Vol 8 Issue 6 - June 13-19, 2015

The South Asian Times
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Vol.8 No. 6 June 13-19, 2015 60 Cents
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After India, US to test India says Pak rattled by

Maggi for lead content Myanmar surgical strike
By SATimes Team
New York: After being banned in

India on health concerns, Nestles
Maggi noodles, a staple for Indians
living away from home, has come
under the scanner of the US Food
and
Drug
Administration
(USFDA), which has taken samples for testing.
"We have been made aware that
the FDA has taken samples of
Maggi noodles manufactured in
India from third-party importers'
containers for testing, and we have
asked the importers to advise us of
the outcome of the FDA tests," said
a spokesperson for the Swiss food
and beverage giant, Nestle SA.
Lauren Sucher, Press Officer of
US FDA, told The South Asian
Times, The FDA is aware of
Continued on page 4
Maggi is still selling at Indian

grocery stores in USA as this
picture taken Tuesday shows.
But the controversy has put
the spotlight on many
imported ethnic Indian
products rejected by FDA.
New Delhi: India on Thursday said

its surgical attack on militants in
Myanmar has left Pakistan "rattled", while intelligence inputs
warned that retaliatory attacks
were possible in the northeast.
On a day when India reviewed
the security scenario along the
Myanmar border, and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi sent his
colleague Jitendra Singh to the
northeast to review the situation,
Defense Minister Manohar
Parrikar targeted Pakistan, saying ,
"I am going into the aspect of creating a different mindset, so much
so that those who fear India's new
posture have already started reacting."
Citing the surgical strike by the
Indian Army on the IndiaMyanmar border that killed an
The Indian troops involved in operation along the border with

Myanmar in which several insurgents were killed.
unspecified number of insurgents

on Tuesday, Parrikar said: "Change
requires change in the mindset. A
simple action against insurgents

has changed the mindset on the
Continued on page 4
Pak parliament passes anti-India resolutions

Reaction to Modis statements on creation of Bangaldesh and Myanmar action
Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Swami Maheshwarananda,

head of the worldwide Yoga in Daily Life organization, had a
meeting on June 10 at the UN headquarters in New York in
conjunction with the celebration of the International Day of
Yoga. On the occasion, he is seen with Indian Ambassador to
UN, Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Georgian Ambassador to UN,
Kaha Imnadze, and Chandra Prakash Sukhwal, representing
World Peace Council set up by the Swami.
ART & CULTURE 15
IIFA 16
BOOKS 24
Islamabad: Terming the recent

statements by the Indian leadership
as "irresponsible", Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif said on
Thursday that the atmosphere for
relations between the neighbours
has been hampered even as the
country's parliament passed resolutions against India.
"Recent statements by Indian
ministers have hampered our relations with India," the premier said
while addressing journalists at the
foreign office, Radio Pakistan
reported.
"Despite these statements, we
will continue our efforts towards
good neighbourly relations but
they need to be reciprocated,"
Sharif maintained. "The entire
nation is dismayed over these irresponsible and imprudent state-
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30
In Dhaka, Prime Minister Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart

Sheikh Hasina flag off June 6 a bus service between India and
Bangladesh. Also seen is CM of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee.
ments by the Indian leadership."

Sharifs comments came amid
verbal exchanges between the two
countries. Indian Minister of State

for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore
Continued on page 4
excellence in journalism
June 13-19, 2015
YOGA
A glimpse of events held by Indian Embassies in various parts of the

world in run-up to first International Yoga Day celebration (June 21st)
Ambassador of India to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya meets

Egypt-based Yoga instructors in run-up to the
first International Day of Yoga celebration.
To celebrate International Day of Yoga on June 21, all Art of Living Yoga
teachers in Phnom Penh are offering free introductory Yoga Workshops to
prepare for the event. Free Yoga sessions are being held every morning from
5.45-6.45 a.m. at River Front, Opposite Wat Onalum, Phnom Penh.
Ambassador Bhattacharyya addressing the Yoga instructors during the meet.
Embassy of India, Phnom Penh & Ministry of Tourism, Royal Government of

Cambodia organized a press conference at Phnom Penh on June 2 to publicize the celebration of International Day of Yoga at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap and in front of Royal
Palace, Phnom Penh, on 21st June 2015 & photo exhibition on Yoga at the Riverside,
Phnom Penh from June 13th. During the press conference, members of the print and
electronic media were briefed by Dr. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, Royal
Government and Dinesh Patnaik, Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The High Commission of India, Port

Louis, Mauritius and the Indira Gandhi
Centre for Indian Culture, Phoenix,
organized a Seminar and Workshop on
"Diet, Asanas, and Pranayama for
Healthy Living" on May 30. The event,
which brought together enthusiastic
participants from all walks of life,
began with opening remarks from High
Commissioner Anup Kumar Mudgal. The
other components of the Seminar were:
Talk and demonstration on "Healthy
Diet and Pranayama"by Dr Richa
Chopra (left), a classical singer, trained
psychologist and Senior member of the
Art of Living faculty in India;
Presentation on "Role of Yoga and
Ayurveda in the Management of Non
Communicable Diseases in Mauritius,
with a special focus on pre-Diabetes" by Dr PR Joorawon,President of Association of Ayurvedic Practitioners, Mauritius; Presentation on "Effect of Diet on the
Environment" by Mohini Purbhoo, trained Yoga teacher from Arya Sabha of Mauritius; Talk on "Yoga se Pehle" ("Before Yoga") by Alka Dunpath, Senior Lecturer,
Dept. of Hindi Studies, MGI, Moka; and demonstrative session on "Yogasanas, Pranayama and Ayurvedic Diet as practical methods in enhancing healthy living in
Mauritius" by Dr Gyaneshwarsing Guddoye, an Ayurveda and Yoga expert and Vice President, Meda Ayur-Yoga Peetha.
TRISTATE COMMUNITY
June 13-19, 2015
Anshu Jain steps down at Deutsche Bank; pressed by regulator

London: Anshu Jain and his coCEO at
Deutsche Bank, Jurgen Fitschen, stepped
down from their positions weeks after US
and UK regulators imposed a record
penalty on the lender for rigging Libor
rates.
The supervisory board of the bank decided at an extraordinary meeting to appoint
John Cryan, 54, to the position of CoCEO, effective July 1, 2015.
Cryans appointment follows the decision of Fitschen, 66, and Jain, 52, to step
down, the bank said. While Jain will step
down on June 30, 2015, the board has
asked him to continue as consultant till
January 2016.
Jain and Fitschens contracts were due to
run through to March 31, 2017. Upon
Fitschens departure on May 19, 2016,
Cryan will become the sole CEO.
London interbank offered rate (Libor) is
a benchmark rate that some of the worlds
Anshu Jain was co-CEO of Deutsche

Bank since 2012.
leading banks charge each other for shortterm loans.

In April, the lender agreed a recordbreaking $2.5 billion penalty for its role in
manipulating the Libor benchmark, with
the regulators in the UK and US finding
that Deutsche employees misled investiga-
Aarthi Agarwal dies in New Jersey after

'failed liposuction surgery'
pitalized in Hyderabad amid
New Jersey: Telugu actress
Aarthi Agarwal, who died of a
speculation of another suicide
cardiac arrest in New Jersey on
attempt.
An American of Indian origin,
June 6 was believed to have
Aarthi made her debut in Hindi
been battling severe breathing
film Paagalpan in 2001, oppoproblems after a liposuction
procedure that she had some
site the little known Karan Nath.
six weeks ago reportedly went
She switched to making
Southern language films beginwrong. She was just 31.
ning with Telugu movie Nuvvu
"Aarthi was battling obesity
Naaku Nachav, which brought
and pulmonary illness. She was
her fame. She appeared in some
undergoing treatment and due
to some complications, she suf25 films, opposite actors such as
Aarthi Agarwal
fered a cardiac arrest and
Chiranjeevi,
Nagarjuna,
passed away," Aarthi's manager told IANS.
Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu and NTR Jr.In
Aarthi, who had been acting since 2001, 2007, she married NRI software engineer
had led a troubled life, attempting suicide in Tasval Kumar, divorcing him in 2009.
2005 by reportedly drinking cleaning fluid Aarthi's last movie, Ranam 2, opened in
after an alleged failed relationship with co- theatres last Friday, just a day before she
star Tarun. In 2006, she was reportedly hos- died.
tors. The penalty was the biggest in the

Libor rigging scandal.
Deutsche Bank has struggled to restore
an image tarnished by regulatory and legal
problems, including probes into alleged
manipulation of benchmark rates, mis-selling of derivatives, tax evasion and money
laundering.
In a last-ditch effort to restore confidence in its leadership, the lender presented a radical management shake-up on May
21, only to face calls for Jain to resign
from staff situated in its own headquarters
in Frankfurt. But, some investors demanded more changes to restore confidence.
Jain landed the top spot at Deutsche in
2012 after the investment banking division
he ran consistently delivered up to 85% of
group profit and frequently outperformed
peers. But tougher regulatory requirements
and litigations took the shine off a division
often referred to internally as Anshus
army.
Commenting on his journey at Deutsche
Bank, Jain said: It has been 20 years
since I came to work at Deutsche Bank
and it has been an extraordinary time.
Over the past three years, I have been
afforded the privilege and honor to lead
this great institution together with Jrgen.
In our time as the banks leaders, we have
boosted capital, reduced exposures and
risk and invested significantly in technology, control and compliance capabilities.
Most significantly, we have kept our
clients happy and our revenues growing
while reshaping and strengthening the
bank.
I believe that with Strategy 2020 in
place, which puts the banks future on a
strong track, it is right for the bank and for
me to have new leadership at this time. I
am convinced that the future of the bank is
bright and in very good hands, he added.
Jain guru Lokesh Muni to grace Yoga Day

event at Long Island temple
US president in 2016.
Founder of Ahimsa Vishwa
Hempstead, NY:
World
Bharati in New Delhi, India,
Lokesh Muni is on a Peace &
renowned apostle of peace,
Harmony tour of USA for a
Acharya Lokesh Muni will be
few weeks during which he
the chief guest at a major
International Day of Yoga event
will participate in the main
at the Pt Jasraj Auditorium of
International Day of Yoga celebration at the UN on June
Vedic Heritage - Hanuman
21. He will also address the
Temple in Hempstead, NY on
biennial JAINA Convention
Saturday, June 20.
The event presented by Vedic
2015 in Atlanta, July 2-5.
Among the many awards
Heritage Inc and Celebrations
Inc will also be graced by severand accolades showered on
al other dignitaries. There will Delhi-based Acharya Acharya Lokesh, he was honDr Lokesh Muni is
ored with The South Asian
also be a Yoga Presentation by
Ranju Narang Group. The event, currently on a 'Peace & Times - Excellence in
Harmony Tour' of US.
Community Service Award
by invitation only, is presented
by Vedic Heritage Inc and Celebrations Inc.
for the year 2014 by Shri Om Prakash
Last week in New York, Muni ji blessed Kohli, Governor of the State of Gujarat, at
Hillary Clinton, a formidable candidate for Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar, India.
by SATimes Team
Indian woman with rare TB sets off scare in US

Washington: An Indian woman infected
with a rare drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis has created a health scare in three US
states and for people on her flight and is now
being treated in a special isolation facility
near Washington, health officials said on
Tuesday.
The woman (who has not been identified),
with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR
TB) travelled from India to Chicago and the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) said that as a precautionary measure

it will be contacting people who may have
come into contact with her on the plane.
The woman has not been identified in
keeping with the patient privacy regulations.
Asked about the flight, CDC spokesperson
Tom Skinner told IANS that the information
was not available. "We likely wouldn't provide that to you even if we had it," he added.
"We are able to get flight manifest and reach
those who need to be reached."
Information about where she was from

India was also not available.
CDC said, "The risk of getting a contagious disease on an airplane is low, but public health officials sometimes need to alert
travelers who may have been exposed to a
sick passenger.
The woman, who arrived at Chicago's
O'Hare airport in April, visited Missouri and
Tennessee before seeking medical treatment
seven weeks after coming to the US, CDC
said. CDC said it is now working with the

Illinois state Department of Health to identify people she may have been in contact with.
Based on her medical history and molecular testing, she was diagnosed with XDR
TB, CDC said.
She was placed in respiratory isolation at
a suburban Chicago hospital and later transported by air ambulance to the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in
Maryland.
June 13-19, 2015
Nikhil Seth to head

UN training institute
United Nations: UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon has appointed veteran Indian diplomat and international
administrator Nikhil
Seth to head the United
Nations Institute for
Training and Research
(UNITAR).
An expert on international development, Seth
will be the executive
Nikhil Seth
director of the UN's
training arm, which is headquartered in
Geneva, Ban's spokesperson Stephane
Dujarric said on Monday.
Seth is currently the director of the UN's
Division for Sustainable Development.
Previously, he headed the Office of the
Secretary General of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development.
As an Indian Foreign Service officer he
had served at the Indian UN Mission, and in
Geneva and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dr. Tushar B. Patel of South

Brunswick, NJ, received the New
Jersey State Governor's Jefferson
Award in Health Care Professional
Category for Public Service on June 8.
He has dedicated his services to various nonprofit organizations, including Indian Health Camp of NJ (IHCNJ).
TURN PAGE
India says Pak rattled by Myanmar...
Continued from page 1
whole security scenario in the country."
India's operation at two spots along the
Myanmar border triggered a sharp reaction
from Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan, who said "India should not
mistake the country for Myanmar".
The Indian home ministry, meanwhile,
reviewed the situation along the Myanmar
border at a high-level meeting attended by
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and senior
officials in the background of intelligence
reports that militants may strike again to
avenge the Indian Army operations. "Both
offensive and defensive measures were discussed during the meeting," a ministry official said
Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the
PMO, reached Manipur on Thursday. "The
PM wants extremists to shun violence and
join the mainstream for peace and development of the region," he told a TV news
channel.
A minor war of words broke out on the
home front, as the Congress slammed union
ministers, saying they were blowing their
trumpets too loudly.
"It is not for ministers to compete with
each other for publicity... Blowing your
own trumpet has an adverse impact,"
Congress leader Anand Sharma said.
The BJP retorted, with spokesperson
G.V.L. Narasimha Rao saying the Congress
was trying to belittle the success.
The army had on Tuesday carried out the
strike against insurgents believed to be
responsible for the ambush on an Indian
Army convoy in Manipur on June 4, leaving 18 soldiers dead.
Pak parliament passes anti-India...
warned that the Indian strikes in Myanmar
were a message to all countries, including
Pakistan and groups harboring "terror
intent" and that India would strike at a
"place and time" of its choosing.
Sharif retorted: "Pakistan will protect its
territory at all costs and this message should
be heard loud and clear. I told the UN secretary general that early implementation of
their resolutions is incumbent," Sharif said
referring to his recent meeting with Ban Ki-
moon in Tajikistan. "Kashmir cannot be

relegated to backburner of history."
Earlier, the Pakistani parliament unanimously passed resolutions condemning
recent anti-Pakistan statements made by the
Indian leadership. One resolution was
tabled by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. He
told the assembly that that Modi openly
accepted India's role in breaking up
Pakistan in the 1971 war, Geo News reported.
Dar urged the UN to take notice of the
Indian leadership's "hateful" statements,
adding that Pakistan was continuously
working to establish peace in the region, but
foreign hands were involved in terrorism
and suicide bombings in Pakistan to sow
instability in the country.
One resolution passed by the Upper
House likened Modi's statements to an
attack on Pakistan. It reiterated that the
Pakistan Army was fighting a war against
terrorism and was fully prepared to respond
to any form of aggression.
The response comes in light of the Indian
prime minister's statements relating to the
1971 war during his visit to Bangladesh
earlier this month.
The Pak daily Dawn quoted a media
expert saying that there was nothing new in
what Modi said about Indias role in
Bangaldesh separating from Pakistan, and
that Pakistan was overreacting.
After India, US to test Maggi for lead...
Nestls removal of Maggi brand noodles
from the Indian marketplace. The agency is
looking into the issue. At this time it is not
clear whether US products are affected by
the ongoing recall in India.
The policy guidelines issued by the FDA
for importing food into the country dont
specially refer to instant noodles. However,
according the regulatory body says that the
permissible levels for lead in candy is at 0.1
ppm. The lead found in Maggi noodles
samples tested in India was 17.2 ppm, several times more than the permissible levels.
Despite the scare, the instant food brand
continues to sell in Indian and some other
grocery stores across the country.
"We have not received any instructions
from FDA on product recall or ban. There is
New Delhi Bureau
Meenakshi Iyer
Delhi@TheSouthAsianTimes.info
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a slight dip in the sales due to the media
reports in India but the product continues to
sell at stores, said a spokesperson for the
House of Spice, one of the major distributors of Maggi in the US.
Besides selling in India, Nestle India also
exports Maggi noodles to the US, Canada,
UK, Australia, Singapore and Kenya, as per
the companys global website.
The product is a huge money churner for
Nestle, as big sales in the US indicate. The
high number of Indian immigrants here
seem to be driving Maggi noodles imports.
According to Zauba.com, in the last two
years, India has exported 22,94,057 units of
Maggi noodles worth $1,68,33,520. The
US, Canada and the UK are among the top
10 importers of Maggi noodles; USAs
share being 35%.
The Maggi row in India and its fallout
outside the country has put a spotlight on
other ethnic Indian products imported that
are rejected by the USFDA.
Data on the USFDA website shows that it
has rejected more snack imports from India
than any other country in the first five
months of 2015. Indian products were
found to contain high levels of pesticides,
mold and the bacteria salmonella, a report
in the Wall Street Journal said. More than
half of all snacks that were tested and then
restricted from being sold in the US this
year were from India, which also leads the
number of snack rejects across the world.
The WSJ report also mentions that most
of the rejected food items from India actually came from Nagpur-based snacks giant
Haldirams - among them sugar candies
and Indian snack mixes - rejected because
of pesticides in them.
Baked Indian snacks also finds it difficult
to enter the States, says the report. More
than half of the 217 baked products rejected
by the US FDA so far this year were from
India and 50% of the rejected 36 items in
the spices, flavors and salt category were
from India.
USFDA has strict standards when it
comes to food quality. Often food items get
held up in random testing. Earlier one
Indian rice brand was under FDA import
alert after high levels of pesticide were
found in them, said the spokesperson at
House of Spice.
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TRISTATE COMMUNITY
June 13-19, 2015
White House and Sikh Coalition organize anti bullying google hangout
By Jinal Shah
New York: On Monday the White
House Initiative on Asian American
Pacific Islander s and Sikh
Coalition organized a Sikh Google
Hangout to address the issue of bullying in schools.
The hangout attended by administration officials and community representatives addressed the unique
issues faced by Sikh Americans and
highlighted federal resources available to stop bullying.
According to a 2014 study, half of
Sikh children reported that they are
bullied in school, a number that
rises to more than two-thirds if they
wear a turban.
The study, titled Go Home
Terrorist and commissioned by
Sikh Coalition, surveyed more than
700 students across the country and
found that Sikh children had been
punched and kicked and had their
turbans ripped off by fellow students.
67% of turbaned youth have
experienced bullying. Sikh children
are often subjected to epithets like
terrorists and Bin Laden, said

