people they need.”

Celebrate Eid at theTrafalgar Square

Now Mobile hosts officiallaunch at City Hall

The Grewals at the official launch of Now mobile

Immigrant cap hurting economy, says Cable

Dr Vince Cable

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 11EDUCATION/COUNCIL

.org.uktake your education with you

Just imagine, if as a childyou woke up every morn-ing and had nothing butchores to do, cooking andcleaning and walking longdistances to fetch water.Imagine if every time youfelt ill and needed to see adoctor, you would have towalk 15km to the nearesthealthcare centre and ifyou could not walk, hadto be carried by people inyour village. Imagine ifyou did not have thebasics of a school,educa-tion or clean water. This unimag-

inable scenariois reality for mil-lions of childrenand adults inIndia. In UttarPradesh, Oxfamhas helped set upschools whichensure that thisdoes not happen.Oxfam has beenrunning fourrural girlsschools since 2001 inGhazipur and Mirzapurdistricts, and supporting50 education centres inurban slums since 2007.However unless thes c h o o l sr e c e i v emoney toc o n t i n u e ,many girlsmay have toface a futurewithout aneducation. E v e r y

child shouldhave the basics of educa-tion, to learn and to buildtheir confidence and

ensure a successfulfuture. Nobody shouldhave to go without cleanwater or essential health-care. Basic healthcareservices have been set upin these schools and edu-cation projects to providecare for both adults andchildren. The schools are mak-

ing a real difference tochildren’s lives and hav-ing a place for them tolearn and interact withother children, is buildingconfidence. The smiles

and laughter in the class-rooms reflect this. "The most inspiring

fact I noticed at theschool was that the confi-dence level of the girls

were very high and com-munication is extremelygood. Each one of them

love their school to bits tothe extent that even onweekends they often gettogether and walk thesedistances to the school –

to use the swings etc- as there are noother places forthem to play other-wise,”said SheebaHarma who recentlyvisited the projects. Oxfam is asking

the UK communityto provide as muchsupport and donateas much as they canto help ensure thatthese schools and

education projects canstay open. Collectively wecan make a huge differ-ence to these children'slives. Please visitwww.oxfam.org.uk/uttarpradesh or call 0300 200

1242. On the 30

T HSeptember inW e m b l e y ,Oxfam will bethe chosencharity at the10 th AsianA c h i e v e r s

Awards and will be rais-ing money to ensure thatthese projects continue.

Jonaid Jilani

Just imagine...

For more information about Oxfam and its India project or to donate please call 0300 200 1242

World class cyclists rolledinto the borough over theweekend as the final stageof the prestigious Tour ofBritain came to Newham.Almost one hundred

cyclists hurtled along atspeeds of up to 50mpharound a 12km circuitwhich started outsideNewham Dockside inBeckton.The race was won by

Andre Greipel, of TeamHTC Columbia in 1 hour57 mins 07 secs and over-all stage winner wasMichael Albasini, also ofTeam HTC – Columbia. Prior to the profession-

als’ race, residents joinedthe BBC EastEnders’ starRudolph Walker, who playsPatrick Trueman, to cyclemost of the route them-selves as part of TheProstate Cancer CharityTour Ride.Young Mayor Kaycee

de Belen also took partalongside hundreds of

Newham residents.Newham Mayor Sir

Robin Wales said: “Theevent was a huge successand it was great to see somany stars from the worldof cycling rolling into theborough. Newham isalready the first choice fora number of top sportscompetitions and, as themain host borough for theOlympics, will welcomeathletes from all over theworld in 2012. We want touse these sporting eventsto inspire our residents tolead more active andhealthier lives. It was goodto see so many of themsupporting the profession-al cyclists and also gettingon their bikes to take partin the tour ride.”The race itself, which

in the past has uncoveredstars such as futureOlympic hopeful and Tourde France competitorMark Cavendish, snakedaround Royal Albert Dock,

with participants taking insights including the ExCeLExhibition Centre and theO2.The Transport for

London (TfL) route thenran along the Lower LeaCrossing before headingback towards London CityAirport and the finishingline.The race was accompa-

nied by the NewhamLondon WaterfrontFestival, a fantastic cele-bration of fine food, musicand entertainment whichwas organised by NewhamCouncil and attended by17,000 people.The festival at Royal

Victoria Dock by ExCelcombined the finest localfoods as well as a livemusic line up fresh fromthe stages of Glastonbury.It included some of thebest international streettheatre performers, includ-ing stilt walking piratesand breathtaking juggling.

Tour of Britain races into Newham

Ealing Council has decid-ed to greatly reduce itssubsidy of residents’Controlled Parking Zone(CPZ) permits.The council currently

pays around £750,000each year towards runningthe zones. Because of theexpected massive reduc-tion in future fundingfrom the Government, thecouncil has decided it isno longer in a position toprovide so great a subsidy

and those with CPZ per-mits must pay moretowards the cost them-selves.The charges will take

effect from 1 January 2011and incorporate theincrease in VAT next year.The cost of a permit

will increase from £25 to£40 a year for zones thatare in operation two hoursa day, and from £45 to £75for those that are in opera-tion all day. The charges

are still significantly lessthan many other Londonboroughs and the councilhas decided against mak-ing permits more expen-sive if a household hasmore than one vehicle. A50% reduction will beintroduced for those withelectric vehicles.To make life easier for

motorists the council willintroduce telephone pay-ment in all its car parksand on street parking.

Council to reduce parking zone subsidy

Increasing tuition fees -even to £10,000 per year -would not significantlyreduce applications foruniversity in England, sayresearchers.But the University of

Leicester study suggestspoorer students would bemore likely to be put offfrom applying.The research involving

730 sixth formers alsofound new universitieswould be the most likelyto lose applicants as aresult of higher fees.Next month Lord

Browne will deliver hisreport on university fund-ing.University applica-

tions have risen sharply inrecent years - and thisstudy provides a detailedanalysis of how anyincrease in fees proposedby the Browne Reviewmight change the appetitefor degree courses.This in-depth study

suggests that the demandfor university places isgoing to remain strong -with 90% of would-beapplicants saying theywould not be put off by

Fee rise 'will not stop demand foruniversity places'

fees of £10,000 per year."Despite the prospect

of fees more than dou-bling, most would-be stu-

dents would still seek toattend university," says thestudy.


Scrutator’sIndia's National Innovation Council, which was set up a fewweeks ago and is headed by Sam Pitroda, has got off to a fly-ing start, according to The Hindu newspaper (September 10).The first meeting of the Council decided to raise Rs 5,000 crore(Rs 50 billion, roughly $3 billion) as seed capital for innovationprojects. Its money will come from the government and theprivate sector. Mr Pitroda said the fund should be up and run-ning within six months. It will be used to finance a whole rangeof research activities, with focus on things that affected people“at the bottom of the pyramid. The rich can find the resourcesto satisfy their needs. It is the poor who need support,”said MrPitroda. The Council has set up a website [www.innovation-council.gov.in]. Its 17-member panel includes former spacechief K.Kasturirangan, Planning Commission's Arun Maira, for-mer Director- General of the Council for Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR) R.A.Mashelkar, former head of theNational Association of Software and Services Companies(Nasscom), Kiran Karnik, Executive Director of Tata SonsR.Gopalakrishnan, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw,CSIR Director-General Samir Brahmachari, Confederation ofIndian Industry Chandrajit Banerjee

Tihar brand

Anjli Raval's Financial Timesreport (September 15) on theproducts manufactured inDelhi's Tihar Jail, “wants tobecome as recognised for its'TJ's' brand of furniture, snacks,bakery products and clothes asfor some of its infamousinmates.” Ms Raval continues:“The jail this year started dis-tributing its products throughlocal retail outlets in New Delhi.Now [Tihar] is looking toextend its reach to other parts ofthe country as well as overseasby selling productsonline....Sunil Gupta, the TiharJail law officer, says it will beopen for online shopping 'withina month'....The jail's website willsell products including woodenfurniture, handicrafts, pottery,bread, cakes and savourysnacks....potato chips, bis-cuits...” Sales have been huge inevery one of these items. TJ's

products alone have brought inrevenue of Rs115 million ($2.5million).She concludes: “Tihar was

subject to reforms in the early1990s after Kiran Bedi, India'shighest-ranking woman policeofficer, condemned the subhu-man living conditions. Emphasiswas put on teaching inmatestrades such as printing, tailoringand book binding and providinghigh-tech vocational training.”Tihar jail, with 12,000

inmates, is the largest in SouthAsia.

Inflation declines

In an adjacent column JamesFontanella Khan reports that anabundant monsoon, leading to a

decline in food prices, hadreduced India's overall inflation.He says, “The deceleration waslargely due to lower food pricesas monsoon rains supportedcrop yields. Food inflationslowed to 10.6 per cent from13.6 per cent in July. Non-foodinflation decelerated to 7.7 percent from 8.4 per cent in July. “The Reserve Bank of India

is expected to raise rates for thefifth time this year as it unwindsan ultra-loose monetary policyadopted to weather the globalfinancial crisis and seeks tobring inflation closer to 6 percent. The bank has been cau-tiously raising rates to minimisethe impact on economic growth,which rose 8.8 per cent lastquarter, the fastest pace since2007.”A Hindu news item

(September 11) noted thatindustrial production doubled to13.7 per cent in July, with capitalgoods, used by manufacturing

industry, soaring to 63 per cent.The manufacturing sector grewby 15 per cent in July against 7.4per cent a year ago.

Coal India listing

A Joe Leahy-Amy Kazmin reportin the Financial Times(September 13) said Coal Indiawas poised to begin a roadshowto promote what is expected tobe India's biggest stock listing.Coal India hopes to raise up toRs150 billion ($3.2bn) by thesale of a 10 per cent stake. Thatwould make its initial publicoffering bigger than India'slargest completed listing, the $3billion offering of the domesticelectric producer ReliancePower in early 2008.

The offering is part of gov-ernment plans to raise $8.6 bil-lion by stake sales in the fiscalyear to March 2012.

Coal India claims to be theworld's largest coal producer andaccounts for 85 per cent of pro-duction in India, which has thefourth largest reserves on theglobe. Environmental considera-tions and the Maoist insurgencyhad limited coal production inIndia. The industry was hopingto persuade Prime MinisterManmohan Singh to revise theban on production in certaineastern areas of the country onenvironmental considerations.There was hope that a consen-sus could be reached on theissue in the foreseeable future.

Top card

The FT Monday interview bySuzanne Kapner (September13) was conducted with AjayBanga, Chief Executive,MasterCard. She starts: “Notmany corporate chiefs wouldadmit to having cleaned bath-rooms as part of their training,but Ajay Banga, chief executiveof MasterCard, is not your typi-cal business leader.”

Cleaning bathrooms, whichhe did in the 1990s while open-ing Kentucky Fried Chicken andPizza Hut restaurants in Indiafor PepsiCo, “made me veryvaluable to my wife. I'm calledthe bathroom fairy,” says MrBanga.Ms Kapner: “The willingness

to poke fun at himself extends tohis appearance. As a Sikh, MrBanga, 50, wears a turban andhas a full beard, making for astriking contrast with RobertSekander, his predecessor andvice-chairman.” Mr Banga: “Bob and I joke

about it all the time.” But thisDelhi University graduate (StStephen's College) and IndianInstitute of Management,Ahmedabad, MBA, is somethingof a business whizzkid, havingrisen from the ranks withPepsiCo to dizzying heights withMasterCard via Citibank. He hasbeen a shaker and mover atMasterCard. “He operates onAjay time, which is 10 timesfaster than everyone else,” saysJosh Peirez, the head ofMasterCard's business develop-ment unit. To speed up decision-making, Mr Banga has givenlower-level employees moreauthority to negotiate contractsand has created a new divisionto this end. Suzanne Kapner again: “The

company processes more than

22 billion transactions a year, atthe speed of 140 millisecondseach, faster than the blink of aneye.” Phew!

Specialists on China

The Times of India (September16) reported an Indian govern-ment decision to farm out spe-cialisms on neighbouring coun-tries to academic centres ofexcellence within the country.These centres are the Institutesof Technology (IITs), with eachIIT free to make its country ofchoice. The purpose is to weighthe knowledge and analyses forgeo-political purposes and toformulate policy that is wellinformed and credible.The concept of such centres

has been inspired by the West.Asia's present surge has prompt-ed a number of American andBritish universities to establishdepartments to scrutinise devel-opments in China and India.Experts believe that these cen-tres of expertise can be watch-dogs as well as catalytic agentsin bilateral relationships.IIT Madras has chosen

China as its field of research.Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinesesage, observed two millenniaago: “If you know the enemyand know yourself, you need notfear the results of a hundred bat-tles.”

Visionary X-ray man

The Daily Telegraph (August 31)profiled 37-year-old Calcutta-born physics doctorate ArnabBasu, the chief executiveKromek, which has developedX-ray technology that could helplift the ban on liquids at airports,believes his can be a standard-bearer for research-based com-panies.Hoping to capitalise on the

EU's plan to remove the ban onpassengers carrying liquidsthrough airports in April nextyear. This will require requireoperators to scan, so theSedgefield firm has developedbottle scanners that can distin-guish explosives, drugs sandalcohol from innocuous liquids.The Kronek scanners have out-performed its competitors. Mr Basu expects his scan-

ners to be on the market in timefor next April's EU legislativechange, costing “less than£50,000” each. He hopes to hitthe big-time in the security fieldwith a spillover in to medical X-rays.

India-Russia aircraft

A Hindu report (September 11)tells of a joint decision by Indiaand Russia to move ahead withtheir plan to design and developa Multirole Transport Aircraft(MTA). The two countries signeda shareholders agreement to setup a joint venture company.The Hindustan Aeronautics

Ltd (HAL) and Russia's UnitedAircraft Corporation and theRosoboronexport will form thecompany, India's DefenceMinistry announced. The MTA'smain features will be: take-offweight 65 tonnes, payload capac-ity 15-20 tonnes, cruise speed800 kmph, range 2,500-2,700 kmand service ceiling: 12km. It willhave two engines, state-of-the-artfeatures such as fly-by-wire, fullauthority digital engine control,modern avionics and glass cock-pit. The development is estimat-ed to cost $600-700 million, to beshared equally by both sides.

Outsourcing mathsteaching

The Times EducationSupplement (September 10)published a front-page lead storyby Richard Vaughan, highlightingthe outsourcing of maths teach-ing to India by a north Londonprimary school.

“Ashmount Primary inIslington is running a pilot withhalf of its Year 6 pupils, providingthem with one-to-one tuitionusing teachers based more than4,000 miles away on the subcon-tinent – and now the school isplanning to expand it to otherpupils and year groups.” Theservice is being rolled out aroundthe country and, predicted DylanWilliam, director of LondonUniversity's Institute ofEducation, it could becomemainstream. Rebecca Stacey, assistant

headteacher expressed satisfac-tion with the experiment, sayingthat she had detected a markedimprovement in the performanceof pupils. Catch 'em young.

Madras Institutes of Technology

Tihar Jail in Delhi Indian maths tutors teach UKpupils via the web

Ajay Banga

MEDIA WATCH


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Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 201014 ART & CULTURE

When I was asked tointerview Aamir Khan atlast minute I knew that Icould cancel everythingfor this. He is definitelyone actor I have waitedfor a long time to inter-view. And meeting him inreal life was a truly amaz-ing experience. Anabsolutely down to earthperson with an everlast-ing smile on his face,Aamir is truly thefavourite of many.

In his cosy suite atCrowne Plaza Hotel, hediscussed about his latestfilm Peepli Live andmany more interestingissues.

SS: So tell us a bitabout your film “PeepliLive”

AK: Well Peepli is afilm which is a satire onhow we are as a societytoday. It’s a satire on thepolitical scene, themedia, and the bureau-cracy and so on. And so itis a humorous look athow we are. And it’s astory about these twofarmers, two marginalfarmers who are about tolose their lands becausethey cannot pay theirloan and then they hearof this government pro-gramme that says anyfarmer committing sui-cide, his family gets acompensation of onelakh rupees which isroughly 2000 USD. Sothe elder brother sets upthe younger brother andhe kind of cons him intoagreeing to commit sui-cide. And the youngerbrother doesn’t reallywant to but he finds him-self in this situationwhere he has to. And sothere’s election happen-ing in this village and themedia gets a hint of thisand all hell breaks loosein this small village. Andthere is chaos, a circuserupts and how thingswork out. This is whatthe film is about.

SS: What inspiredyou to make this film?

AK: I loved the script.I thought Anusha wrote awonderful script. She haswritten some reallyvibrant characters. Andso it’s funny but it’s alsoquite heartbreaking andsensitising for someonelike me who has lived allhis life in a city. But whatthe film is really pointingout is that as a society wetend to focus all our ener-gies, our resources, ourwealth towards the cityand in the process the vil-lages get ignored. Andrural India is where

majority of our popula-tion lives. And so there isa big unequal sharing ofresources happening.That is really the themeof the film.

SS: Very close to thetheme you discussed, iswhat is happening

presently in India in thecontext ofCommonwealth Gameswhere large amount ofmoney has been spent onorganising an eventwhereas the poor popula-tion is ignored?

AK: Well what I haveread about is onlythrough the press reportsand television reports onwhat’s happening and ifwhat’s happening is truethen it is really sad. Andit will be quite a shame ifthings don’t go off wellafter all this. So I amkeeping my fingerscrossed that things goalright.

SS: And your nextventure is Dhobi Ghaatwhich has been scriptedby Kiran and I readsomewhere that initiallyyou were a bit nervousabout reading it?

AK: Well, I was nerv-ous. What if I didn’t likeit? But she has written agreat script and I reallyloved it. I think she hasmade a very fine film.Again like Peepli Live is afilm that’s quite unusualfor Indian cinema, DhobiGhaat too is a veryunusual film for Indiancinema. And I think it’sgreat to see young filmmakers coming in withtheir own voices andtheir own thoughts.

SS: Can you tell us abit about the film?

AK: Well, it’s a filmabout four characters andthe city of Bombay andhow their lives toucheach other and how theyaffect each other. And thecity actually is the fifthcharacter in the film, youknow, how the cityaffects all of us who livein it and how we affectthe city and contribute toit in so any ways. So, it’s

quite a slice of a life film. SS: What do you pre-

fer more? Acting or mak-ing movies?

AK: Well I have to sayI prefer acting. Acting ismy first love and I enjoydoing this the most. I amnot really a producer, in

the sense that my produc-tion company has madefour films in ten years.That’s not a very highrate of films. So I don’treally see myself as a pro-ducer. I am more of anactor but when I comeacross something that Ifind exciting, I produceit. So, I don’t do it as likea business.

SS: What about yourfuture projects?

AK: Well I haven’tdecided yet. In fact once Igo back there are lot ofscripts waiting for me. SoI will start reading themand then let’s see whatexcites me.

SS: So is it going tobe one film a year?

AK:Well I do one filmat a time. So that wouldstill be the case. I woulddo one at a time.

SS: And apart fromfilms, you are alsoinvolved in a number ofcauses. Can you tell us abit about that?

AK: Well I aminvolved with a numberof social causes and I tryand devote as much timeas I can to various cam-paigns that I am part ofback home in India.

SS: Anything specificthat you want to men-tion?

AK: Well, there arenumber of them. I amambassador for sanita-tion in schools in India. Iam also currently work-ing on a campaign that ison prevention of suicides.I am also doing work forRTI and I did a campaignlast year for ADR thatstands for Association forDemocratic Reform. Ialso recently went to Lehbecause there were thesefloods so to raise fundsfor that.

