Three Indians among 42 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Singapore March 30, 2020 19:20
Among the 42 new cases reported in Singapore, three Indian nationals have been identified in them. This has taken up the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 844. Out of the 42 new cases, 24 of them are imported and have international travel history from some of the hotspots across the globe. The three Indians who have been identified as positive for the coronavirus infection include a 35 year old female, 34 year male with a work pass of Singapore and a 43 year male who is a permanent resident of Singapore. One of the latest cases in the country also includes a 42-year old permanent resident who is a nurse in the local hospital. She contracted the virus possibly at her workplace as there are no reports of international travel. She started showcasing the symptoms of the disease on March 24, 2020 and finally got the confirmed test results on March 27, 2020. According to reports from a local news channel, she is kept in isolation in the hospital that she works in. Of all the 423 cases in the hospitals in Singapore, 19 are currently in critical condition. The others are either stable or improving from the state that they were admitted in. 14 patients have recently already recovered from the condition and have been discharged from the hospitals in Singapore. In total, 212 of the infected patients in Singapore have already recovered from the virus. By Somapika Dutta
Read More
Vivekananda Yoga University in the US to now Start PG Courses February 17, 2020 11:28
The Vivekananda Yoga University (VAYU) which is said to be the world’s first yoga university that is situated outside India which is in the United States. The officials of the university say that, along with the research in the ancient Indian practice the Vivekananda Yoga University (VAYU) is also said to start its post graduation course later during this year.The admissions for the courses in the university would be starting in the month of April, as said by the officials of the university on Saturday.The initial campus of the world’s first yoga university outside India has been established with a budget of around USD 5 million in Los Angeles.The university has stated that Sree Sreenath who is a professor from Case Western University has been named as the President of the Vivekananda Yoga University where as H R Nagendra who is the Indian yoga guru has been named as its chaiman.The university has also stated that the admissions for the post graduation course would get started in the month of April in this year and the programmes would get started from the month of August, 2020 which would be under the leadership of Sree Sreenath as the founding President.The official recognition has been received from the Bureau for Private Post secondary Education, California in order to offer a yoga- based higher education programmes in the month of November during the previous year following which the announcement has been made by the university.Collaborative research, credit transfers and joint programmes with several premier universities around the world would be facilitated by the Vivekananda Yoga University.This university is said to be aiming to provide man- making and nation- building education as it promotes the all- round personality development in the students. Nagendra who is the chairman of the Vivekananda Yoga University is a former scientist from NASA who has said to be working in the conversion of yoga into a socially relevant science for almost four decades now.It has been said that thousands of individuals who teach yoga with the limitation of around 200 to 500 hours of the certificate program would get benefited by the courses that are being provided in the Vivekananda Yoga University as it yoga teachers who have been limited regarding the yoga education programmes would now be progressing further into a university- based higher education, as said by Prem Bhandari who is a member in the board of directors of the Vivekananda Yoga University.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
NRI Women Safety Cell in Telangana logs 70 petitions February 14, 2020 18:06
An NRI Cell of Women Safety Wing (WSW) has been inaugurated in the month of July in the last year and it has been recorded 70 complaints until now. Out of the 70 complaint that have been registered 29 cases are said to be under investigation where as 41 cases are at trial stage.Look out circulars have been executed against the NRI spouses in around five cases where as in six passports of NRI accused were impounded.A workshop for two days has been inaugurated at the NRI cell, on Thursday. The workshop has been inaugurated aiming at the capacity building in order to bring convergence among the investigating officers, public prosecutors and the victims. A voice over app has been launched by the TS IT Cell. It has also launched an information brochure on Services of TS NRI Cell.Swati Lakra who is the inspector general of police of the Women Safety Wing has said that standard operating procedures have to be followed during the investigation of the cases of the Non- resident Indians.The NRI Woman Safety cell has been inaugurated by M Mahendar Reddy who is the Telangana Director General of Police, in Telangana Women Safety Wing in Lakdikapool in Hyderabad.The NRI women safety cell has been inaugurated in order to provide the legal guidance by the support of NILA which is an NGO for the women who have been aggrieved in the NRI marriages.Swati Lakra has also said that the NRI women safety cell would guide the SHOs in the course of the investigation of the cases that are related to harassment of the NRIO spouses or the relatives. The SHOs will be provided with the training in investigation and various procedures and also legal guidance will be provided to victims for the further approaches and the contacts, liason with agencies like embassies, Ministry of external affairs, National Women Commission, NGO when they would be required.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