Gurjot Kaur staff attorney at Sikh
Coalition. The organization was
founded on the night of 9/11 to
address hate crimes and violence
faced by Sikh community as a result
of the 9/11 backlash.
Policymakers believe that AAPI
students who are bullied face unique
challenges, including religious, cultural, and language barriers. There
are several different ways including
verbal harassment and in extreme
cases there is physical harassment,
and social isolation.
In terms of extreme cases we
have had a student whose hair was
forcibly cut and flushed down the
toilet. In another case, a Sikh students turban was set on fire in New
Jersey, said Kaur who was herself
bullied in school. Kaur highlighted

several barriers in reporting bullying
cases including retaliation and lack
of awareness about Sikhism and
Sikh articles of faith.
One barrier in reporting is that
students fear retaliation. One such
case was in New York City where
one student with limited English
proficiency was being bullied
severely every day and when he
finally reported it the school suspended the tormenter. However it
didnt really address the underlying
biases and prejudices and bullying
continued, she added.
Another major barrier in fighting
bullying is the lack of awareness.
Sikhism is not taught in the social
studies standards.
So many students and teachers
are not aware of Sikhism, the Sikh
immigration history, roles in our
country. We have had students who
say that our principal do not understand why its such a big deal that
somebody ripped off my turban at
school, they dont understand the
religious significance, they dont
know that for a Sikh to be without
Indian American Stanford professor

builds water based computer
New York: In a grounder required some creative
breaking feat, worlds first
thinking.
synchronous computer that
Prakash realized that a
operates on water droplets
rotating magnetic field that
has been developed by an
could act as clock to synIndian-American researcher
chronize all the droplets
from Stanford University.
might do the trick. The
Manu Prakash, assistant
team built arrays of tiny
professor of bioengineering,
iron bars on glass slides.
Professor Manu Prakash
and his students have built a
They then laid a blank
unique computer that operates using the glass slide on top and sandwiched a layer of
unique physics of moving water droplets.
oil in between.
The work combines Prakashs expertise in
Then they carefully injected into the mix
manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a individual water droplets that had been
fundamental element of computer science infused with tiny magnetic nanoparticles.
an operating clock.
Next, they turned on the magnetic field.
In this work, we finally demonstrate a synEvery rotation of the field counted as one
chronous, universal droplet logic and con- clock cycle and every drop marched exactly
trol, Prakash said. Because of its universal one step forward with each cycle. A camera
nature, the droplet computer can theoretically recorded the interactions between individual
perform any operation that a conventional droplets, allowing observation of computation
electronic computer can crunch, although at as it occurs in real time.According to Prakash,
significantly slower rates.
the most immediate application might involve
The ability to precisely control droplets turning the computer into a high-throughput
using fluidic computation could have a num- chemistry and biology laboratory.
ber of applications in high-end biology and
Instead of running reactions in bulk test
chemistry and scalable digital manufacturing.
tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals
Computer clocks are responsible for every- and become its own test tube, and the droplet
thing smartphones, airplanes, internet. computer offers unprecedented control over
Developing a clock for a fluid-based comput- these interactions.
their turbans in public is akin to be

naked, said Kaur.
To combat hate crime in the community, the White House announced
several efforts, including a new
Interagency Initiative on Hate
Crimes and as a part of these efforts,
WHIAAPI, in partnership with the
U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S.
Department of Education and the
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, launched the
AAPI Bullying Prevention Task
Force to proactively address bullying in the AAPI community. In the
wake of increasing concerns about
the high rates of bullying among
Sikh youth and incidents such as the
attacks on as many as 30 Asian
American students at South
Philadelphia High School in
December 2009, the AAPI Task
Force will help ensure that the AAPI
community is aware of federal
resources and remedies available to
them.
Task Force brings together federal
experts in civil rights, language
access, education, community relations, public health, mental health,
and data to find creative solutions to

help the AAPI community.
There seems to be a wide gap in
the instances of bullying and the utilization of government resources to
address bullying. So the taskforce is
trying to create awareness about the
available resources, so that people
know about it and ways to access in
their languages, said Maulik
Pancholy, an acclaimed, film, television and stage actor and a member
of Presidents advisory commission
on AAPI. He shared his personal
story of how he was bullied for
being Indian American and gay.
The members of the taskforce are
holding meetings, listing sessions
with AAPI community to inform
about resources, gather information
through surveys.
We have distributed survey
forms to advocacy groups, community groups, to domestic violence
shelters. Since February we have
conducted over 15 listening sessions
around the country, he added.
To learn more about anti bullying
efforts
log
on
to
www.stopbullying.gov
New body formed to attract US business to India
(from left) Mohinder Verma, President of IABA, honoree Darshan Bagga,

Amb. Mulay and others at the event
New York: The recently formed Indian

American Business Association, New York
(IABA) held its inaugural event at the
Consulate General of India here on June 4.
The event focused on attracting American
businesses to India. The speakers including
Dilli Raj Bhatia, legal adviser to IABA,
spoke about American companies looking
to outsource to India and their expectations
from the Indian counterparts. President of
the association Mohinder Verma and
Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay, who
was the chief guest, spoke of the role of
Indian communities in the US in promoting

Indian culture in the US and expanding
business activities in India.
IABA also honored Ved Parkash,
Gurbachan S. Chug and Darshan Singh
Bagga for their outstanding contributions
to the Indian community at the event
attended by over 150 businessmen. The
organization with about 500 members and
growing is coordinating with the government of India to promote business and
bridge the gap between Indian communities and businesses.
June 13-19, 2015
TRISTATE COMMUNITY
IN BRIEF
Council Member Peter Koo honors Dr Uma Mysorekar

ndian American community leader Dr Uma V Mysorekar
was among four outstanding individuals honored by City
Council Member Peter Koo as a part of Asian American
Pacific Islander Month celebration.Dr. Lung-Fong Chen,
Dongsuk Kim and Rev. Pak Cheung Lo were the other three
honorees.
CM Koo stated, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
have made immeasurable contributions to our country, our
city, and our community. Throughout our city's history, Asian
Americans and Pacific Islanders have come to these shores,
bringing their talents and skills, their hopes and dreams, and
their determination to succeed. By working hard to build new
lives for themselves and their families, Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders in search of opportunity have helped make
our City what it is today. Today, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders number upwards of 13 percent of the city's population and growing, and I'm happy to recognize several outstanding members of this community for their tremendous
contributions to the City of New York.
Dr. Uma V. Mysorekar was born and raised in Bangalore,
Karnataka State, India, and studied medicine at the University of Bombay. She came to the United States in 1970 and
practices obstetrics and gynecology in Flushing. She has been
involved in helping the handicapped through Heart and Hand
Hyderabadi
Association of NY hosts
Ayesha Rubina
he Hyderbadi Cultural Association of
New York (HCA) hosted a meet and
greet event for Ayesha Rubina on June
7 in Long Island
New York. Ayesha is
among top eight of
The Times of Indias
LEAD INDIA initiative winners and is
also a participant of
International Visitor
Leadership Program,
a U.S. Department of
State's leadership exchange program called International Visitor
Leadership Program.
Ayesha thanked Hussain Baqueri, the President and Quddus Mohammed, founder and
the Chairman of HCA of New York and discussed the challenges facing the NGOs working for persons of special needs, women and
the under privileged groups at grassroots level in Hyderabad.
Ayesha is noted for being instrumental in
planning a first-of-its-kind park for special
needs people in Hyderabad, India
T
(From left to right) Dr. Lung-Fong Chen, Dongsuk Kim,
CM Peter Koo, Rev. Pak Cheung Lo, Dr. Uma Mysorekar
for the Handicapped and Aid to the Disabled, Orphaned and

Poor. As president of the Hindu Temple Society of North
America, she has initiated programs to bring the community
together through spiritual, educational and cultural activities,
as well as worked to increase public understanding about
Hinduism.
INOC celebrates B. R. Ambedkars

125th birthday anniversary
INOC USA members at the event with Chief Guest Arjun

Modhwadia (fourth from right)
t a grand function organized by the Indian

National
Overseas
Congress, USA (INOC), a huge
crowd turned out to celebrate
the 125th birthday anniversary
of B R Ambedkar at the Royal
Albert Palace in New Jersey.
President of the Gujarat
Pradesh Congress Committee
Arjun Modhwadia had been invited to grace the occasion.
The General Secretary of
INOC, USA, Harbachan Singh
elaborated on the scholarly
achievements of the principal
architect of the Constitution of
India.
Singh said that the Indian voters have come of age and they
will no longer be satisfied with
empty campaign promises.
INOC USA President Juned
Qazi spoke proudly of the outstanding leadership of Modhwadia.
Packaging and repackaging
of Congress policies and programs are not going to win
medals for the Modi Government, said Modhwadia in his
speech.
Harkesh Thakur, Ram Gadula, Mahesh Patil, Bharat Patil
and Peter Khotari also spoke
and enthralled the audience.
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
June 13-19, 2015
Former Oregonian editor Peter Bhatia to lead Reynolds Center

New York: Peter Bhatia, former editor
and
vice
president
of
The
Oregonian/Oregon Media Group, has been
appointed director of the Donald W.
Reynolds National Center for Business
Journalism at Arizona State Universitys
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and
Mass Communication.
He replaces Micheline Maynard, former
New York Times senior business correspondent, who is leaving for family reasons. The Indian American journalist will
lead business journalism training efforts at
the Reynolds Center, a leading provider of
training for business reporters and editors.
After a 20-year career at The Oregonian,
Bhatia joined Cronkite in summer 2014 as
Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor in
Journalism Ethics.
The Reynolds Center has long provided
an essential service for journalism, Bhatia
said in a statement. It is a spectacular
HAF honors Murthy

with Pride of
Community Award
Washington, DC: Indian-origin US
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has been
presented with
the Pride of the
Community
Award by a
prominent Hindu
advocacy group.
Receiving the
award by the
Hindu American
Foundation at its
12th Annual Day
Dr Vivek Murthy
reception
at
Capitol Hill, Murthy said that he draws
inspiration from the life of Swami
Vivekananda. The reception was attended by two senators and 10 members of
the US House of Representatives.
"It's a proud moment to see the continued progress that the Hindu American
Foundation has made over a short period
of time, and the great poise that this
organization and its constituents have,"
said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the
only Hindu serving in the Congress.
HAF also awarded Anantanand
Rambachan, professor of religion at St
Olaf College, Dharma Seva award;
Harpreet Singh Mokha of the department of justice, the Mahatma Gandhi
Award for the Advancement of
Pluralism; and senator Mark Kirk and
Rep Joe Crowley, HAF's Friend of the
Community awards.
Peter Bhatia
opportunity to lead it and help nd new

opportunities for business journalism.
Bhatias history with the Reynolds Center

actually began over a decade ago. He
served on the board that was involved in
approving the initial Reynolds Center grant
and, as editor of The Oregonian, hosted
some of the centers rst business journalism workshops.
Reynolds Center president Andrew
Leckey said, Were delighted that someone of his stature in journalism and on the
boards of organizations supporting the eld
will lend expertise and leadership to the
Reynolds Centers ongoing development.
Bhatia was the rst journalist of South
Asian descent to lead a major daily newspaper in the U.S., running The Oregonian
from 2010-2014. He also was the papers
managing editor and executive editor.
Bhatia and then-Oregonian editor Sandra
Mims Rowe were named Editors of the
Year by Editor & Publisher magazine in
2008. He also was Web editor on
Cronkites documentary Hooked:

Tracking Heroins Hold on Arizona,
which attracted one million viewers on all
33 TV stations in the state.
Bhatia earlier was executive editor of The
Fresno Bee, managing editor of The
Sacramento Bee, editor of the York
(Pennsylvania) Dispatch and Sunday News,
managing editor of the Dallas Times
Herald, deputy managing editor of the San
Francisco Examiner and a reporter and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane,
Wash. Newsrooms he has led have won
nine Pulitzer Prizes, including six at The
Oregonian.
A native of Pullman, Wash., Bhatia has a
bachelors degree in history from Stanford
University. He was inducted into the South
Asian Journalists Association Hall of Fame
in 2007 and received the Asian American
Journalists Association Pioneer in
Journalism Award in 2004.
Indian-origin man named in $40 million lawsuit against Zara

New York: An Indian-origin executive at Zara
has been named in a $40 million lawsuit led
against the leading Spanish clothing giant by a
former employee alleging pay discrimination
and ring him for being "Jewish, American and
gay."
The lawsuit, led in the Supreme Court in
the state of New York this week by Ian Jack
Miller, has named Zara, Dilip Patel and Moises
Costas Rodriguez as defendants.
Miller worked as the company's general
counsel from January 2008 till March, serving
as Zara's only in-house attorney throughout the
US and Canada.
Patel is the country manager for Zara USA
and works at its Manhattan ofce while
Rodriguez is the former CEO for Zara USA
and the current director of expansion for North
and South America. The lawsuit said Miller is

suing Zara for "hostile work environment, pay
discrimination, and unlawful discharge based
on his religion, national origin, and sexual orientation" and seeking damages in an amount in
excess of $40 million.
The lawsuit alleged that Zara's senior executives, including several close condants of
Zara's founder Amancio Ortega, treated
Miller's ethnic and sexual orientation "as a
strike against" him.
The lawsuit said several of the individuals
who were primarily responsible for discriminating against or harassing included Patel and
were installed personally by Ortega. It added
said Ortega's "friend Patel "was responsible for
much of the hostile work environment, pay discrimination, retaliation and unlawful termina-
tion that Miller experienced."

It alleged that Patel had strong links with
Ortega and as a "result of this personal connection, he engaged in discriminatory and harassing conduct with impunity.
"Supervisors and colleagues sent Miller
homophobic emails, made anti-Semitic
remarks in his presence, and boasted that
Spanish employees enjoyed more job security
than employees of other nationalities," the lawsuit said.
"Zara also gave Miller lower raises than
employees who did not share his protected
characteristics, even though Miller was a
strong performer, the Company's revenues
were growing, and other Zara employees who
t the Company's preferred prole received
higher raises," it added.
Indian American pleads guilty to stealing $6 million from investors

New York: An Indian American stock broker has pleaded guilty to stealing more
than $6 million from local investors by
falsely claiming their funds were safely
invested even though he operated a massive Ponzi scheme and used nearly half of
the money for his personal use.
Sunil Sharma, 68, of California, has been
charged with wire fraud and faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000
ne. He will be sentenced by U.S. District
Judge John Houston in August.
Sharma covered up massive losses by
lying to investors that their investments
were doing well. He would send them
monthly or quarterly statements that false-
ly reected that their investments were

generating the promised returns.
Sharma admitted that even while reassuring investors, he diverted approximately
$2.5 million in investor funds for his own
personal use, including approximately
$700,000 towards the down payment of a
$2 million home and approximately
$12,000 for a cruise in the Mediterranean
and for leasing luxury cars.
In 2007, Sharma attended an
"Investools" workshop that convinced him
that he could make money trading stock
options in a conservative manner. After
attending the workshop, he set up Gold
Coast Holding as a vehicle to trade
options.
Recognizing that his customers would
not have given him money for this venture,
he lied to them that Gold Coast was an
extremely safe way to earn a monthly
retirement income because their money
was to be part of a diversied portfolio,
pooled with many other investors, used to
buy bonds from emerging markets in
Brazil, Russia, India, and China and managed by Goldman Sachs.
Although Sharma initially planned on
buying BRIC bonds with half the investor
funds and day trading with the other half,
he never in fact purchased BRIC or any
other type of bonds.
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
June 13-19, 2015
Congressional reception for Arun K Singh at Capitol Hill $20,000 reward to arrest killer
of Indian-American shopowner
Washington, DC: The House

Foreign Affairs Committee, in association with Congressional Caucus
on India and Indian Americans
organized a Congressional
Reception to welcome Ambassador
Arun K. Singh on his taking over as
India's Ambassador to the United
States at the Capitol Hill on June 10
The event was hosted by the
Chairman of House Foreign Affairs
Committee- Congressman Ed Royce
(Republican-California)
and
Ranking Member Congressman
Elliot Engel (Democrat-New York),
together with co-chairs of the
Caucus- Congressman George
Holding (Republican- North
Carolina) and Congressman Ami
Bera (Democrat-California).
The event was attended by a number of Members of US House of
Representatives, leaders of the
Indian American community from
across the United States, as well as
by members of the media, the Think
Tank community and academia.
In their welcome remarks, both
Congressman Ed Royce and
Congressman Eliot Engel spoke
warmly of Ambassador Singh's contribution in promoting India-U.S.
Ambassador Arun K Singh thanked the Congressmen for their

welcome and efforts to promote India-US relations
relations. During his remarks,

Congressman Ed Royce welcomed
Ambassador back to Washington
D.C and reiterated his commitment
to promoting India-US ties.
Congressman Eliot Engel called
India and US as 'natural partners'
with common strategic and geopolitical outlook. Congressman
George Holding called the India-US
relationship as the founding relationship of 21st century and advocated strengthening bilateral economic ties. Congressman Ami Bera
called the relationship 'non partisan'
and recognized that the diaspora
brings vibrancy to the bilateral ties.
Ambassador Arun K. Singh, in his
remarks, thanked Congressman Ed

Royce, Congressman Eliot Engel,
Congressman George Holding and
Congressman Ami Bera for their
welcome and for their leadership at
the House Foreign Affairs
Committee and at the Congressional
Caucus on India and Indian
Americans. He noted the important
contributions made by the Caucus to
bring the people and governments of
the two countries closer, and
described the bipartisan support for
India-U.S. relations in the U.S.
Congress as a source of strength for
the India-U.S. strategic partnership
that now spans almost all dimensions of human endeavor.
California: A $20,000 reward

has been offered for information
leading to the arrest of the gunman who shot dead the IndianAmerican owner of a sandwich
shop in Los Angeles, the media
reported.
Pravin Patel, 62, was shot in the
chest after a robbery at the
Quiznos sandwich shop in San
Dimas on June 2, said Sergeant
Rebecca Rodriguez of the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, KTLA News online
reported.
"The employee gave over the
money and he followed the suspect outside of the location. A
struggle ensued in front of the
store and the suspect shot the victim," Rodriguez said.
A woman, who ran a business
next door, rushed to Patel's aid
and called 911.
Patel, also known as Peter, and
his wife were the owners of the
Quiznos restaurant in the nor-
mally quiet San Gabriel Valley

suburb, east of Los Angeles.
"He was passionate about serving his food and exchanging family stories with his customers.
Peter spent every day working
side by side with the woman he
loved most - his wife Maya
(Mary) Patel," said a notice posted on the shop door signed by the
Patel family.
Patel leaves behind his wife, a
son, a daughter and two grandchildren.
Detectives were struggling in
their investigation because security cameras were not working at
the time of the robbery and shooting, authorities said.
The gunman is described as a
skinny white or Hispanic man in
his mid-20s, around six feet tall,
wearing a baseball hat, black Tshirt and plaid shorts during the
robbery. The $20,000 reward has
been offered by the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors.
IN BRIEF
Former Indian-American policeman jailed for rape

court in the US state of Massachusetts has sentenced a former Indianorigin police officer convicted on
rape charges to seven years in jail, media reported. Rajat Sharda, 34, the first Indian-origin police officer in the city of Worchester in
the state of Massachusetts, was found guilty
of sexually assaulting a woman in August
2013, open and gross lewdness, witness intimidation and larceny while on duty, reported The Telegram daily on Monday.
After seven years of imprisonment, Sharda
will be on probation for 10 years. The former
officer's victim, a 29-year-old Connecticut
woman testified in court that on August 6,
2013, night she was inside a parked sports

utility vehicle (SUV), undressed, with her
boyfriend, when officer Sharda approached
the vehicle and asked her to step outside.
He then sexually assaulted and threatened
the woman before leaving, she stated.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan P. Donahue recommended that Sharda should be
sentenced up to 15 years behind bars with
probation to follow. Donahue said the former
officer was in a position of power when he
took advantage of a "vulnerable" victim and
violated public trust in the process. Sharda
was removed from police service in September 2014.
Majestic Hindu Temple opens in Colorado

indu Temple and Cultural Center of
the Rockies opened in Centennial
(Colorado) on June 7 after three-days
of ancient Hindu rituals conducted by nine
priests gathered from all over the country.
The grand opening celebration included havans, artis, pujas, murti sthapana, cultural
program, Veda pranayam, aradhana, archana,
Maha Kumbhabhishekam, etc.
The new Temple, whose construction be-
gan in March 2014, besides a place of worship, will also undertake various religious,
cultural and spiritual activities/celebrations.
Its architecture is based on ancient Vastu and
Aagam Shastra principles and it includes
murtis of Aayapaa Swami, Durga Maa,
Ganesh Ji, Gorishankar, Laxmi Narayan,
Radha-Krishna, Ramdarbar, Saraswati Mata,
Shiva Lingam and Nandi, Shiva Parivar and
Tirupati Bala Ji, reports suggest.
USINPAC hosts US India