Let us know what you think. Email Spriha at [email protected]

One-on-one with Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan being interviewed by Spriha

By Spriha Srivastava

London’s world famousMadame Tussauds hasannounced it will bemarking one of SouthAsia’s most colourful andpopularly celebrated fes-tivals, as it launches itsfirst ever Diwali Weekendon 16th and 17th ofOctober 2010.

Guests visiting theDiwali Weekend atMadame Tussauds willenjoy some of theauthentic musical tradi-tions of India, includingsitar, flute and tabla play-ers as well as traditionaldance performed byaccomplished classicalmusicians. And to makethe Diwali celebrationeven more complete,there will be a wide rangeof delicious Indianmithai’s (sweets) beingsold at the Indian sweetshut. The one-weekend-only event will be hostedin the popular ‘WorldStage’ area and will joinIndian wax figures ofBollywood superstarsShahrukh Khan,Aishwarya Rai, AmitabhBachan and SalmanKhan.

Diwali, the Indiancelebration popularlyknown as ‘Festival of

Lights’ is celebrated by 1million British Asians aswell as Hindus, Sikhsand Jains across theglobe. Diwali commemo-rates the triumph of goodover evil and ushers inthe Hindu New Year. It iscelebrated with the com-ing together of familieswho share music, foodand gifts.

Visitors to the Diwalievent will also be able toenjoy all the attractionsMadame Tussauds has tooffer including the brandnew Marvel Super

Heroes 4D. Liz Edwards, PR

Manager at MadameTussauds, said,“Celebrating Diwali atMadame Tussauds on the16th and 17th October isa tribute to the growingnumber of South Asianvisitors from the UK andabroad who enjoy theattraction and come backyear after year to experi-ence it. We also look for-ward to all our otherinternational guestsexperiencing a snapshotof multicultural Britain.”

Pakistani rock star,Salman Ahmad fromJunoon, joined the cricket-ing community of eastLondon at the weekend tocelebrate the flagship NotIn My Game cricket tour-nament. The special 20 /20 style community crick-et tournament was one ofhundreds of communitycricket games, heldacross the country overthe summer, to supportthe campaign whichsends out a clear mes-sage; terrorism has noplace in sport.

Salman joined 11teams from acrossLondon, even takingpart with one team tomake up their numbers,to back the Not In MyGame campaign. Thecampaign has been run-ning throughout thesummer at a crucial timefor cricket, whenPakistan’s 2010 homeseries has been forced toplay in the UK due to theterrorist attacks againstthe Sri Lankan cricketteam in 2009. Over athousand people havealready signed the cam-paign pledge at www.not-inmygame.com.

This free event washeld in Canary Wharf, andover 150 players took partto compete for some of thegreat prizes on offer. TheWanstead Royals, tookhome the Not In My

Game trophy, signedcricket bats and tickets tothe One Day Internationalbetween England vsPakistan at Lords onMonday 20 September.

Commenting on thecampaign and the flagshipcommunity event, SalmanAhmad said:

“It is great that somany local Londonersjoined me this weekend totake part in the Not In MyGame cricket tournamentin London – it was a greatday out and the standardof cricket was very impres-sive. Sport, like music,unites the world. It bringsus together and gives usall something to celebrate.My real "junoon" or pas-sion is raising awarenessof some of the mostimportant social and polit-ical issues of our time. Asa former professionalcricketer and a cricket fan,

the attack on the SriLankan cricket teamshocked me greatly, as itdid cricket fans around theworld. Terrorists attackindiscriminately and theiractions affect us all. Wewill not let them ruin ourlove of the game and weurge everyone to take a

stand with us. Go onlinenow and sign the petitiona twww.notinmygame.com.”

The Not in My Gamecampaign is being led bySport for Life! and RadicalMiddle Way, two grass-roots charities who willbring together cricket fansfrom communities acrossthe UK. In addition toencouraging people tosign the pledge in defianceof terrorism, the groupshave been organising com-munity cricket matchesacross towns and cities inthe UK.

Madame TussaudsLondon announces firstever Diwali weekend

Pakistani rock star Salman Ahmad hostscommunity cricket tournament against terrorism

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 15Travel & Life styLe

Patola silk is often termed as the queen ofall silks. Patola sarees of Gujarat are oneof the finest hand-woven sarees pro-duced in India . The place associated with

Patola is Patan.Here, exquisitepatterns arewoven on sareeswith great preci-sion. BesidesPatan, Surat is

known for pato-la patterns on velvets. Patola silk has anexciting history. Historians believe thePatola makers originally hail from Jhalnanear Aurangabad in South India andmigrated to Patan in the 12th century.Kings of the Solanki dynasty used to wearthis fabric on religious occasions. Thekings of Jhalna never allowed freshPatolas to be exported out of their state.This agitated Kumarpal, a Solanki ruler,

who invaded Jhalna and brought about700 Salvi families. There are just

three families left. Possessing apatola sarees became a sta-

tus symbol with Gujaratigirls and women. It

became an integralpart of the wed-

ding cere-monies int h e

region. Theart of weaving

Patola sarees isthe most complex

and meticulous jobin this world. The

exquisite textilesdesigns of the fabric are

unique and simply amaz-ing. In Patan, the Patola is

done in ikkat style. This is atedious process, which takes

days of hard work. Each Patola fabric is lined with a

number of twisted threads. There is also asingle weft thread, which binds the twist-ed threads together. Each twisted threadis tied and dyed according to the patternof the saree. It is done in a manner so that

the knotted portions of the thread do notcatch color. This adds to the vibrance ofthe colors of the fabric. Apart from this,this makes the sarees look alike fromboth the sides and can be worn eitherways. This is a unique feature of thePatola sarees. The weaving of theseexclusive pieces is done in the traditionalhandlooms. Hard skilled labour and longtime taken for making Patola, make it bitcostlier. Cost is depending on design pat-tern. One sari under normal use lasts for80-100 years. It is, therefore, consideredas an ornament and a priceless dignity.

The colors used in this process aredyes made from vegetable extracts andother natural colors. These colors are sofast that there is a popular Gujarati sayingabout the Patola sarees that the Patolamay tear, but the color will not fade. Theaverage time taken in creating a Patolamarvel is usually 4 to 6 months, depend-ing on the complexity of the pattern anddesign. These affluent sarees are thus,priced accordingly. The specialty of Patanpatola is fine intricate patterns and typicalgeometric designs, with soft hazy out-lines. This is the natural effect producedby the technique.

Originally, patola was woven in fourdistinct styles by the Salvi community. ForJains and Hindus, it was done in doubleikkat style with all over patterns of flow-ers, parrots, dancing figures and ele-phants. For the Muslim Vora community,wedding sarees were woven with geo-metric and floral designs. ForMaharashtrian Brahmins, Nari Kunjsarees of plain, dark-color body and bor-ders, with women and birds, were woven.

Lastly, there were exclusive sareeswoven for the traditional export markets inthe Far East. Chemical colours were notinvented, colours were made from differ-ent plants. Among these natural colours,Wax, Indigo, Pomegranate bark, Katho,Majith, Kapilo, Alum, Kirmaj, Harsingar,Bojgar, Iron rust, Logware, Turmerik etc.Nowadays, Chemical dyes and coloursare in great use. However, those whoinsist for natural colours Patolas aremade to order for customer's satisfaction.Patola Saree also available in Vegetablecolours & Cosmetic colours. This colorprocess is much accurate that the need-ed combination is matched when wavingis done. This is the main trait of Ptola.

The process of doing color separatelyto war and weft is called as Double lkat inEnglish.In the system of Double lkatpatan’s patola’s comes at the lop in thewhole world because patola sari meas-ured 5.5 meters long and 48 inch wideColoring and design pattern developedon both sides of handloom cloth is uniqueand not known to have made anywhere inthe world except patan.

Another main feature of Patola is, inthe whole work of waving patola, meas-urement tap used is different than con-ventional tap. It is a tap, can measure100th part of an inch ,which is not possi-ble with common measurement tap. Withinvention of computers, ifs possible tomeasure such measurement, but the tapused for calculations of measurement inpatola is used thousand years beforeinvention of computers. In Bali islandsand Japan work on Double Ikat is donebut not made on huge size of patolu saricloth. That is why, people from all overworld visit patan and appreciate thisunique craft. In to-days' computer age,this kind of workmanship can not bedeveloped on computer.It has to be mademanually. Textile industry can not take upthis work. Students from textile industry ofother countries are still looking into optionof whether this art can be replicated bymachines.

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Patola

The tale of

AnjaanaAnjaani

New Hindi movies releasing this week

Top 5 Bollywood movies for the week No. Film Last Week Total Weeks

1 Dabangg New 1

2 We Are Family 1 2

3 Lafangey Parindey 3 4

4 Peepli [Live] 4 5

5 Once Upon A Time

In Mumbaai 5 7

Anjaana Anjaani

A romantic flick from the house of Nadiadwala,Anjaana Anjaani is the story of two youngsters whomeet as strangers and go together for long, yet almostdecide to part ways as strangers. But as fate wouldhave it, the story ends differently.

You can meet someone in the most mundane of cir-cumstances or in the most exotic ones. Akash andKiara meet. But they meet in a situation as unusual asno other.

But what if the two people who meet as strangerswant to stay that way? They want to end right wherethey started – as strangers.

This is the story of two strangers on an odyssey ofdiscovery – down a path that is ridden with the exqui-site pain and joy of falling in love, only they don't real-ize it.

A series of hilarious misadventures trace their bicoastal road journey as they go about fulfilling theirlast wishes. But then life interrupts, as is its habit; andpainful choices must be made. The duo part with theunderstanding that their days together were a briefinterlude of insanity that had to succumb to real life.

Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under the banner ofNadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, the film isdirected by Siddharth Raj Anand.

The lead cast consists of Ranbir Kapoor, PriyankaChopra, Zayed Khan and Anupam Kher.

Neelesh Misra, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani,Amitabh Bhattacharya, Anvita Dutt Guptan, CaralisaMonteiro, Kumaar, Irshad Kamil and Kausar Munirhave penned the lyrics, while Vishal Dadlani andShekhar Ravjiani have scored the music.

Nikhil D'Souza, Monali, Lucky Ali, Rahat FatehAli Khan, Shekhar Ravjiani, Caralisa Monteiro, MohitChauhan, Shruti Pathak, Vishal Dadlani and ShilpaRao have rendered the playback.

I’m almost 90% blind, says

Shruti HaasanShruti Haasan may be seen as fitas a fiddle but she confesses hereyesight is extremely weak andthat she heavily depends on spec-tacles and contact lenses for hervision.

"I'm almost ninety per centblind without my glasses. I can'tsee something that is two cmsaway from me, " the 24-year- oldposted on her Twitter page."Usually I never wish peoplebecause I don't see them and thenof course the apologies and thesorrys and the how are yous flowfreely, " she added.

Shruti, daughter of veteranactors Kamal Haasan and Sarika,had a bad day last week thanks to herweak eyesight. "Yesterday I wished thewrong person! Also walked into a glass

door! Everything was a massive blur nota nice feeling at all!! Long live contactsand glasses, " she posted.

New man in MeeraVasudevan’s life

Srikanth is happy that‘Drohi’ has broughthim back to limelight.“It was a challengingrole for me. Peoplehave seen me a suaveurban hero in my earli-er films,” he says.

The actor adds:“Hence to get underthe skin of the character(a Royapuram youth), Istruggled a lot. I had toreduce over 10 kgs andtan myself. All creditsshould go to directorSudha Prasad who man-aged to get the best outof me and my colleagueVishnu”.

On his experiencesshooting for the movie,he says, “I would go toRoyapuram early in themorning and watch peo-

ple at very close quar-ters. All became friendswith me there. Also wedid enough rehearsals,that came handy whenwe shot”.

Produced by ManoAkkineni, ‘Drohi’ is abouttwo youngsters (Srikanthand Vishnu) who arebrought up inRoyapuram slums. Whathappens when the twofriends become enemiesis what the movie is allabout.

Srikanth smiles bright

Denying recent mediareports that she refusedan offer from Bollywoodcouple Sridevi andBoney Kapoor citing dateissues, South Indianactress Asin said it’simpossible for her to sayno to the senior actressand her filmmaker hus-band Boney Kapoor.

“I share a great per-sonal relationship withSridevi and her entirefamily. I was shooting inChennai when I heardabout the report thatsaid that Boney Kapoorhad approached me witha film and I refused it.That’s just impossible,”Asin said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Boney

Kapoor said: “We areworking on scripts of BePositive (the sequel toNo Entry) and Mr. India2. I am not someone whowill approach actors withan incomplete script; letthe script get completedfirst, then I will announcethe star cast.”

I didn’t say ‘No’ toSridevi: Asin

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 1716 Asian Voice Saturday 25th September 2010

Imran Khan wants you to adopt stray dogs!

Vidya to act in ‘Kill Bill’ remake

Katrina, Salman back together

Big B wins National Award for ‘Paa’

Sonam Kapoor gets a scolding from her father

Veteran Bollywood starAnil Kapoor is known tobe a strict father, who doesnot even spare his daugh-ter when it comes to pro-fessionalism and punctu-ality.

There is a report thatSonam, who is shootingfor Anees Bazmee's latestflick “Thank You” inCanada, has been report-ing late on the sets forsome time. The delay bythe lead actress Sonamwas creating problem forsenior actors like SunielShetty and Irrfan Khan asthey were on the sets atthe scheduled time.

At last, Bazmee talkedto Sonam's father actorAnil Kapoor about this.

Anil reportedly scoldedhis darling daughter forthis unprofessional behav-

ior and the actressimproved quickly. Asource was quotedsaying that eventhough Sonam wasnot doing it intention-ally, it became prob-lematic for rest of thecast and the crew.However, AneesBazmee did not admitthe piece of news andlaughed it away. Thedirector said that Anilcame to the sets of hismovie when he was inCanada for someother work. Speakingabout Sonam, Bazmeesaid that she wasnever unpunctual and

he had no problem withthe young actress.

Bollywood actress VidyaBalan is not in the rat race tobecome no. 1 in the industry,but she has her own nicheand a selected number offans too.

The actress has nowimpressed the director SujoyGhosh of “Jhankaar Beats”fame and the director hasreportedly signed the talent-ed actress in the lead role ofhis next film, which will be aremake of Hollywood flick“Kill Bill.”

Vidya will reprise the roleplayed by Hollywood actress Uma Thurman. So, it will beyet another path breaking role for Vidya Balan, who hascreated history when she played mother to Bollywoodmegastar Amitabh Bachchan in “Paa.”

This will be a challenging role for Vidya as she wasnever seen performing bold stunts on screen earlier. Thesource said that it would be the first action film of Vidya,who is usually seen in romantic roles.

Imran Khan recently shot for anad for People for the EthicalTreatment of Animals (PETA)urging people to adopt straydogs instead of buying pedigree pets.

The actor, who owns twopooches Kajri and Tony, wasapproached by PETA to do thead. He readily agreed and evenshot with his adopted dog, Tony.

A source close to Imranreveals how Tony became apart of his family, "During therelease of Jaane Tu... YaaJaane Na, Imran's dog Kajri hadgone for a walk and came backwith another dog who followedher home. The Khans soon dis-covered that it was actuallyabandoned by the owners. SoImran decided to adopt him."

Friends of the actor add thathe actually tries and urges themto adopt a pet rather than buying a pedigree. Khan misseshis pets the most when he'sshooting abroad.

Bipasha Basu is upbeatabout her new film“Aakrosh,” which after“Lamhaa,” once again proj-ects her in a ‘deglam’avatar. “In Lamhaa (her lastfilm) I was allowed to wearkajal (kohl), I wearabsolutely no make-up in‘Aakrosh.’ Rocky (designerRocky S) got me

cotton saris fromKolkata and Priyadarshan(the film’s director) wouldmess up my hair on thesets,” reminisces the actor.“My character is trapped inan unhappy, abusive mar-riage and the sadness isreflected in her persona. Itwas a dismal role to playbut an eye-opener too.”

The film touches on thesubject of caste politics andhonour killings and, asBasu points out, these arejust incidents you readabout in the papers every-day. “They don’t becomereal till you do a film likeAakrosh,” she reasons. “It’sa no-brainer for me and ourlegal system needs to wakeup and pass stringent lawsto rule out these feudal‘khap panchayats’,” sheasserts.

The intentions are hon-

ourable but “Lamhaa’s”commercial failure rein-forces the fact that there arefew takers for such realisticfilms. Basu acknowledgesthis and admits that afterthe TV premiere of‘Lamhaa,’ she’s been inun-dated with compliments.“The response made me feelsuccessful as an actor butit’s unfortunate that someof these same people didn’tgo to watch the film in the

theatres,” she says.Her experience with

Lamhaa has made herrealise that films that tacklesocial issues need to havetighter budgets. “If Lamhaahad been made for the priceof an Udaan or a Tere BinLaden, it would have been ahit,” she argues.

That’s why Basu hasnow decided to take a paycut on socially relevantfilms to make them com-mercially viable. “That’s theonly way they can work,”she asserts, admitting thatshe hasn’t done Aakrosh forfree since it came to hermuch earlier. “But I willreduce my price for similarfilms that follow.”

In an effort to bring insocial change, Basu hadannounced an NGO forKashmiri orphans, in col-laboration with her Lamhaadirector, Rahul Dholakia,and co-star Sanjay Dutt. Inretrospect, she says that itmay be a little tough sincean NGO takes months ofpaperwork to set up. “Fornow, Rahul is planning film-making workshops in theKashmir Valley,” she says. “And I’ve offered to help inwhatever way I can.”

Bipasha goesglamourless for ‘Aakrosh’

Bollywood legend AmitabhBachchan completed a hat-trick winning his third BestActor award at the 57thNational Film Awards.Ananya Chaterjee won theBest Actress award for 'AaboHawa' while RituparnoGhosh has been adjudgedBest Director. The awardswere announced by head ofthe awards jury RameshSippy last week.

Bachchan won the awardfor his role of a child suffer-ing with a rare disorder -progeria - in the film 'Paa'.The actor has earlier wontwo National Awards, for'Agneepath' and 'Hum'. 'Paa'also fetched veteran actressArundhati Nag the Best

Supporting Actressaward.

The super successfulHindi film “3 Idiots”bagged three awards -Best Popular Film, BestDirector and BestProducer. Malayalamfilm 'Kutty Shrank' wonthe Best Film award.Shyam Benegal's 'WellDone Abba' bagged theBest Film on SocialIssues while RakeyshOmprakash Mehra's'Dilli-6' won the awardfor Best Film onNational Integration.

Farooq Sheikhbagged the BestSupporting Actor awardfor the film 'Lahore'.

Bollywood

Meera Vasudevan, whodivorced Vishal Agarwal,still cares for her ex-hus-band. “We are not intouch anymore. But Iwish him all the best inhis life. He is a nice guy”,the model-turned-actress says.

On Mollywood actorJohn Kokken, the newman in her life, Meerasays, “He was a friendinitially. But gradually wefell in love with eachother. My life hasbecome beautifuland wonderful now”.

She adds: “Johnis very caring and heis always there to moti-vate me. He wouldalways say I haveimmense talent and Icould do wonders byconcentrating in mycareer. His words ener-gise me like anything”.

