The Times Group Announces Light of India Award Nominees in NYC
Nominees Include Author Jhumpa Lahiri (left in the pic), Television Personality Padma Lakshmi & CNN Contributor & Surgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

NEW YORK – May 1, 2012 – Remit2India, a Times Group service, announced today the final list of nominees for the second annual Light of India Awards at a curtain raiser event held at The Pierre, a Taj Hotel in New York. The Light of India Awards honor Indians abroad who have made significant contributions across the world.

The curtain raiser featured Reshma Saujani, Deputy Advocate for Special Initiatives at the New York City Office in a Q&A discussion on ... Read More

2G scam: Raja's bail plea order reserved for May 15
NDTV

New Delhi: Former Telecom Minister A Raja will get to know on May 15 if can walk out of Delhi's Tihar Jail. A court hearing his bail plea reserved its order today. Mr Raja has been in jail for more than a year; he was arrested in February 2011 for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam.

Mr Raja's lawyer had moved an application for bail on May 9. He argued that because evidence in the case rests in documents that have already been submitted to the court, there is no risk of Mr Raja being able ... Read More

Paswan takes on RSS, BJP over Ambedkar cartoon row
He suggested that some people having links with the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could be behind it.

"This tells us about a particular mindset. How does such a thing appear in an NCERT book? This means the people having links with the RSS and the BJP are in the NCERT office. The NCERT should be dissolved," said Paswan.

He asked Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal to withdraw the cartoon from the NCERT books.

"This is not at all acceptable. We have asked Sibalji that whoever has drawn such a cartoon, and whoever ... Read More

K.G. Balakrishnan case: SC tells govt to decide
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday asked the government to take a decision on a representation by the Committee on Judicial Accountability (CJA) seeking a presidential reference on the allegation of misconduct against NHRC chairman K.G. Balakrishnan when he was chief justice of India.

The apex court bench headed by Justices B.S. Chauhan and J.S. Khehar issued directions to the government citing the "peculiar sets and circumstances" of the case.

Pronouncing the judgement, Justice Khehar said if the government found that the allegation against the former chief justice of India was unworthy of being proceeded against then it would inform the ... Read More

City Selection of the 2015 FIFA Women�s World Cup
OTTAWA, May 4, 2012 � As Minister of State for Sport, I ( Bal Ghosal) was excited to learn of the six cities that will host the 2015 FIFA Women�s World Cup� as we get ready to welcome this premier women�s sporting event in Canada.

As the single largest contributor to sport in this country, our government is proud of Canada�s reputation as a top sporting nation, and we are pleased to be a key supporter in the hosting of this prestigious event.

The 2015 FIFA Women�s World Cup� will provide Canadians with the opportunity to witness world-class soccer action right in ... Read More

As Clinton Speaks in Delhi, Local Press Pushed to the back
By GARDINER HARRIS

While top officials of the Indian and U.S. governments pledged cooperation during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton�s visit to India this week, a fierce behind-the-scenes battle Tuesday put the Americans on their heels.

�You need to move to the back, you need to move to the back,� repeated Stephanie F. Morimura, an official with the U.S. Embassy in Delhi to the massive group of Indian journalists at a press conference at the Taj Palace Hotel on Tuesday morning.

The Indian journalists were demanding spots near the front row of chairs which had been reserved for Indian officials and other V.I.P.�s ... Read More

Indra Nooyi among 18 women leading Fortune 500
Washington: Soft drink major Pepsico's Indian born CEO Indra Nooyi is one of the 18 women who have shattered the glass ceiling to lead America's 500 largest corporations, according to Fortune magazine's latest ranking.

Nooyi, who leads the 41st biggest company in America, is listed fourth among top women executives by the leading US business magazine. She "has overseen a shift in focus from soft drinks into less profitable, albeit healthier, snack foods market in recent years,"

Others on the list that includes more women CEOs than ever before are Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard (10th) and Ginni Rometty of IBM (19th), both ... Read More

Soon, air-powered cars to debut in India
Washington, May 10 : India-based Tata Motors has said that it has tested two cars that can run on compressed air, and that the next step is setting up the manufacturing plants to actually build them.

In 2007, Tata Motors signed a licensing deal with Motor Development International, a French design firm.

Compressed air engines aren't a new idea. The first models were proposed more than a century ago, and they were used in the mining industry for decades before electric motors became commonplace.

Even now, compressed air powers all kinds of tools, notably the pneumatic impact wrenches in auto body shops.

A compressed ... Read More

U.S. working with India on Iran oil replacements-Clinton
Carlos Pascual, the U.S. negotiator who has been pressing Iran's customers to cut imports, would visit India next week to discuss the issue. On Monday, Clinton said the United States was encouraged by steps India had already taken to cut but that "even more" was needed.