Indian-American Appointed to Trump’s Advisory Commission February 04, 2020 19:11
An Indian- American Prem Parameswaran has been appointed by the President of the United States Donald Trump as a member of the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.The appointment has been done prior to the US President Donald Trump paying a visit to India which has scheduled to be between the 24th- 26th of February.Parameswaran is said to be the only Indian who has been selected in the commission that comprised of thirteen members. Prem Parameswaran is currently the president of Indian motion picture production and distribution company Eros International’s North America operations.The resignations has been submitted by ten members of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are known as the AAPIs in the year 2017. The move had been taken as they had stated their objection to the portrayal that has been made by Donald Trump as he had portrayed the immigrants, refugees, people of color and people of various faiths as untrustworthy, threatening and a drain on the nation.Parameswaran has said in a statement that being an Indian- American from New York and the son of Indian immigrants who had come to the country as students, he feels overwhelmed and honoured by being appointed as the member of the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.He added saying that he looks forward in working with co- chairman Elaine Chao, secretary of transportation, as well as the fellow members of the President’s Advisory Commission in order to improve the health, education and economic status of AAPI.Paremeswaran has earlier worked with the Jefferies Group and was the head of media and telecom for the Americans.He was born, brought up and based in New York and has joined Eros International in the year 2015 and has been experienced in various fields which include global telecommunications, media and investment banking.Prem Prameswaran has been graduated from the Columbia University and has also received an MBA from the Columbia Business School.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
US Killings in 2019, Highest than any other Year from 1970s December 30, 2019 12:06
The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University compiled a database which shows that, there were more killings in 2019 than any other year from the 1970s.The first one was where a man killed four family members which includes his infant daughter with an axe and this occurred just 19 days after entering into the new year. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a shooting which took place in a workplace in Virginia. The incident at a Walmart in El Paso witnessed twenty two people being dead in August.It was found that, more than 41 mass killings took place where in four or more people are killed with perpetrator being excluded. Of the 41 mass killings, 33 were mass shootings and more than 210 people were killed.In the majority of the killings, the incidents took place involving the people knew each other as in family disputes, drug or gang violence or as anger being showed at co-worker or relatives.The very first incident that took place in Oregon was one of the 18 mass killing which involved family members and one of the six that had no involvement of a gun. According to the AP/USA Today and Northeastern database, the second most killings prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota said that, "What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down.” he added saying that, “as a percentage of homicides, these mass killings are also accounting for more deaths.”He believes that the mass shootings can be a by product of an “angry and frustrated time” and he mentioned that crime tends to go in waves with number of serial killers in the years 1970s and 1980s, school shootings in 1990s and child abductions and concerns of terrorism dominated the early 2000s.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
Executive Committee for TRS NRI Canada Unit Announced December 30, 2019 10:37
Mahesh Bigala, coordinator of TRS NRI wing announced the full-fledged executive committee for the Canada unit of TRS NRI on Sunday after consulting K Kavitha, honorary advisor and former MP. Krishna Kumar Komandla has been appointed as the president of TRS NRI wing of Canada and the general secretary will be Sairama Krishna.The other executive committee members include Prabhakar T as the vice-President, Chetan K as joint secretary, Satish V as treasurer and the other members Lalith A, Sumanth G, Saicharan G, Uday A, Ramachandra T, Madhusudhan P, Vineesh M, Sandeep M, Lokesh R and the advisors as Karunakar P and Srinath K.All the newly appointed members took a vow in working for the victory of TRS in the result of municipal polls through the social media campaign and they thanked K Chnadrashekar Rao, TRS president and Chief Minister, the working president KT Rama Rao and the wing advisor of TRS NRI K Kavitha for providing them an opportunity to serve people of the state of Telangana.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
Indian-American Entrepreneur to Run for the US House of Representatives December 17, 2019 18:27
Krishna Bansal, an Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist will enter the race for the US House of Representatives.Mr. Bansal launched his campaign as he was about to enter the race from 11th Congressional District from Republican Party which was attended by more than 20 officers who were elected, leaders of Indian-American and the members of his constituency.Krishna Bansal says that, the reason behind running for Congress is that, he loves the country and will be promoting or defending the country against several threats which may occur from socialism, career politicians and taxes being out of control.“I am running for Congress because I love our country. I will promote and defend her against the threats from socialism, career politicians, and out of control taxes and spending,”Mr. Bansal said.Mr. Bansal added saying that, the nation has fulfilled his dream and that it is his chance now, to fulfill the dream of the American nation.“I believe in this great nation, its values and its constitution in the entirety. This great nation has given me a lot ,made my dream real. Now I want to work to keep this American dream real…for all of us,” said Mr. Bansal. He mentioned his issues of policy being free enterprise, fiscal discipline, family values and a firm foreign policy.Darlene Senger, Former Naperville State Rep. and Illoinois State Comptroller Republican 2018 nominee, mentioned this being an easy win in the race for Mr Bansal.Senger said that, Bansal would win as he had already earned 47 per cent against Democratic incumbent Bill Foster five years ago.Demetra DeMonte, Republic National Committeewoman praised his business acuity, community service and leadership skills and announced to endorse him.By Shrithika Kushangi