Describing JohnKokken as the perfectguy for her, Meera saysshe has found a greatguide and mentor in him.

“He was there for mewhen I went throughtroubled phases in life.He made me feel that lifeis beautiful”. She is cur-rently busy with two proj-ects- ‘Aattanayagan’ and‘ T h a s a i y i n a iTheechudinum’.

One of Bollywood's most legendaryromances could well be rekindling.Katrina Kaif, they say, has goneback to Salman Khan.

Not so long ago, both Katrinaand Salman were shouting from therooftops that they were single. "Butnot anymore. They have reconciledtheir differences and are backtogether as a couple," says a source.

One good indication of thispatch-up is “Bodyguard,” Salman'ssister Alvira's directorial debut,slated for Eid 2011, now a prettyauspicious date for the Khans giventhe stupendous success of“Dabangg.” Sources confirm thatKatrina is slated to play the femalelead.

Alvira always wanted Katrinafor “Bodyguard,” but Sallu and Katparted ways. In the interim, sheapproached Asin but it didn't workout. Salman, despite his 'split' withKatrina, has green-lit his sister'sforay into direction, with Kat oppo-site him.

Alvira's husband, AtulAgnihotri, said, "To befrank, there's noone we'd liketo see more

in this film thanKatrina. The truth isthat neither Salmannor her has any inhibi-tions about workingwith each other. Infact they are alreadydoing a song for FarahKhan's film. This goesto show how thor-oughly professionalthey both are.

We should beready to make an offi-cial announcementabout the casting in acouple of days. Theonly hitch may beKatrina's dates, whichare still being workedout. We have alreadydecided on an Eidrelease so everythingis being worked back-wards from this pro-posed release date.We're trying to sortthings out and arehoping for the best."

Is it love again forthese two then?

Surely it's been a

difficult time for Katrina;despite her alleged dallianceswith some co-stars, she cuts alonely figure in the corridorsof tinsel town. Salman, afterall, has truly nurtured her tal-ent from her struggling days;it is a gratitude Kat can't seemto ignore.

Likewise, the split wasnever acrimonious, even bySallu's turbulent standards:neither badmouthed theother. So much so, thatKatrina even recently brokedown when her broken rela-tionship with Salman wasprobed into at a recently-heldpress conference.

From what we hear,Salman is equally happy tohave Katrina back in his arms.In fact, he now wants to settledown with Kat as the buzzgoes. Says a source, "Salman'sego might not have allowedhim to say so publicly, but hehas invested nearly sevenyears in Katrina now. He mayhave had his share of flings,but he wants to marry Katrinaeventually."

Actress RaimaSen, who has

made a name forherself in theBengali film indus-try as well asBollywood with

her offbeat roles,says she is ready to

sport a bikini onscreen if she

finds the scriptexceptionally

g o o d .Given a

cho ice ,

though, she would go forperiod films.

"I don't like to wear abikini on screen. I thankgod that till date I haven'tgot such roles where Ineed to wear a bikinibecause I don't thinkwearing one will addglamour to the role, "Raima, 30, said.

"But if a script comesto me and if it's really avery, very good script andthe role demands, thenit's okay wearing a bikini," said the star of suchfilms as "Chokher Bali"and "Parineeta".

Raima comes from anillustrious Bengali filmfamily - her grandmother,legendary actressSuchitra Sen, was one ofthe most sought after inBengali as well as Hindimovies.

And her mother MoonMoon Sen was a yester-

year sex symbol. Her sis-ter Riya too is active inHindi movies.

Best known in theindustry for her innocentand girl-next-door looks,Raima's beauty has oftenbeen compared to that ofher grandmother's.

"I feel honoured whenpeople compare my lookswith those of my grand-mother, " she said.

Raima made her debutin the film industry with asmall role in the criticallyacclaimed Hindi movie"Godmother" in 1999. Buther acting skills wereovershadowed by thepresence of ShabanaAzmi who was the mainprotagonist.

She is open to allkinds of roles and is verykeen to feature in periodfilms.

"I am open to all kindsof roles and if you ask me

about my dream role,then I will say it's periodfilms. I would like to act ifthere is a remake of anyperiod films," she said.

Raima has made amark in the film industryin the last 10 years bydoing roles of substance.She was first criticallyacclaimed for her breath-taking performance indirector RituparnoGhosh's 2003 Bengalimovie "Chokher Bali".

Her role in PradeepSarkar's 2005 movie"Parineeta" also won herrave reviews and later shewowed audiences withher performances inBengali film "Anuranan"(2005) and Hindi movie,"Honeymoon Travels Pvt.Ltd" (2007).

When asked todescribe herself as anartist, she said: "I am aspontaneous actress."

Raima Sen don’t like to wear bikini


Alpesh PatelConsultant EditorFinancial Voice

You have received incomeover the years which thetax authorities do notknow about. The source ofincome could have arisenfrom rental properties,interest from offshoreaccounts, private cashjobs undertaken, cashdiverted from a businessnot included in the books,etc.

Is there good reason toworry?

The thought of the tax-man finding out frequentlyplays on your mind. Thisis a major concern espe-cially when you readrecent news items such asHM Revenue & Customs(HMRC) stepping up theirlevel of activity to crackdown on “tax dodgers”and the authorities recent-ly requesting 408 banks toprovide contact details ofthose living in the UK whohold offshore accounts.

If you have undeclaredincome, it may only be amatter of time before thetax man comes knockingon your door with a hugetax bill to greet you with.There is also a major riskthat somebody will informthe tax authorities, maybe

the ex-wife or businesspartner, perhaps a formeremployee, a neighbour orsomeone that you havehad a falling out with. IfHMRC are notified of anypotential offences, it isvery likely that they willsoon pounce. Before youknow it you will have toendure the burden of along-winded, costly andstressful tax enquiry withthe possibility of criminalprosecution, depending onthe seriousness of thecase.

Is there a solution?

To much relief, HMRCare currently offering anamnesty where if a volun-tary tax disclosure ismade, favourable termscan be gained with a guar-antee of immunity fromprosecution, no matter thetype of tax offence.

The financial incen-tives include a reduceddisclosure for the past 10years instead of the usual20 years. Any undeclaredincome before this 10 yearperiod will be completelyignored and you neverhave to worry about itagain, no matter how sig-nificant the amounts maybe. Furthermore, HMRCmay only levy a 10%penalty compared to up to10 times this figure if avoluntary disclosure is notmade!

Am I eligible to use thisamnesty?

So long as you hold, orhave held, an offshore oroverseas account whichwas not opened through aUK branch or agency, it isvery likely that you couldtake advantage of the

amnesty. Even if you arecurrently (or were previ-ously) under investigationby a local HMRC office,you will still be eligible.

To register for theterms of the amnesty,known as the“Liechtenstein DisclosureFacility”, there is a need toestablish “relevant proper-ty” in Liechtenstein. Thisgenerally means a bankaccount will need to beopened in the principality,which we can easily facili-tate. You do not have tohave any previous link ortie with Liechtenstein.

I am not sure if I need tomake a disclosure.

It may be the case thatyou do not even need tomake a disclosure. Forinstance if your unde-clared income solely camefrom interest earned froman offshore or overseasaccount, and you have notbrought (remitted) any ofthe funds back to the UK,then a disclosure may notbe required so long as youhave a “non-UK domi-ciled” status.

Determining yourdomicile status is notstraight-forward and ifyou claim, for instance,that your domicile statusis Indian, HMRC wouldconsider factors such asthe assets that you hold inIndia, the ties you havewith India and what yourfuture intentions are. Theywill test this in great detailbefore being convinced ofwhat your status is. Youmay wish to seek profes-sional advice to determinewhat your domicile statusis, which is an area thatwe can help with.However, if you have

undeclared income arisingin the UK, then a disclo-sure is likely to be neces-sary, no matter what yourdomicile status is.

Although the deadlineto disclose under theseterms is still some timeaway, you are stronglyadvised to do so at theearliest possible opportu-nity. If HMRC pouncefirst and open an enquiry,you may not be able toregister for this amnesty.

Managing tax disclo-sures of this kind is a spe-cialised area and HorwathClark Whitehill LLP isone of a small number offirms who have 100%dedicated expertise in thisfield. If you require anyassistance in making a taxdisclosure, even if youfeel you are not eligiblefor the terms of theamnesty but you want tomake a voluntary tax dis-closure to HMRC usingother avenues, you maywish to telephone SeanWakeman, partner, on020 7842 7285 or AnandUnalkat on 020 78427143 for a free initial con-sultation. Alternatively,you can call ourDisclosure Helpline on020 7842 7200.

Worried about the Tax Man

Sean Wakeman

Tax Investigations Partner

Anand Unalkat Tax Investigations Senior

Dear Financial Voice Reader,

If you’ve been caught by surprise by the recentstrength of the stock market, then before you get car-ried away I thought I would give you my analysis ofsome longer term investments. These are selected bylooking at their price trends over a longer period ofseveral months.

Let’s start with the slightly smaller companiesbecause they often move independently of the broad-er market so there is opportunity find stocks which aregenuinely different and index beating. (Neither I norconnected persons to me have any positions in these,and nor will I or they have before or within one weekof publication, if at all).

Findel: this has been declining for months. It usedto be a very good stock and company and then fell offa cliff. Only recently has it started climbing back andnow seems to have turned a corner. High risk.

Oxford Instruments: This has been climbing allyear and has produced more great results. It remainsnot overly valued despite doubling this year in priceand the returns come from recovering post recession.Medium risk.

Photo-Me: The share price has been up and upsince 2009. The risk is there could be a pause as theprice moves sideways after such large moves up. Atbest has 25% upside to go by year end. High risk.

Volex: Another company with an uptrend in placefor a year. Its up 200% in that time. Revenues havesurged with the US recovery leaving the companyundervalued given its share price to profitability pershare. The company produces electronic and fibreoptic cable assemblies and has facilities in Asia,Europe and Americas. Medium-high risk.

Dialight: This used to be one of my favouritesbefore the credit crunch. And for a year its been busydoubling its share price. This manufactures of LEDs forthe electronic industry has done well out of the recov-ery. Their products are used in cars to traffic lights.Medium-high risk.

TT Electronics: Another one with a solid uptrend.They make electronics for the automotive and tele-coms industry and have bases including in low costcountries. Some brokers have raised it to a buy ratingrecently. The only problem is valuations are starting tolook steep. Medium-high risk.

Moving to the broader market – the Sensex con-tinues it rally. Incidentally worries about bubbles toone side , it’s interesting to note that HindustanCopper, owned by the Govt, is planning a share sale toraise money to sell rocks. Yes rocks. When you can sellrocks, a market may be overvalued. That said theindex is not too expensive given the earnings generat-ed by the companies which compose the Sensex.Some of the best performers year to date include TataMotors (I do have a holding), ICICI, HDFC. Some ofthe big disapointers are Reliance and Tata Steel –because they did so well before now.

For the UK – the FTSE has turned positive and theprice momentum suggests it may even hit 6000 byyear end which would be a 10% rise.

You can follow me on Facebook with commentstoo.

[email protected]

Hotel price fixing scamunder OFT scanner

Families, pensioners to feel spending cut pinch Child benefits may end early, winter fuel payments starting may be pushed back

On a complaint by dis-count websiteSkoosh.com, watchdogOFT has launched inves-tigations into the allega-tions of price fixing bybudget hotel chains.

The website has toldthe Office of Fair Tradingthat hotel chains are put-ting pressure on them tooffer rooms to customersat standard prices.

Dorian Harris ofSkoosh said: “We wereopenly discounting andhotels would call andthreaten legal action.Either we’d have to raiseprices or take the hotels

off our list.”The OFT said the

investigation had juststarted and it was toosoon to say if the law wasbeing broken or con-sumers were being rippedoff.

Skoosh finds the bestdeals at trade-only whole-salers and passes on thesavings to consumers.

UK government, aimingto drastically cut spendingis considering benefits tofamilies and pensionersfor possible savings.Proposals are lowering theage of child benefits bythree years.

This means familieswill continue to get thebenefits scrapped as chil-

dren reach 16 instead ofpresent 19 years of age.Official sources say thismove could help govern-ment save upto £3 billiona year.

Another proposal is topush back the winter fuelallowance benefits to pen-sioners. The proposal saysthe age at which this

should start can bepushed back to 70 againstthe present age of 60.

There are other pro-posals also, some suggestmaking the benefit systemmore complicated, butministers are reportedlyreluctant to agree to intro-duce means-testing foruniversal benefits.

Lafarge now faces the red flag of environment in India

French industrial groupengaged in constructionmaterial production,Lafarge is now facing thered flag of environment inIndia as the environmentalclearance to Lafarge’slimestone mining andcement plant in HimachalPradesh is been blockedafter a petition environ-mental groups was upheldby the appellate tribunal ofthe ministry of environ-

ment. Vedanta group, an

industrial house owned bya British Indian baronAnil Agarwal also hadtheir environmental per-mission cancelled to baux-ite mining in Orissaforests.

This is a definite signalof a tougher approach toenvironmental regulationof large industrial projectsby the country.

Jairam Ramesh, India’senvironment minister, hasexpressed a determinationto enforce environmentaland social protection lawsmore aggressively.

Lafarge wants to buildan integrated, $187mplant and mine producing3m tonnes of cement peryear in Himachal Pradesh,a Himalayan state knownfor its scenery and horti-culture.

The environment min-istry approved the plan inJune 2009, but opponentsappealed against the deci-sion to the NEAA.

Expressing concernabout the project’s impacton a wildlife sanctuaryjust 5km away, the tribu-nal concluded it was not“desirable” for the area.

Himachal is notLafarge’s first difficulty inIndia.

Limestone mine, cement plant project in Himachal Pradesh blocked

Elder Pharma ofIndia to buy

NeutraHealthElder Pharmaceuticals ofIndia has announcedplans to acquireNeutraHealth Plc of UKin a deal worth £9.80 mil-lion. Elder will be buyingthe UK entity throughtheir wholly owned sub-sidiary based in Dubai.Elder already holds 21.1%shares of NeutraHealth.

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 19FINANCIAL VOICE

Suresh Vagjiani

Managing Director of Sow & Reap,

a Property Investment & Financing company.

Property Focus

31 Southwick Street, Paddington, W2 1JQ

Registered in England No. 05083823

T: 0207 706 0187 E: [email protected]

F: 0203 014 8484 W: www.sowandreap.co.uk

nMortgages nCommercial Finance n Property Sourcing nGujarat Properties - Sale & Resale

The Nal Safari ProjectInvestment Summary

You can invest from as little as £15,000Growth has been 10% already in 3 monthsWe anticipates growth of around 50% within2 years The developer’s last project, Rituraj Palace,has gone up five fold in three years- we haveactual proof of this from a purchase to sale ofa plot which took place in Late December. This project has over 90 homes built on

the site as opposed to most plot onlyschemes. This encourages end user activityand therefore leads to an up lift in prices. We can provide an exit strategy – through

our office in the UK and in Ahmadabad.This scheme and area has been chosen

for its modest prices and strong future poten-tial. The Tato Nano Plant has now brought

this region into the limelight. As Ahmadabadexpands we are confident this area willbecome a centre of gravity, meaning it willact as a magnet for future investment.The development has been approved by

DHFL, one of the leading banks in India, andfunding can be arranged from the UK.

My Personal Perspective

When I first saw the site and met thedeveloper, I liked the enthusiasm and passionhe has for his own project. I knew from visit-ing past sites his construction work is good.The aim of this scheme was not to only sec-tion plots, it would have been easier and thedeveloper and the investors would no doubtmake money. He wanted activity in this site.He wanted families to come and use the facil-ities. Hence the Safari Scheme.In all honesty I believed it was an excel-

lent scheme, but I had reservation regardingthe execution of the whole safari concept onto this huge barren piece of farmland. Inshort I could not see the vision he was seeingand I thought perhaps the finished productmay look a little tacky. In much the same waymany Indian movies do when they copy awestern film or concept. I am glad to say I was wrong and the fin-

ished product looks amazing. Only it lookstoo beautiful. One cannot help but getattached to it. The site now has greenery, horses, geese,

and lots of open space. It is now very diffi-cult to simply treat it as an investment andcash in. The area is still raw and will increase fur-

ther in price. We would like to invite you toour coming seminars for this developmentand become our neighbor. Please call ouroffice to register for the seminars.T: +44 (0)203 384 5323E: [email protected]

Where will you get off?Wembley Park or Baker St?

The property we advertised last week hasattracted a lot of interest and viewingswill take place this week. We expect it tobe under offer in a short period of time.If you are still interested in this invest-ment purchase please get back to usquickly. As a brief reminder, it is a free-hold block in the heart of London, walk-ing distance to Baker Street station. Theproperty is currently used as a 10 bed-room HMO. The property is generatingannual rentals of more than £63,000. Inaddition, there is planning permissiongranted for conversion of the property tobe used as a single dwelling unit. Theproperty has got an excellent growthpotential in terms of capital growth and itis estimated that the price for this prop-erty will be worth £1.4m when it’s con-verted. We suggest a liquid cash invest-ment of £500,000 to see this through tocompletion. Remember you can alwayshave a pool of investors to purchase thisproperty. This week we shift to North London.

There we have an opportunity to pur-chase a two double bedroom flat in the upand coming area of Wembley. Wembley

is underrated bearingin mindW e m b l e yPark stationis only 2stops awayfrom BakerSt station, and an 11 minute ride.Wembley stadium is only 1 stop awayfrom Marylebone station. The area has come up tremendously

with the regeneration plans for Wembleystill yet to rise to their full height. The interesting point with this flat is

the way it has been packaged. The flat can be bought for £195,000

the two interesting points in this invest-ment is it can be bought with only 15%deposit and comes with a two year rentalguarantee.

548 Kings Drive, Wembley Middlesex,HA9 9JDThe property comprises of a

Reception Room, Two bedrooms, Kitchenand Bathroom/WC. It is a first floor flatforming part of a three storey block, wellpresented in reasonable decorative orderwith the benefit of a balcony off the

Reception Room. The property is situatedclose to the junction of Greenhill Way,with shopping facilities found locally inWembley. Fryent Country Park is closeby and provides recreational facilities tothe area.

fInancIal voice

As I write the BBC web-site has just reported thatPope Benedict has nowleft the UK. The unprece-dented media coverage ofhis visit is a testimony tothe power of a man whohas no significant army,no huge business orindustry (some of you willdisagree and say thatReligion is the largestindustry in the world), orany significant personalwealth. It is almost as ifevery single word, everygesture, every expressionof the Pontiff has somesignificance attached to it.Yet we live in a societywherein we are told thatmore and more peopleshunning organised reli-gion.

Man has always trav-elled far and wide to‘spread the message ofGod’ under the premise ofhelping others find salva-tion. Although historyshows that has not alwaysbeen the case, a factacknowledged by BishopDesmond Tutu when hesaid, “When the mission-aries came to Africa theyhad the Bible and we hadthe land. They said, 'Letus pray.' We closed oureyes. When we opened

them we had the Bibleand they had the land.”