Nuclear Trade Conference
S-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) hosted a Congressional Briefing on US-India
Nuclear Trade on June 4, at Washington,
DC. to discuss opportunities and challenges in commencing US-India Nuclear
Trade. The briefing was a landmark event
with speakers including US Congressional Leadership, nuclear industry experts,
think tank personnel, and leaders of the Indian American community. It was attended by a standing room audience of congressional staffers and executives of leading energy companies. The Chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Ed Royce, kicked off the conference
by saying, "As we continue to work
through the nuclear deal, I am sure we will
find a way to continue to engage and
move forward on this issue of civilian nuclear cooperation. It is important because
the needs of India for uninterrupted and
affordable power are great. Nuclear power will provide this in India."On the Indian end, Ambassador Taranjit Singh
Sandhu remarked "I am happy to report

breakthroughs in the last few months on
the bilateral US-India civilian nuclear 123
agreement. There is robust exchange between our nuclear establishments. Nuclear
energy is highly relevant to India's energy
security."
Keynote speaker, Dr Udit Raj, Member
of Parliament in the ruling BJP Government, said in his address, "The Indo-US
relationship is not only important for these
two countries but for the whole world. The
way the countries are moving together forward will change the scenario of the
world."
Expressing that the Indian law on nuclear
liability favored state owned nuclear enterprises such as Russia's, Congressman Brad
Sherman commented "I know that we will
get this straightened out. I want the US nuclear industry to play a prominent role in
India's development." Congressman Mike
Honda thanked USINPAC for bringing so
many subject leaders together to help
everyone learn more about the deal.
US AFFAIRS
Texas cop quits over pool

incident caught on video
Houston: Just days after a video that went
viral online showed him yanking a 14-yearold bikini-clad girl to the ground and kneeling on her back, Eric Casebolt has resigned
from his post as a corporal for the Police
Department in McKinney, Texas.
The video was taken on a cellphone and
posted to YouTube, where it set off another in
a recent series of debates involving race and
police tactics. The police said Corporal
Casebolt and other officers were responding
to a call about a fight and a disturbance at a
community pool in Craig Ranch, a racially
diverse subdivision north of Dallas. In the
video Casebolt can be heard shouting profanities at the teenagers, and officers handcuffed
several who had followed his orders to sit on
the ground. He appeared to grab the girl and
pin her to the ground after she did not heed
his orders to leave.
Corporal Eric Casebolt appears in the

YouTube video to grab the girl and pin
her to the ground.
50 hospitals charge uninsured more than 10 times cost of care, study finds
Washington: Fifty hospitals in the US are charging uninsured consumers more than 10 times
the actual cost of patient care, according to research published Monday. All but one of the
these facilities is owned by for-profit entities, and by far the largest number of hospitals - 20 are in Florida. For the most part, researchers said, the hospitals with the highest markups are
not in pricey neighborhoods or big cities, where the market might explain the higher prices.
Topping the list of the most expensive hospitals is North Okaloosa Medical Center, a 110-bed
facility in the Florida Panhandle about an hour outside of Pensacola. Uninsured patients are
charged 12.6 times the actual cost of patient care. Community Health Systems operates 25 of
the hospitals on the list; Hospital Corp. of America operates another 14.
June 13-19, 2015
Jeb Bush focuses on father, not

brother, in Berlin speech
Berlin: Jeb Bush, on a trip abroad just days
before formally announcing his presidential
campaign, lauded his fathers role in unifying
Germany while avoiding mention of his more
polarizing brother, former President George
W. Bush, who remains unpopular in Germany
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and controversial intelligence-gathering techniques
adopted after the 9/11.
Jeb Bushs comments Tuesday to politicians and business leaders here, on the first
leg of a five-day European tour, provided a
reminder of the needle the former Florida
governor is trying to thread as he casts himself as independent from the two presidents
who share his name.
He hailed efforts by his father, former
President George H.W. Bush, to heal deep
historic wounds in Europe while delivering a
defense of American military strength and a
pointed rebuke of Russian President Vladimir
Putin that were more reminiscent of his brothers presidency. He also called on the U.S.
and its allies to isolate Russias corrupt leadership from the people they govern, saying,
Ultimately, Russia needs to be a European
nation. Separately, Bush defended the U.S.
against assertions that its intelligence services
spy on foreign companies to give domestic
firms a leg up, while acknowledging that revelations about the National Security Agencys
data-collection efforts had bruised relations
between the U.S. and Germany. The rela-
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush with

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
tionship needs to be fixed, he said.

Mr. Bush verged on violating the traditional
taboo against criticizing an American president while speaking on foreign soil when he
suggested that overseas conflicts had emerged
where the U.S. has reduced its military presence. As we pulled back from Iraq, a vacuum was filled, he said. We cant hold back.
The United States has to lead.
The former Florida governor enjoyed a mix
of warm and tepid applause throughout. The
tone was friendly and softer than what one
remembers of his brother, said Norbert
Rttgen, a top ally in parliament of German
Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said Mr. Bush
put forward a thoroughly Republican
program.
Panel OKs cholesterol ghter

Washington: In a 13-3 vote, an expert group
recommended on Tuesday that the Food and
Drug Administration approve a powerful
new drug to protect against heart attacks. If
approved, it would be the first in a major
new class of medicines that appear to drastically lower levels of cholesterol, the leading
cause of heart disease, New York Times
reported.
Dr. Joshua Knowles, a Stanford University
cardiologist, called the medicines a triumph
of the modern genetic revolution.
The idea for the drugs arose from genetic
studies about a decade ago and has tantalized
cardiologists ever since. Early results of clinical trials have raised hopes that the drugs
will be critical new additions to the arsenal
of medicines for those at risk of heart disease, the biggest killer of Americans.
People who have taken them have seen
their LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol, plunge to remarkably low levels.
But definitive evidence of the drugs effec-
tiveness in reducing heart attacks and deaths

will only come after large clinical trials are
completed in 2017.
Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
drug, alirocumab, was discussed by the panel
on Tuesday. Later, the committee was scheduled to turn to Amgens drug, evolocumab.
The FDA said that if it approves the drugs
based on their effects on cholesterol, the
approval will not be rescinded even if the
large trials fail to show the drugs reduce the
risk of heart attacks and deaths. The drugs
are injected once every two weeks or once a
month, depending on the formulation. The
companies and independent cardiologists say
they have reason to think the drugs will perform as expected. And, they say, the drugs
were specifically designed to mimic mutations in a gene, PCSK9, that protects people
from getting heart disease, even if they
smoke or have high blood pressure.
Lowering LDL cholesterol has generally
been found to protect against heart disease.
Pedestrian bridge linking Manhattan and Bronx reopens

The High Bridge was
opened Tuesday as the
only interborough bridge
designed exclusively for
pedestrians and
bicyclists. In addition, the
restoration of the High
Bridge has once again
reconnected the two
boroughs of Manhattan
and the Bronx with more
than 125 acres of green
space with baseball fields
and basketball courts.
Corporate Office: 385 Seneca Avenue, Ridgewood NY 11385

718.821.3182, www.AtlanticDialysis.com
10
INDIA
June 13-19, 2015
'India's Myanmar offensive message to terrorists'

New Delhi: India's offensive against
terrorists along its eastern border
sends a message to them, the government said, even as defense ministry denied that "hot pursuit" was
involved in the action.
Questions were raised if India
would pursue a similar policy along
its Western border with Pakistan,
inviting a sharp reaction from the
other side.
The operation conducted by the
Indian Army on Tuesday involved
two attacks along the IndoMyanmar border, with the camps
being located in Myanmar territory.
Perceived as the largest cross-border operation yet by the Army, the
attack resulted in several militants
being killed with no loss of life on
the Indian side.
Minister of State for Defence Rao
Inderjit Singh denied any "hot pursuit" being involved in the operation, while Environment Minister
Prakash Javadekar said it was a
message to all terrorists.
"We did not use hot pursuit. We
contacted Burma (Myanmar)
authorities before the attack," Rao
Inderjit said.
The Indian Army team involved in operation along the

India-Myanmar border in which several militants were killed.
Javadekar, speaking in Mumbai,

said: "The military's action against
insurgents, with assistance from the
Myanmarese government, speaks
volumes about India's resolve to
fight terror. This is a lesson and a
message to all the terror groups that
India will not hesitate in going
beyond its geographical borders to
eliminate terrorists."
Minister of State for Home Kiren

Rijiju, termed it a fitting reply.
"The ilitary operation against
extremist hideouts in Myanmar is a
fitting reply for the ambush of Army
soldiers," Rijiju said.
"We must salute the work the
army did... When something is done
in national interest, we must support
it and not discuss it in detail," he
added.
The Congress, however, said government must not politicize the
issue.
"Indian Army has never said it has
entered into Myanmar. What we
would like to say that such things
should never be politicized", party
spokesman Ajay Maken told
reporters.
A sharp reaction, meanwhile,
came from Pakistan, with Interior
Minister Chaudhry Nisar saying
India should not mistake the country
for Myanmar.
"Pakistan Army is fully capable of
responding to any adventurism,"
said Nisar.
Army sources meanwhile said
more such operations may be carried out in future based on intelligence reports.
"More such attacks may take
place if there are intelligence inputs
of a threat (of the kind of attack on
June 4 in Manipur that claimed the
lives of 18 Indian Army soldiers and
injured many more). The forces are
always ready for such operations," a
senior officer told IANS on condition of anonymity as he was not
authorised to speak to the media.

Asked if a similar approach could
be used on the Western border, highly placed officials said the situation
on both sides is different.
"Defence and security strategy is
something that evolves after one
thinks through all the consequences
of action or inaction; hence any premature celebration over the
Myanmar swatting of terror groups
would not only be wrong, but foolish," an official close to the security
establishment told IANS.
According to sources, elements of
21 Para (SF) of the Parachute
Regiment that carried out the strike
did not suffer any losses but caused
"significant casualties" among the
terrorists.
Officially, the army has not
released figures for militants killed
in the attack but these are estimated
to be between 15 and 25.
Sources said the camps that were
attacked were a few kilometers
inside Myanmar border, but refused
to name the exact location.
The paratroopers were flown to
the target in the indigenous Dhruv
advanced light helicopters.
Search for missing Coast 'India can do a Myanmar elsewhere too'

Guard plane continues
Chennai: The intensive
search for an Indian
Coast Guard Dornier
aircraft that went missing near Karaikal in
Puducherry continued
for the third day on
Thursday with no signs
of the wreckage, an
official said.
There was no information on the aircraft
and the three-member
crew missing since
Monday night, a Coast Guard
official said.
He said a naval submarine
was also deployed in the search
operation.
The Coast Guard has sought
the Indian Space Research
Organization's help to locate the
missing aircraft with the help of
its satellites.
The missing aircraft was
Dornier aircraft
deployed for surveillance along

the Tamil Nadu coast and Palk
Bay. It took off from Chennai
airport around 6 p.m. on
Monday for a surveillance sortie
but did not return.
The last known location of the
aircraft, as per Trichy radar, was
off Karaikal in Puducherry,
where it was tracked till 9.23
p.m., 95 nautical miles south of
Chennai.
Kolkata: The Indian Army has sent

out a "strong message" with its
operation against militants along the
India-Myanmar border, and "it can
be other country in the future", its
former chief, General Shankar
Roychowdhury said here.
"We always had the capability, but
this time India has displayed that it
also has the political will," Gen.
Roychowdhury said. "We will strike
if there are provocations from those
who have taken shelter across any
international border," he said.
"If it was Myanmar this time, it
can be other country in the future.
Yes, we have sent out a strong message," the general said.
The strike drew a sharp reaction
from Pakistan, but Roychowdhury
was unperturbed.
"India-Pakistan relations are not
good and whatever tensions are
there, they will continue to exist.
"The situation in Pakistan is not
good and there is no chance of
improvement. So I don't think there
is any need to read much into what
personalities in Pakistan are saying,"
he said.
Nestle moves court against food watchdog nab order

New Delhi: The Indian arm of Swiss foods giant
Nestle has moved the Bombay High Court, seeking a
judicial review of the food safety regulator's order
that had called for the withdrawal of top-selling
Maggi instant noodles over health issues.The company, in a filing with stock exchanges, said it was also
seeking a similar review of a June 6 order passed by
the Food and Drug Administration of Maharashtra.
"At the same time, we are continuing the withdrawal of Maggi products. This action (moving the court)
will not interfere with this (withdrawal) process. We

shall proceed further as per the orders that may be
passed by the Hon'ble Bombay High Court," Nestle
India further added.
Nestle had been ordered to withdraw Maggi by the
food safety regulator after some samples were
allegedly found to contain higher-than-permissible
levels of lead -- a premise that was rejected by the
company, saying its own independent tests suggested
otherwise.
The strike drew a sharp reaction from Pakistan.
Pakistan is not Myanmar,

says Islamabad
Islamabad: Pakistan said that
India should not have any misconceptions about Islamabad
since it is different as compared to
Myanmar, an official statement
said.
The Indian Army struck inside
Myanmar and killed a number of
insurgents believed to be involved
in the killing of 18 Indians soldiers in Manipur on June 4.
Pakistani security forces were
fully capable of responding to foreign aggression and Indian leaders should stop daydreaming,
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar
Ali Khan said in response to
recent statements by Indian politicians, including Indian Prime

Minister Narendra Modi, Dawn
reported.
Prime Minister Modi, during his
official visit to Bangladesh, last
Sunday in Dhaka said the establishment of Bangladesh was a
desire of every Indian citizen and
that was why Indian forces fought
along with the Mukti Bahini, thus
creating a new country.
The interior ministry statement
added that while Indian designs
may have succeeded in the
past, they would not do so in the
future.
INDIA
June 13-19, 2015
11
AAP government gets new law minister, Tomar moves court

New Delhi: A day after Jitender
Singh Tomar resigned as Delhi's
law minister after being arrested
over his alleged fake degree, the
AAP government decided to
induct Kapil Mishra as his successor.
Tomar, remanded to four-day's
police custody after his dramatic
arrest this week, was taken to
Uttar Pradesh to probe how he
secured the law degree that
police say is fake.
However, the former minster
challenged his arrest in a Delhi's
session court.
Tomar was accused of lying in
his election affidavit that he had a
law degree.
Speaking to the media in
Lucknow, Tomar reiterated that
he had done no wrong and was a
victim of "political conspiracy".
Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar

being taken to Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Police said they would probe if

there was a racket of forging
Chandrababu meets Modi, seeks

probe into phone-tapping
New
Delhi:
Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu
Naidu met Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi to demand a
probe into the
alleged tapping of
his phone and that
of his ministers,
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
MPs and MLAs by
N. Chandrababu Naidu with
the Telangana govNarendra Modi.
ernment.
During the hour-long meet- unethical on part of the TRS
ing, Naidu also demanded government to tap our
law and order powers for the phones. I want to ask who has
governor in common capital given them this power," said
Hyderabad to ensure effective a visibly upset Naidu.
The TDP chief turned emoimplementation of the
Andhra
Pradesh tional while answering
queries about his alleged
Reorganisation Act.
Naidu, whose Telugu audio tape and arrest of TDP
Desam Party (TDP) is a part- MLA Revanth Reddy in the
ner in the BJP-led NDA gov- cash-for-vote scam. "Ours is
ernment at the Centre, also a constitutionally elected
met Home Minister Rajnath government. I have equal
Singh, Urban Development rights in Hyderabad. Two
Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, governments have sovereign
Finance Minister Arun Jaitely powers. They have their own
and BJP president Amit Shah. jurisdiction," he said.
Alleging that the TRS lured
He later told reporters that
he sought a detailed probe many TDP and other opposiinto the phone-tapping as it tion MLAs, he wondered if
the anti-defection law does
was a serious issue.
He also demanded that the not apply to the TRS.
He said he also complained
Centre confiscate illegal
equipment being used for tap- to the Centre about attacks on
people from Andhra Pradesh
ping and make servers safe.
Stating that there was a settled in Hyderabad.
Naidu's meeting with Modi
constitutional crisis in the
common capital Hyderabad came a day after the Andhra
due to the attitude of the Pradesh cabinet passed resoTelangana Rashtra Samithi lutions on phone-tapping and
(TRS) government, he hoped on implementation of Section
that the Centre will intervene. 8 of the Andhra Pradesh
"It is totally illegal and Reorganisation Act.
degrees involving Tomar.

Mishra, a legislator from
Karawal Nagar and presently

vice chairman of the Delhi Jal
Board, was named the new law
minster on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
and Deputy Chief Minister
Manish Sisodia proposed
Mishra's name to Lt Governor
Najeeb Jung.
A Kejriwal loyalist, 34-year-old
Mishra holds a masters degree in
social work. He is the son of
Annapurna Mishra, a former BJP
mayor.
Mishra told IANS that "judicial
accountability, strengthening the
judicial system and setting up
fast track courts" would be his
priorities.
"My experience of working
with (former AAP leader)
Prashant Bhushan would help me
in my new job," he added.
Bhushan, a senior advocate,

was expelled from the Aam
Aadmi Party on charges of
revolting against Kejriwal, shortly after the AAP won the
February assembly polls in Delhi.
It was not clear if Mishra would
be given the tourism portfolio
held by Tomar.
Tomar was taken to Dr Ram
Manohar Lohia Avadh University
in Faizabad to know how he got
the degree which the university
says is a fake, police said.
A Delhi Police team brought
Tomar to Lucknow first on board
the AC Express. All of them
boarded the Farakka Express to
go to Faizabad.
The latest trouble for the AAP
comes amid power tussle
between Kejriwal and Lt.
Governor Jung.
Political compulsions force Lalu to accept Nitish

Patna: Political compulsions, not secular values, forced RJD chief Lalu
Prasad to accept JD-U leader Nitish
Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate in the coming Bihar elections,
realizing that this alone could check the
BJP in the politically crucial state.
Lalu Prasad, those close to him say,
realized after the 2014 Lok Sabha election that it was division of anti-BJP
votes that routed his Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) and Nitish Kumar's Janata
Dal-United (JD-U).
This was proved more or less correct
when the RJD and JD-U together
bagged six of the 10 seats in assembly
by-elections after the Lok Sabha battle,
leaving the BJP with just four seats.
That further cemented the ties
between Nitish Kumar and Lalu
Prasad, who for years had been at
each's other throats after once being
together in the erstwhile Janata Dal.
But it wasn't all cosy though. With
assembly elections approaching, Lalu
Prasad -- who has been chief minister
and so has been his wife Rabri Devi -wanted to fight the polls with the JD-U
but wasn't keen on accepting Nitish
Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate.
That is when Samajwadi Party leader
Mulayam Singh Yadav intervened. On
Nitish Kumar with Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Monday, he announced that Lalu

Prasad had accepted that Nitish Kumar
would head the Janata Parivar's charge
in Bihar.
The elections are most likely in
September-October.
For both Lalu Prasad and Nitish
Kumar, defeating the BJP is their priority -- for political survival. Nitish
Kumar has ruled Bihar for about a
decade from November 2005 with a
short break.
"Lalu understands more than anyone
else that a split in anti-BJP votes will
result in his party's defeat again like in

the Lok Sabha polls," JD-U leader
Nihora Prasad told IANS.
"Lalu was forced to accept Nitish as
captain after the Congress and NCP
announced their support for Nitish.
"If Lalu had not changed his stand
over Nitish, his party would have been
left alone to fight for political survival."The RJD and JD-U, fighting separately, garnered nearly 20 and 16 percent votes respectively in the Lok
Sabha election. The Congress got
another eight percent.
Government to release stamp, coins on

International Yoga Day
New Delhi: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj
said that the government will bring out a stamp and coins
of the denomination of Rs.10 and Rs. 100 on International
Yoga Day that will be celebrated on June 21.
"The department of posts is bringing out stamp on the
International Day of Yoga and and at the same time the
finance ministry is bringing out coins of the denomination
of Rs.10 and Rs.100," said Swaraj at a press conference.
The minister said of the 177 countries co-sponsoring the
event, 47 are Islamic countries.
"They have co-sponsored the event and expressed their

desire to participate in the yoga sessions being organised
in the Indian Missions," she said.
According to the AYUSH ministry, over 11 lakh
National Cadet Corps cadres will take part in the
International Yoga Day program while 9 lakh members of
Armed Police Forces will perform in their respective field
units.
There would be live telecast and webcast of the event
from the venue.
12
OP-ED
June 13-19, 2015
Why Israel matters to India and Modi