Read More
25 Year Old From Mysuru Shot Dead In California November 30, 2019 10:50
Abhishek Sudhesh Bhat, a 25-year-old boy from Mysuru who was doing his Master’s in Computer Science at California State University in San Bernardino was shot dead and the culprit is not yet identified.While he was returning home after his part-time job at a hotel he was shot. Srivastava, his friend who worked with him in the motel informed the family about the death.In the morning the family got another call and they were informed about the death and that his body is kept in a local hospital in San Bernardino. One of the family members mentioned that there was evidence of the attack through the CCTV footage. However, the police are yet to find the culprit."We have contacted US Consulate and the Indian High Commission for more details and as of now, there is no clear information about the incident and why Abhishek was shot dead. Modalities are being worked out for the parents and Abhishek's younger brother to travel to San Bernardino," a family member said.His family is from Udupi, his father, Sudesh Chand is a yoga guru and a founder of Sri Upanishath Yoga Centre Trust in Kuvempunagar in Mysuru and he has been handing this center for 16 years now. Abhishek's mother is Nandini Aithal and she was working at Sarada Vilas College.Abhishek studied at Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering and Technology at Mysuru and then started his Master’s from April 1st, 2018 in California. He was a Teaching Assistant of Dr. Ernesto Gomez for Computer Science class at the California State University, San Bernardino College of Natural Sciences, according to his facebook profile.Mysuru MP Pratap Simha has promised to help Sudesh and Nandini after being contacted. His parents further contacted the Ministry of External Affairs for assistance and coordination with the Indian Embassy in the United States.As per family sources, the parents are planning to leave for the US given the legal procedures and formalities to secure the body is a big process.By Neha Makhija
Read More
6-8 Indians Imprisoned For Indulging In Immigration Fraud November 11, 2019 17:05
In January 2015, the ICE in Michigan set up Farmington University to partly monitor and bring out immigration frauds. They found out that there are International students who are illegally staying in the US by getting admission at Farmington University.As per the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 6-8 Indians from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been a part of this, 6 are in jail and 2 others will be put in jail as well.Khalid Walls, the Northeast regional communications director/spokesman of the ICE interacted with Times of India and quoted “ All eight of the defendants have pleaded guilty”. Additionally, he mentioned, “ They will be deported to India following their prison terms”.From Fermont, Santosh Sama has been sent to jail for 24 months. Barath Kakireddy and Suresh Kandala are going to be in prison for 18 months. Avinash Thakkallapally for 15 months, Aswanth Nune and Naveen Prathipati for 12 months.Besides, Prem Rapeesa will be put in jail on November 19th and Phanideep Karnati will be sentenced in January 2020. The defendants were aware that the school didn’t have classes and they kept their students a secret from the US immigration authorities, out of which they earned a little more of this scheme.This fraudulent practice had been going on from February 2017 to January 2019. They deceived the Immigration authorities and none of the participants came from their home country and took admission in the school. They were aware of the rules being non-immigrant students.By Neha Makhija
Read More
Hindi Is The Most Spoken Indian Language In The United States October 31, 2019 13:00
With recent reports, Hindi is regarded as the most abundantly spoken Indian language followed by Gujarati and Telugu. If the exact numbers are to be suggested, it was said that there were around 8.74 lakh Hindi speakers in the US as of July 01st, 2018. The same is believed to have been increased by 1.3% from 2017.Over the decade, the numbers of speakers have increased by 2.65 lakhs which includes a rise of 43.5%. But, the report also suggested that in terms of the percentage increase, the same was quite outstripped by the Telugu speakers which rose from 79.5% between the years of 2010 and 2018. According to the American Community Survey data for 2018, it showed from the reports of the US Census Bureau that around 67.3 million residents in the United States, over the age of 5 speak a different language at home other than just English. Furthermore, it suggested that a portion of the population, around 21.9% of the population do speak a foreign language apart from English at home. The number of people speaking Bengali rose to 68% including around 3.75 lakh people which is a lot that increased over the eight year period. The same was followed by Tamil which included 67.5% and included around 3.01 lakh people in the United States. But, the notable fact in this was the fact that people aside from India also do speak some of these languages. Like, people from Bangladesh speak Bengali and even the people from Sri Lanka do speak Tamil.The immigration