We all have our ownmotives for doing thethings we do, some hon-ourable and some person-al. But rather than tryingto ascertain what thePope’s motives were,there are actually many ofleadership qualities whichcan be learned from reli-gious leaders. 1.Engagement – they makea point to reach out topeople, not just by emailor video conferencing. Itsone thing to write, ‘Istand with you’, it isanother to actually bethere in person. 2.Communication – everyletter is answered, everyphone call taken, everyvisitor met. Not alwaysdirectly, but a response isalways given, none areignored. 3. Delegation –most religions have aclearly defined organisa-tional structure with eachlevel filled by a personwho is given adequateauthority to fulfil theirroles. 4. Ethics – theyobserve their rules andprinciples and will notwaiver from these to seekpopularity. 5. Empathy –they understand that peo-

ple make mistakes andoffer forgiveness and sup-port to help people getback on their feet. 6.They practice what theypreach.

Many of the pointsI’ve listed are often dis-carded as being ‘soft’ or‘impractical’. However,whether or not you are aleader, we all have thepower to help those whoseek it from us. If not foryourself, do it for God’ssake.

Amit Patel has over15 years experience inthe field of PersonalDevelopment andHuman ResourceManagement. He hasdelivered speeches onPeople Management andDevelopment throughoutEurope, North America,and Asia. To contactAmit, email him at [email protected]

For God’s Sake

By Amit Patel

Leadership Matters


Indian stockmarkets on an upswingRiding high on huge fundflows from ForeignInstitutional Investors(FII), Indian stock mar-kets continued theupswing that was wit-nessed last week.

The BSE Sensex brokethe 20,000 points levelearly on Tuesday andended just above themark.

Previously, it was in

January 2008 that theindex recorded that level.The NSE Nifty also closedat more than 6000.

On Monday, the sen-sex had gained more than300 points and 20,000mark was well in sight.The BSE index broke thelevel soon, ending the daywith a gain of 95 points.Nifty went up by 28 pointsto close at 6009.

Even the Wall Streethad jumped on Monday,with the Dow adding 1.3%to 10,754 and Nasdaqgaining 1.7% to 2,356,while the Asian marketswere steady.

The market breath wasnegative; Out of 3113stocks traded on the BSE,there were 883 advancingstocks as against 2118declines.

Sensex scales 20,000 after 32 months; Nifty crosses 6000 mark

After Spielberg’s Dreamworks, nowMGM looks to go to India

Anil Ambani’s RelianceBig Entertainment boughtDreamworks, the studioscreated by StevenSpielberg from Paramountlast year.

Now, another famousHollywood studio – MGMis likely to go the Indiaway. Sahara India, theIndian corporate conglom-erate is in talks to helpMGM its way out of thehuge debts in return for ashare stake.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayeror MGM is deep into debtsworth $3.7 billion. SaharaIndia is reportedly pre-pared to help MGM payup half of the debt and get

a substantial stake inreturn. MGM ownsfamous films such as“Gone with the Wind”,the 007 James Bond seriesamong others.

Both the sides did con-firm the development, butdeclined any furtherdetails on the deal.

Sahara India are thesponsors of Indian hockeyteam. They had for long

been sponsors of theIndian cricket team too,but recently that changedand Sahara group won thePune Warriors team in thecash rich and famous IPL– the T20 tournament ofthe BCCI. The group alsohad showed some interestin acquiring UK’sLiverpool Football Club,but later things didn’tmaterliase.

Anil Ambani’sReliance BigEntertainment, TimeWarner, SpyglassEntertainment and LionsGate Entertainment alsowere among the interestedgroups for MGM.

Sahara India in talks with the famous Hollywood studio to help MGM pay back some debts

Core Projects buys 2US companies

Indian company also looking atacquisitions in UK

Core Projects andTechnologies of Indiaannounced last week ithas acquired two USAcompanies in a deal worthabout $20 mn. TechnicalSystems Integrators LLCof Georgia as well asKeenan and KeenanGroup of New York areboth education solutionscompanies. A top CoreProjects official also said

they are now looking toacquisitions in the UKmarket.

The two US compa-nies have combined rev-enues of more than US$25 million.

Core Projects hadmobilised about $75 mil-lion from the FCCB issuein May this year. Theacquisitions were fundedfrom these proceeds.

India to have a Finnish Innovation Centre in Delhi

New Delhi, the capital ofIndia will have a FinnishInnovation Centre nextyear, Finland counsellor(economic and commer-cial Juha Pyykko said onMonday. He disclosed thedecision of Finland gov-ernment to the media atChandigarh, on the side-lines of an interactive ses-sion organised by PHDchamber of commerce.

The Innovation Centreis aimed at showcasinginnovations developed byFinnish companies in thefields of clean technology

in sectors like water purifi-cation, waste manage-ment, energy efficiency.

For Finland, it will bethe third centre afterChina and California. InAsia, India is the fourthbiggest trade partner forthe European countryafter China, Japan andSouth Korea.

It enjoys a favourablebalance of trade. Indianexports valued at 200 mnEuros in 2009, whileImports valued at 450 mnEuros.

Finland in collabora-

tion with India has alsoset up joint commissionsto promote education andinnovations in India.Ministry of foreign affairsof Finland and ministry ofcommerce, India will lookafter these joint commis-sions, he said.

Finland this yearsigned economic coopera-tion agreement and doubletaxation avoidance treatywith India.

A memorandum ofUnderstanding has alsobeen inked with India ondata security, he said.

ArcelorMittal to shift focus, smaller units is the new strategy for India ventures

Land acquisition delays,protests by tribals andother issues have led toArcelorMittal, the globalsteelmaker to changeplans for setting up unitsin India. The group, head-ed by L N Mittal, theBritish Indian industrialistand known as steelking,has now decided that thegroup will now opt forsmaller plants of 1.5 to 3mn tones in India. Thegroup also feels Karnatakais the state with least riskin implementation of proj-

ects as compared toJharkhand and Orissa.

Aditya Mittal, groupCFO and son of L NMittal said last week, “ForKarnataka greenfield proj-ect, land acquisition isexpected to be completedby the end of this year. Weare also expecting to getsome mining leases inKarnataka”.

"Our strategy in Indiahas changed. We are nowon the ground sellingbranded steel. Our firstdomestic production is

expected by 2013," Mittal,who is also member of thegroup management board,told the conference simul-taneously from here andNew York. ArcelorMittalhas a 34 per cent stake inIndian steel producerUttam Galva and is a co-promoter of the firm.

There were reports of apossible stake sale by steelcompany Ispat Industriesto ArcelorMittal. Ispat isincidentally owned by L.N.Mittal's younger brothersPramod and Vinod.

USA out of recession, officially18 months of downturn ended in

June 2009, says NBERThe US economy hasfinally come out of thelongest recession since theWorld War II. TheNational Bureau ofEconomic Researchannounced earlier thisweek that recession endedin June, 2009. Dodgymortgage investments bythe Wall Street biggiestriggered the sub-primecrisis, plunging the worldinto a downturn. For USeconomy, it lasted 18months and caused job

losses for more than eightmillion Americans.

Despite economists'warnings of a double-diprecession, the bureau saidthe economy had recoveredenough that any new slidewould constitute a newrecession. Unlike manycountries where a recessionis defined as two consecu-tive quarters of shrinkinggrowth domestic product,in the United States it isdetermined by a seven-member NBER panel.

Reserve Bank of India raises bank rates to tame inflationConcerned at the inflationlevels, Reserve Bank ofIndia earlier this weekhiked key bank rates in amid-quarterly review, thefirst ever carried out bythe central bank. Reporate was raised by 25

points to 6%, whilereverse repo rate wasraised by 50 points to 5%.

These rates are raisedagainst the strong eco-nomic performance indi-cators. India’s GDP forthe first quarter of 2010-

11 (April – June this year)recorded a growth rate of8.8%, up by 2.8% as com-pared to 6% for the sameperiod last year. Industrialoutput went by 6.6% inJuly, 2010. It went up to13.8% this year against

6.2% in July 2009. As a result of the rate

hike, bankers feel loans willget costlier for borrowers.

Subir Gokarn, deputygovernor at RBI has says,"The inflation rates that theeconomy is now experienc-

ing, both from the supplyand the demand sides, areclearly a matter of greatconcern. It is incumbent onthe government and thecentral bank to use all themeans at their disposal torein inflation."

SpiceJet to fly toNepal, Sri Lanka

from OctoberSpiceJet will become thesecond low cost carrierfrom India to fly beyondthe Indian air space nextmonth. Air IndiaExpress, the budget armof the national flag carri-er, Air India is the otherairline operating oninternational routes.

SpiceJet will start onforeign routes with thefirst flight to take offfrom New Delhi toKathmandu in Nepal.Flights to Colombo willfollow after two days.The airline has recentlyseen the change of own-ership after founderssold a majority stake tomedia baron from TamilNadu, Kalanithi Maran.He bought the stakefrom the Kansagaras,British business familyof Indian origin.

The flight toKathmandu will take offon 7th October and willbe a six days a weekoperation. Colomboroute will be operatedfrom Chennai and willbe a daily flight.

SpiceJet completesfive years of domesticoperations this month —a mandatory require-ment to launch interna-tional flights — hasalready got the govern-ment's nod to fly on twomore routes, Male andDhaka.

The low-cost carrier,which will induct sevenmore aircraft into itsfleet this year, will usethe new aircraft on inter-national routes.

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 21FINANCIAL VOICE

GBP - INR = 71.28

USD - INR = 45.60

EUR - INR = 59.98

GBP - USD = 1.5598

GBP - EUR = 1.1956

EUR - USD = 1.3133

GBP - AED = 5.7298

GBP - CAD = 1.6061

GBP - NZD = 2.1354

GBP - AUD = 1.6484

GBP - ZAR = 11.01

GBP - HUF = 330.30

www.rationalfx.com

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Rajesh Agrawal is the Chairman & CEO of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

For any further information call 020 7220 8181 or e-mail [email protected]

Information provided by RationalFX.

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out more about how RationalFX can

help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

WeeklyCurrencies

As of Tuesday 21st September 2010 @ 12.49pm

Last week gold prices rose to arecord high of $1,283.25 anounce as fears that the globalrecovery was beginning to slow,this coupled with rumours ofthe Federal Reserve Bank ofAmerica’s intention to increasequantitative easing measures inthe United States, has onceagain encouraged investors toseriously consider the safehaven appeal of Gold Bullion.

Doubts about the recoveryin the Eurozone seem to be avery real threat to stability inthe currency markets and sever-al releases of recent economicdata have been worse thanexpected both in Europe andStateside, have started murmursabout the double- dip recession,resulting in nervous equity andforeign exchange markets andhave served to encourage thepresent revival in the ‘flight toquality’ resulting in the boost tonew highs in the gold market.

United States inflationarypressures showed no realimprovement last monthalthough consumer confidencein high street sales hit a thir-teenth month low fuelling fur-ther fears for the slowing eco-

nomic recovery, leading totraders and economists alikestarting to believe in a real pos-sibility of further United Statesquantitative easing.

Headline economic data hasbeen thin over the summermonths and markets now awaitmore realistic indications ofinformation such as U.S. hous-ing starts and prices as further

and more accurate indicationson the speed on any recovery.

The United States FederalReserve Bank are not expectedto make any immediate moves

in monetary policy but theymust surely consider furtherquantitative easing to supportthe sluggish American recovery.

The continued strength ofthe Chinese Renminbi against

the U.S. dollar has also acted toencourage traders to sell dollarsin favour of gold adding to thespike in the price of Bullion.

Last week it was reportedthat the Central Bank ofBangladesh had bought 10tonnes of gold from theInternational Monetary Fund,leading speculation that somereserves held in dollars may beswitched to gold.

Anglo-Ashanti, the largestgold producer in Africa hasraised $1.53 billion through afully paid and convertible shareissue and repositioned shortgold hedges, which indicatesreal confidence in the GoldMarket.

Investment in Bullion is atraditional investment manoeu-vre in times of volatile and tur-bulent currency and stock mar-kets, and attention to greenshoot recovery in the world’smajor economies must be strict-ly observed as this could obvi-ously lead to a possible turnround in the Gold price.

A recent Bloomberg surveyamong market analysts an aver-age prediction on future goldprices was $1500.00 an ounce.

A flight to quality as therecovery appears to faulter

Ayodhya: All partiesappeal for peace; one judge

makes his dissent openAfter the three judge

bench of the AllahabadHigh Court last weekrejected a plea to postponethe verdict in the Ayodhyatemple title suit, theauthorities and contend-

ing parties on both thesides have appealed to thepeople of India to main-tain peace after the verdictis pronounced on 24thSeptember.

After the rejection ofpostponement plea, the

plaintiff Ramesh ChandraTripathi even said onMonday that he willapproach the SupremeCourt on Wednesday toseek postponement of theverdict.

Justice Dharam VeerSharma did not concurrwith the view of the othertwo judges--Justice S UKhan and Justice SudhirAgarwal, said that an ami-cable settlement couldhave been explored.

The Bench of JusticesSudhir Agarwal, S U Khanand D V Sharma reservedjudgment on July 26.

Gopal Singh Visharad,Nirmohi Akhara, the UttarPradesh Sunni WaqfBoard and Ram LallaVirajman are the mainparties to the title dispute,which has dragged on forthe past 60 years. Counselfor the Waqf BoardZafaryab Jilani said thecontending parties wereinformed in writing thatthe verdict would be deliv-ered on September 24.

Though the first suitwas filed in a Faizabadcourt on July 19, 1885 byMahant Raghubar Das,who sought rights over“Ram Chabootra,” araised platform in front ofthe 16th century BabriMasjid at Ayodhya, thetitle suit has figured in thelaw courts only since1950.

After the demolition ofthe Babri Masjid onDecember 6, 1992, thegovernment of Indiaacquired 2.77 acresaround the “disputedsite.”

In all, 87 witnessesbelonging to the main par-ties deposed before theHigh Court. It is the thirdSpecial Bench to take upthe Ayodhya case.

Security has beentightened by the UttarPradesh government toprevent any law and orderproblem that may ariseafter the verdict.

The verdict will be onthe aspects of the owner-ship of the land of the dis-puted site, whether BabriMasjid built after demoli-tion of a temple at theplace, whether Lord Ramwas born at that place.

Central Government,BJP, the Muslim bodies andall have appealed the peo-ple to accept the verdict ofcourt. All have said, if thereis injustice felt, theaggrieved have the optionsof approaching the higheror even the Supreme Court.

CWG under cloud:Games village mess, secu-

rity situation a concernManager of Scotland’s

Commonwealth Gamesteam and Chief de missionof New Zealand contin-gent have posed questionsabout the facilities, orrather lack of the same at

the Games village. Theyhave termed the Gamesvillage blocks as “unsafeand unfit for human habi-tation”. To add to that, afoot overbridge near theNehru stadium collapsedon Tuesday, though no onewas killed.

The bosses have ques-tioned whether the Gamesshould go ahead on 3October if the situationwas not resolved.

Scotland was one ofsix countries that arrivedin the Indian capital at theearliest opportunity to setup its team headquarters,along with England,Wales, New Zealand,Australia and Canada.

“We sincerely hopethat the outstandingissues can be resolved,however we will not com-promise on issues of safe-ty, security and health”,Jon Doig, chef de missionof Team Scotland said.

Mr Doig added: "Theother countries will bearriving soon and theorganisers will simply beoverwhelmed by the vol-ume of the problems theyface unless they takeaction now.

"We will continue tomonitor the situationbefore determining ournext response. "At thispoint we are planning forfull participation in theGames and sincerely hopethat the outstandingissues can be resolved,however we will not com-promise on issues of safe-ty, security and health."NZ boss casts doubt on

Delhi GamesThe head of New

Zealand's CommonwealthGames mission says it ispossible the New DelhiGames will not go ahead.

The head of NewZealand's chef de mission,Dave Currie, is in Delhiand told NZ radio stationNewstalkZB it would beextremely hard for India toget across the line.

"If the village is notready and athletes can'tcome, obviously the impli-cations of that are that it'snot going to happen," hesaid.

But Australia's chef demission, Steve Moneghetti,says he does not think theaccommodation is as badas the New Zealand teamhas suggested.

Earlier, the village wasslammed as "seriouslycompromised" byCommonwealth GamesFederation president MikeFennell.

Fennell says he haswritten to senior Indianofficials expressing his"great concern" and urgingthem to immediatelydeploy the necessaryresources to ensure the vil-lage is acceptable when itopens.


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India on tenterhooksBJP conquers Congress

bastion in GujaratOn his 61st birthday, chiefminister Narendra Modicouldn't have asked for abetter gift. Not only didModi lead the BJP to animpressive win in thebypoll at Kathlal (inKheda district), a tradi-tional Congress bastion,

but he claimed his devel-opment-oriented politicsfound many takers amongMuslims as well. BJP bothin Gujarat and in NewDelhi seized upon the vic-tory to describe it as adefeat of Congress-CBIconcern.

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 23INDIA

In divine lightBy Rajen Vakil

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Prince Charles, Camillato visit Patiala

Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh to host the British Royal couple

Prince Charles and hiswife Camilla will be visit-ing Patiala in Punjab nextmonth. Heir to the Britishthrone, Prince will be inIndia to inaugurate theCommonwealth Games inNew Delhi, beginningfrom 3rd October. Theywould be representingQueen, who has expressedher inability to visit Indiaon the occasion.

Captain AmarinderSingh, former Chief minis-ter of Punjab, a Congressleader and himself a mem-ber of the former Royalfamily of Patiala state has

invited the British Royals.Captain and his wife,India’s junior minister ofexternal affairs PreneetKaur will be hostingPrince Charles andCamilla, as the guests will

have anovernight staythere. TheBritish royalswill be on a pri-vate visit to theNew Moti BaghPalace.

The princeand Camillahave earlieralso visited

Patiala, in March 2006.The dinner hosted byAmarinder Singh for themsaw some dramaticmoments with the entirebanquet blown away by astrong evening storm.

A Punjab murder probed by UK policeBritish police has taken upthe probe into a murdercase that happened inPhagwara district inPunjab, India after thefamily of the victimapproached them and alsofiled a complaint as thePunjab police did not takeany action on the com-plains. The case relates todeath of Manjit Kaur, ayoung woman fromPhagwara who was mar-ried to a Jagpaljeet Singh,settled in UK. WhileJagpal and his familyclaimed that Manjit diedin an accident, the family

members of Manjit sus-pected that she was killedby the in-laws.

According to Manjit’sfamily, she was allegedlykilled at Beeja village nearKhanna in November,2007. After waiting foralmost three years,Manjit’s familyapproached the UK Policeas there was no progressin the investigation by thePunjab police. Jagpaljeetsecretly flew away to UKafter a case of murder wasregistered.

A four member team ofthe British police, led by

David Reid last weekarrived in Punjab. Theyhave already recorded thestatements of Manjit’sfamily members. SukhdevSingh Dhindsa, father ofthe dead victim said theywere satisfied by theaction of UK police andfeel sure they will be ableto get justice in probe.

He also alleged that hisson-in-law, Jagpaljeet washarassing Manjit for bring-ing more dowry. He hadonce sent Rs.400,000 tohim, yet he did not stopharassing Manjit,” headded.

Amarinder Singh Prince Charles

Vinita and Kadru: Responseand Reaction

Patanjali has a beauti-ful sutra wherein he says‘that which is seen by thefive senses comes intothe body-brain system’.We often say that ‘such’an event happened in ourlives. Patanjali says thatman has the choice ofinterpreting the experi-ence of an event in eitherof two ways. The first hecalls as ‘bhoga’ or indul-gence – we react to theevent mechanically with-out any introduction ofconsciousness or simplyput, we are hypnotised bythe event. The other wayhe calls as ‘apavarga’ orevolution – between thereception of the event bythe mind through the fivesenses and the actingupon it by the brain, weintroduce a pause. Thispause creates a gapwherein consciousnesscomes in; the actionwhich arises out of thisintroduction of conscious-ness is not a mechanicalreaction but a silent anddeliberate powerfulresponse to the event.The word responsibilitycomes from response,signifying it is man’s dutyto rise from a lowlymechanical action to ahigher conscious action.