By Chaitanya Mallapur
hen Narendra Modi travels to Israel
sometime later this year, he will be
the first Indian prime minister to
visit, formalizing a relationship often conducted behind closed doors, through clandestine
meetings and secret agreements.
The announcement is already generating
heat, with some criticizing it, others urging
caution with one commentator suggesting a
counter-balancing visit to Israeli arch-enemy
Iran and some seeing it as an inevitable
corollary to the convergence of the ideologies
of Hindutva and Likud, a political movement
(rooted in the free market and Jewish culture)
that coalesced into a political party.
While India recognized Israel on September
17, 1950 a year after it voted against UN
membership for the Jewish state full diplomatic ties were established only in 1992, the
reticence flowing from Indias traditional
backing for the Palestinian cause.
Since then, in the public eye, relationships
have been defined by defense deals and the
38,000 mostly young Israelis who visit India
each year to de-stress after their compulsory
two-three years of military service. The traffic
isnt all one-way though, more than 40,000
Indians visited Israel in 2013, the largest number of tourists from an Asian country.
Business and technological ties are also
growing, and India and Israel recently agreed
Narendra Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel.
to set up a $40 million India-Israel cooperation fund to promote joint scientific and technological collaborations.
Here are five things that define the IndiaIsrael relationship today:
1. Defence. There is no getting away from
the defense relationship. Israel is Indias fifthlargest source of arms, with imports worth
$0.21 billion in 2013-14 and $10 billion over
the past decade.
2. Diplomacy. Several ministerial and highlevel official visits to Israel precede Modis
forthcoming tour. These include visits by then
home minister L.K Advani in 2000 and Home
Minister Rajnath Singh in November 2014.
Both countries have signed several bilateral
agreements since 1992, which include cooperation in agriculture, research and development, economy and industry and security.
3. Agriculture. This has been an important
facet in the Indo-Israel relationship. India has

benefited from Israels expertise in the sector,
evident from the number of bilateral agreements signed between the two nations.
While Indian agriculture is largely dependent on rain and an erratic monsoon, Israel, a a
global leader in drip irrigation, has pioneered
desert agriculture with sparse supplies of
water.
Nearly 10 India-Israel centres of excellence
for cooperation in agriculture have been setup so far,of the 30 expected by 2015.
4. Water Management. Technologically
adept Israel has developed water-management
technologies, located as it is in a semi-arid
region with limited sources of fresh drinking
water.
Israels expertise includes recycling waste
water and desalination. Indian companies and
official delegations regularly visit the biannual
Water Technology & Environment Control
Exhibition & Conference, which showcases
Israels water and energy technologies.
5.Trade. Indias total trade with Israel is
$6.06 billion in 2013-14, up 57 percent over
2009-10. The trade balance stood in Indias
favour at $1.44 billion in 2013-14.
Mineral fuels and oils are Indias leading
export to Israel worth $1.45 billion in
2013-14.
Israel ranks 44th in terms of foreign direct
investment in India, puting in $82 million
between April 2000 and February 2015.
'Fear not, prompt action can weather weak monsoon'

By Arvind Padmanabhan
and Avishek Rakshit
ith monsoon accounting
for 75 percent of India's
rains and over half of the
farm sector's water needs, forecast
of a 12-percent deficit this year with
near 100-percent probability
demands urgent planning and measures to cushion its fall-out, analysts
said.
It was not without reason
President Pranab Mukherjee called
monsoon the real finance minister
of India when he held the portfolio.
The farm sector's direct contribution
to gross domestic product may have
declined now to around 15 percent.
But its overall impact on the economy is telling.
Little wonder the central bank
lowered its growth forecast to 7.6
percent from 7.8 percent, and that
too based on the previous monsoon
outlook
of
the
Indian
Meteorological Department (IMD)
that had predicted 7 percent shortfall -- which has now been scaled up
to a 12-percent shortfall.
"If the rains are poor, obviously
there will be a shortfall in farm
yield and result in prices mounting.
This will result in consumers spending more on food. This, in turn, will
pull down the spend on other commodities," said Abhirup Sarkar, an
economist with Indian Statistical
What comes as added worry is industry is yet to stage a full recovery from the woes since 2008.
Institute in Kolkata.
"Let us not forget this could be a
the second continuous year of
scanty rains. As a result even those
states, like Punjab, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh, which have a good
irrigation system, can face the
brunt," Sarkar said. "Reservoirs
need rains to fill up and facilitate
irrigation."
Another noted economist,
Dipankar Dasgupta, feared that
while the incomes of middlemen in

the farm economy will rise substantially, farmers will be under further
stress. "In fact hoarding of agro produce has already started in anticipation of supply-side shortages,"
Dasgupta said.
This apart, as per the agriculture
ministry's latest advance estimate
for the 2014-15 season (July-June),
grain production in the country is
forecast at 251.12 million tonnes --
nearly 14 million tonnes lower than

the previous year's record production of 265.04 million tonnes.
This is also because unseasonal
rain in the early months of this year
hit the rabi crop for which sowing
begins in November and the crop,
especially wheat, is harvested in
April-May. Now, deficit rains also
raise the fears over the kharif crop,
with sowing due in June.
It's not that the government hasn't
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
been pre-warned. But it feels the

worries are misplaced.
"What is clear is contingency
plans for food management, including storage of adequate quantity of
seeds and fertilizers, crop insurance,
credit and timely release of stocks
need to be in place to manage the
impact of low output on inflation,"
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram
Rajan said.
The government's response: "If
there are poor rains, there will obviously be some losses in the agriculture sector."
"But we have the confidence and
policies in place to ensure there is
minimum damage," Agriculture
Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has
also
exuded
confidence.
Responding to queries over the
steep fall in market indices and possible pull-out by foreign funds, he
said: "I don't think they (foreign
funds) have lost interest in India.
The economy is improving and
there is more stability than before."
But what worries economists is
that the government can only calm
the prices of rice and wheat, using
stocks in its coffers. It has little control over other commodities like
pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.
What comes as added worry is
industry is yet to stage a full recovery from the woes since 2008.
OP-ED
June 13-19, 2015
13
Will the Indian tiger catch the Chinese dragon?

By Amit Kapoor
or all the hype that was recently created in the mainstream media over the Indian economy "overtaking"
the Chinese economy in growth terms, this article
offers a contrarian perspective.
It is true that Indias growth rate is projected to surpass
the Chinese growth rate for the year 2015 (by IMF).
However, the fact remains that Chinese growth rate has
consistently outperformed India in the past 30 years. That
means China is already far ahead of India in absolute value
terms. An astounding gap of approximately $7.3 trillion is
there between the two economies as of 2013 as per World
Bank figures. Put another way, it means that the Chinese
economy in 2013 was already roughly five times bigger
than the Indian economy in current dollar terms. A brief
look at the growth history is pertinent. Chinese leaders,
most specifically, Deng Xiaoping, initiated reforms in 1978
under the responsibility system that made farmers a kind
of entrepreneurs. These, along with several other reforms
such as birth control, modernization and a more open
approach to trade with the US and Japan led to the Chinese
economy becoming export competitive. The 1990s and
2000s saw a greater role for entrepreneurs, Chinese stateowned enterprises as well as a greater integration of China
into the world economy.
India under P.V. Narasimha Rao initiated reforms in 1991
primarily due to a balance of payment crises. Some describe
these reforms as reforms by stealth rather than by choice.
Several sectors saw capital infusion and growth amid policy
changes. Prominent among these were the automobile, telecom, pharmaceuticals, IT and banking sectors. India saw
India will have to wait until 2073 (another 58 years)

to overtake the Chinese economy in
current value terms.
the rise of a new and aspirational middle class during the

period of increasing affluence and a break away from the
license-permit raj.
However, when comparing India and China since the
1980s, the Chinese growth has been astounding (average
growth rate close to 10 percent). It is due to greater integration with the world economy both in terms of trade as well
as in terms of FDI inflows. On an average, from 1982-2013,
the FDI inflows into China were more than eight times that
into India. Similarly, the merchandise trade was five times
that of India during the commensurate period.
A look at the sectoral contributions and their change over
time also helps in understanding the transformation that has
taken place in these economies and what can be expected in
the future. While China saw broad-based growth post its
reforms, the Indian growth story is seen to be restricted to
very select sectors of industry and broadly, service sectors.
The speed of change too is a defining feature of the Chinese

economy.
The contribution of Chinas manufacturing sectors as a
percentage of GDP mildly went down from 37 percent in
1983 to 31 percent in 2013. In India, the percentage contribution remained more or less stable at 16 percent. However
in absolute (current value) terms the Chinese manufacturing
grew over 35 times while the Indian one grew only nine
times since 1983.
In the services domain, the percentage contribution doubled from 23 percent in 1983 to 46 percent in 2014, while in
India it increased from 41 percent in 1983 to 51 percent in
2013. In absolute (current value) terms, China's services
sector grew an astounding 83 times since 1983 while the
Indian services grew 11 times.
The agricultural contribution in both the economies went
down from roughly 33 percent in 1983 to 10 percent in
China and to 18 percent in India. In absolute terms, the
Chinese agriculture sector grew 12 times while Indias grew
just five times. This shows that China has outperformed
India in each of the sectors in the past 30 years. Also,
Indias contribution to world GDP is at present (2013) is a
just below 2.5 percent, which is miniscule. The advantage
that China has built over the past 30 years cannot be easily
negated. The catch-up thus seems highly unlikely.
To close this gap in the future, the Indian economy will
have to outperform China's in a significant manner. Just to
understand, it was assumed that the Indian economy grows
from 2017 at 8 percent and the Chinese economy decelerates to just 5 percent by 2017. Even in such an unlikely scenario, India will have to wait until 2073 (another 58 years)
to overtake the Chinese economy in current value terms.
14
OP-ED
June 13-19, 2015
Manufactured Sovereignty in South China Sea:
Sino-American confrontation heats up

By B. Ramesh Babu
hina created a 2,000 acre island in the
disputed Spartly Islands. It was an
audacious reclamation operation of
dredging sand on a gigantic scale to manufacture an artificial island located in what is
aptly called Mischief Reef. Reclaiming land
from the sea is not necessarily a violation of
international law when it is done within the
territorial limits of a country. Nariman Point
off South Bombay is a vast land mass
reclaimed from the Arabian Sea housing
offices, skyscrapers, theaters and posh apartments. But, the massive engineering marvel
of China built is in the midst of an archipelago with a long legacy of territorial and jurisdictional disputes among several countries in
the Asia-Pacific region. These have been dormant till recently. Overlapping claims of at
least five other countries, namely Vietnam,
Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, and Taiwan,
make this part of the South China Sea a
hotbed of irreconcilable conflicts. Aggressive
expansionism of China in recent decades and
the latest frenzy of literally manufacturing
islands are upsetting the postwar balance of
power in Asia-Pacific.
However, it is pertinent to add that China is
not alone in reclaiming land from the seas in
the region. Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia,
and Vietnam have similar reclamation and
military construction projects underway in
their claim areas in the Spartly Islands. In
2008, Taiwan announced the completion of a
new 3,900 foot air strip in Itu Aba Island that
could support military aircraft. To prove it,
the President of the country landed a C-130
transport plane on the island in the same year.
Vietnam has been expanding its holdings on
Sandy Cay and West London Reef, just 7
miles east of Itu Aba Island. In 2014,
Philippines announced an allocation of $11
million to upgrade the 4,200 foot runway and
navy port facilities in the Spartly Islands.
Diplomatic and Strategic Background
After blatantly announcing its sovereignty
over the South China Sea, China began to
press each of her neighbours in South East
Asia to settle their jurisdictional disputes
bilaterally. The idea was to forestall the
ASEAN nations from ganging up against her.
Sensing the dangers inherent in Chinas tactics and the dragons expanded militarization
activities, the ASEAN countries signed a
non-binding agreement in 2002 to exercise
restraint and refrain from occupying any features that were uninhabited. The signatories
included China. Subsequently, there was relative quiet on this front for some time.
However, soon after President Xi assumed
power in 2009, the dredging operations in
Mischief Reef and elsewhere in the Spartly
Islands were scaled up on a gigantic scale. By
2011 the Chinese intentions and designs to
create an artificial strategic staging post in
the South China Sea for its navy and air force
became obvious. At that stage, the ASEAN
nations including China adopted a unanimous
resolution on a Common Code of Conduct on
the territorial and jurisdictional disputes in
the region. But, China defied it even before
China has created a 2,000 acre island in the disputed Spartly Islands in South
China Sea. America is scrambling for a policy to contain China.
the ink was dry on the resolution.

Chinas aggressive rise and its determined
bid to control nearby seas, the preposterous
mine dash claim line enveloping 90% of
the South China Sea, and the raking up of
the long dormant territorial and jurisdictional
disputes with all her neighbours in South
East and East Asia rang alarm bells in AsiaPacific and beyond. Japan responded by disavowing the postwar constitutional shackles
of self-defense imposed on her. Under Prime
Minister Abes leadership, the country
launched a proactive role in the region.
Japan empowered itself to deploy its armed
forces in Asia-Pacific to counter China. The
tug of war between China and Japan over
Senkaku/Diaoyu islands is a part of the much
larger battle over the shifting power balance
in Asia. Under Abes brave policy dubbed as
proactive pacifism, Japans strong and
powerful Maritime Self Defense Force
(MSDF) chases away the Chinese aircraft
intruding over the islands on a daily basis. In
April 2015, US-Japan defense alliance was
renewed for ten years during Abes State visit
to the US. After signing the Treaty, President
Obama declared that the US-Japan defense
treaty is no threat to China. In fact he insisted
that China benefited immensely from
American presence in the region. He made it
a point to add that China was bullying
smaller nations to accept its sovereignty over
disputed islands in the South China Sea.
The Show-Down Heats Up
In 2013, China unilaterally declared an air
defense identification zone over much of the
South China Sea including the islands controlled by Japan. As per the declaration all
airplanes (military or commercial) flying
over the zone should identify themselves to
the Chinese authorities in advance. Japan is
an alliance partner of the US and the
Americans responded by flying two B-52
bombers through the zone in defiance. China
opted to be prudent and not escalate it into an
active conflict with the US, a far superior
military power.
As the manufactured island gets ready to

equip itself with docking bays for the navy,
air strips for military jets, lighthouse towers,
and other strategic facilities are built, China
escalated its stridency. On 31 May 2015,
Chinas top diplomat declared that if the
dredging is obstructed or the island is endangered in any way there will be war. He
was addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue of
the International Institute for Strategic
Studies, Singapore, which is an annual gathering of security officials of all major countries in Asia. Chinas Foreign Minister Wang
Yi declared that her countrys claims over the
South China Sea were unshakable.
In the third week of May 2015, American
P-8A Poseidon aircraft flew near the Chinese
construction site in Mischief Reef. The
Chinese navy asked the plane to leave and
repeated the warning eight times. Each time
the American pilot responded by asserting
that the aircraft was flying over international
air space.
Chinese termed the flight a potential threat
to the security of the Chinese island and
reef. Similar threats were issued to the
Philippines aircraft too. A few days later,
China issued a document outlining the countrys future strategy. The Chinese navy would
expand its focus from off shore waters
defense to a greater emphasis on open seas
protection. Chinese Air Force would shift its
focus from territorial air defense to both
defense and offense, the statement declared.
Patrick Cronin, Director of the Asia-Pacific
Security Program at the Center for New
American Security, called the policy statement a blue print for achieving slow-motion
regional hegemony. The policy document
asserts a confidence backed by growing
capability on land and increasingly at sea,
he added.
As an integral part of the long-term strategy of emerging as a global super power capable of challenging Americas global hegemony, China recently ended its policy of maintaining minimal nuclear force. The country
re-engineered many of its long-range missiles

to carry multiple warheads. Such a technology of making the missiles more potent and
capable of penetrating through the enemys
anti-missile defense shield called Multiple
Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles
(MIRVs) was launched by President Xi
around the same time as building the air
fields and submarine docking facilities in the
disputed Spartly Islands. China declined to
discuss the issue of MIRVs with the US.
Chinese were always fearful of Americas
nuclear advantage, estimated to be 8 to 1 at
the present.
By June 3, the US decided to send a contingent of ships into the international waters
close to the dredged and reclaimed islands.
China termed such measures and harsh
American criticism as a military threat and
pointedly asked, Do these measures help to
resolve the dispute in the South China Sea
and maintain peace and stability?
On the US side security experts are convinced that such measures will not halt the
Chinese operations. Sending American ships
into these waters, at the most, is a strong signal to the Chinese leadership and a reassurance to Americas allies regarding the
nations commitment to peace, security, and
freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific
region. It seems that both sides will live with
the uneasy stalemate for the immediate
future.
What is Indias response to the growing
threat of protracted confrontation between
China and the US in the Asia-Pacific? Even
as China continues to repeat its shrill claims
over Arunachal Pradesh, in recent months
President Xi responded positively on the economic front, called for trilateral cooperation
among China, India and Sri Lanka in the
island nation, and invited India to join her
and Russia in a trilateral partnership against
the global hegemony of the US. Is all this a
signal of sorts to India? Is China seeking
peace and stability on the Himalayan front,
even as it focuses attention on its designs in
the South China Sea and East Asia? Should
India stay aside as the dragon swings its
claws in South China Sea and East Asia?
India should not trust the dragon even for a
moment. Modi should continue with the double edged China policy --co-operation on the
economic front and containment on the
strategic front. Will the US and her allies
around the world muster up the courage and
dexterity needed to tackle the complex task?
As of now neither the US nor China want to
escalate the uneasy confrontation any further.
President Xi will bide his time before challenging Americas hegemony in Asia-Pacific
and beyond. One need not be a rocket scientist to foresee that grappling with the aggressive rise of China will be the most daunting
challenge Obamas immediate successor will
be confronted with.
Dr. B.Ramesh Babu is a specialist in
International Relations and American
Politics & Public Affairs. He is a Visiting
Professor, Dept of Political Science,
University of Hyderabad.
ART & CULTURE
By SATimes Team
The myriad events planned for
the first International Day of
Yoga are not just confined to
yoga, some are also going to
showcase Indian classical arts such as
dance. Nritya Saagaram Dance
Academy founded by Satya Pradeep is
to present a Classical Thematic Dance
Ballet titled Stree (meaning Woman)
at the Hindu Temple Auditorium in
Flushing, NY on June 21.
The 2 hr 15 min show deals with
the different roles played by a
Dancer, teacher and
choreographer Satya
Pradeep is presenting
Stree, a thematic dance
portrayal of the many
faces of woman as seen in
Indian mythology.
June 13-19, 2015
15
Woman-themed dance
ballet at Ganesh
temple on Yoga Day
woman (as sister, mother, wife and the
Divine Mother) and is in Bharatanatyam
and Kuchipudi styles.
Stories from the Indian mythology have
been taken and set to music. We have
been working on this project for more
than 7 months with my 30 students, said
Satya Pradeep.
The Ganesh temple in Flushing will be
a beehive of activity with Yoga Day
themed programs from morning till 3 pm,
when Bowne Street will be cordoned off.
Stree is scheduled to start at 4 pm.
Part of the proceeds of the event will go
to Domestic Harmony Foundation, a
community organization based in Long
Island committed to promoting peace,
safety and harmony in families by provid-
ing support and guidance for South Asian,