experts do suggest that the sudden spike in the Bengali speaking residents in the US could also be because of the increased flow of people into the country from Bangladesh. On the contrary, the people speaking Telugu and Gujarati have actually dipped a bit between the year of 2017 and 2018. The Gujarati speakers in the country amounted to around 4.19 lakh which has reduced by 3.5% over the year. In addition to that, the number of Telugu speakers was also around 4 lakh which further experienced quite a drop in comparison to the year before.But, when the figures from 2010 and 2018 are compared, there was a steep rise in the number of Telugu speakers in US from 2.23 lakh to 4 lakh mainly because of the fact that majority of the IT and tech employees come from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.The downside with the US Censor Board is that they don’t provide country specific statics. So, when it came round to the Urdu and Punjabi speaking provinces, the same was attributed to hail more from Pakistan instead of India. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, they suggest that the number of people speaking a different language other than English at home in US has doubled since 1990 and has tripled since 1980. It also suggests that around 48% of the people in America’s top 5 cities speak a different language at home other than English. When CIS further conducted a better insightful study around on the kind of languages that people speak at home aside from English, Hindi secured the fifth position with 2.65 lakh speakers. CIS has time and time suggested that immigrants learn English so as to ensure better assimilation with the culture and the crowd of the US.English isn’t a very problematic language for majority of the Indians around which further makes it a lot easier to tackle through the shortcomings better in a different nation. It suggests that 80% of the Indians who can speak their native language can speak English quite fluently as well.-Somapika Dutta
Read More
Indian-Origin Environmentalists Launch Campaign In UAE October 11, 2019 14:43
The growing threat to the environment and climate is on the rise. With Greta Thunberg leading the way to mitigate the global climate crisis, men and women alike from across the world are joining hands to provide a better future for the coming generation. Addressing this, the Indian Ladies Association (ILA) which is an UAE based community welfare body has recently launched a year long campaign to contribute their part to protecting and preserving the environment. They are working on a series of initiatives. Some of them include the collection of the discarded papers, e-waste, cleaning of the beaches as well as afforestation. The same is going to be held in Abu Dhabi.In one of the conducted interviews by the Gulf News, the President of ILA, Sunita Wagle said that they have collected over 500 kg of paper from the community. The same included the basic magazine papers to office papers, books, notebooks, paper bags and even the newspaper copies. The main objective of ILA is to fire through sustainable environment associated programs and campaigns and creates social awareness in the designated community every month. The same would go on to happen throughout the year while educating people about the importance of saving the environment and seeking their participation in making this an even greener place. Wagle further shared saying that they have the motto to launch their plantation program by the end of October which will focus on encouraging people to plant more of the ghaf as well as neem trees. Following the planting of the trees, the organization will also take care of the irrigation as well. ILA does provide a platform for the community to take the much needed step forward to bring forth changes and better impacts on the environment and reverse the negative impacts of climate change as well. Not just the elite class, the ILA is also focused around educating the labourers as well. They are going to visit many of the labour camps to give saplings as part of their campaign as well.By Somapika Dutta
Read More
Over 4,700 Women Abandoned by NRI Husbands in Last 10 Years September 27, 2019 17:11
Despite sparing no effort to raise awareness, the Indian ministry is still receiving a slew of cases from women against their NRI husbands, who abandoned them quite soon after walking down the aisle. In the last 10 years, the National Commission for Women (NCW) received more than 4,700 complaints with the highest number of grievances from Indian states Punjab and Delhi, NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said on Thursday. With regard to country-wise statistics, Sharma said the highest number of complaints have been received on Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands living in the United States, followed by Australia and Canada. As many as 1,105 complaints have been received on NRI husbands from the U.S., 378 on Australian and 326 on Canadian, she said. In the past 10 years, the highest number of complaints were received early this year at 750, followed by 582 this year. Altogether, a total of 4,779 complaints have been received in the last 10 years. Read: Marry and Abandon: Victims of NRI Tricksters Still Fighting for Justice Approximately 13.92 percent of complaints were received from New Delhi at 665, followed by 10 percent of complaints received from Punjab at 479. On that account, the National Commission for Women chairperson brought to the fore the need to increase awareness among families to carry out a thorough background research of the man they are looking for their daughter to get married. She said it is better to prevent such a marriage and for that, there must be awareness among people that they do a proper background search. Moreover, it is also important for a family to change a long-established perception in regard to marrying their daughter to an NRI. Sharma said women are increasingly coming forward to make a complaint against their perfidious NRI husbands with NRI cell of the commission. By Sowmya Sangam
Read More