Of all life-forms on thisplanet, only humanbeings have the capacityto act and simultaneouslybe conscious of theiractions. The scripturessay that nature experi-mented with differentenergies in the plant andanimal kingdoms.Through years of evolu-tion when man inheritedthese energies, theycame with nature’s innatetendency of mechanical-ness. In theMahabharata, the beauti-ful story of Vinita andKadru represents our twopatterns of living life –either reactive andmechanical, or consciousand responsible.

The sage Kasyapamarried the two sistersVinita and Kadru. Thoughvery beautiful, they wereboth jealous of eachother, even thoughVinita’s was a positivejealousy which does notlead into harming theother, but Kadru’s was avery negative jealousy orrather envy, where shewanted to bring harm toVinita. Their husbandgranted each of them aboon. Kadru asked firstthat a thousand sons beborn to her of greatstrength and bravery.When Vinita’s turn came,she asked for two sonswho in all respects wouldbe greater than Kadru’s

sons put together. Kadrulaid a thousand eggswhich soon hatched intoa thousand snakes. Vinitalaid two eggs which hermaids kept in warmwater.

Five hundred yearswent by but Vinita’s eggshad not hatched and shestarted growing impatientas Kadru had already hadher thousand children. Inher impatience she brokeopen one egg, and a childcame out but only hisupper part was fullydeveloped and had nolegs. The child was veryangry with his mother forbeing so rash that hisbody was only half-formed and cursed her toslavery. He did leave hismother saying that if shewas patient, the son bornof the other egg woulddeliver her from bondage.The child was called Arunand became the chario-teer of the Sun. The sunrepresents light and Aruntwilight.

There was a divinehorse Ucchayhsravas(higher hearing). Both thesisters then had an argu-ment as to its colour.Vinita said the wholehorse was white whileKadru said that eventhough the body waswhite, the tail was black.They entered into awager that whoever lostwould become the slaveof the others. Kadru knewthat the horse was fullywhite but she was verycunning, and ordered hersons (snakes) to go andcover the tail so it wouldlook black. Her childrendid not want to deceiveVinita but Kadru threat-ened them that thosewho do not obey herwould die in a snakeyagna that was to hap-pen in the future. So outof fear, most of her chil-dren went and entwinedthemselves around thehorse’s tail. When thesisters came they sawthe now black tail blackand Kadru won the wagerand Vinita had to becomeher slave.

The word ‘Kadru’means a root, or thatwhich is reddish.Experiences and actionsare of two kinds – con-scious and mechanical.In all mechanical experi-ences and actions, thereis a residue whichbecomes a root for therepetition of a similar kindof experience. Thus allmechanical action is akind of bondage which is

represented by Kadru.Her children were thesnakes or ‘sarpa’ whichalso means experience,and represent the roots ofdesire and cunningnesslying in our unconsciousminds waiting to springup at any time. ‘Vinita’means bent down orhumble, that is in eachexperience in life if wepractice bowing down ordissolving the ego, theexperience becomes aconscious one and doesnot leave a residue to cre-ate the root of repetition.In all mechanical experi-ences, attention andenergy both flow out-wards and are fragment-ed. In all conscious expe-riences, attention andenergy flows backinwards and becomesone-pointed. This frag-mentation of attention intodifferent patterns anddesires that lie in ourunconscious minds arethe thousand snakes, orthe sons of Kadru.

The root cause of act-ing mechanically is impa-tience represented byVinita’s impatience inbreaking the egg. Whatthis reveals is that due toimpatience, our con-sciousness is a slave ofmechanical action. Thehorse Ucchayhsravasmeans to hear the higher.The higher is pure andwhite. Within all of us thishigher or voice of con-sciousness lies, but wecannot hear it because itspeaks in whispers andwe must pause to listento it. We only hear ourego which shouts loudlyand blindly reacts toevery situation in life. Wecondition the higher byour unfulfilled desiresthat are the snakes cov-ering the tail of time.Because of this, wenever see the real and itis desire which makes usa slave to time.

Vinita has to wait foranother five hundredyears to have a son whocan free her. This showsthat to be free of our ownkarma requires time,patience, and effort.‘Garuda’ or the eagle isborn of the next egg andit is he who frees Vinita.The eagle flies high andrepresents conscious-ness; when a bird flies itdoes not leave footprints,actions then performedleave no residue. We willlook into this in detail inour next article.

(Edited by Chintu Gandhi)

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

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 201024 INDIA

Gujarat is now a prominent emergencytreatment destination for foreign patients

Personal care, quality medicare and cost advantages are the USP of the state on the Medical tourism frontBy Dilip D. Trivedi

Gujarat has alreadyentered into the next stageof medical tourism surge.Convenient location, fullyequipped hospitals andwell experienced doctorsas well as para medicshave helped it gain dueprominence. The state isnow being preferred asemergency care and treat-ment destination by peo-ple in the Gulf region andalso from Africa. This newdimension may be due tothe fact that the abovecountries do not haveenough of good, adequate-ly equipped hospitals asalso experienced special-ists in many fields. Now,patients from UK andUSA do come here foremergencies.

Shalby – a hospital ofchoice for foreign

patients, institutionsAhmedabad has a good

number of private, corpo-rate hospitals with excel-lent facilities. Shalby hos-pital is one of the promi-nent ones and a preferredinstitution of foreignpatients. Asian Voice on arecent visit, met at leasttwo patients from Kenyaand Tanzania admitted tothe hospital.

On query, both thepatients and their kinaccompanying themexpressed complete satis-faction at the facilities, thestaff and the warm, wel-coming atmosphere inAhmedabad and India.

Mrs. Elizabeth Meingi,66 had undergone kneereplacement surgeries inboth the legs. She hadtrouble in her knees since1985 and from 1990onwards, it became reallypainful. But, she knew thehospitals and facilities inalmost all of African coun-tries were not goodenough. She did get sometreatment for a heart ail-ment in South Africa someyears back.

For her knee replace-ment, she preferred tocome to India, as she got

some good reference forthe country from a friendin Nairobi. She said beforeshe came here, her condi-tion had worsened somuch that she was unableto walk even a couple ofsteps. Even if she tried,she would stumble and falldown. She had recoveredcompletely and was aboutto leave for Kenya onFriday, 10th Septemberwhen we met her and herdaughter. They were all insmiles and happy.

The other patient, MrsDaffi from Tanzania hadundergone a spine surgery.She had complaints aboutbackache and restrictedphysical activities, particu-larly movement of handsand in sleeping. That wassince November, 2009.The problem was of natu-

ral occurrence, but herpain and troublesincreased since Februarythis year. Her husbandwas accompanying her.When asked why theychose India andAhmedabad, he said inAfrican countries, theydon’t have modern facili-ties like MRIs and CTscans and such otherequipment that are vitalfor investigations anddiagnosis. So they came toAhmedabad. When thedoctors at Shalby hospitalcarried out detailed inves-tigations, they found outthat the patient was hav-ing more serious spineproblems than earlierthought of.

According to Mr Duffi,his wife underwent a sur-gery and is recovering fast.The couple also said theywere very much impressedwith the friendly approachof the doctors and thehospital staff and felt aswelcome guests of the cityand India ever since theirarrival. Mr and Mrs Daffias well as Mrs Meingi saidthey were very happy andsatisfied that they wouldsurely become goodwillambassadors of India,Gujarat and Ahmedabadto all their families, friendsand acquaintances athome. Emergency treatment in

AhmedabadRecently, a Tanzanian

family of Gujarati origingot emergencyorthopaedic and plasticsurgery treatment for theiryoung son Milap Badiyaniin Ahmedabad after the

family met with an acci-dent during their AfricanSafari. Dr Deepak Dave,the orthopaedic and jointreplacement specialisttreated the boy for hismultiple fractures at HCGMedisurge Hospital. Hesaid a decision just in thenick of time by the boy’sfamily proved vital. Thetype of treatment andfacilities, particularly serv-ices of an experiencedplastic surgeon to co-ordi-nate with the orthopaedictreatment were not avail-able in Tanzania or Kenya.The quick decision helpedthe boy, as otherwise hewould have been left withsome sort of deformity ordebility and might havebeen forced to live with itfor lifetime.

According to officialsat the hospital, on an aver-age at least 1 or 2 patientsfrom Gulf, Africa or UKcome to Ahmedabad everymonth for emergencies.Among the African coun-tries, patients come fromTanzania, Kenya, Uganda,Nigeria, Congo andRwanda. India has in fact,become a destination ofpreference from people ofCongo. They do have alanguage problem, asFrench is the language formost of the Congolesepeople, yet they have faithin Indian hospitals, DrDave added.

Milap Badiyani, the 15year old boy was broughtto Ahmedabad with multi-ple fractures and damageto growth plates in theknee, again a complicatedproblem that needed inno-

vative and expert care. Hewas in the hospital foralmost two months andhad undergone six surger-ies. Dr Ritesh Dawra hadassisted Dr Dave in treat-ing Milap.

About choice ofAhmedabad, Dr Dave saidthe city has a large numberof well equipped hospitalsand expert doctors inalmost every conceivablediscipline. Added USP isthe human touch and carethat the patients get herefrom the doctors and thestaff at the hospitals.

Patients who haveundergone treatment atAhmedabad have almostalways been fully satisfiedabout every thing here.According to Dr Dave, atestimony of the satisfied

patients lies in the factthat the Badiyani family aswell as another Gujaratifamily from Kenya botheven gave liberal donationof Rs 50,000 each to helppoor patients they saw atthe hospital.

The doctors said aChristian missionary wasbrought here for spine sur-gery and the expenses ofhis treatment were borneby Uganda President’sFund. A member ofKinshasa provincialassembly also preferredAhmedabad for treatment.

Dr Dave added that thehospital has also madearrangements withGujarati community organ-isations in African coun-tries for the benefit of poorand deserving patientsthere, as those referred forhelp are given treatmenthere at very reasonable andconcessional rates.

Mrs Theodora Daffi and her husband from Tanzania Mrs Elizabeth Meingi and her daughter from Kenya

Dr. Deepak Dave, HCGMedisurge Hospital

Punjab farmers to go for agriculture in Ethiopia16 farmers to sign a deal to lease 50,000 hectares of farm land

Farmers from Punjab areall set to go for overseasagriculture, as they havedecided to acquire farmland on lease in Ethiopia.The government of theAfrican nation had invit-ed the farmers to try farm-ing in that country. A dealto provide 50,000hectares of agriculturalland on long term lease isabout to be signedbetween the governmentand 16 farmers fromPunjab who are at presentengaged in potato grow-ing in the state.

The plans are forgrowing crops like pulses

and maize. The producewill be exported toEurope and India.

The Punjab farmerswere attracted for thisoverseas farming ventureas land was available inEthiopia at very cheaprates, for long term leaseof 25 to 40 years. Thegovernment there has alsoassured that imports offarm equipment andexports of the producewill be tax free.

The EthiopianAmbassador to India leda delegation from Punjabto his country in themonth of June and asked

Punjab farmers to investin farming. Tanzania andUganda as well as otherAfrican countries arealso trying to attractPunjab farmers for farm-ing there.

Punjab government iskeen to go for overseasfarming ventures, as a del-egation of farmers will begoing next month to CIS(former Russian regions)countries of Uzbekistan,Azerbaijan, Kazakhstanand Ukraine. In thesecountries, the prospectsare for growing andexports of fruits, vegeta-bles, basmati rice etc.

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 25World

Be prepared to welcome the festival of lights

Dear Friends, as you allknow, the festival ofDiwali is a festival of joy,a festival for welcoming, afestival to mark the begin-ning of new trade andalso a festival of buildingnew relationships. We atAsian Voice and GujaratSamachar wish all ourreaders, advertisers,agents and distributorsthat the Festival of Diwalibrings them a world offortune and well being.

Chanakya, the greatIndian statesman and eco-nomic expert has defineda friend in a very apt man-ner: “A true friend is onewho keeps you informedwith right details, leadsyou on the right path andprotects you from possiblelosses.” We thought itwould be worthwhile as a

true friend of you all thatwe take up the responsi-bility of bringing it to yournotice some realities,facts.

Gujarat Samachar andAsian Voice are the newsweeklies that enjoy thewidest patronage of read-ers and have the highestcirculation amongst allthe Indogenic publica-tions being published out-side India. As a publish-ing house based in UKand serving the Asian,Indian, Gujarati commu-nities in this country aswell as in other Europeannations, we feel humbleand proud for our primeposition. It is in this con-text that we feel weshould enlighten you all.If people, marketing exec-utives from publications

approach you and maketall claims about them-selves, claim that theirpublications have a hugecirculation of 49 or50,000 copies, you havethe right to ask them toproduce proofs in supportof their claims. If somepeople make attempts topaint a rosy picture aboutthemselves that could befar from truth and try tomislead you, we feel it isour duty to warn you.

There may be effortsby people to secure adver-tisements and you couldalso be lured with hugeconcessions, or may bethey would offer publish-ing your adverts “At yourrates”. As prudent busi-ness people, you have theright to ask for some sup-porting evidence to back

their claims of wide circu-lation such as printingbills for their print orders,certificates from RoyalMail giving number oftheir circulation to sub-scribers. We are sure yourealise the importance ofverification of claims, asotherwise, is it wise at allto doll out money foradverts?

In case you are inter-ested to find out the realcirculation figures, westate with pride and confi-dence that GujaratSamachar and AsianVoice enjoy a healthy cir-culation of 30,000 copiesper week through annualsubscriptions and newsstand sales. If any adver-tisers want to verify ourclaims and themselvescheck reliable documents

in support of thesedetails, we are ready toprovide the same.

We also feel that inthese troubled times ofrecession, all advertisersshould ensure that theirhard earned money is notwasted in ad spends thatgive you very little or noreturns in terms ofmileage. All advertiserscould even make it a rulethat they will verify theclaims of wide circulationof all media that approachthem. If the concernedclaimants appear to bedilly – dallying or seentrying to divert on theissue, well, we are sureeverybody would be smartenough to evaluate thepeople and their products.

C B PatelPublisher/Editor

Beware of people who promise the moon, but…..

India third most powerful nation, says US reportWashington: India is listedas the third most powerfulcountry in the world afterthe US and China and thefourth most powerful blocafter the US, China andthe European Union in anew official US report.

The new global powerlineup for 2010 also pre-dicted that New Delhi'sclout in the world will fur-ther rise by 2025, accord-ing to 'Global Governance2025' jointly issued by theNational IntelligenceCouncil (NIC) of the USand the European Union'sInstitute for SecurityStudies (EUISS).

Using the insights of ahost of experts fromBrazil, Russia, India andChina, among others, andfictionalised scenarios, thereport illustrates whatcould happen over thenext 25 years in terms ofglobal governance.

In 2010, the US topsthe list of powerful coun-tries/regions, accountingfor nearly 22 per cent ofthe global power.

The US is followed byChina with EuropeanUnion at 16 per cent andIndia at eight per cent.India is followed by Japan,Russia and Brazil with lessthan five per cent each.

According to this inter-national futures model, by2025 the power of the US,EU, Japan and Russia willdecline while that ofChina, India and Brazilwill increase, even thoughthere will be no change inthis listing.

By 2025, the US willstill be the most powerfulcountry of the world, butit will have a little over 18per cent of the globalpower. The US will beclosely followed by Chinawith 16 per cent,

European Union with 14per cent and India with 10per cent.

'The growing numberof issues on the interna-tional agenda, and theircomplexity, is outpacingthe ability of internationalorganisations and nationalgovernments to cope,' thereport warns.

This critical turning

point includes issues ofclimate change, ethnic andregional conflicts, newtechnology, and the man-aging of natural resources.

The report also high-lights the challenges pro-ponents of effective globalgovernance face.

On one hand, rapidglobalistion, economicand otherwise, has led to

an intertwining of domes-tic politics and interna-tional issues and fueledthe need for more cooper-ation and more effectiveleadership. But on theother hand, an increasing-ly multipolar world, oftendominated by non-stateactors, have put a snag inprogress toward effectualglobal governance, it said.

Democrats’Gujarati candidate

loses New YorkNew York: Indian-American DemocratReshma Saujani lost NewYork's DemocraticCongressional primary toveteran Carolyn BMaloney after a keenlyfought and sometimesvicious contest in whichthe two candidates tookpotshots at each otherand exchanged a series ofverbal punches. CongressRepresentative Maloneyhas taken 81 per cent ofthe votes against her 34-year-old opponent, a for-mer fundraiser for HillaryClinton who representsNew York in the USSenate.

Saujani might havegarnered only 19 per centof the votes, but manyobservers have describedher as a "tough challenger"to Maloney who has neverhad serious competitionearlier, and is expected towin a 10th term in the gen-eral election in November.Saujani, a lawyer whoseparents fled the oppressiveregime of Idi Amin inUganda to seek asylum inthe US, raised more thanUSD 1.3 million in her bidto represent the 14thCongressional District,and she was Maloney'smost serious opposition todate, The New York Timessaid.

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Indian-American Dipak Jainnamed dean of INSEAD

Boston: Noted Indian-American academicianDipak Jain has beennamed as dean of leadinginternational businessschool INSEAD and willtake up his new role inMarch 2011.

Jain, a DeanEmeritus atN o r t h w e s t e r nUniversity's prestigiousKellogg School ofManagement, will suc-ceed J Frank Brown, whowill step down in 2011.

Among Jain's respon-sibilities would be tolook for opportunities tobuild INSEAD pro-grammes in China andIndia as the businessschool focuses on grow-ing its global presenceand attracting more stu-dents from the develop-ing countries.

"I am pleased thatsomeone of Dipak Jain'scalibre and values willcontinue to develop theschool. The Board chose

Dipak Jain to leadINSEAD into what isfast becoming a newglobal economic climate- one in which emergingmarkets are growing at afaster rate than theindustrialised matureeconomies of Europe andNorth America.

In this environmentwe need to teach solidbusiness and manage-ment skills while beinginnovative, entrepre-neurial and instilling aculture of true sustain-ability," Chairman of theINSEAD Board FranzHumer said.

Dipak Jain

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 201026 Pakistan

In focUSIndia gives Pakistan $20 mn for floodreliefUnited Nations: India's permanent representative tothe United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri, has given acheque for $20 million to the UN Secretary General,Ban Ki-moon, as India's contribution towards the'Pakistan Emergency Response Plan'. The chequewas handed over to Ban in the presence ofPakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN,Abdullah Hussain Haroon on Friday last. Puri recalledthe messages of solidarity, sympathy and supportfrom Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh andExternal Affairs Minister S M Krishna to theirPakistani counterparts in the immediate aftermath ofthe devastating floods that affected parts of Pakistanin August this year. 'Natural disasters do not respectnational boundaries. This is a small but significantgesture from the highest levels of the Indian govern-ment conveying the message that the people of Indiastand by the people of Pakistan in their hour of need,'he said. This amount of US$ 20 million is in additionto the amount of US$ 5 million that the Governmentof India has already contributed to the World FoodProgramme for its relief efforts in Pakistan.