Middle Eastern and Muslim women who
seek relief from domestic violence and
other human rights violations.
Satya Pradeep is a dancer, teacher and
choreographer in the Classical Indian
dance forms of Bharatanatyam and
Kuchipudi.
She has given many solo and group performances in the USA and in India. She
established her dance school, Nritya
Saagaram (meaning: dance is an ocean of
learning) in Syosset, Long Island in 1993
to keep the Indian culture alive through
these dance forms. She uses dance as a
medium of expression to raise cultural
awareness in the community. Her web site
is www.satyapradeep.com.
Indian American's digital art explores police gunbattle deaths in US

n Indian-American digital artist and
educator has produced an interactive multimedia installation to
explore the issue of killings in police gun
battles in the US resulting in at least two
deaths every day, according to media estimates.
The "Hands Up" digital exhibit is about
"generating empathy", said Roopa
Vasudevan, who created it with fellow
Pakistani American artist Atif Ateeq.
"Obviously, there is no way to fully
understand what a confrontation like this is
like unless it happens to you," Vasudevan
said. "We hoped to allow our visitors to get
a degree of understanding of how charged
and emotional the situation actually is."
"Hands Up" simulates the high-adrenaline gun battle situation in a cacophony of
shouts, commands and sirens in a dark scenario ripped by sudden flashes of blue,
white and red police car beacons, invoking
a sense of dread and foreboding.
As the intimidating voice of the law
orders "Hands up," and a visitor responds,
bursts of light simulate gunfire and sounds
of explosion ricochet. The viewers are
plunged into the virtual reality of split second decisions that become the arbiters of
death and life.
It was on display recently at Flux Factory,
a community of artists in New York City's
Queens borough, an area that is home to a
large number of South Asians.
Asked if she saw police brutality as an
issue for Asians and Indians in the US,
Vasudevan said: "Absolutely."
"This is an issue of imbalance of power,"
she explained. "Obviously, most of the
focus in the media recently has been on
interactions with African American men,
"Hands Up," an interactive digital video project by Roopa Vasudevan and Atif
Ateeq in New York, sparks discussion of encounter killings of minorities in the
United States, where two people die every day in police shootings, according
to a media analysis. (Photo: Humai Mustafa)
but it's worth noting that this speaks to a

larger story of how minorities are looked at
and treated in this country."
In February a visitor from India,
Sureshbhai Patel, was left partially paralyzed after being roughed up by police in
Alabama, although he was not shot.
Last February, an Indian American who
had served in the US Army in Iraq returned
home to California only to be shot dead by
police. Police claimed that Parminder
Singh Shergill had charged at them with a
knife, but eyewitnesses asserted that he was
unarmed.
The Washington Post reported recently
that its analysis found that 385 people have
been killed in police shootings so far this

year till the end of May - or more than two
every day.
A disproportionate number of those killed
were minorities. Among the unarmed victims, two-thirds were African Americans or
Latinos, the newspaper said. When adjusted
for proportions in the population in the
areas of shootings, African Americans were
three times as likely to be killed as other
ethnic or racial groups, its analysis found.
Vasudevan said that after grand juries
refused last year to indict the white police
officers involved in two separate incidents the choking death of an unarmed man, Eric
Garner, in New York, and shooting death of
a teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson,

Missouri - she and Ateeq wanted to see
"how we could productively contribute to
the conversation and movement for
change."
"As artists, both of us strongly felt that
generating empathy for someone placed in
the situation of being confronted by the
police was key to the path to understanding, and that the best way to do that was by
creating a large, immersive art piece," she
said.
Facing mounting criticism over police
conduct, Pat Lynch, the head of NYCs
police union, denounced the exhibit, saying
"it perpetuates a falsehood about police
officers and their use of force".
The atmosphere of chaos and tension created in the exhibit, however, also illustrates
the conditions that police operate under.
Vasudevan, denying it was anti-police,
said: "It's not such a cut and dry thing, soand-so was right and so-and-so was wrong.
There's a lot happening in the moment. It's
our hope that our work can add to the discussion of what can be done to change
things."
Vasudevan has been a director for MTV's
Emmy award-winning series, "True Life,"
and her digital work has been featured by
the American Museum of Natural History,
National 9/11 Museum, and The New York
Times. She also teaches at Fordham and
New York universities.
Asked about artists of Indian and
Pakistani descent working together, she
said: "The piece was more about being a
minority in the United States than anything
else. We didn't necessarily keep the
specifics of our backgrounds in mind when
collaborating."
16
16TH IIFA AWARDS 2015
June 13-19, 2015
IIFA brings Bollywood fans, stars closer in Malaysia
Actor Anushka Sharma performs during the

International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.
t was high on star power, Bollywood
business and interactive sessions with
global fans. The 16th edition of
International Indian Film Academy (IIFA)
Weekend and Awards in Kuala Lumpur saw
a galaxy of stars regaling their umpteen fans
in the Malaysian capital.
With names like Hrithik Roshan, Anil
Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Priyanka
Chopra in attendance, the gala attracted
many star-struck admirers from across the
globe.
"It just gets better each year. It's a vast
project with budget between $10 million
and $25 million," Viraf Sarkari, director,
'Queen'
wins top
honors at
IIFA
ikas Bahl's directorial
"Queen", a coming-of-age
story of a woman's selfdiscovery, bagged awards in the
Best Picture, Best Story and Best
Performance in a Leading Role Female categories at the three-day
long 16th edition of the
International Indian Film
Academy (IIFA) Weekend and
Awards.
The Kangana Ranaut-starrer
was up against "2 States", "PK",
"Haider", "Highway" and "Mary
Kom" for the Best Picture trophy.
The actress didn't turn up to
collect her trophy for Best
Performance in a Leading Role -
Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt

Ltd, which promotes IIFA Weekend and
Awards globally each year, said.
After traveling to locations like London,
Dubai, Macau, Toronto, Singapore and
Tampa Bay, the IIFA extravaganza came
back to Malaysia for the second time for its
16th edition, and the organizers were not
disappointed at all.
"The Putra Indoor Stadium (venue of the
awards ceremony, which was held on
Sunday) can accommodate over 8,000 people and all the tickets were sold out," said
Sarkari.
Established in 2000, the gala was held at
Actor Hrithik Roshan performing during the IIFA Awards ceremony.

Genting Highlands Resort, Malaysia, in
2002. The edition was hailed by many
Bollywood fans, who consider the three-day
gala to be perfect platform to meet their
idols.
"Indian cinema is getting popular day by
day. The fans hardly get a chance to meet
the stars and the stars also nd it difcult to
connect with their global fans like this. IIFA
is the perfect platform to bring them close
to each other," he said.
The fans got a chance to catch Hrithik live
in action at Pavilion mall, where he interacted with his fans and performed impromptu
as well.
Actress Parineeti Chopra performs during the International Indian Film

Academy (IIFA) Awards 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.
Female, so the film's director

received the award on her behalf.
Bahl, however, lost the award
in the Direction category to
Rajkumar Hirani, who took home
the trophy for "PK".
In the Leading Role - Male
category, Shahid Kapoor, who
also performed at the award ceremony, hosted by Ranveer Singh
and Arjun Kapoor, walked home
with the award for his performance in "Haider".
He had strong contenders in
Aamir Khan ("PK"), Hrithik
Roshan ("Bang Bang!"), and Shah
Rukh Khan ("Happy New Year").
Hrithik might have lost the
award to Shahid, but his "Bang

Bang!" act with a bhangra twist
won hearts of many, including
Deepika Padukone, who was
felicitated with Woman of the
Year award.
She was also nominated in the
Best Performance in a Leading
Role - Female.
Riteish Deshmukh grabbed the
award for Best Performance in a
Supporting Role - Male for his
villainous act in "Ek Villain"
against compoetiution from Ronit
Roy ("2 States"), Randeep Hooda
("Kick"),
Inaamulhaq
("Filmistaan"), Naseeruddin Shah
("Finding Fanny") and Kay Kay
Before the special screening of the multi starrer movie "Dil Dhadakne Do ", fans also
got to shake hands, click seles and take
autographs from their favourite celebrities
like the movie's stars Priyanka, Anil, Farhan
Akhtar and Anushka Sharma.
There was a business forum too where
there were discussions on lm tourism.
There was also a dose of fashion at the
Fashion Extravaganza, hosted by actors
Vivek Oberoi and Neha Dhupia. It saw
quirky designs by Masaba Gupta, who presented a line inspired by the IIFA trophy.
All in all, the IIFA edition was as glitzy as
it could get.
Actress Shraddha Kapoor performs during the

International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards.
Menon ("Haider"). But Kay Kay

wasn't left disappointed as he
received the award for Best
Performance in a Negative Role
for "Haider", while his co-star
Tabu won Best Performance in a
Supporting Role - Female.
There was also an award for
Best Regional Film, which went
to Riteish-starrer Marathi film
"Lai Bhaari", co-produced by his
star wife Genelia Deshmukh.
"Main Tera Hero" star Varun
Dhawan won an award for the
Best Performance in a Comic
Role. The film's director and his
father David Dhawan received the
sun-inspired trophy on his behalf.
The Best Music Direction trophy went to the popular trio

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for "2
States". Other contenders included
Mithoon
("Banjara",
"Zaroorat" and "Hamdard") and
Ankit Tiwari ("Galliyan"), for
which he won Best Playback
Singer - Male.
In the female category of the
award, the "Baby doll" singer
Kanika Kapoor (for the film
"Ragini MMS 2") got over competition from Sultana and Jyoti
Nooran for "Patakha guddi
("Highway") and Shreya Ghoshal
for "Samjhawan" ("Humpty
Sharma Ki Dulhania").
ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD
June 13-19, 2015
17
Bollywood glitz attracts global fans to IIFA

By Natalia Ningthoujam
e it from Kenya, Bangladesh or
India, die-hard fans of Bollywood
stars like Anil Kapoor, Hrithik
Roshan and Priyanka Chopra flew from
their home countries just to get a glimpse of
their favorite celebrities for the 16th edition
of International Indian Film Academy
(IIFA) Weekend and Awards in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
With a bag on his back and curiosity in his
eyes, 24-year-old Alamin from Bangladesh
stood at the heavily-guarded lobby of JW
Marriott here wondering which Bollywood
star will greet fans.
"I love Bollywood. The stories are very
good. I love Salman Khan, SRK (Shah Rukh
Khan), Priyanka Chopra and Sonakshi
Sinha," said the fan, who is a student of risk
management. Like the other admirers, he
was happy to be able to click a selfie with
Shahid
Kapoor to
tie knot in
Delhi next
month
hahid Kapoors fans were under
the impression that his wedding
to Mira Rajput would take place
in Greece in June. However, a source
has told a Mumbai tabloid that the wedding will be in Delhi, in July.
"Shahid is definitely getting married
Priyanka
Chopra
leaves to
attend IIFA.
stars like Hrithik Roshan and Kriti Sanon.

"I've already uploaded photographs on
Facebook," Alamin said.
"We have been married for 26 years and
watch Bollywood films together. Bollywood
shows reality... What's happening in the
society, unlike Hollywood. So, we love
Bollywood," said Shafique, who has a "passion to meet celebrities".
Graced by stars like Arjun Kapoor,
Sonakshi, Priyanka and Anil, IIFA is giving
a chance to several such fans to meet the
stars. "I have traveled from Hyderabad to
meet the stars. I know I'm from India, but
you don't easily get to meet them. IIFA lets
audiences in," said Nandita, 24, who is here
with her family. Another Indian, New Delhibased Neeru Aggarwal, 53, agreed with
Nandita, and said: "A lot of events take
place in Delhi, but it's not possible to meet
celebrities. IIFA, on the other hand, is open
to the public."
Bollywood celebrities during the inauguration of the 16th edition of

International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend and
Awards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Indian cinema going through

golden period under Modi: Kher
nupam Kher is all praise for Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and "his colleagues".
The actor believes
Indian cinema is doing well
under his governance.
Speaking at the FICCIIIFA Global Business Forum
at the three-day International
Indian Film Academy (IIFA)
Weekend and Awards,
Anupam said that the Indian
film industry is flourishing.
"Indian cinema is going
through golden period under
PM Modi. It's flourishing. I
have great faith in him and his colleagues, including my
wife (BJP MP Kirron Kher), " Anupam said. The actor,
who has done over 450 films in 31 years, believes that
Indian movies have managed to make "people happy
worldwide"."This is one job in which everyone puts life
into it, including a lightboy. They have nothing to do
with the film's profit, still they put blood and sweat into
it," said the "Saaransh" actor.
Shahid Kapoor with Mira Rajput
in July. Weve all been asked to be

free that time," the source said.
Earlier, on March 26 actor Shahid
Kapoor had confirmed that marriage, to
Delhi-girl Mira, was "on the cards
sometime towards the end of the year."
"She is a normal girl and I am a normal guy, and we should treat it like
something normal and regular. Its my
personal space and I wont get into the
details. Im just happy to announce it,"
he is one of the most soughtafter Bollywood actresses

today, but Priyanka Chopra
says her "conservative Punjabi family" was not excited when she entered
the film industry over a decade back.
The 32-year-old shared that her
family initially resisted.
"I come from a conservative
Punjabi family. There was a lot of
resistance when I joined the industry.
But later my parents gave me wings
and let me do what I wanted to,"
Priyanka said after the screening of
"Dil Dhadakne Do" at the
International Indian Film Academy
(IIFA) Weekend and Awards.
She also shared that her onscreen
character Ayesha in "Dil Dhadakne
Do" represents most women in India.
"Girls are put in a box ... no matter
what you are or what you want, " she
said about her character, who doesn't
vocally give her opinion much.
Parents S
resisted
when I
joined
filmdom:
Priyanka
Shahid added. Mira is currently pursuing her graduation degree and has completed her schooling from Vasant
Valley School. Apparently, Shahid met
Mira through the religious group Radha
Soami Satsang Beas.
From Bali to Greece, rumors about
the wedding destination were doing the
rounds ever since the 34-year old actor
confirmed the marriage, which is said
to be an arranged one.
Hrithik launches sister's book on father at IIFA

ctor Hrithik Roshan unveiled his
sister Sunaina Roshan's book "To
Dad with Love", based on their
star father Rakesh Roshan's journey, at
the 16th edition of International Indian
Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend and
Awards.
Hrithik, looking dapper in a pair of
shades and a monochrome outfit with a
few top black buttons open, launched the
book on an international platform for the
first time. "I am happy and proud to be
here. Not everyone gets a chance to talk Hrithik Roshan at book
about how much a brother loves his sis- signing session at IIFA.
ter, on an international platform," Hrithik
told reporters. "The book is about my father's incredible journey. His life
will inspire me till the day I die. He has shot in places with extreme climate and has experienced tragedies," added the actor, who has penned
the foreword of the book. Rakesh Roshan, who has acted in multiple
films like "Khatta Meetha" and "Khoobsurat", is known for directing
films like "Khoon Bhari Maang", "Karan Arjun", Kaho Naaa Pyaar Hai"
and the "Krrish" franchise.
18
YOGA
June 13-19, 2015
By Parveen Chopra
hough spelt yoga in
English, the HindiSanskrit pronunciation is
yog. Every schoolboy in India
knows the meaning of yog as to
add. But here we are talking about the meaning of yoga as
"to join" or "to unite" from the root yuj.
Although yoga as philosophy and system was codified by
Sage Patanjali around 200 BC, it is much older, its references
are found in Vedic literature.
To understand the spiritual dimension of yoga, here we will
confine ourselves to the definition of yoga by Patanjali himself and two widely known and quoted fragments of verses in
Bhagavad Gita.
First Patanjali. In the very second of his 192 sutras, he says,
success and failure. This is Karma Yoga philosophy that leads

to equilibrium or equanimity of mind. When all our actions
are performed while dwelling in Divine in this manner, we
truly start living the Work is Worship philosophy. One common misinterpretation of this verse is: never desire the fruits
of action. It is wrong because results are inevitable. Action
begets reaction. It is the worrying about the desired results
that causes anxiety.
Yoga again is central to this statement of Gita.
(Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah).

It means, yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the
mind or thought impulses. In other words, you are doing yoga
in order to achieve a stillness and clarity of mind. But many
meditators take it to mean consciously and forcefully trying
to stop thoughts. That is difficult to achieve. What does work
is creating the right conditions allowing the mind to settle
down. In Indian spirituality mind is often compared to a monkey, difficult to control. But lead the monkey to a bunch of
bananas, and it will settle down. So it is with the mind. Lead
it with meditation towards the source of happiness within
(the Kingdom of God is within you, said Jesus), and it gravitates towards that and thoughts subside, eventually leading to
In Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to perform action

established in yoga, because then action will
be skilful, leading to success.
the yogic state of samadhi.

In a later sutra, Patanjali also lists five things that cause klesha or obstacles in achieving a state of yoga. These are: ignorance, I-ness, desire, aversion and attachment. And he suggests ways to be rid of them.
Now Gita.
In this verse, Lord Krishna is advising Arjuna to perform

action while established in yoga, or dwelling in union with
the Divine, and at the same time renouncing all attachments.
He is advising Arjuna to remain in a state of equipoise in both
(Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam).

It simply means, yoga is skill in action. Even the reverse
may be true. Skill in action is yoga.
The full verse ending in Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam says:
One who is equipped with equanimity in this life discards
both merit and sin. Therefore remain established in yoga;
yoga results in perfect action.
This is where Krishna starts addressing Arjunas inaction almost a catatonic state. The warrior prince is bedeviled by
doubts arising from concerns about fighting and slaying his
uncles and cousins.
Krishna argues that if one performs svadharma with equanimity, one doesn't have to constantly ponder whether an
action will beget merit or sin. We begin to detach ourselves
from the results or fruits of our actions, we will also not get
attached to merit and sin.
Interestingly, Indian philosophy for long was considered
renunciatory and escapist, for which partly to blame was this
simplistic understanding of Gita: Karam karo phal ki ichcha
mat karo. Imagine, the sermon of Gita is given on a battleground, the acme of action!
Featured Events
Yoga Day at UN to be broadcast at Times Square

DISCOVER YOUR
INNER TALENTS
United Nations: The celebrations commemorating the first International Day of Yoga
at United Nations in New York to be presided over by External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj will be broadcast at Times Square to a global audience.
The UN will commemorate the occasion on June 21 in the presence of Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Sam Kutesa. The India-led celebrations will also feature a special lecdem by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.. Another celebration
of the Solstice Day would be observed at Times Square on June 21 with thousands performing yoga exercises.
Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda
PUBLIC TALKS AND WORKSHOPS

with Vishwaguruji
JUNE 11 15, 2015!
THURSDAY, JUNE 11
9:00 am till evening: Walk in the Countryside with Vishwaguruji
$35 (includes lunch), plus transportation cost TBD
FRIDAY, JUNE 12
7:00 pm: Welcome Satsang and Public Lecture by Vishwaguruji
Free to the public, donations appreciated
Free big event for whole family in central NJ

he Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh USA, along with many other organizations, is
organizing programs to celebrate the first ever International Day of Yoga in
Piscataway High School in New Jersey. The June 21 event is for the whole family, from children to to grandparents as there would be sessions like Yoga, Meditation,
Breathing Techniques, Laughter Yoga, Yoga for Kids, Yoga Games for Kids, Chair Yoga
for seniors.
The event is open and free for everyone from 9:30 am to 12 pm, and will participate
in the nationwide Suryanamaskar wave from East Coast to West Coast. Many dignitaries
have been invited as well as yoga studios. For more info: www.yoga21.org
SATURDAY, JUNE 13
India will lead world from Rajpath
9:30 am - 3:30 pm: Yoga Workshop, Features talk by Vishwaguruji, yoga nidra (relaxation),
asanas (postures), pranayama (breath techniques) and guided meditation
$75 (includes lunch and afternoon tea)
7:00 pm: Satsang with Vishwaguruji $20
SUNDAY, JUNE 14
10 am - 1:00 pm: Meditation Workshop, Talk and guided meditation by Vishwaguruji
$35 (includes lunch)
7:00 pm: Farewell Satsang with Vishwaguruji $20
Full Program Discount: $150
All programs except Thursday are at our yoga and meditation center:
Yoga in Daily Life 2402 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Alexandria VA 22301 (703) 299-8946
Website www.yogaindailylifeus.org Email alexandria@yogaindailylifeus.org
Yoga in Daily Life is a not-for-profit incorporated association and non-governmental organization with consultative
status at the United Nations. Its activities aim to serve humanitarian goals, fostering health, world peace, protection
of the environment and all creatures, and tolerance, respect and freedom among religions, cultures and nations.
undreds of thousands of health enthusiasts from 193 countries will perform various yogic postures at different places across the globe with some 35,000 to
40,000 people who would lead the celebrations from Rajpath in the heart of the
Indian capital to mark the first International Yoga Day on June 21.
The Morarji Institute of Yoga Sciences has prepared thousands of CDs and booklets in
different languages to help people perform proper asanas worldwide. These have
already been sent to all 193 countries.
The CDs will be played on Rajpath on big screens so that participants can perform
while watching them. The half-hour program beginning at 7 a.m. will find a place in the
Guinness Book of World Records.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will lead the celebrations, also called for making
yoga a mass movement, connecting people and strengthening the bonds of humanity.
DIASPORA
Malaysian PM approves
$26 mn for Indian
community's uplift
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian
Prime Minister Najib Tun
Razak has approved 100 million Malaysian ringgit (about
$26 million) for the uplift of
the Indian community in the
country.
The fund was approved to the
Special Unit for SocioEconomic Development of the
Indian Community (Sedic),
Malaysia's Bernama news
agency reported.
Sedic Director N.S.Rajendran
on Friday said it was an effort
to create opportunities to
improve the lives of 40 percent
of the 2.6 million ethnic
Indians in the southeast Asian
nation. He said funds would be
channeled through non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
and skills-training institutions
that were selected based on certain criteria and not to individu-
als or political parties.