As Tehran's second-biggest crude customer, India is crucial to U.S. efforts to squeeze Iran's economy until it agrees to curb its nuclear programme, which the United States and other Western nations suspect is a cover to build atomic weapons
... Read More

US says it backs visas to qualified Indians
-IANS

Washington: As India announced plans to take the issue of "discriminatory" increase in US visa fees to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Washington assured it continued to fully support the admission of qualified Indians.

The US and India "did have a good and thorough discussion" on the visa issues in the context of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to India, State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters on Wednesday.

As Clinton said it publicly "Indians are the greatest beneficiaries in the world of both our L-1 visa programme and our H-1B visa programme," she said when asked about India's ... Read More

Romney to boost call centres in India?
After months of planning, President Barack Obama's media team has prepared an aggressive strategy to portray Mitt Romney as insensitive to the plight of working people and beholden to powerful interests.

They have researched possible lines of attack and drafted language that can be dropped into an advertisement at a moment's notice.

Campaign advisers said they are willing to commit a considerable chunk of their advertising budget -- expected to be the largest any presidential campaign has ever seen -- to broadcasting these attacks.

The work of the Obama message machine, a half-dozen outside advertising firms and in-house campaign strategists, is already on ... Read More

Never Mind Europe. Worry About India.
By TYLER COWEN

THE economic slowdown in India is one of the world’s biggest economic stories, but it is commanding only a modicum of attention in the United States.

It may not even look like a slowdown because by developed standards, India’s growth — estimated by the International Monetary Fund at 6.9 percent for 2012 — is still strong. But a slowdown it is: the economy has decelerated from projected rates of more than 8 percent, and negative momentum may bring a further decline. The government reported year-over-year growth in the October-through-December quarter of ... Read More

“Uphold the Life of the Earth Communities” - Bishop
Bengaluru May 6th 2012, The Senate of Serampore College (University)’s National Theological Students Conference was inaugurated by its Chairperson Bishop Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos. Bishop Philoxenos in his inaugural address called the theological students to uphold the life of Earth Communities. Denial of the Rights of the earth communities is denial of God. He insisted that, when we are doing theologies let us keep the life of the earth communities at the Centre and articulate our theologies around addressing the threatening forces of the societies such as systematic and structural violence which deny the rights of the earth communities including ... Read More

Should Canada screen immigrants based on language or country?
Joe Friesen

Six Canadians who aren’t waiting for Ottawa to fix immigration

We need to make sure that immigrants are integrated into Canadian society and accept our values. —A reader responds to our immigration poll. Click here to vote

Meanwhile, Canada is in need of hundreds of thousands more immigrants in the next decade just to fill its labour-market needs, not to mention to counter its rapidly aging demographics. Should it take advantage of Europe’s plight and target those countries to find skilled and educated potential migrants?

That thought raises the more general, and sensitive, question of whether Canada should ... Read More

India becoming prone to intolerance of freedom: Rushdie
PTI

India-born controversial author Salman Rushdie has turned his ire against his home country, saying that creative works of artists are increasingly being assaulted by religious groups. India has become "very prone" to the idea that "you should not rock the boat," he said, in an expression of concern over what he called the growing intolerance to freedom of expression in the country.

Rushdie, who has been at the receiving end of various groups for years targetting his works, said the atmosphere of openness in India is now being replaced "to some degree by the rise of religious sectarianism and by the ... Read More

Canada must actively recruit the best and brightest immigrants
From Saturday's Globe and Mail, Published Friday, May. 04, 2012
The world has changed, and when it comes to its immigration system, Canada is not changing fast enough to compete in it. It is no longer possible to sit back languidly, as the best and the brightest queue on its doorstep. The global market for human capital is voracious. There may always be migrants wanting to come to Canada, but they may not be the ones that Canada needs. People with options are less and less likely to tolerate hidebound and cumbersome immigration process, waiting as long as eight years ... Read More

India to invite Pakistan, China for meet on Afghanistan
China, Pakistan and Iran will be among the 13 countries participating in the regional investors' meet on Afghanistan which India will play host to.

The effort is aimed at fostering regional coordination in the backdrop of plans to withdraw western armed forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

These countries will be picking up from where they had left their meet in Istanbul last year. At the Turkish capital, putting in place the Istanbul protocol, the regional countries had discussed means to improve stability, security and prosperity of Afghanistan.

According to official sources, India will extend invitation to the countries ... Read More

ADB to provide $6.25-b aid to India
PTI

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $6.25-billion assistance to India over three years for various projects, including those in the energy and education sectors.

“ADB’s three-year country operations business plan for India for 2012-2014 will provide lending assistance of $6.25 billion to support inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth,” the ADB Secretary, Mr Robert Dawson, told PTI.

The lending support will go to key areas like transport, energy, urban development, agriculture, natural resource management, finance and education.

Prior to this, ADB has approved 159 loans (sovereign and non-sovereign) for India amounting to $24.12 billion.

As one of the founder ... Read More