China delivers third F-22P frigate toPak navyIslamabad: In yet another landmark achievement inthe expansion of the unwavering bilateral defencecooperation between Pakistan and China, Beijing lastweek delivered the third of the four F-22P frigatesPNS Saif to the Pakistan navy. The newly built war-ship of the sword class series constructed by HudongZhonghua Shipyard Shanghai was delivered in acolourful and impressive ceremony, The Nationreports. As per the schedule, the Pakistan navy hasalready decided to go ahead with its plans to get thefourth ship constructed at the Karachi Shipyard,which is progressing satisfactorily. This move by thenavy would be of great help to Pakistan in achievingself-reliance towards defence of its territorial waters.It has been reported that the F-22P Frigates areequipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors.The ships also carry Z9EC helicopters onboard. Withthe addition of these ships, the strength of PN Fleethas increased considerably with much needed capa-bilities, while contributing in enhancement of coun-try's shipbuilding capabilities.

Pak turns blind eye to anti-India ralliesby Hafiz Saeed's JuDLahore: The Pakistan government, which repeatedlysays it wants dialogue with India, once again lookedthe other way when terror group the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) held anti-India rallies yet again, thistime in Lahore. They last held such a rally inPakistan's capital Islamabad in July this year. TheJuD held well-attended rallies in several cities ofPunjab province. Close to 5,000 people are estimat-ed to have taken part in the rally in Lahore. In all therallies, JuD leaders slammed India for the situation inKashmir. India has given several dossiers toIslamabad giving proof of the role played by JuDchief Hafiz Saeed as the mastermind of 26/11 attacksin Mumbai. But the Pakistan government maintainsthe evidence is not enough.

Zardari offers more intelligence toAfghansIslamabad: Pakistan's president said last week thathis nation's intelligence services are willing to cooper-ate closer with Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.President Asif Ali Zardari told reporters after meetingthe Afghan president leader that the two nations'cooperation had improved since Zardari took officeand "we intend to enhance it further." "We needmore security cooperation between our intelligenceand their intelligence, which Pakistan is willing tooffer," he said. It was not clear, however, if the offerwas endorsed by Pakistan's military and intelligenceestablishment, which historically wields more powerthan its civilian rulers. Afghan President Hamid Karzaidescribed the men's meeting as wide-ranging andproductive. "This openness in dialogue in fact is astep forward in our relations," he said, saying the dis-cussion was focused on Taliban bases in Pakistan'stribal areas. "These are issues that we should dis-cuss and these are issues that we should fighttogether," Karzai said. Afghanistan and Pakistan havea long history of tense and complicated relations,marred in recent years by Afghan allegations thatPakistan is not moving against Taliban militants on itsterritory, and has even backed some of their attacks.The US has also urged Pakistan to do more againstmilitants in its territory, and for the last 2 1/2 yearshas fired missiles from unmanned drones againstinsurgent targets in the northwest of the country.

Karachi shuts down after politician killed in LondonKarachi: Pakistan's biggestcity Karachi shut down onFriday last after a seniorpolitician belonging to thecity's dominant MuttahidaQaumi Movement(MQM) was stabbed todeath in London.

Imran Farooq, a found-ing member of the MQMparty, the most influentialin Pakistan's commercialcapital Karachi, was killedon Thursday but it was notclear if it was politicallymotivated.

Farooq, inactive in pol-itics for about two years,

claimed asylum in Britain11 years ago after morethan seven years on therun from Pakistani policewho accused him ofinvolvement in murderand other serious crimes.He denied the charges.

Even though he is notan influential MQM fig-ure, the killing could trig-ger more ethnic and politi-cal violence in Karachi.

Most shops andschools were closed andno public transport wasavailable after the MQMannounced 10 days of

mourning.A few vehicles were

torched, police said."We are confident that

the culprit will be arrestedand will be given exempla-ry punishment," FarooqSattar, a senior member ofthe MQM and a ministerin the government ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari,told reporters in Karachi.

Sattar refused to spec-ulate on the motivesbehind the killing, sayingthey were awaiting resultsof British investigations.

Up to 100 people were

killed and hundredswounded in several daysof clashes in Karachi lastmonth after MQM mem-ber Raza Haider, who wasa Shi'ite Muslim, wasgunned down along withhis bodyguard whileattending a funeral.

Farooq was one of sev-eral senior members of theMQM who have takenrefuge in London.

The party's top leader,Altaf Hussain, has beenliving in self-exile in the British capital since1992.

Kashmir belongs to us, Pak told US in 2002Washington: Pakistan hadtold the United States ofAmerica not to push it onKashmir as the Valleybelonged to them, accord-ing to declassified docu-ments. The US declassifieddocument reveal that USasked Pakistan to end infil-tration across the border ayear after 9/11 attack.

But Islamabad'sresponse was thatKashmir Valley belongedto Pakistan. The commu-nication forms part of ameeting between the thenUS Director of PolicyPlanning Staff RichardHaass and an unnamedPakistani military officialon October 31, 2002 todiscuss US-Pak coopera-tion a year after the deadly

9/11 attacks in the US.Hass stressed the

importance of ending infil-tration, but the Pakistaniofficial warned the US notto push Pakistan too faron Kashmir.

"On Kashmir, Hassstressed the importance ofending infiltration, but thePak official warned the USnot to push Pakistan toofar on Kashmir," classifieddocuments released lastweek said.

According to the docu-ment, Hass told the topofficial that he was pleasedabout the (Indian)announcement of trooppullback from the borderas de-escalation would freeresources to be devoted tosealing the Afghan border

and counter-terrorism."It appeared that India

wanted to renew contactsbut continued infiltrationwas a barrier to progress,"Hass said. "The USbelieved that infiltrationwas continuing. Stoppingit would help Pakistan'scause with the US andIndia.

Infiltration hurtsPakistan's friends effortsto help it," he said, accord-ing to the documents.

The Pak official agreedthat Kashmir was the issue"bedevilling our relations".But Pakistan’s Kashmirposition was "based on jus-tice", he argued.

"Kashmir should havebeen ours. The Pakistanipeople would not agree to

make the LOC (Line ofControl) the internationalborder. Kashmir had costMusharraf a lot, as had hisdecision to help the CTcoalition.

"Musharraf's detrac-tors had hit him on bothKashmir and Afghanistan.India had tried to exploitthe political atmosphereafter 9/11," the Pak officialsaid. "Hass relied that heperceived an opportunityto improve the situation inand surrounding Kashmir.India seemed to realizethat lack of political andeconomic opportunity andabuse of human rights cre-ated support for insur-gency and a better contextfor diplomacy was nowbeing created.

Musharraf faces abusive callers during telethonIslamabad: Aiming toenter political arena inPakistan, the former mili-tary ruler's first direct dia-logue with the peoplethrew up some bittermoments for him as hefaced an abusive andoffensive audience.

Taking part in atelethon to raise funds formillions of victims of thecountry's flood devasta-tion, former presidentPervez Musharraf, who ison a self-imposed exile,faced several abusivecallers who blamed himfor Pakistan's problems.

At the same time,many callers appreciatedMusharraf's effort duringhis tenure as militaryruler. They praised him forthe role he was playing forPakistan and lauded his

services as President. A retired brigadier who

called the telethon organ-ised by a TV news channelsaid: "Musharraf sahab, Ihave two shoes for you..."He was then abruptly cutoff. Another caller asked:"Where is the moneyamassed for Muzaffarabad(the area affected by the2005 earthquake)? Youshould account for it."

Yet another caller said:"You have sold out thedaughters of Pakistan tothe US. Where are the dol-lars so earned?"

Another caller askedMusharraf to account forthe number of persons"slaughtered" by him dur-ing the 2007 military oper-ation against radical ele-ments holed up in the LalMasjid in Islamabad.

Another caller said:"We can never forgive youfor what you have done toPakistan. You have plun-dered Pakistan to the

extreme and you destroyedthe country. Curse on you,curse on you."

Musharraf refused toreply to questions on con-troversial issues like the LalMasjid operation and saidthat he would answer suchqueries separately. He saidthe telethon was not theoccasion for discussingsuch matters. The formermilitary ruler, who has beenliving abroad in self-exilesince April last year, said hewould certainly go back toPakistan and take part inthe next elections.

Raises Rs 250 mn for flood reliefMusharraf has, meanwhile, garnered pledges of 250

millions of rupees for flood relief and rehabilitation workin the country, the Dawn quoted the news channel, asclaiming. Notable among the people who calledMusharraf to pledge sizable donations were former min-isters Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Ameer Muqam.

Pervez Musharraf

Chinese firm plans to build big nuclear plantBeijing: China's main nuclear powercorporation is in discussions to builda 1-gigawatt nuclear power plant inPakistan, having already built twoother smaller ones there and signeddeals for two more, an executive saidon Monday.

The proposed expansion ofChina's nuclear power ties withPakistan could magnify unease inWashington, New Delhi and othercapitals worried about the effects onregional security and internationalnon-proliferation rules.

China has already helpedPakistan build its main nuclearpower facility at Chashma in Punjabprovince, is completing a secondreactor there and has contracts tobuild two more, despite the qualmsof other governments.

Qiu Jiangang, vice president ofthe China National Nuclear Corp(CNNC), told a meeting in Beijingthat the company was already look-ing beyond those deals to an evenbigger plant.

"After the successful, safe opera-tion of the first 300- megawatt reac-tor in Chashma...the second reactoris now under testing and is expectedto start formal operations by the endof this year," Qiu said.

"Both sides are in discussionsover the CNNC exporting a onegigawatt nuclear plant to Pakistan,"he added. Qiu confirmed the twocountries have already signed con-tracts to build the No. 3 and No. 4reactors of about 300 megawattseach at Chashma. He did not givedetails about who was involved in

discussions for the bigger plant andhow far the talks had progressed.

Pakistan is a long-standing part-ner of China, and has been sufferingchronic power shortages.

Beijing is also wary of Indianregional dominance and of US sway.In 2008 Washington signed a nuclearenergy deal with India in 2008 thatChina and other countries ques-tioned. Critics of that deal say thatagreement prompted China to deep-en its own nuclear power coopera-tion with Pakistan, which has beenbeset by political instability and mil-itant attacks.

Rivals India and Pakistan bothpossess nuclear arsenals and refuseto join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which wouldoblige them to scrap those arsenals..

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 27East Africa

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In foCusKenyan church supports new lawimplementationNairobi: National Council of Churches of Kenya(NCCK) secretary general Canon Peter Karanja hasannounced the Church would support the implemen-tation of the new Constitution and said it was readyto engage fully in the process. In a departure from itsstance during the referendum campaigns where itopposed the new law, the Church says it takes cogni-sance of the fact that Kenyans voted in favour of thenew Constitution and urged all "Kenyans to focustheir individual and corporate energies to the imple-mentation of the new constitution".

"We recognise that Kenya has adopted a new con-stitution. We thus pledge to fully support and engagein the implementation of this new constitution. Nogroup of people should be excluded from the imple-mentation process. Inclusion and representation ofall Kenyans in the implementation organs is of para-mount importance," said the statement signed byNCCK secretary general Reverend Canon Karanjaand the chairman of the North Rift region BishopThomas Kogo. But in the same breath, the Churchdemanded that the government moves fast to amendthe laws saying its flock voted for the newConstitution on the understanding that contentiousissues will be amended.

Kenyans held in Uganda overKampala bombingsKampala: Ugandan police have arrested two Kenyans- a lawyer and a human rights activist - as they arrivedin Uganda to attend a hearing for suspects in July'sKampala bombing.

Mureitha Mbugua and Al-Amin Kimathi had beendue at a hearing for dozens of people charged with theattack which killed 76 people. Some human rightsworkers have expressed fears for the men's safety.

They had previously criticised the transfer of 10Kenyans to Uganda. A Ugandan police spokesman didnot explain why the Kenyan pair had been detained atEntebbe International airport. The latest hearing inthe case of at least 30 people, including the 10Kenyans, arrested over the attack was moved toKampala's Luzira prison for security reasons,Ugandan officials say. The Kenyan pair are beingdetained in the Ugandan Police Rapid Response Unit,which Human Rights Watch says has previously beenresponsible for torturing and killing suspects.

Hard-line Somali group al-Shabab has said it car-ried out the suicide attack on people watching theWorld Cup final on TV. It said it was revenge for thepresence of Ugandan troops in the African Unionpeacekeeping force backing the Somali governmentagainst the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab.

Nigeria election may be delayedAbuja: Nigeria's governing party, People’s DemocraticParty (PDP), has said holding elections in January, asplanned, would be difficult. PDP spokesman RufaiAhmed Alkali, however, declined to formally call for adelay, saying this could be "misunderstood".

On Sunday, election officials said they were look-ing at ways to delay the poll so they could work on acredible voters' roll. Several heavyweight PDP figuresare vying for the presidential nomination.

Over the weekend, presidential security advisorAliyu Gusau resigned so he can stand againstPresident Goodluck Jonathan in the party contest. ThePDP has won all of Nigeria's elections since militaryrule ended in 1999 and so its candidate will be seen asthe favourite for next year's poll. Nigeria's previouselections have been marred by widespread violenceand allegations of fraud. Mr Jonathan, a southerner,became president in February after the death ofUmaru Yar'Adua. The PDP has previously said its can-didate should be a northerner. But Mr Alkali said thatthe party should move beyond such "primordial analy-sis" and select the best candidate for the job.

President Jonathan launched his campaign onSaturday after announcing his plans on Facebook Hesaid the four-month timetable for holding party primar-ies, campaigning and the elections was "very, very tight".

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Commonwealth offers Kenya aid in drafting new laws

Nairobi: Kenya is toreceive legal help from theCommonwealth to imple-ment the newConstitution. TheCommonwealth will sendfour legal experts to helpin drafting the laws, whichwill bring the Constitutioninto effect.

The experts, who willserve at the cost of theCommonwealth, will joina team of local draftersdrawn from the AttorneyGeneral’s office and theKenya Law ReformCommission in preparing49 bills required to bringthe Constitution intooperation.

Mr Kamalesh Sharma,the Commonwealth secre-tary-general, said thedrafters would initiallyconcentrate on the billsthat will bring into forcechapters on devolution,public finance, people’s

representation and land.“We are offering in the

first stage legislativedrafters because all ofthese resolutions inParliament have to betranslated into laws andthey have to be done on acrash basis because thenew Constitution has setdeadlines,” he said.

The deal was sealedduring a meeting recentlybetween Mr Sharma,Justice and ConstitutionalAffairs minister MutulaKilonzo and Attorney

General Amos Wako.“Indeed, we say that

we are happy and ready todo whatever legislativedrafting that is to be donein these areas,” the secre-tary-general said.

Welcoming the help,Mr Kilonzo said the fourchapters were a challengein the first phases ofimplementation.

“We are grateful to theCommonwealth secretary-general and we are lookingat the choice of the peoplebefore we communicate.However, they are not ade-quate and we will requiremore,” he said.

Mr Sharma said thatsome key issues, whichwere cast aside during thereferendum campaigns,were emerging as chal-lenges and will requireexperts to sort them out.

“You can see that afterthe misinterpretations of

the new Constitution dur-ing the referendum cam-paigns, real issues arebeginning to emerge main-ly in the county govern-ments,” he said.

The government hadasked for internationalassistance in the draftingof the bills. So far, theCommission for theImplementation of theConstitution Bill, theSupreme Court Bill, theIndependent Electoral andBoundaries Commission,Commission on RevenueAllocation Bill, theJudicial ServiceCommission Bill and theVetting of Judges andMagistrates Bill have beendrafted.

Mr Sharma was on athree-day visit to Kenya toattend the 56thC o m m o n w e a l t hParliamentary Associationconference in Nairobi.

Al-Qaeda ‘expand into Uganda’London: Following thearrest of a British citizenon terrorism charges whileon his way to Entebbe,concerns are growing thatal-Qaeda may haveexpanded its East Africanoperations into Uganda.

Western securitysources said that attackson football fans watchingthe World Cup final inUganda had been carriedout by "Al-Qaeda in EastAfrica," rather than theSomali group al-Shabaabwhich claimed responsibil-ity.

US officials havetalked recently of anincrease of al-Qaeda activ-ity in East Africa wheremilitants have been help-ing train al-Shabaab fight-ers.

Al-Shabaab hasclaimed allegiance to al-Qaeda but its ability tolaunch attacks outside thecountry had been limiteduntil the Kampala attacksin July. The group has

recently been involved inheavy fighting in theSomali capital Mogadishu.

Dutch security offi-cials were continuing toquestion a British man ofSomali origin who wasarrested on a plane atSchiphol airport on hisway from Liverpool toEntebbe.

Dutch prosecutorssaid they were investigat-ing the man for links to aterrorist organisation buthad not found any explo-sives.

A European diplomatin Kampala, Uganda's cap-ital, said the man arrestedin Amsterdam could havebeen acting as a copycatafter the publicity follow-ing the Ugandan attack,which was blamed on thepresence of Ugandantroops in Somalia underan African Union peacekeeping mandate.

"The problem withsomething like the WorldCup bombings is that it

puts Uganda on the mapof copycat attackers, whomight not even really haveknown Uganda wasinvolved [in Somalia]before," the diplomat said.

"This man could havebeen coming here to causea nuisance, rather thanbecause militants inMogadishu were control-ling him."

A security consultantspecialising on Somaliasaid there was the "sensethat the World Cup bomb-ings were going to be aone-off, and al-Shabaabsent those guys here fromSomalia."

Most foreigners want-ing to join al-Shabaab'sranks are believed to fly toKenya and then cross theporous land border withSomalia, or to fly to thenorthern semi-autonomous state ofSomaliland and then trav-el south from there.

Somalia PMresigns amid

tensionsMogadishu: Somalia'sprime minister resignedon Tuesday to preventwhat he called politicalturmoil amid an impassewith the country's presi-dent. Omar AbdirashidAli Sharmarke toldreporters he was resign-ing while standing along-side President SheikSharif Sheik Ahmed,who thanked the primeminister for what hecalled a "courageousdecision." "After seeingthat the political turmoilbetween me and thepresident has causedsecurity vulnerability, Ihave decided to resign tosave the nation and givea chance to others," theprime minister said. Theresignation comes amid arift between Sharmarkeand Ahmed over a newdraft constitution.

Kamalesh Sharma

At the moment, relation-ships are experiencing major

transformations - those with shaky foundations should beextra careful. Financially, you have everything going for you.This is a good time to put lucrative plans into action and reapthe benefits of sound investments. However, be prudentand do not fritter away your good fortune.

An inspiring boost tomatters of communication but make sure your curiosity ona range of topics does not lead to a scattering of mentalenergy. With a surge of enery and enthusiasm, this is afavourable time to make fresh starts. Personal relationshipsmay be more intense, though this may also demand someheavy sacrifices of personal freedom.

It's a time of slow andsteady progress that can set the stage for a long time tocome. Of course, there are still challenging issues on botha personal and practical level. To get here you may haveovercome obstacles by making important decision andchoices. You will achieve a lot more, especially when you'remotivated by your own desires.

Your communicationsector is all-abuzz with planetary energies firing you up

preventing you from sleeping properly. Give yourself plentyof physical outlets to drain off some of the excess mentalstimulation. You will soon feel like you can finally settle intoa more grounded and steady routine.