Rajendran said Sedic has
identified 11 scopes for the
Indian community, including
Tamil schools issue, documentation, admission to universities, youths at high risk, and
Indian participation in the public sector.
"Sedic will ensure that the
funds are managed efficiently
so that the target groups receive
benefits from the government,"
he said.
Over 600,000 Indians nationwide make up the bottom 40
percent in 38 districts in nine
states and earning less than
2,500 Malaysian ringgit ($664)
per month.
Every application made by
NGOs and skills training institutions goes through three
stages before it is approved by
the prime minister.
London: An India-born IT professional in Britain stabbed his wife

and two daughters to death after
researching how to cut someone's
throat -- then lived with their bodies for a weekend before hanging
himself, an inquest has heard.
Jitendra Lad, 49, his wife
Dukshaben Lad, 44, and their
daughters Trisha, 19, and Nisha,
16, were discovered at their home
in Clayton, Bradford, last October
days after celebrating Diwali, the
Daily Mail reported on
Wednesday.
Lad had researched on depression and how to cut someone's
throat on the internet in the days
leading up to the tragedy, an
inquest into the deaths was told.
Lad was found hanged and the
three other members of the
"model" family had all been
stabbed in their beds with a knife,
in what a coroner described as a
"scene of unimaginable horror."
The Bradford Coroner's Court
heard that Dukshaben, also known
as Daksha, and her two daughters
Crowds throng the venue
Baboo, and Minister of Social Security

the Fazila Daureawoo were among the
other dignitaries present on the occasion.
During the Mela, the visitors were
seen relishing various types of Indian
cuisine from delicious Indian street
food like pani-puri, chaat, samosas,
pakoras, vada pao, pao-bhaji, chhole
bhature, and dahi bhalla, to fabulous
feasts presented on a Thali. The
Dosa, a very popular staple from
South India, was one of the main
attractions of the Mela. For non-vegetarians, the fair offered a wide variety
19
Indian IT professional killed family

after online research
Annual Indian Food Mela a hit in Mauritius

Port Louis: The Annual Indian Food
Mela, organized by the Indian
Womens Association (IWA) on June
6th at Indira Gandhi Center for Indian
Culture was a grand success, with a
record attendance. Thousands of
Mauritians thronged the IGCIC for a
taste of the gastronomical delights of
India. The stalls displaying and selling
India handicrafts, textiles, spices and
decorative items were equally popular.
Inaugurating the Mela, Lady Sarojni
Jugnauth lauded the efforts of the IWA
in contributing to important social
causes, and for doing their bit to further strengthen the deep cultural and
historical links between the people of
our two countries. The President of
IWA, Mrs Savita Mudgal, who is the
spouse of the High Commissioner of
India Anup K Mudgal, outlined the
activities of the IWA and said that the
Association remains committed to furthering India-Mauritius friendship
through its various endeavors.
Vice President Monique Ohsan
Bellepeau, Speaker of the National
Assembly Maya Hanoomanjee,
Minister of Arts and Culture Santaram
June 13-19, 2015
of dishes like chicken curry,

Hyderabadi biryani, kebabs etc. Those
with a sweet tooth enjoyed jalebi, rasmalai, rabri and gulab jamun.
Besides the culinary delights, the
Fair offered a wide range of Indian
handicrafts, herbal products, fashion
jewelry, textiles and cosmetics.
Children were kept entertained with a
number of games, face painting and
pony ride making this an ideal day
out for family.
Proceeds from the Mela would be
used for the IWAs charitable activities.
The Lad family in happier times
were probably killed in the early

hours of Saturday, October 25.
But Lad was seen by a number
of people later the same weekend
and probably killed himself on
Monday afternoon, two days later,
the court heard.
The hearing was told how Lad
had no medical history of mental
illness and relatives and friends
said they appeared to be a normal,
loving family.
The hearing also heard that Lad
had been stressed at work as an IT
manager, and was concerned he
had been over-promoted.
The inquest heard how the bodies were discovered at the house
when Daksha's father became concerned when no one was answering their phones and went round
with a neighbor.
New Zealand Indian store owner

contests racialism charge
Wellington: An Indian-origin liquor store owner in New Zealand has
appealed against a court judgment favoring a former Indian employee claiming racial harassment, media reported on Sunday. Owner of Scorpion Liquor,
Raj Devi and her son Shane Singh, who were ordered to pay employee
Satnam Singh NZ$45,000 ($31,708) in damages for suffering racial abuse,
have appealed to the high court saying they were not given a chance to contest the claims, reported the New Zealand Herald. Satnam said he suffered
racial abuse, culminating in physical assault, while he worked for two months
at the store in Auckland's Mt. Roskill area. Devi and Shane Singh, who managed the business, say the claims made by Satnam Singh are "wholly wrong."
UAE-based Indian clears US Ivy League

Dubai: An Indian-origin teenager, based in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), has been accepted by five American Ivy League schools, media
reported. Anya Malik, 18, a student of Dubai College, who received
acceptances from Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn and Dartmouth, selected Yale University in the Connecticut state of the US to pursue a joint
major in economics and maths, reported The National online. "In the US,
I'll be able to study economics and maths, but also do French, and also
take a class in physics and also take a class in psychology," said Malik.
Jonathan Tate, deputy head of the college's sixth form, who oversees the
applications to US universities, described Malik as an all-rounder. "She's
incredibly clever, hard-working, she speaks a couple of languages fluently,
she plays the drums, she does work with charity, she's a swimmer, she
writes beautifully as well," Tate said.
20
SUBCONTINENT
June 13-19, 2015
India, Bangladesh business set to grow manifold

New Delhi: With the Land Boundary
Agreement wrapped up, India and
Bangladesh can look forward to boosting
their trade and connectivity with the inking
of milestone accords on coastal shipping
and the opening up of Chittagong and
Mongla ports in Bangladesh to bilateral
commerce.
During the visit of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to Dhaka, India and
Bangladesh inked the agreement on Coastal
Shipping for two-way trade through ports;
renewed the 1972 Protocol on Inland
Waterways Transit and Trade (PIWTT) for
using their waterways for commerce; and
signed an MoU for use of Chittagong and
Mongla Ports for movement of goods to and
from India.
The agreements will help to greatly
reduce not only the time in shipping goods
but also costs, besides making optimum use
of the ports, inland waterways and roads.
The Chittagong and Mongla ports, along
with Kolkata port and Haldia dock system,
are located in the Ganga delta. According to
the agreement, the two Bangladesh ports
can be used by India to ship goods to its
landlocked states in the northeast - to
Agartala in Tripura, to Dawki in Meghalaya
or to Sutarkandi in Assam - either through
waterways, rail or road,
Earlier, the shipping cargo between the
The main steering wheel of INS Vikrant being handed over by Narendra Modi to
Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka.
two countries had to take the long route reaching ports in either country through
either Colombo, Singapore or Klang, in
Malaysia.
Not only will India get easier access to its
northeast, Bangladesnh will also get transit
through India into Nepal and Bhutan,
according to the renewed Bilateral Trade

Agreement inked in 1972. This also gives a
fillip to connectivity in the Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Nepal sub-regional grouping
of SAARC.
The agreement on use of Chittagong and
Mongla ports was reportedly set to have
been inked in 2011, but after the Teesta

agreement fell through, Bangladesh backed
out of signing the deal.
Bangladesh is now constructing a bridge
with Indian help on the Feni river that will
connect with Sabroom, in south Tripura district, on the India-Bangladesh border. The
bridge will provide direct connectivity
between Chittagong port, which has been
upgraded by China, to Sabroom, about 75
km away, via a new road being built from
Chittagong.
Another connectivity link is the 15-km
railway between Agartala and Akhaura in
Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh, which
is to be completed in 2017. Akhaura has a
rail link to Chittagong too. Once the
Agartala-Akhaura railway link is ready,
goods brought to Chittagong port can be
carried by rail directly to Agartala.
The northeastern states can also export
and import goods through the Chittagong
port. Though India and Bangladesh share an
over 1,000 km of riverrine border, the trade
traffic between the two takes place mostly
on the congested land border. The sea trade
route has not been used much.
The two trans-border bus services on the
Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and DhakaShillong-Guwahati route inaugurated during
Modi's visit are also set to boost connectivity and people-to-people links.
Sharif party grabs half of Gilgit-Baltistan assembly seats
PM Narendra Modi visits Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka.
Pak urges UN to take note of

Modi's remark on 1971 war
Islamabad: A top Pakistani official
has called upon the international
community and the UN to take
notice of Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's statement in Dhaka
last week regarding Bangladesh's
1971 Liberation War.
The people of Pakistan and
Bangladesh were bound by strong
bonds, said Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif's key advisor Sartaj Aziz
while adressing the Senate, Geo
News reported.
He added that India was not eligible for a permanent seat on the UN
Security Council.
During his official visit to
Bangladesh, Modi last Sunday in
Dhaka said the establishment of
Bangladesh was a desire of every
Indian citizen and that was why
Indian forces fought along with the
Mukti Bahini, thus creating a new
country. "Such statements not only
vitiate the atmosphere but put a
question mark on India's sincerity to

establish good neighborly relationship with Pakistan," Aziz said.
Aziz stressed that Pakistan wanted
to have good relations with all its
neighboring countries. Pakistan's
Foreign Office also took note of the
Indian prime minister's statement.
Modi made the statement during
his official visit to Bangladesh,
which was East Pakistan before
becoming a separate country after
the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation
War. Modi recalled his participation
in the Jana Sangh campaign backing
the rebels in former East Pakistan as
he accepted a "liberation war" honour on behalf of former Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Modi
said he was one of the young volunteers who came to Delhi in 1971 to
participate in the satyagraha
launched by the Jana Sangh to garner support for the Mukti Bahini
members.
Gilgit (Pakistan): Pakistan Prime

Minister Nawaz Sharif's party has
clinched half of the GilgitBaltistan assembly seats in elections, and outperformed cricketerturned-politician Imran Khan's
party.
According to unofficial results,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) won 12 of the 24 seats
for which the polls were held. Two
seats each went to Imran Khan's
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI),
Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen
and the Independents, Geo TV
reported.
One seat each was taken by the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP),
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Islami
Tehreek. According to the Election
Commission of
P a k i s t a n
(ECP), there
were 618,364
registered voters in the
region with
288,889 female
voters
and
329,475 male
voters.
A total of
278 candidates
were in the
fray for the 24
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
assembly seats.
The GilgitBaltistan legislative assembly was Peoples Party (PPP) won the subcreated through a presidential sequent elections, completing a
order in 2009 and the Pakistan five-year term in office.
Nepal specially invites Modi to donor conference

Kathmandu: Nepal's Finance
Minister Ram Sharan Mahat left
for New Delhi this week to invite
Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi to an international donor
conference being hosted here on
June 25 to raise funds for reconstruction following the damage
caused by the devastating April 25
earthquake.
Nepal is sending special invitations only to Modi, Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang and UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Foreign Minister Mahendra
Bahadur Pandey will be traveling
to Beijing later this week to invite
Li. Though the exact picture of
the damage caused by the quake

and aftershocks is yet to be made
public -- called Post Disaster
Need Assessment -- preliminary
estimates made by the finance
ministry suggest it could be
around $10 billion.
The Nepal government has
already set up a $2-billion fund
for the reconstruction and rebuilding.
Over 65 representatives from
various nations, donor agencies,
development partners and multilateral donor agencies will be
invited, said the finance ministry.
Besides meeting Modi, Mahat
will meet his Indian Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley and other

leaders.
According to the finance ministry, bilateral discussions would
be held regarding utilisation and
implementation of the financial
support announced during Modi's
visit.
Modi had announced a soft loan
of $1 billion during his visit to
Nepal in August last year.
Discussions would be held on
various issues, including opening
of bank accounts of Nepalis residing in India, countervailing duties
bearing Nepali production in
India, Indian investment in Nepal
and bilateral trade expansion.
INTERNATIONAL
South Korean president delays

US visit amid MERS crisis
South Korean President
Park Geun-hye.
Seoul: South Korean President Park

Geun-hye has delayed her visit to
the US due to the Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) crisis, a presidential office statement
said. Park decided to postpone next
week's trip to the US to contain the
MERS spread as early as possible.
Park was scheduled to hold a summit with US President Barack
Obama on June 16.

The delay comes amid the unabated MERS crisis in the country,
where the number of confirmed
infections surged to 108, just three
weeks after the first case was identified on May 20.
The two countries agreed to
reschedule Park's trip to Washington
at an earliest possible date.
June 13-19, 2015
21
US planning new base in Iraq: Report

Washington: The US is planning
to set up a new base in Anbar
province in Iraq and send more
trainers and advisors to help Iraqi
troops in the fight against militants
of the Islamic State, media reported.
However, both The New York
Times and The Wall Street Journal
that published the information citing anonymous senior government
officials differed on the exact number of troops.
While the NYT said US
President Barack Obama wanted to
send 400 additional troops to Iraq,
The Wall Street Journal put the figure at 500.
The last time the US sent additional troops to Iraq was in
November when Obama authorised
the deployment of an additional
1,500 American troops to Iraq
bringing the total number of US
troops deployed there to 3,080.
According to the NYT, this latest
move is meant to support Iraqi
forces to take back Ramadi,
The move is to help Iraqi troops in the fight against

militants of the Islamic State.
Anbar's capital, that has been under

IS control since May 17.
The newspaper added that the
decision would imply a change in
US strategy in Iraq that has been
focused on trying to retake Mosul
in northern Iraq from the IS but
which has now been pushed to
2016.
On May 17, IS militants seized
Ramadi. located some 100 km west

of Baghdad, taking by surprise the
Iraqi government that had been
preparing to expel the jihadis from
that region.
According to the International
Organisation for Migration, more
than 133,000 people fled Ramadi
in the days preceding the IS
takeover.
Aung San Suu Kyi begins historic visit to China

Beijing: Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in
China this week, a historic visit that comes during a
period of marked tension between the two countries.
She was to meet with Chinese President Xi
Jinping, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and a group of
Chinese businessmen.
During the visit, Beijing will look to strengthen its
relations with Myanmar's reformist government and
the opposition.
According to the Chinese foreign ministry, the trip
will deal with exchanges between the Chinese
Communist Party and Myamnar's National League
for Democracy led by Suu Kyi, which is expected
to do well in the upcoming elections in Myanmar
this year.
Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1991 for her peaceful fight for freedom in her coun-
President Barack Obama speaks to the media at the

conclusion of the summit of G7 nations in Germany.
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
try. She spent more than 15 years under house arrest

and some time in prison. The visit comes at a time
of tension between the two countries.
Suicide bomber targets ancient

Egyptian temple in Luxor
Luxor (Egypt): A suicide bomber blew himself up at the
ancient Egyptian temple of Karnak in Luxor, a southern
city frequented by millions of tourists every year, security
officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties
from the late morning bombing, but the officials said
police foiled two other suicide attacks also targeting the
sprawling Nile-side temple, a tourist attraction that rivals
the pyramids at Giza, near Cairo. The officials spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
to speak to the media.
The attack was the first to target world-famous attractions in Luxor since November 1997, when Islamic militants opened fire on tourists at the city's 3,400-year-old
Hatshepsut Temple on the west bank of the Nile,
killing 58.
Tourism is the lifeblood of Luxor, home to some of
Egypt's most famous ancient temples and pharaonic
tombs, including that of King Tutankhamun. The city has
been hit hard by a downturn in foreign visitors during the
years of unrest since Egypt's 2011 uprising.
Isolated Putin seeks

sympathetic hearing in Italy
Rome: Vladimir Putin made a rare international outing this week with a high-profile visit to
Italy and the Vatican two days after the G7
threatened him with tougher sanctions over
Ukraine. The Russian President is due in Milan
to visit his country's pavilion at the World
Expo and will travel on to Rome, where an
audience with Pope Francis is expected to
focus on Ukraine amid fears a second ceasefire
agreed in February is falling apart.
In Milan, Putin was greeted by Italian premier Matteo Renzi, one of the G7 leaders who
signed up to the warning that the major powers
"stand ready to take further restrictive measures to increase cost on Russia should its
actions so require".
The statement reflected concern about a
recent flare-up in fighting in eastern Ukraine,
where the West accuses Russia of providing
game-changing military support to proMoscow rebels who control parts of two
Russian-speaking regions.
Europe will continue sanctions

on Russia: Obama
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
(Germany): US President Barack
Obama said he will convince
European leaders to maintain economic sanctions on Russia, even
as US officials concede the measures have done little to curb
aggression by separatists in
Eastern Ukraine.
The extension of sanctions was a
chief goal of the US President at
this week's G7 meeting in the
Bavarian Alps, where leaders huddled in a castle high above Munich
to discuss Russia, Islamic State
and other pressing global issues,
CNN reported.
Obama said at a press conference at the conclusion of the summit that "Russia's actions in
Ukraine are hurting Russia and
hurting the Russian people".
The sanctions regime steadily
imposed by Western nations
would continue until a ceasefire
that Russia agreed to March goes

into full effect, Obama said.
That accord, which leaders hammered out in Belarus, has been
repeatedly violated. Some of the
fiercest fighting since the Minsk
Agreement came this week, with
heavy artillery fire reported near
Donesk.
In total, more than 6,000 people
have died in the fighting in
Eastern Ukraine since the conflict
began last year.
Despite the continued violence,
US officials insist the sanctions
were taking a toll on the Russian
economy, where the Ruble has
plummeted in value. But they
admit the sanctions have done little to prevent Russian President
Vladimir Putin from continuing
the campaign in Ukraine.
Obama said Europe and the US
stood ready to impose new sanctions if violence increases.
22 June 13-19, 2015
BUSINESS
'India-US trade at $103 billion,

can reach $500 billion'
Washington: The India-US bilateral trade in goods and services has
crossed the elusive $100 billion
threshold and now stands at $103
billion, US envoy Richard Verma
said here, adding that both countries still have a long way to traverse to reach the goal of $500 billion.
Addressing the Center for
Strategic and International Studies,
Verma said the goal of $500 billion
is achievable.
Both sides have restarted the
trade policy forum, "which is
bringing together Indian and
American trade experts to address
concerns across a variety of sectors", he said.
On intellectual property, a technical team of Indian experts will visit
Washington for further discussions
on how to improve IP protection.
"We continue to look for ways to
enhance the environment for innovation in a way that promotes our
shared interests," he said.
He said through the US state
department's India-Pacific econom-
IT raids against Chettinad

Group of companies
Richard Verma, the Indian envoy to US.
ic corridor (IPEC) initiative, "we

are also supporting greater regional
economic connectivity between
India and its neighbours, complimenting Prime Minister Modi's
'Act East' policy".
"Through programs aimed at
enhancing energy cooperation,
building closer people-to-people
ties, stimulating trade facilitation
and transportation and easing customs and borders, IPEC seeks to
strengthen links among South