The focus is on finances thisweek, but that doesn’t mean you should worry yourself

sick. Rather, it is about finding new and improved ways toboost your earnings potential. Don’t let nebulous tendenciesinterfere with your plans. It’s fine to consider several optionsbut don’t get caught up in indecision. Schedule networkingopportunities later this week.

Jupiter, the planet ofabundance, is transiting your partnership sector. You

have plenty of romantic options. Financially you are still notout of the woods as Saturn is going to remain in your finan-cial sector for quite a while. At work you will experience arelaxed atmosphere and this will help you to get on witheveryone around you.

You will probably havelittle cause to complain this week. Expect everything to runsmoothly and luck to attend your efforts. However, under-neath this positive surface you may be plagued by a feelingof restlessness, an uneasy feeling that something is notquite right. Try to srike a balance between material andemotional affairs !

With Jupiter riding highin your 5th house of romance and creativity, you shouldenjoy a very popular phase in your life where everyonewants to invite you to parties. This will give you a chance tomeet people of your own calibre and pursue any romanticliaisons that might present themselves. Your communica-tions are extremely high making it easy to close those lucra-tive deals.

Much enthusiasmgoes into professional ambitions right now, but you need tobe your own boss in many ways. Circumstances will makeyou more determined to place your lifestyle on a foundationof greater security. Taking a broad perspective on the pre-vailing cosmic pattern, far-reaching change begins to gath-er momentum.

The fiery planetMars, continues to occupy your Solar 11th house for sometime to come. Its influence will help you to maintain a highenergy level and achieve positive results in anything thatrequires drive and initiative. If you are involved in a fairlycompetitive field of activity, you will be the one who comesout on top.

There seems to be somepressure on financial affairs and maybe a problem to con-tend with in regard to a joint venture. If you feel that some-thing has been hanging in the balance, whatever happensyou will get a clearer picture of the situation eventually.Allow matters to ride as impatience will not give you thewhole picture.

The need to push aheadwith personal interests and to assert yourself with addedforce will take precedence over everything else for sometime to come. Mentally you will be in top form, perhaps feel-ing quite passionate about expressing your ideas and views.This is also a time when you will develop fresh insights intoother people.


ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

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This week meet Kalpesh Verma, developer of Triveni

Landmark- sophisticated modern homes and bungalow on

18 acre land near Anand-Vallabh Vidyanagar-Vartal Road and

Kanjibhai Jesani, Vice President, Shree Baldia Leva Patel,

one of the organisers of Swarnim Gujarat in Harrow Leisure

Centre on 26th September with Kokila Patel, Executive Editor

of Gujarat Samachar

Coming Events

l In Association with Relay for Life Team Pranasha pres-ents Musical Evening in aid of Cancer Research UK,Saturday 2nd October 2010, The Mehfil Restaurant, 2Park Rd, Hendon, London NW4 3PQ Music by BollywoodOrchestra, Time: 7.30 pm till Latel Walk for Heart and Stroke, Sunday 26th September2010, Hyde Park. Northwick Park Institute for MedicalResearch, Register now. Contact: 020 8869 3284. Web: http://npimr.org/funraising/heartstrokecampaignl Mahatma Gandhi's Pragatya Din (Gandhi Jayanti) onThursday 30th September, 6 for 6:30pm at KadvaPatidar Centre, Kenmore Avenue, Harrow, HA3 8LU. HEthe High Commissioner of India, the Mayors of Harrowand Brent, Members of the House of Lords, Members ofthe House of Commons, Councillors and other dignitariesare invited to grace the occassion.l Karamsad Samaj presents Annual Gathering (AGM) onSaturday 25th September. 6pm at Oakington ManorPrimary School, Wembley, Middsx HA9 6NF. Contact: Mahendrabhai S Patel 020 8777 4881l Shree Bhagavat Katha from Sunday 26th September2010 till Sunday 3rd October from 10:30am-1pm and3:30-6pm. Venue: Shree Ram Mandir, Leicester LE4 5GG. Contact: 01162664642l Navaratri Festival 2010 8th October-17th October2010, 130-4:30 and 7:30-10:30pm. Gonville PrimarySchool, Thornton Heath Surrey. Ashtami Havan: 15th October, 7:30pm-11pm.Contact: 020 8665 5502l Ek Shaam Lataji Ke Naam, with Anila Gohil, accompa-nied by Nimesh Trilok and Sejal, Sunday 26th September, Elliot Hall- Harrow Arts Centre,HA5 4EA, 6:30pm. Contact: 020 8416 8989l Saturday 2nd October, 6:30pm, celebrating gandhiji'sBirth Anniversary. Music: Gandhiji's favourite hymns byDr Meera Panditl Sun 3rd October. Illusatrated talk: My kind of FimMaking by Dr Nikhil KaushikNehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London W1K 1HF

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Ajay Jadeja, Former IndiaBatsman and Captainlighting a lamp to thememory of his GreatGrand uncle Kumar SriRanjit Singhji or Ranji atthe Nehru Cemtre inLondon on Friday 17thSeptember evening.Jadeja delivered the 2nd

Annual Ranji Memoriallecture. He said ageshould not be a mitigatingfactor in handling outpunishment to corruptcricketers. He also feltlegalising bookmakers inIndia would not necessar-ily end corruption amongplayers.

Jadeja attends 2nd AnnualRanji Memorial lecture

Picture of the week

By C Govind, London SW 9

If you have everraised money oritem for charity forthe needy on anyDiwali, write yourstory in 650 wordsand send to [email protected] by 24thOctober 2010 withyour photograph.

Across1 “Waterloo” group5 Bograt film, “High ___”11 Not turned on14 Skiff or dory15 Provo resident16 internet adress letters17 Chinese way20 Jeans21 Depict distinctly22 Handwoven rug23 Writer Jong24 part 2 of quip

26 Hawthorne’s birthplace28 Turn or_ suff.29 Collapsible bed31 Parkinson’s

Medication34 Dearie38 Fruit coolers40 Part 3 of quip42 “Whip It” rock group43 The king of France45 Ice sheets47 Birthday figure48 %

50 Absolute52 Part 4 of quip57 U-shaped river bend60 Anger61 Actress Giplin62 Zen enlightenment63 Tibetan gazelle64 End of comment66 Letters in tennis ?67 Former Dolphin

running-back68 Hawaiian bird69 Caustic cleaner70 Nairobi native71 Winter Place rulerDown1 First letters2 Raspberry blower3 Four-minute mile

breaker4 NY prison5 Basks6 Morticia’s cousin7 Chair designer8 Scarlelt’s Butler9 “___Notorious”10 National songs11 Bizarre12 Brawls

13 Parade vehicle18 Online shopping centre24 See-yal25 One bit per second27 Tokyo, once29 Infielder Ripken30 “___ to a Nightingale”32 Good buddy33 For all to hear35 Shif mechanisms36 GPA part37 Sturgeon eggs39 2nd-year man41 Permit to44 Awllike tool46 Brown ermine49 Dreaded fly51 Still around52 Star in Orion53 Intriouing Incongruity54 Knock off55 Pyromaniac’s crime56 Fool58 Where the magic used

to play59 Dentist’s request 62 Kyle’s “South Park”

friend65 River of Oral

29

C R O S S W O R D - 106

HOW TO

PLAY

Each row,

column and

square 3x3

box is a sub-

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cells. Fill in

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Sudoku-106

Solution of sudoku-105

3 8 7 6

1 5

4 5 9 7 1

8 9 4 3

2 7 5 1

8 1 5 4 7

7 3

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20

12

The numbers in the pink squares refer to the sums of the digits that you must fill into the empty spaces directlybelow or to the right of the pink square containing the number. For instance, in the given example, the 2 boxes below12 must contain 2 digits that add upto 12, whereas for 20, the 3 boxes places horizontally next to it must add upto 20.No zeroes are used here, only the digits one through nine.

Example

Solution of KAKURO - 105

Note: A digit cannot appear more than once in any particular digit combination. For instance in the example, we cannot have the combination of 8+4+8 for 20.

A

SE

G

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L

V

How many words of four or more letterscan you make from the letters shown intoday’s puzzle? In making a word, eachletter may be used once only. Each wordmust contain the central letter. Thereshould be at least one seven-letter word.Plurals, foreign words and propernames are not allowed. British EnglishDictionary is used as reference.

Solution of Crossword-105

MINDBENDER - 106You’ll find me where the sea meets land, Proud, tall, and straight I

stand. Warmtsh in winter, and summer shade, In between I begin tofade. What am I?

(The answer is a specific kind of tree. Most trees will fit the last threelines of the riddle; what variety will fit the first line?

Solution of 105 :The original amount was Rs. 31.63. He cashes the check, and gets Rs.63.31. Then he buys a stamp for Rs. 0.05, leaving him with Rs. 63.26,

which is indeed exactly twice Rs. 31.63.

time pass

Find the familiar phrase, saying or name in this

arrangement of letters.

RulesConnect adja-cent dots withvertical or hori-zontal lines,creating a sin-gle loop.(Fig A).

Crossoversor branchesare not allowed(As shown by dot-ted lines in Fig B).

Numbers in thepuzzle indicate thenumber of linesthat should surround it, whileempty cells maybe surrounded byany number oflines.

You can’t drawlines arroundzeroes.

Each puzzle has just one unique solution.How to begin: Example (Fig A) - Begin with the zero nextto 3. Since no lines can be drawn around zero, markcrosses around it, as shown. Now there is a cross in onespace around 3. So we know the three lines of 3 can onlybe drawn in the remaining three spaces. Next these linescan only be extended in one direction each. Continue,

using the samelogic.Hints: Keep elim-inating possibili-ties by markingcrosses inspaces betweendots where a lineisn’t possible,i.e., if you havealready complet-ed required linesor where a lineextension maycreate a branchor cause a dead-end (Fig B)

2 3 2 2

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How to playNow arrange the letters inthe circles to form theanswer to the riddle or tofill in the missing word asindicated

Solution of Scramble - 63Words: Revue, tiers, hosing, maimed.

Answer: Some memories are realities and are better thananything that can every happen to one again.

Memory is the ____we all carry about with us. (5)

ADORN

IDEAS

CEIKKD

AGRSSY

Solution of LTL No. 63

Solution of Spellathon - 105:hell, HELLISH, hill, shell, shillSollution-105: Times square

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20 21 22

23 24 25

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KAKURO - 106

WHATZIT? - 106

Rearrange the letters in the four word jumbles, one letter to eachsquare/circle, to make four ordinary words

SCRAMBLE - 64

SPELLATHON -106Today’s Ratings: 08-average | 09-good | 11-outstanding

5 3 1 4 9 6 7 8 2

9 8 4 3 2 7 1 6 5

6 2 7 1 5 8 3 4 9

1 6 2 5 3 9 4 7 8

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LOOP THE LOOP - 64

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 201030 HEALTH WATCH

Recent research suggeststhat not only does waterhelp the skin, but theextent to which it makes adifference may varydepending on the type onedrinks.

Doctors and nutrition-ists agree that drinking atleast eight glasses of waterdaily helps maintain aclear, youthful complex-ion. They are agreed thatoodles of water will 'flushout' our systems, banishspots, plump out wrinklesand moisturise our skin.

In a double-blind,placebo-controlled trial,female volunteers weretold to drink one-and-halflitres of water daily foreight weeks withoutchanging their lifestyle,

reports the Daily Mail .Some drank ordinary

tap water. Others drankWillow Water, a naturalmineral water sourced inthe Lake district inBritain. The latter con-tains salicin, a derivativeof willow bark which,when metabolised, turnsinto salicylic acid, a com-pound found in a numberof skin products, knownfor its anti-inflammatoryproperties and acts in thesame way as aspirin.

Each woman had herpicture taken before andafter the trial using the lat-est, state-of-the-art Visiacomplexion analysis sys-tem. It examines theextent and depth of wrin-kles, the texture of skin

and the amount of sundamage, to allow detailedcomparison.

At the end of the trial,the results were astonish-ing. Those who drank

ordinary tap water saw a19 percent reduction intheir wrinkles. Those whodrank Willow Water saw adramatic 24 percentreduction.

Drinking gallons of water erases wrinkles

Millions of women nowcould be freed from themonthly misery of pre-menstrual syndrome(PMS) by taking a tinydose of a common drugfor a few days. A majorbreakthrough has uncov-ered the cause of thedebilitating cramps andmood swings that blightmost women, reportsexpress.co.uk.

Giving them a lowdose of the common anti-depressant Prozac could

stop PMS for good. Forthe first time neuroscien-tists have found an organ-ic cause for the conditionwhen the levels of afemale sex hormonechanges.

Researchers at theUniversity of Birmingham,led by Thelma Lovick,have shown that premen-strual-like symptoms canbe triggered in female ratsby a change in the level ofsecretion of one of thefemale sex hormones that

normally occurs towardsthe end of the menstrualcycle in women.

In tests, the teamfound that PMS could beprevented by giving lowdoses of Prozac which isalso known as fluoxetine.

Lovick said: “All thatwould be needed forcountless women to bene-fit from what could be asimple and accessibletreatment, involving adrug that is already inwidespread use, is clinical

tests to refine it and iden-tify the optimal dosingstrategy.”

PMS causes pain andupset for millions ofwomen worldwide.Although not all womenshow all the symptoms,around 75 percent ofwomen are thought toexperience some of them.These can include anxiety,mood swings, tiredness,depression, headaches,feeling bloated and painsin the joints.

PMS: Women’s monthly misery just a drug away

A high-tech skin patchcould be a new way tocure acne, the most com-mon type of skin conditionthat afflicts adolescents.

The patch produces anelectric charge to kill thebugs that cause the uglyspots.

Results from a testshow that acne spotsalmost disappeared withinthree days, and that spotsin the area around thepatch also improved.

In some cases, acnewill continue into adultlife, with one in 20 womenand one in 100 men overthe age of 25 experiencingsymptoms, reports theDaily Mail.

While it usually devel-ops on the face, it can alsoappear on the back andchest.

The condition isthought to be triggered byhormones which sendsebaceous glands intooverdrive. These glands,found near the surface ofthe skin, are attached tohair follicles. Their pur-pose is to stop the hairfrom drying out, whichthey do by producing anoily substance calledsebum. In acne sufferers,the glands produce toomuch sebum.

The excess mixes withskin cells to block the hairfollicle. Bacteria that nor-

mally lives harmlessly onthe skin can then infectthe blocked follicles,resulting in the character-istic spots.

Traditional treatmentsinclude creams such asbenzoyl peroxide, whichwork by preventing deadskin blocking hair folliclesand killing bacteria on theskin. Another option isantibiotics to kill off thebacteria.

The contraceptive pill,which balances out thehormone levels, may alsobe helpful.

However, many ofthese treatments can takeweeks to be effective andsome carry a risk of side-

effects, including dry skin,nausea, weight gain andmood changes.

The new treatment,which looks like an ordi-nary plaster and is usedonce, produces resultsovernight - with no appar-ent side-effects.

The patch, which wasdeveloped by Oplon, anIsrael-based technologycompany, is now being tri-alled. Around 100 peoplewill wear the patchesovernight or for around sixhours.

The study results areexpected by the end of theyear and the patch itselfcould be available withintwo years.

High-tech skin patch to cure acne

A gene network behindthe hardening of coronaryarteries and heart diseasehas been identified by ateam of scientists fromAustralia, Europe andBritain.

Researchers fromAustralia's Walter andEliza Hall Institute,Finland's NationalInstitute for Health andWelfare, the University ofHelsinki and LeidenUniversity Medical Centrein The Netherlands wereinvolved in the study.

Concentrations of cho-lesterols (waxy substancefound in the cell mem-branes) that severelyrestrict blood flow in theheart muscle, causingchest pains, are an impor-tant predictor of coronaryartery disease, the mostcommon form of heart dis-ease.

Coronary artery dis-ease refers to 'hardening ofthe arteries,' or atheroscle-rosis, a cycle where cho-lesterol builds up on thewalls of arteries and thebody's resultant immuneresponse leads to morebuild-up, according toWalter and Eliza state-ment.

To investigate howcholesterols in the bloodstream activate circulatingimmune cells, theresearchers looked at sam-ples from more than 500volunteers to constructbiological networks ofgenes that move in con-cert.

Circulating immunecells are integrated systemof organs, tissues, cells,and cell products such asantibodies that neutralisepotentially harmful organ-isms or substances.

The volunteers wereparticipants in Finland'sDietary, Lifestyle andGenetic determinants ofObesity and Metabolicsyndrome (DILGOM)study.

Michael Inouye, post-doctoral fellow at theWalter and Eliza HallInstitute, who conductedthe research, said thestudy identified a networkof genes whose activitywas tied to the level ofcholesterol in the blood,reports the journal PublicLibrary of Sciences-Genetics.

'These genes look likean inflammatory networkand appear reactive tohigh-density lipopro-tein,(which enable fats tobe carried in the bloodstream), triglycerides,(fatty deposits in coronaryarteries and liver)... all of

which are predictors ofdownstream cardiovascu-lar disease,' he said.

'We are just beginningto understand biologicalnetworks and how theyrelate to disease,' Inouyesaid.

Gene network behind hardening arteries identified

Fit children have bettermemories say experts

If you want to boost yourchild’s results at school,you could do a lot worsethan ensuring that they doplenty of exercise.

Scientists have alreadyshown that physical activ-ity can make you brainier.But a team in America hasused scans to show thatan important part of thebrain actually grows inchildren who are fit. Theseyoungsters tend to bemore intelligent and havebetter memories thanthose who are inactive.

Scientists also foundthat one of the mostimportant parts of theirbrains was 12 per centlarger than those of unfityoungsters. They believethat encouraging childrento take exercise from a

very young age could helpthem do better at schoollater.

Researchers from theUniversity of Illinois, inthe U.S., studied thebrains of 49 children agednine and ten using a mag-netic resonance imagingscan, a technique whichprovides very detailed pic-tures of organs and tissuesin the body. They also test-ed the fitness levels of thechildren by making themrun on a treadmill. Thescientists found that thehippocampus, a part ofthe brain responsible formemory and learning, wasaround 12 per cent largerin the fitter youngsters.They found that thesechildren performed muchbetter in memory tests.

How diet and not exerciseis the key to losing weight

It will give couch potatoesmore reason to put theirfeet up and disappointthose who hit the gym totry to shed the extrapounds.

Apparently, exercisingis not the best way to loseweight. Research showsthat, contrary to popularbelief, we are not lessactive than we were 20years ago.

This means that thegrowing obesity problemis down to people eatingtoo much, not a lack ofexercise, according toProfessor John Speakman.

Working with a Dutchcolleague, ProfessorSpeakman, of AberdeenUniversity, analysed twodecades of studies onenergy expenditure.

The data, from theU.S. and the Netherlands,showed that despite agrowing reliance on time-saving technology, peopletoday are not any lessactive than those of 20

years ago.Factors such as decline

in the number of childrenwalking to school and arise in TV watching do notnecessarily equate toweight gain, theInternational Journal ofObesity reports.

For example, childrendriven to school havemore time to spend run-ning around in the play-ground, while evening TVwatching has replacedother sedentary activitiessuch as reading and listen-ing to the radio.

Professor Speakmantold the British ScienceFestival: ‘In the 1950s noone would have bought anexercise bike and sat on itin their garage but nowpeople will do that.’

The researcher, howev-er, stressed that physicalactivity is good for thebody in other ways andshould be part of a‘healthy, balancedlifestyle’.

Breakthrough to help 'deepcoma' victims move or chatPatients in a vegetativestate after a devastatingbrain damage could soonbe able to 'talk' or steer awheelchair, says a topneuroscientist.

Adrian Owen atCambridge University hasalready proved that somevictims with no outwardsigns of awareness notonly can grasp what peo-ple are uttering, but alsoanswer simple questions.

Now he believes a new

breakthrough will beforelong enable them to com-municate using a voicesynthesizer almost in 'realtime', and even movearound using a motorisedwheelchair.

Owen has alreadyshown that using a func-tional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI) brainscanner one patient wasable to give 'yes' or 'no'responses to queries,reports the Telegraph.

Asian Voice - Saturday 25th September 2010 31Sport worLd

Fifth World Boxing gold forMary Kom of India

Mary Kom, theIndian womanboxer has creat-ed a record ofsorts as shepunched her wayto fifth title atthe Worldwomen’s boxingchampionshipsin Bridgetown,Barbados lastweekend. Thebraveheart fromManipur took her fifth gold in a different category –48 kg, while her first four titles in 46 kg category. Inthe final bout on Saturday, she beat Duta Seluta ofRomania 16-6. This is third consecutive victory forMary Kom against the Romanian.

EPL games this weekSaturday, 25 September Man City v/s Chelsea City of Mcr. Stadium 12:45Arsenal v/s West Brom Emirates Stadium 15:00Birmingham v/s Wigan St. Andrews Ground 15:00Blackpool v/s Blackburn Bloomfield Road 15:00Fulham v/s Everton Craven Cottage 15:00Liverpool v/s Sunderland Anfield 15:00West Ham v/s Tottenham Boleyn Ground 15:00Sunday, 26 September Bolton v/s Man Utd Reebok Stadium 12:00Wolverhampton v/s Aston Villa Molineux 14:05Newcastle v/s Stoke St. James’ Park 16:10

Ronjan Sodhi is the new staron Indian shooting horizon

Wins double trap gold at World Cup at Izmir in TurkeyIndia has one more shoot-ing star dotting the hori-zon, as Ronjan Sodhiscored a near flawless49/50 in the World Cupshooting finals on Mondayto win the gold medal atIzmir, Turkey.

Ranked as world no. 9,Sodhi was comfortablyahead of his nearest rival,Junnjie Mo of China (188points -final round score47).

The 31-year-old car-

ried to the final the confi-dence he had gained fromhis performance this year,which included a WorldCup stage gold at Lonatoand an unregistered worldrecord score.

Sodhi said thatMonday's showing wouldgive a boost to his moraleahead of theCommonwealth Gamesand the Asian Games. "It'sa big booster, no doubtabout that.Ronjan Sodhi

Pak may honour Bopanna as Qureshi’s partnerThe Indian tennis playerwho created a record ofsorts recently, RohanBopanna is likely to behonoured with the highestcivil award of Pakistan. Heis to be rewarded as heplayed with Aisam-ul-HaqQureshi of Pakistan as thedoubles partner and theyemerged as runners up atthe US Open.

Governor of Punjabprovince in Pakistan,Salmaan Taseer said hisproposal for Pakistan'shighest civil award to ten-nis star Aisam-ul-Haq

Qureshi and his Indianpartner Rohan Boppanafor their performance inthe US Open has beenaccepted.

Addressing a receptionhe hosted in honour ofQureshi at GovernorHouse, Taseer said:“Prime Minister YousufRaza Gilani and PresidentAsif Ali Zardari have con-sented to my proposal andboth players will soon berewarded for their feat.”

Through the perform-ance of Qureshi, Pakistanwanted to tell the world

that it is a peace-lovingnation, Taseer said. Heawarded a gold medal andRs 500,000 to Qureshi.

During a separate meet-ing with Qureshi, PunjabChief Minister ShahbazSharif said that the tennisstar was a national heroand the whole nation wasproud of him.

Sharif said Qureshi'ssuccess in the Grand Slamhad come as a breath offresh air for Pakistan.Qureshi was given a hero'swelcome when hereturned to Pakistan.

India upsetBrazil 3-2 inDavis Cup

Down 0 – 2, India upsetBrazil on Sunday atChennai to retain theirWorld group berth in theDavis Cup tennis. Afterlosing both the singles,Somdev Derrarman andRohan Bopanna won theirreverse singles games,making the doubles win ofveterans Leander Paesand Mahesh Bhupathiworthwhile.

This is perhaps thebest show that India hasput on in 89 years of DavisCup participation. Somdevbeat Thomas Belluci andBopanna seized his chanceat glory and rolled overRicardo Mello 6-3, 7-6 (2),6-3 to complete a famoustriumph.

Cheteshwar Pujara to donIndian cap against OZ

Known as ‘The secondWall’ after Rahul Dravid.Saurashtra middle orderbatsman CheteshwarPujara is the only new facein the Indian cricket teamnamed for the first testmatch against Australia tobe played at Mohali nearChandigarh from 1stOctober. Pujara has beenpicked up in place ofYuvraj Singh, who wasdropped for his lack form.Karnataka pace bowlerAbhimanyu Mithun alsohas been sidelined aftersome impressive perform-ance in Sri Lanka.

Zaheer Khan, theIndian pace spearhead hasmade comeback alongwithS Sreesanth as they werereported fit after recovery

from injuries. HarbhajanSingh and GautamGambhir are also back inthe team.

India squad: MSDhoni (capt. & wk),Virender Sehwag, GautamGambhir, Rahul Dravid,

Sachin Tendulkar, VVSLaxman, Suresh Raina,Cheteshwar Pujara, MVijay, Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan, IshantSharma, Pragyan Ojha,Sreesanth and AmitMishra.

Mary Kom, a mother of two fromManipur, is the only boxer to havewon a medal in each edition of the

World Championship.

Mahesh Bhupathi declares‘love all’ for Lara Dutta

In yet another pairingof sports stars and sil-ver screen stars,Mahesh Bhupathi,the veteran tennisplayer of India lastweek announced hisengagement withLara Dutta, a bolly-wood star and formerMiss Universe. Theygot engaged in NewYork. Mahesh hadrecently divorced hisformer wife and exmodel ShvetaJaishankar, whileLara Dutta had a long live-in relationship withmodel turned actor Kelly Dorjee. She was later alsolinked up with another actor Dino Morea for a while.

Mahesh Bhupathi also owns a celebrity manage-ment company. Lara Dutta first turned up as a clientand later progressed to the tennis star’s sweet heart.

Lara Dutta with Mahesh Bhupathi

Champions League results7th Match – South Australia beat Mumbai Indians

by 5 wickets at Durban; Mumbai Indians 180/7 (20overs); South Australia 182/5 (19.3 overs)

8th Match – Victoria beat Central Districts by 7wickets at Centurion; Central Districts 165/5 (20overs); Victoria 166/3 (19.4 overs)

9th Match - Chennai Super Kings beat Wayambaby 9 runs at Centurion; Chennai Super Kings 200/3(20 overs); Wayamba 103 (17.1 overs)

10th Match – Mumbai Indians beat Guyana by 31runs at Durban; Mumbai Indians 184/4 (20 overs);Guyana 153/6 (20 overs)

11th Match – South Australia beat RoyalChallengers Bangalore by 8 wickets; RoyalChallengers Bangalore 154 (19.5 overs); SouthAustralia 155/2 (18.3 overs)

12th Match – Warriors beat Central Districts by 6wickets at Port Elizabeth; Central Districts 175/3 (20overs); Warriors 181/4 (19.1 overs)

13th Match – Victoria beat Chennai Super Kingsin ‘Eliminator’ at Port Elizabeth; Chennai SuperKings 162/6 (20 overs); Victoria 162 (20 overs)

14th Match - Lions beat Guyana by 9 wickets atJohannesburg; Guyana 148/9 (20 overs); Lions 149/1(15.1 overs)

15th Match - Mumbai Indians beat RoyalChallengers Bangalore by 2 runs at Durban; MumbaiIndians 165/7 (20 overs); Royal ChallengersBangalore 163/5 (20 overs)

16th Match - Victoria beat Wayamba by 8 wicketsat Centurion; Wayamba 106 (16.3 overs); Victoria108/2 (13.2 overs)

South Australia remains unbeaten

Already in the semi finalsand unbeaten till Tuesday,South Australia beatGuyana by 15 runs atJohannesburg.

Mumbai Indians andWayamba of Sri Lankahave already been oustedof the next stage.

South Australia hadalready strolled into thesemi-finals and seeminglyhad little to gain againstthe also-rans fromGuyana in their finalleague match, but stillbenefited as their largelyuntested middle-order gota thorough and much-needed workout.

Callum Fergusonmade a typically intelli-

gent half-century and,with assistance from No.5 Cameron Borgas, helpedSouth Australia preservetheir 100% record in theleague phase by poweringthe Redbacks to theirhighest total of the tour-nament.

It was easily Guyana'sbest performance of thetournament, troublingSouth Australia with thenew ball and then remain-ing in the hunt for muchof the chase despite facinga mammoth target.

In perfect batting con-ditions, Sarwan exploitedthe short boundarytowards long-off to siphonplenty of runs, and was

well supported by theyoungsters, RichardRamdeen and StevenJacobs, as Guyana askedSouth Australia's bowlersplenty of questions.

Perhaps Guyana's bestphase of the match wasthe Powerplay after beingasked to bowl. Sevendeliveries into theinnings, South Australiahad cracked three bound-aries to sprint to 15 butseamer Paul Wintz, whowas clobbered by KieronPollard on his debutagainst Mumbai Indians,managed to extract somebounce to remove DanielHarris and slow the scor-ing.

Just like when theywere bowling, Guyanawere the more impressiveside for more than half theinnings when they batted.Their finest batting patchwas the 56-run standbetween Sarwan andJacobs.

They were together forfive overs, each of whichwas taken for at least tenruns, which meant that atthe end of the 12thGuyana were at a solid106 for 2.

{Brief scores: SouthAustralia 191 for 6(Ferguson 55, Borgas 48)beat Guyana 176 for 7(Sarwan 70, Harris 3-33)by 15 runs}.

Mumbai Indians, Wayamba out of Champions League T20

Ryan Sidebottomhangs boots from

international cricket

England medium pacerRyan Sidebottomannounced his retirementfrom international cricketon Monday. He ended hisEngland career on a highnote, as he was a part ofthe World ChampionEngland T20 team.

Sidebottom alsoplayed important role inhelping his country sideNottinghamshire in claim-ing the CountyChampionship DivisionOne title. The 32 year oldbowler made his Testdebut against Pakistan atLords in 2001, but had towait another six years fora second opportunity. Hewent on to establish him-self as a regular in theEngland team, producinga Test hat-trick andreturning career-best fig-ures of 7-47 against NewZealand in 2008.

In all, he took 79 wick-ets in 22 Tests and morethan 50 in ODIs and T20internationals.


Pakistan draw levelbut ill feeling deepensBy Premen Addy

Pakistan's creditable fight-back, with successive winsat the Oval and Lord's, todraw level with England inthe ODI series lost muchof its lustre after Ijaz Butt,the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) chairman,accused unnamed Englishplayers of throwing theOval match for money.This brought a furiousrebuttal from the Englandcaptain Andrew Straussand talk of suing Mr Buttfor libel in the courts. TheEnglish players will beconsulting the England &Welsh Cricket Board(ECB) on the most appro-priate course to take,while keeping in mind thebest interests of cricket.This last point was impor-tant to England, with theside contemplating with-drawing from the Lord'smatch, then choosing notto do so as wiser counselsprevailed.

However, the series,already blighted by cor-ruption allegations againstthree Pakistani cricketers,had lost its appeal.Pakistan's sporting lossmay in time rival the eco-nomic damage caused bythe floods. The country'sreputation for decency andfairplay – flimsy at the bestof times - has disappearedinto limbo. English cricketlegend Ian Botham hascalled for Pakistan's expul-sion from the game untilthe mess of Pakistanicricket is sorted. TheInternational PlayersAssociation, led by formerAustralian spinner TimMay, may well pitch intothe controversy – if itdoes, you can bet it won't

take Pakistan's side. Raucous voiced in

Pakistan see a sinisterIndian hand in all this,adding to the witchesbrew. The drama has stillto be played out. PlacingPakistan beyond the palecould save cricket from itsmost dangerous cancer.

Now to the cricket.Two down with threematches to play, Pakistancame up trumps at theOval, defeating Englandby 23 runs, thanks largelyto Umar Gul's seam andswing, which earned him a6 wicket haul for 42 runs.A middle order collapseterminated the Englandinnings at innings 218,well short of Pakistan'stotal of 241.

The fourth encounterat Lord's was almost arepeat. Pakistan closed on265 for7, thanks to Abdul

Razzak's blisteringunbeaten 44 (from 20balls). England were goinggreat guns at 113 for noloss, when Steven Davisdeparted for 49, followedquickly by Jonathan Trottfor 4, but the killer blowcame with Strauss's dis-missal for 68 (from 72balls). Thereafter wicketsfell steadily, with Gul oncemore the pick of thePakistani attack with fig-ures of 4 for 32. The finalmatch will decide the out-come of the series, but fewnow care. The cricket haslost its savour; it will beremembered in years tocome for the wrong rea-sons.

Meanwhile, Andrew'Freddie' Flintoffannounced his retirementfrom all forms of cricket.Plagued by injury, hisbody finally gave way and

he called a day on theadvice of the surgeon whooperated on his bad knee.He will walk and movecomfortably, but neveragain as an active sports-man. Flintoff was a draw-card wherever he played.He was a match winner onhis day, as he proved in thehome Ashes series againstAustralia in 2005. Butconsistency eluded him.He scored 3, 845 Test runsaveraging 31 and took 238Test wickets at 32.Compare this with theSouth African allrounderJacques Kallis, who hasscored 11,126 runs andtaken 266 wickets at 31apiece. So Flintoff was avery good allrounder - nota great one. A larger thanlife figure, he was some-thing of a hell-raiser. Hewas chivalrous and sport-ing to a fault. Few will for-get Flintoff kneelingbeside Brett Lee, utteringwords of comfort in hisear, after Australia hadgone down to England by3 runs in the EdgbastonTest. He understood anopponent's pang of disap-pointment, even as he cel-ebrated a dramatic victory.It was a game, after all,played hard but in theright spirit. Cricket forAndrew Flintoff was nevera war. Thanks for theenjoyment and the memory.

{Brief scores: 4th ODI- Pakistan 265 for 7(Hafeez 64, Swann 4-37)beat England 227 (Strauss68, Gul 4-32) by 38 runs.3rd ODI - Pakistan 241(Fawad 64, Anderson 3-26) beat England 218(Morgan 61, Strauss 57,Wright 48*, Gul 6-42) by23 runs}.

Sachin, Sehwagagain in race for

ICC awards

Maestro SachinTendulkar anddashing openerV i r e n d e rSehwag of India,along withSouth Africanb a t s m a nHashim Amlaand England off-spinner GraemeSwann, havebeen short-listedfor the top honours at theLG ICC Awards 2010.

The votes have nowbeen cast by the independ-ent 25-person academyand one of the four playerswill receive the SirGarfield Sobers Trophy forCricketer of the Year at aglittering ceremony inBangalore on October 6.

Tendulkar, Sehwagand Amla are also in therunning for the Test Playerof the Year award, along-side South Africa pace-man Dale Steyn.

Tendulkar is in con-tention too for the ODIPlayer of the Year awardwith the Australian duo ofShane Watson (pace bowl-ing all-rounder) and RyanHarris (paceman) as wellas South Africa's A.B. deVilliers (batsman).

The T20 InternationalPerformance of the Yearsees New Zealand'sBrendon McCullum short-listed alongside Australia'sMichael Hussey, SriLanka's MahelaJayawardene and SouthAfrica's Ryan McLaren.

Player short-list (inalphabetical order):Cricketer of the Year:Hashim Amla (SA),Virender Sehwag (Ind),Graeme Swann (Eng),Sachin Tendulkar (Ind).

Test Player of theYear: Hashim Amla (SA),Virender Sehwag (Ind),Dale Steyn (SA), SachinTendulkar (Ind).

ODI Player of theYear: Ryan Harris (Aus),

Sachin Tendulkar (Ind),A.B. de Villiers (SA),Shane Watson (Aus).

Emerging Player:Umar Akmal (Pak),Steven Finn (Eng),Angelo Mathews (SL),Tim Paine (Aus).

Associate and AffiliatePlayer of the Year: Ryanten Doeschate (Ned),Trent Johnson (Ire), KevinO'Brien (Ire), MohammedShahzad (Afg).

T20 InternationalPerformance of the Year:Michael Hussey (Aus) forhis 60 not out off 24 ballsagainst Pakistan in thesemifinal of the ICC WorldTwenty20 2010 in St.Lucia on May 14, MahelaJayawardene (SL) for his100 off 64 balls againstZimbabwe in Guyana onMay 3 and his 98 not outoff 56 balls against WestIndies in Bridgetown onMay 2010 both during theICC World Twenty202010, Ryan McLaren (SA)for his five for 19 againstthe West Indies on May 19in Antigua, BrendonMcCullum (NZ) for his116 not out off 56 ballsagainst Australia inChristchurch, NewZealand on February 28.

Women's Cricketer ofthe Year: Katherine Brunt(Eng), Shelley Nitschke(Aus), Ellyse Perry (Aus),Stafanie Taylor (WI).

Umpire of the Year:Aleem Dar, Steve Davis,Tony Hill, Simon Taufel.

Spirit of Cricket:India, New Zealand, SriLanka, Zimbabwe.

Graeme Swan, Steven Finn, Katherine Brunt also nominated

ICC rejects match-fixingreports in IPL

Even as Pakistani cricketis sinking deeper into thematch fixing and spot fix-ing scams, IPL – the show-piece Indian T20 crickettournament has got aclean chit from the ICC, atleast for the present.

Haroon Lorgat, CEOof the InternationalCricket Council last weekrefuted media reports sug-gesting 29 cricketers of

different nationalitieswere under ICC’s Anti-Corruption and SecurityUnit watch for suspectedmatch or spot fixing.

“This is to confirmthat there is no such listand we believe it is simplya way that the media istrying to fish for information without anybasis for doing so,” Lorgatadded.

Indian origin Canadian to lead team at CWG opening ceremony

Canadian Indian KenPereira, captain of thecountry’s hockey team isto receive a distinct hon-our on October 3 at NewDelhi. He will be leadingthe Canadian contingentwith the national flag atthe opening ceremony ofthe CommonwealthGames.

Pereira is born inToronto to Indian par-ents. Ken is playing forCanadian hockey teamfor more than 16 years

and has been played inmore than 300 matches.He will be leading the 255member Canadian con-tingent.

Ken is the firstCanadian Indian and thefirst field hockey player toget the honour of leadingall the athletes. Ken iselated and said that beingin India as a leader of thecontingent makes it morespecial.

“It’s especially sweetbecause it's the birthplace

of my parents. We stillhave a lot of family overthere and I'm sure they'llcome out and support theCanadian team.”

Pereira said initiallyhe "couldn't believe" hisears when informed thathe had been selected byCommonwealth GamesCanada as the flag bearer.

He is one of the bestmidfielders in the gameand as a professional,plays in Holland inworld’s top league.

Ken Pereira is the captain of Canadian hockey team, has played more than 300 matches

Ken Pereira

Pakistan were obviously over-joyed at the win, and even a35-year-old Shoaib Akhtar was leaping around in

celebration at Lord's on Monday

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