Asian countries and with Southeast
Asia," he said.
He said under Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's foreign policy
"India has been on the move. In the
past year the prime minister has
reached out not just to the United
States, but has visited over 18
countries and 33 cities. He said
India and the US are "partnering
more closely than ever before".
Chennai:
The
Income
Tax
Department conducted raids against
the Rs 10,000-crore
business conglomerate Chettinad
Group
of
Companies at its
premises in three
states. The group's
chairman Emeritus
MAM Ramaswamy
had declared that
The group's chairman Emeritus MAM
he has disowned
Ramaswamy.
his son MAM R
Muthiah whom he adopted in Trust and Dr MAM Ramaswamy
1996. A top Income Tax official Chettiar Trust.
The 84-year-old philanthropist
said that raids were carried out in
37 places of the Chettinad Group and former Rajya Sabha MP statin Tamil Nadu, two places in ed that the assets would not go to
Andhra Pradesh and a few places MAM R Muthiah or anyone
claiming on his behalf or under
in Mumbai.
Ramaswamy had said that he him.
He had also said that Muthiah
had written and registered a will
that all the assets which may be would not perform any cereleft at the time of his death would monies or obsequies on his
go only to the newly formed demise. "I have disowned him
trusts - Dr MAM Ramaswamy and do not wish to call him my
Chettiar of Chettinad Charitable son," he had said.
Apple attacks Windows, Android with new updates
HSBC announces mass layoffs
New Delhi: Apple has launched

a host of products at its wellattended developer's conference
in San Francisco, including two
operating systems for its PC and
its iPhone and iPad, besides a
software update for its watch and
a couple of apps on news and
online payments.
In an event that was streamed
and watched across the globe, it
also launched a music service on
its proprietary devices to challenge rivals such as Spotify and
Apple launched a host of products at its developer's
Pandora. The news app, with a
conference in San Francisco.
magazine layout, allows users to
customize the content with over a million topics launch of Windows 10 due on July 29.
"OS X delivers unparalleled integration
to choose from, Apple said.
"It's a giant moment," is all that Apple chief between Mac hardware, iOS devices, apps and
executive Tim Cook, wearing a black T-shirt and online services, and has helped Mac sales outblue jeans that have become customary for such pace the PC industry every year for the last
occasions, said about the products. He left it to decade," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior
other senior officials of the company to launch vice president of software engineering.
The features of the new Apple operating systhe specific products.
On the personal computing front, which is tem includes Spotlight, to aid searches for more
Mackintosh for Apple, the company released OS places and provide more useful results, including
X El Capitan, promising to improve the perform- weather and sports. It also includes Split View,
ance of the existing operating system. With this, and window management to manage multiple
Apple appeared to have prepared itself for the screens.
Hong Kong: HSBC

has announced a new
strategic plan that
includes a restructuring
of 10 percent of its
global workforce,
review of the possibility of moving its headquarters, its exit from
markets in Turkey and
Brazil, and an expansion of its operations in
Asia.
The new business
plan seeks to cut costs
by $5 billion and push
the return on equity to
This is the second round of layoffs by the
over 10 percent by
bank in the last four years.
2017. In a statement to
the Hong Kong stock exchange, the bank headquarters in London, will also be studyalso announced plans to step up investments ing the possibility of relocating to Hong
in Asia with special focus on China and Kong by the end of the year, experts say.
Several economic journals citing a presSoutheast Asia.
The bank is planning to expand asset entation made by HSBC on the internet
management and insurance operations in reported that the company was planning to
China's Pearl river delta region in addition slash 22,000 jobs, thereby reducing its globto pushing the internationalization of the al force by 10 percent.
This is the second round of layoffs by the
yuan.
HSBC, the largest European bank with its bank in the last four years.
SPORTS
Powell among world's

fastest to race next month
Laussane: The worlds three
fastest men are set to race each
other in a highly anticipated show
down in 100 meters at the
Athletissima Diamond League
meeting.
Sprint star Usain Bolt is also
down to compete in the event
next month and has opted to run
the half lap. But Americans Justin
Gatlin and Tyson Gay and
Jamaicas Asafa Powell are
entered for the same race on July
9, reports CMC.
Powell has clocked 9.84 seconds this year and Gay's season
best is 9.88. Gatlin, the 2004
Olympic gold medalist, ran a
world-leading 9.74 at the opening
Diamond League meet last month
in Doha.
The prospect of such an appealing match-up is expected to capture the imagination of athletics
fans around the world, especially
Powell
ahead of the Beijing World

Championships in August.
Despite his decision to run the
200m, Bolt, the world-record
holder and two-time Olympic
champion in 100m, is expected to
be a major attraction at the meet.
Former India cricket captain

Rahul Dravid.
to it." Dravid, who scored 24,177

runs across all formats of the
game, stressed that he is not interested to coach the India senior
team, adding that team director
Ravi Shastri and his group is doing
New Delhi: The Indian team will

get his new coach after the
Bangladesh tour and it will be Ravi
Shastri. The team director will also
become the highest paid cricket
coach in the world by drawing Rs 7
crore in a year, as reported by
Hindustan Times.
The former allrounder if appointed will become first Indian after
2000 to coach the Indian team.
According to sources in BCCI, it
has been learnt that the board
stopped looking for Duncan
Fletcher's replacement when Test
captain Virat Kohli wanted Shastri
to be part of the team.
Shastri too enjoys lot of confidence from the players after successfully guiding them in the
Australia tour and World Cup. This
has been the reason for Shastri
emerging as the top contender for
the coach's post, the sources added.
There has also been indications
a good job. "I am not thinking

about it. I am only focussed on the
India A and the India U-19 coaching jobs at the moment. Ravi and
his team are doing a fantastic job
with India and long it may continue. I have no aspirations to go up
to that level at the moment," he
said.
The 42-year-old said his job will
be to help players get to the next
level and not look into team selection. "The selectors and the senior
team management generally have a
vision as to what sort of players
they are looking to pick.
Sometimes you pick young players
in India A, sometimes you pick
players who are looking to make a
comeback and want to push for the
national team, he said.
"I see my job as coaching the
players they have selected and not
in selection. My job is to coach and
try to help them to get to the next
level. I dont think you need to
teach India A players how to play,
they all know how to bat and bowl
and they are there because they are
successful, Dravid concluded.
Cavaliers beat Warriors in Game 2 of NBA Finals

on't declare the Cleveland
Cavaliers done. Cleveland
stunned the Golden State
Warriors in overtime 95-93 at the
NBA Finals at one game each.
The weekend had already
included the end of a decadeslong drought with American
Pharoah becoming the first horse
since 1978 to win the Triple

Crown. There was also new life
for the Cavaliers, stranded by
seemingly everybody except
themselves after losing Irving in
Game 1 because of a fractured
kneecap. It came a little more than
a month after Kevin Love sustained a season-ending dislocated
23
Ravi Shastri to become

Team India's new coach: Report
Experience as Royals mentor will help in coaching: Dravid

Mumbai: Former India cricket
captain Rahul Dravid said the
experience he gathered during his
stint as mentor of Indian Premier
League (IPL) side Rajasthan
Royals will come handy when he
starts coaching the India A and
Under-19 teams.
"The stint with Royals as mentor
will definitely help me. The fact
that I have spent a couple of years
at Royals in the role of a mentor, I
have seen the other side of what
the sport is," Dravid, who was
present as a chief guest at the convocation of International Institute
of Sports Management along with
Maharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis, said.
The batting legend was appointed mentor of Royals in 2014. "I
have always seen it as a player and
I have spent many years as a player. The couple of years that I spent
outside in the management and the
coaching side of things, there is a
lot of learning that you get all the
time, and the more you do, the
more and the better you get. It is
like playing. I am looking forward
June 13-19, 2015
shoulder.
Games 3 and 4 are in Cleveland,
and could they get any more alluring? The NBA Finals had never
seen its first two games head to
overtime until now, media reports
said. Before this, the Cavaliers
never won a Finals game in their
45-year history.
Former cricketer Ravi Shastri.
from Shastri himself prior to the

Bangladesh series that he may stay
longer with the team and going to
have a discussion with BCCI on his
return from Bangladesh.
s a TV commentator for BCCI,
he had a Rs 4 crore a year contract
and for his services as team direc-
tor he is getting paid Rs 6 crore

annually until the World Cup.
Shastri during a press conference
said earlier had said that India
doesn't need a coach and if needed
he can double up as coach with
already three specialist coaches
being there to assist him.
FIFA likely to elect Blatter's

successor in December
Sepp Blatter
Zurich: Corruption-embattled
FIFA could decide on incumbent
president Sepp Blatter's successor in an emergency meeting on
December 16.
Blatter's controversial 17-year
reign came to a tipping point
with the outbreak of the corruption scandal that saw seven FIFA
officials arrested and 14 people
indicted by the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
forcing the Swiss to resign from
his post but continuing till a successor is chosen by the world
football governing body's executive committee.
Swiss authorities have also
begun a criminal investigation
regarding the legality of the
2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights, won by Russia and
Qatar, respectively.
Blatter quit days after being reelected for a fifth four-year term.
Under global pressure for
undergoing wholesale changes,
FIFA's probable date for holding
an emergency meeting has
emerged as December 16.
It said representatives from all
209 member associations will be
invited to its headquarters here
to vote in a new presidential
election.
Several names have emerged
as potential successor for Blatter,
with Prince Ali bin al-Hussein,
who lost out to Blatter in last
month's election, turning out to
be the frontrunner.
Businessman Chung Mongjoon, scion of South Korea's
automobile company Hyundai is
also believed to be in the running.
24
June 13-19, 2015
FEATURES
In 'Flood of Fire' I feel I have conquered a mountain: Amitav Ghosh

By Preetha Nair
New Delhi: Amitav Ghosh is back with his
much-awaited Flood of Fire, the last in the
Ibis trilogy, where history and fiction interweave and span the years leading to the first
Opium War between Britain and China.
In writing the book, he says he feels like he
has climbed a great mountain.
Hailed as one of the most accomplished
Indian writers, Ghosh was recently nominated
for the Man Booker International Prize. A
Padma Shri awardee, he has also been elected
a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.
The first book of the trilogy, Sea of
Poppies (2008) is about the life and travails
of a motley crowd of indentured laborers and
convicts in Ibis, a former American slave ship
from Baltimore.
The second, River of Smoke follows
opiums journey to Canton where Chinese
officials capture the shipments and confine the
foreigners. Flood of Fire is set in the first
Anglo-Chinese Opium War (1839-42) and the
British takeover of Hong Kong in 1841.
On the eve of the books release by Penguin,
Ghosh gave an interview. Excerpts:
Q: How do you feel having finished the
final book of your trilogy?
Amitav Ghosh: It is incredibly fulfilling to
have brought the trilogy to an end. It took
almost a decade of my life. It was a very
ambitious project. I felt like I set myself a task
of climbing a great mountain and now I feel as
a mountaineer who got to the summit. Flood
Amitav Ghosh; Flood of Fire completes his trilogy about the opium wars.
of Fire was the most difficult one. It is about
a complex war. It is intricate with large number of characters.
Q: Give us a glimpse of what you attempted
in Flood of Fire.
A: Its landscape is set in the first AngloChinese Opium War (1839-42). You will see
more of the characters like Deedi, Paulette
and Neera from the first one, Sea of Poppies.
However, Deedis brother Kesri Singh is the
central character.
Q: What made you write the trilogy about
the opium war?
An argument forced a series

on Lord Ram: Amish Tripathi
By Bhavana Akella
"In all my books, there is

a core philosophy. For the
t was an argument with
Shiva Trilogy it was to
a woman on Lord Ram
find out what evil is and
at a literature fest that
for the Ramchandra series
upset me immensely. That
it is to know what an ideal
was when I had decided my
society is," Tripathi said
next series would be on
adding that he was unsure
Ram," said banker-turnedof what he was going to
author Amish Tripathi on
write when he signed a
his upcoming book - "Scion
contract with his publisher
of Ikshvaku". Through this
around two years ago.
series, he said, he needed to
A good book does not
give his interpretation of
sell itself, he remarked.
Lord Ram, who the woman
Teamed with his wife,
thought had mistreated his
Preeti, they have changed
wife, Sita.
the way Indian books marAfter his successful Shiva
ket themselves. The marAfter his successful Shiva
Trilogy, the author explores
keting campaigns ranged
Trilogy, Amish Tripathi has
his version of the story
from video trailers before
started on the Ramchandra
through the Ramchandra series with "Scion of Ikshvaku". the book launch to releasseries, which could be 5-6
ing one chapter of the
books. "I think the incident was meant to book as an appetizer.
happen to me to help me make up my mind,"
Attributing his knowledge of mythology to
Tripathi said before the launch of the first his family, he mentioned that his grandfachapter of his new work.
ther, who was a pandit, and his parents
"We are offering the free chapter through taught him many things on the subject,
Amazon Kindle or their app. Through the adding that the long debates with his family
online chapter, we aim to spread it out and on mythology helped him with his books. A
keep the excitement up among the readers," voracious reader, he has been reading at least
said Tripathi, who debuted with "The 4-8 non-fiction or mythological books every
Immortals of Meluha" in 2010 - the first of month since his teenage years.
the Shiva Trilogy.
The IIM-Calcutta graduate had worked
He soon broke into the top-seller charts - with reputed banks in the country before he
within a week of its launch.
turned into an author.
A: In my book 'Glass Palace' one of the

main characters brings indentured workers to
Burma. I began to pursue the history of the
workers, and how they left India. I started
looking into the background of the movement
of migration. That is where the whole history
of poppy and its cultivation emerged. It was
from those roots that I came to the trilogy.
Opium wars had a great impact in Indian history. Economically, opium was a very important commodity for India in the 19th century.
Recreating history of the battle was one of
the complex tasks. Learning Cantonese was
another daunting task.

Q: Your book is widely reviewed as critical
exploration of colonialism. Do you agree?
A: If you write about 19th century India,
you have to write about colonialism. But it is
not really only about history, its about characters too. History is only an aspect of the book.
Q: Journalist, anthropologist and historian,
you wear many hats. How did it influence
your writing?
A: My first job was as a journalist and it
played an important part in my life. I have
also spent some time as an anthropologist. It is
impossible to explain each ones role in my
writing. It is all mixed and its there.
Q: You shuttle between Brooklyn and Goa.
Also you lived in Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka. How has that influenced your characters and writings?
A: The countries I lived in influenced me a
lot. One of the central characters is an
American. Sometimes you meet people and
you never pick up from real life. It doesnt
happen that way. You see something in them
and you connect. There are many different
ways it works.
Q: Which writers (and books) have you
been most influenced by?
A: So many books have influenced my writing. Moby Dick inspires me a lot. So does
Rabindranath Tagore and the Mahabharata.
While Moby Dick is about ships,
Mahabharata is all about wars.
Q: What is your next project?
A: I am currently writing a non-fiction.
SCI-TECH
he Driver Alcohol Detection

System for Safety (DADSS) is
a research program to advance the
state of alcohol detection technology in vehicles and invent a world
without drunk driving. Learn more
at www.dadss.org
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA)
recently unveiled new advanced
alcohol detection technology that
could prevent drunk drivers from
operating a vehicle.
At a press conference in
Washington last week, NHTSA
Administrator Mark Rosekind presented two prototypes of the Driver
Alcohol Detection System for
Safety (aka DADSS), which has
been in the works under a partnership with automakers since 2008.
One model detects alcohol particles
in the driver's breath. It is similar to
ignition interlock devices currently
used by 25 states for drunk driving
offenders, but instead of requiring
the driver to blow into a breathalyzer, DADSS takes noninvasive air
samples.
The other DADSS model determines blood alcohol content by
touch: it shines a light on the dri-
ver's finger and uses near-infrared

tissue spectroscopy to ascertain
how much the person has had to
drink. If the driver's blood alcohol
content is above 0.08, the car's
engine won't start.
The message today is not Can
we do this? but How soon can we
do this? said Mr. Rosekind. It is
a huge step forward.
"There is still a great deal of work
to do, but support from Congress
and the industry has helped us
achieve key research and development milestones," Rosekind said at
the unveiling. "DADSS has enormous potential to prevent drunk
driving in specific populations such
as teen drivers and commercial
fleets, and making it an option
available to vehicle owners would
provide a powerful new tool in the
battle against drunk driving deaths.
The program was authorized by
Congress in 2012, and in 2013 the
NHTSA reached a deal with 15
major automakers to continue
research. This deal extended the
agreement with automakers for
another five years. Congress is considering legislation to extend federal
funding for DADSS research.
25
Look up in the sky as

Venus and Jupiter 'collide'
Could this new technology

put a stop to drunk driving?
T
June 13-19, 2015
kywatchers are in for a treat

as Venus and Jupiter move
closer together in late June and
early July in what will be the
planets closest conjunction until
Aug. 27, 2016.
The best nights to view Venus
as it passes Jupiter are the nights
of June 30 and July 1, according
to EarthSky.org. Unless its
cloudy, it will be hard to miss
the spectacular alignment,
because Venus and Jupiter are
the third- and fourth-brightest
celestial bodies, respectively,
after the Sun and Moon.
The planets will appear to race
closer to the star Regulus, located above Jupiter above Jupiter,
with each passing day. Regulus
is the brightest star in the Leo
the Lion constellation.
While youve got your eyes
fixed toward the heavens, make
a mental note or, better yet,
bookmark this page for easy
referral later on of two big
meteor showers, the Delta
Aquarids and Perseids, according to the website SeaSky.org.
The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, the third- and fourthbrightest celestial bodies after the Sun and Moon, wont be this
close again until August 2016.
The Delta Aquarids Meteor

Shower: The remnant of two
different comets, Marsden and
Kracht, this shower runs from
July 12-Aug. 23, peaking
overnight on July 28th and into
the morning of the 29th. Normal
sightings are in the 20-per-hour
range, but a full moon on the
31st will wash out all but the
brightest meteors.
The
Perseids
Meteor
Shower: Leftovers from the
Swift-Tuttle comet, the Perseids
are favorite among many skywatchers. Visible from July 17Aug. 24, they will peak
overnight on Aug. 12 with 60
sightings per hour. The show
should be amazing this year with
a new moon on the 14th making
for dark skies.
26
June 13-19, 2015
LIFESTYLE
Helicopter parents may push kids to high risk behavior Even New Yorkers sitting for long unhealthy hours
New York: Over-involvement in the lives of
children, or what is called helicopter parenting, may result in lower self-worth and higher
risk behavior, such as binge drinking, among
youth, says a study.
While lack of warmth makes the negative
effects of helicopter parenting worse, extra
affection and support cannot neutralize the
consequences of parental control, the findings
showed.
"From our past work, we thought there
might be something positive about helicopter
parenting under certain conditions, but we are
just not finding it," said study author Larry
Nelson from Brigham Young University in
Utah in the US.
Researchers defined helicopter parenting as
parents' over-involvement in the lives of their
children. This includes making important
decisions for them, solving their problems and
intervening in their children's conflicts.

The researchers examined data from 438
undergraduate students in four universities
nationwide. Results showed that the lack of
warmth intensifies both the decrease in selfworth and increase in risk behaviors in the
young-adult children of helicopter parents.
High levels of parental warmth reduced the
negative effects, but did not eliminate them
completely. The findings suggest that loving
parents cannot justify their helicoptering tendencies -- too much control is too much, no
matter the parents' affection and support.
However, the researchers warned that helicopter parents should not overcompensate by
removing themselves completely from their
children's lives.
Young adults deserve more autonomy, but
still need parental support, noted the study
published in the journal Emerging Adulthood.
New York: The Big Apple is one of

the most walkable cities in the US but
New Yorkers are sitting far more than
what is considered healthy, says a
study.
According to researchers from the
New York University Langone
Medical Center, the average New York
City resident sits more than seven
hours a day - greatly exceeding the
three hours or more per day that is
associated with decreased life expectancy.
They found that Whites spent on average 7.8
hours per day sitting, African-Americans
spent 7.4 hours sitting, Hispanics spent 5.4
hours sitting, and Asian-Americans spent 7.9
hours per day sitting.
Sitting time was highest in Manhattan compared to other boroughs.
Average sitting time was highest among

adults who were college educated, in higher
income brackets or 65 years of age or older.
In contrast, lower-income individuals with
less education, Hispanics and foreign-born
New Yorkers spent the least amount of time
sitting.
Sitting time is linked to death from heart
disease and other causes, with life expectancy
increasing by two years if adults reduced their
sitting time to three hours per day.
Individuals who exercise regularly but are
still sedentary for several hours a day may be
at greater risk for adverse health outcomes
than their physical activity levels might suggest.
"Interventions for decreasing sitting time at
work and home are needed to improve health
outcomes across all groups - not just those
identified as having the longest sitting times,"
said Stella S. Yi, assistant professor of population health at NYU Langone.
Although Yi believes that those who sit the
most are probably employed in office jobs,
she says it is important to recognize differences within racial and ethnic groups.
Whites and Asian-Americans have the highest sitting times but Asian-Americans tend to
hold occupations at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum.
"For example, Asian-Americans hold both
desk jobs and jobs in commercial settings like
nail salons that offer little opportunity for
reducing sitting time."
The study was published by the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in its journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
Sharon Stone soaks her

face in ice water
Berlin:
Actress
Sharon Stone says she
soaks her face in ice
water on days where
she feels as though
she looks "awful."
The 57-year-old
says knowing that
she's not the only
woman who struggles
with looking good while working and raising
children makes her feel better, but that she
also has a few tricks to get rid of puffy bags
under her eyes, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at event here,
she shared: "I know that there are in the world
literally millions of other women who feel
like I feel. I'm so not the only single working
mother or even working mother or working
woman who's just exhausted, and knowing
that helps me.
"It's exhausting and, frankly, what I do is I
take a metal bowl and I fill it with ice and I
put water in it and I put my face in it. Because
I have to put my face on camera and it's not
great when I look awful."
SELF HELP
June 13-19, 2015
27
Fathers Day:
This father's day think beyond the tie
Tips to balance family and work life
T
P
he tie has
been a traditional
Fathers Day gift
since the holiday
was first celebrated. But this year,
mens
fashion
experts say think
beyond this staid
accessory while
Father s
Day
shopping.
The modern man
is expressing himself in much broader
ways and rounding out his wardrobe
with more creativity than he has in the
past, says Denis Daly Wood, founder of
Dalys 1895, fourth-generation luxury
mens designer and online retailer.
To give Dad the gift of contemporary
style, Wood offers some great Fathers
Day shopping tips:
Get inspired by Dads favorite hobbies. For example, if hes an outdoor
enthusiast, perhaps he would like a new
sturdy backpack, hiking boots or gloves
to wear during his next adventure. If hes
a writer, a leather-bound journal or
engraved fountain pen are great gift
ideas that could prove useful and personal. Search for items that could help Dad
better enjoy doing the things he loves.
Dad
may
have his favorite
suits, but buying
him an accessory
to accent his outfit can make him
look and feel his
best when hes at
the office or out
to dinner. A pocket square, like a
limited edition
Caravaggio silk
pocket square, can
add a level of sophistication to Dads
look.
Has your father been carrying the
same wallet for years? Upgrade his style
with a wallet of a different color or texture.
Does Dad have a favorite watch that
he loves to wear? Buy Dad a watch
winder or watch box where he can keep
his treasure. A bracelet that complements his watch can also add a great
touch to his outfit all year round.
For the traveling dad, consider a
sleek, stylish weekender bag or briefcase
to amp up his style even while hes on
the go. If Dad always travels with his
tablet or laptop, be sure to find a bag
with tech pockets that will protect his
gadgets even during takeoff.
health scientist for Life Extension and

host of Healthy Talk on
RadioMD.com.
Setbacks : As we grow older, cellular AMPK activation decreases,
weight gain often follows, and we are
more likely to succumb to the destructive factors of aging. Excess calorie
consumption also impairs the enzymatic
activity
of
AMPK.
Unfortunately, most humans today
suffer chronic nutritional overload, say
experts.
Solutions : Researchers have discovered four ways to boost the bodys
AMPK activity:
Exercise: AMPK activity increases with regular vigorous exercise.
Restrict calories: By taking in
fewer calories, you create increased
AMPK activity as cells sense a
requirement to function more efficiently.
Metformin: One of the drug metformins most beneficial mechanisms
is to activate AMPK. This is one way
it lowers elevated glucose. However,
most physicians only prescribe metformin for Type II Diabetes, making
access to this drug difficult for most
people.
Botanical Extracts: Two natural
agents, the Chinese herb Gynostemma
pentaphyllum and trans-tiliroside
derived from rose hips, have been
shown to activate AMPK, reducing
belly fat, cholesterol, blood sugar, and
insulin levels.
involved in every aspect of the business, delegating tasks to the people who can do a better
job than you can will benefit both you and the
company. So know your strengths and weaknesses for better time management.
Find systems that simplify operations and
make things happen faster, even if it means
rocking the boat. For example, when titles
were eliminated at Acxiom, the cultural shift
didnt make everyone happy, but in the end,
the company became more efficient and flexible, giving everyone more time at the end of
the day.
No matter what you are wrestling with at
work, be available for your children during
the day. Make sure your kids know that they
are important to you. Attend their recitals and
ball games and find hobbies that you can
share with them. Be reachable as much as
possible.
Traffic deaths on the rise:

Tips to keep your family safe
Tips to help you avoid

surplus fat as you age
here are many ways you can
stay fit and promote a long,
healthy life. And you probably
know about some of them, particularly
those habits that are widely discussed
in the media and by doctors. However,
scientists have recently made new discoveries that can help you activate
weight loss while gaining control over
deadly aging processes. Beyond eating
a well-balanced diet and getting plenty
of exercise, how can you facilitate a
healthy body weight?
Your Bodys Enzymes Can Help
New research indicates that when
certain enzymes in your body are
functioning properly, certain aging
processes, such as weight gain, can be
slowed or even reversed. One enzyme,
in particular, known as AMPK, is
being highlighted by medical
researchers, Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase
(AMPK), an enzyme found within
every cell, serves as your bodys master regulating switch, determining
body fat composition and how long
you will live. When switched on,
AMPK triggers the use of stored energy from fats, enhances removal of fats
and sugar from the blood, increases
production of mitochondria, and
reduces inflammation and cellular
junk. When AMPK is more activated, it can help protect you against
obesity and diabetes and many degenerative processes can be reversed,
says Dr. Michael A. Smith, senior
rofessional obligations and family commitments can be at odds -- particularly

for those who hold leadership positions
or possess jobs with long hours. And many
people learn that the hard way.
At one point, I became quite one-dimensional. It was all work and I had little time for
family or other activities, says Charles D.
Morgan, CEO of PrivacyStar, who served as
CEO of Acxiom Corporation from 1972 to
2008, overseeing the pioneering database
marketing services and technology providers
growth from 25 employees to 7,000.
Morgan, a serial entrepreneur, reveals his
work-life balance struggles in his new memoir, Matters of Life and Data: The
Remarkable Journey of a Big Data Visionary
Whose Work Impacted Millions (Including
You). While working at his first job at IBM
as a systems engineer, Morgan was called
back just a few days into his honeymoon due
to an urgent office matter, marking the beginning of an all-consuming career. Despite ups
and downs in both the professional and personal arenas, he eventually hammered out a
successful career and a peaceful family life.
In time for Fathers Day, Morgan is sharing
some insights into the eternal challenge of
striking the balance between competing interests.
While you may feel compelled to be
raffic deaths are on the rise,

and experts fear the trend
will continue this summer
during a period known as the 100
Deadly Days. Summer weekends
tend to be the most dangerous, with
seven out of 10 crashes happening
on a Saturday or Sunday in the
summer of 2014.
While the statistics point out a
dangerous trend, we have the ability to influence outcomes through
our choices and behavior, said
Deborah A.P. Hersman, president
and CEO of the National Safety
Council (NSC). Summer is typically a high-exposure period with
lots of miles driven and several
long holiday weekends. Take your
responsibilities behind the wheel
this summer seriously and ensure
that you get to your destination
safely.
Traffic deaths in the U.S.
increased each month during the
six months leading up to the summer, compared to the same six
month period a year ago.
NSC believes the spike in fatal
car crashes is due in part to an
improving economy. Lower gas
prices and lower unemployment
rates often lead to an increase in
traffic because more people can
afford to drive, and many travel
long distances and take vacations.
Certain crash factors, such as
Texting and driving is distracted driving at worst, causing

many accidents.
speeding and alcohol, are also more
common during the summer. A
yearly average of 2,781 deaths in
June, July and August involve
speeding, and 2,846 involve alcohol, according to NSC analysis of
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration data.
To help stay safe on the roads this
summer, NSC recommends drivers:
Learn about their vehicles
safety systems and how to use
them. Free resources, such as
MyCarDoesWhat.org can help
drivers understand the ins and outs
of such features as blind spot, lane
departure warning systems, and
backup
cameras.
Visit
www.MyCarDoesWhat.org to learn
more.
Buckle up for all tripsshort

and long, even back seat passengers.
Designate a non-drinking driver or arrange alternate transportation.
Get plenty of sleep and take
regular breaks to avoid fatigue.
Never use a cell phone behind
the wheel, even hands-free.
Monitor teens driving habits.
An NSC survey found many parents are more inclined to loosen
household driving rules during the
summer. Teen passengers are one
of the greatest distractions.
We believe that by taking the
proper precautions, we can make
the roads safer and save lives this
summer, said Hersman.
28
June 13-19, 2015
HUMOR
Funny Side by Nury Vittachi
Intelligence is anti-evolutionary, scientists say

NEW ISLAND appeared off the
coast of Japan and scientists are
watching it to see evolution at work.
So I was told.
I was a bit dubious. Doesn't evolution take
a while?
The reader who sent me the report, Sunita
Chau, admitted that the only biological entity on the island of Nishinoshima so far was
bird poop.
I suppose one CAN imagine bird poop
evolving into extremely primitive live
forms such as bacteria, single-celled microorganisms, and Fox News viewers, for
example.
***
She said she reckoned that nationalist
politicians in some countries probably
shared 99 percent of their DNA with bird
poop.
I think she was joking, but either way, no
offence is intended to any bird poop which
might be reading this.
***
A Wikipedia check showed that organic
communities develop fast. Scientists
observing Surtsey, an island which appeared
suddenly in the sea near Iceland in 1963,
noticed that by 1964 it had insects, by 1965
a plant, and by 1998 a slug.
In evolutionary terms, a slug is a
looooong way from being a human, but in

terms of intelligence, I imagine it is perhaps
not that far from nationalist politicians,
supermodels and the like.
***
To do my due diligence, I phoned a scientist, who said that evolution of a biosphere
was called ecological succession and then
castigated me for making the common
wrong assumption that human intelligence
was the pinnacle of evolution.
High intelligence is an anti-evolutionary
trait, he said, quoting numerous studies.
Stupidity improves efficiency (Journal of
Management Studies), boosts productivity
(University of Texas), and increases happiness (University of Edinburgh).
The most cerebral people live shorter lives
and reproduce less.
***
That makes sense, if you think about it.
The most powerful people in human society are rock stars, builders, footballers,
supermodels, stockbrokers et al, folk whose
intelligence levels are too often roughly
level with that of an average novelist's
colonic microfloral bacteria.
In contrast, people who actually have
ultra-big brains are writing novels or teaching college math and not earning enough
money to rub two coins together to keep
warm, let alone marry and raise large

numbers of children.
***
Now here's a question: If humans are not
evolution's zenith, what is?
One colleague nominated sharks.
They do nothing at all except eat, sleep,
reproduce and occasionally star in movies.
(My dream schedule.)
A second said it was domestic dogs: "We
feed them and clean up their poop in return
for nothing but love and affection."
A third said cat-owners feed their cats and
clean up their poop "in return for nothing
but disdain and aloofness".
Cats win.
***
Retreating to my inbox, I found a reader
had sent a web link to a news report about a
woman who accidentally shot herself when
trying to take a "selfie" holding a gun to her
head.
It was followed by a report about officials
in India asking pet-owners to paint their

dogs blue to differentiate them from wild
dogs.
A web-search led me to a New Scientist
report that several studies showed that
human intelligence was falling rather than
rising.
***
All this stupidity could be good news for
the long-term survival of the human race.
So let's all do our bit.
Avoid the natural temptation to overthink
things.
Create balance by drastically underthinking every decision you make.
Before making any decision, ask yourself:
WWHD? (What would Homer do?)
***
Step one is for humans to stop worrying
about what's evolving on Nishinoshima and
learn from cats.
Feed me. Love me. In return, I promise
disdain and aloofness.
Laughter is the Best Medicine
by Mahendra Shah
Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and
humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the
immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons. Hailing from Gujarat,
he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ASTROLOGY
June 13-19, 2015
29
Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874

Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 9899
psharma@premastrologer.com; www.premastrologer.com
By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma
June 13-19, 2015

ARIES: There is too much work on your
platter for you to think of anything else.
Only by taking someones help will you
be able to finish what you had started.
Performance of a family youngster may be
mediocre, but dont make it an issue to berate
him or her. You may become penny wise and
pound foolish, and waste money on unimportant
things. Wayside food will prove bad for your
health, so desist from it. You may find lover quieter than usual, so give him or her space.
TAURUS: You may become interested
in learning something new and divert
your focus and energy to it. Someone
elses workload can become your burden at
work, but you will only be repaying it back in
the same coin.
You may keep yourself aloof from your peer
group and miss out on all the fun things. How to
increase your earning power may become all
consuming for some. Discussing all and sundry
with family members will help clear your mind.
You may be compelled to ignore someones
unwanted attention.
GEMINI: Impatience and irritability
threaten to spoil your week. You are likely to remain on a short fuse and nitpick
on everything. Your moodiness may deter lover
from going ahead with the weeks plans.
Someone may play a spoilsport in a function
organised by you. Undertaking a journey with
someone you dont particularly like cannot be
ruled out for some. You can be blamed for shoddy work on the professional front. Monetary
loss is foreseen. Those carrying large amounts
need to be extra vigilant.
CANCER: Your lucky streak continues as whatever you touch turns to

gold! Your way of handling things at
work is likely to place you in a different league
altogether. Some of you are likely to master a
difficult skill. Organising something special for
a chosen few will be a hit and enhance your
social image.
Your never-say-die attitude on the love front
will keep passions ignited perpetually! Travel
plans for a break from the routine may be drawn
up by some. You will manage to keep yourself
shipshape on the health front.
LEO: You can become a bit bee-minded
on the professional front and not give
someone his or her due. Your behaviour
with subordinates can put your reputation at
stake. The more you try to save, more you seem
to be spending, so relax the grip on finances and
see the moolah pour in. Those with lifestyle diseases may neglect their health. Family will
appear supportive and give you the correct environment to do your job efficiently. You will
make an all out attempt to rekindle your love
life.
VIRGO: Travel stars appear bright over
the horizon, so pack your bags for someplace exotic! A legal case pertaining to a
property shows all the signs of going your way.
You are likely to reach an amicable solution in a
dispute with someone on the financial front.
Spending time with lover will give immense fulfillment. Someone is likely to lavish praise on
you for your helpful attitude. You will remain
totally in control of a situation that may arise on
the home front.
LIBRA: Not heeding the advice of others at work may leave you isolated and
make you fend for yourself. Some of
you may feel victimised on the professional
front. Impulse buying is likely to affect your
financial health adversely. Working women may
resent their spouse not sharing household work.
Neglect may make a family youngster go wayward. Someone you secretly love may reject
you, so instead of being dejected, take it in your
stride and start afresh! Bad health is likely to lay
you down.
SCORPIO: As far as you are concerned,
the worst is over on the professional front.
Now you can heave a sigh of relief.
Retailers may review their rates with their own
profits in mind. Someone you had wanted to
meet for long may visit you. Those staying separated from family may get an opportunity to
come home. Taking lover for a drive will give an
opportunity for a heart-to-heart talk. A home remedy for an ailment is likely to work wonders.
Postpone property matters for some other week.
SAGITTARIUS:
Things
turn
favourable for you both on the personal
and professional front. You will find
positive reactions from those who were previously neglecting you. A project may become all
consuming for you and your passion will pay
you handsomely on the professional front.
House owners will be able to put their house on
rent, but not before carrying out minor alterations. You may get invited to a gathering of
near and dear ones. Someone is likely to guide
you on the health front and nurse you back into
shape.
CAPRICORN: This week, you will not

hesitate to exercise your initiative at
work. Coordinating things will prove a
cakewalk as you resolve to make things smooth
on the domestic front. You will be able to save
by spending wisely. Lover is likely to meet your
romantic aspirations and make the week pleasurable.
A friend may motivate you to accompany him or
her on a trip and you will not regret your decision! Someones health issue may give you
sleepless nights and affect your health too.
AQUARIUS: You are likely to take on
more than you can handle on the professional front. A dip in performance at
work is foreseen for the error-prone. A cold war
may ensue with spouse on the home front over
another member of the family. You may be in an
unforgiving mood and may even create a scene.
Your romantic front stands neglected with no
hope for resurrection. Some of you may get hard
pressed for suitable conveyance this week.
Previous savings are likely to come in handy
now.
PISCES: You will have to play your
cards well on the professional front in
order to manoeuvre yourself to a position of advantage. Something pending for long
at work is likely to be completed now. Arrival of
an outsider may thaw strained relations on the
home front and open lines of communication
with spouse. You may take time out to go and
meet someone you are attracted to. A splurging
family youngster will need to be discouraged
from indulging in wasteful expenditure. You
will need to remain alert on the road.
Annual Predictions: For those born in this week

13th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Uranus Ruled by no: 4
Traits in you: Uranus, being your dominating planet helps
you become dynamic and creative. You are positive, realistic,
responsive, and sincere. You need to work and overcome the
weaknesses in your personality to attract more people towards you.
Health this year: Your health would remain very good this
year. However, you need to go for regular yoga exercises. You
should not ignore your healthy diet plan to remain in shape.
Go for regular medical checkups to avoid any hiccups further.
Finance this year: You may go for a property transaction this
year and this will bring you a lot of money. You need to be
decisive to invest on real estate or gold as there are risks involved. Do not trust any of your new partners as they may
cheat you. You may spend enough money on buying a vehicle or renovating your property.
Career this year: Being a hardworking professional, you
may create wonders for your organization. You need to learn
more and look for better options. You may not get your expected promotion or salary hike in spite of your hard work
and efficiency.
Romance this year: If you are yet to be in a relationship, this
year is the ideal time to find a partner. You will get ample support from your spouse in any critical decision you have to
take. You should show your love to your partner as it strengthens your relationship.
Lucky month: May, July, November and January
14th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Mercury Ruled by no: 5
Traits in you: Your ruling planet Mercury makes you realistic, reliable, sincere, and optimistic. You are the master of an
excellent memory power and charismatic characteristics. You
need not get nervous at tough time as it may create a question
mark on your capabilities.
Health this year: You need to stop your bad habits such as
smoking and consuming alcohol to remain healthy. You
should take expert advice from a doctor to avoid health related issues. You should take your medicines at time to avoid
further complicacy in your health. Take care of the health of
your spouse and parents as well.
Finance this year: You will earn a lot of money from your
past investment this year. However, you should invest your
money after going through the market thoroughly. Do not
lend or money this year. You may spend a lot of money on
buying comfort and luxury for your family members.
Career this year: This year you will reach to the peak of your
professional career and it will offer you huge financial benefits. This year will be pretty rewarding for female employees.
You may get a better performance appraisal as well as salary
hike as compared to your expectations.
Romance this year: For your marital relationship, this year

will be pretty fruitful for you. If you are still single, you may
get into a romantic alliance towards the end of the year. If you
are already in a relationship, you may plan to convert your relationship into marriage.
Lucky month: June, November, December and March
15th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Venus Ruled by no: 6
Traits in you: Your ruling planet Venus makes optimistic,
ambitious, caring, aspiring, and determined. You are very social and love to make new friends and get into new relationships. You are a huge follower of intelligence and education.
Health this year: Your health would not cause much worries
for you this year. However, the health of your family member s may require extra care. Provide your parents with proper medication as they may fall sick often due to old age. You
may start taking a balanced diet. You should stop consuming
alcohol and smoking cigarettes for the betterment of your
health.
Finance this year: You will be able to stabilize your financial condition by reaping profits from your past investments.
You may also plan for new investments this year. You will
find enough new opportunities to start up a new business that
would yield money for you. You should invest in real estate
or stock market for better returns.
Career this year: You will be establishing yourself as a very
efficient and important resource in your organization this
year. Your performance will influence your peers, seniors and
higher management. It is the best time to look out for a new
job as it will help you grow both professionally and financially.
Romance this year: You may get some good news from your
spouse or partner later this week. This will make your relationship grow stronger. You may have to travel to distant
places to spend time youre your partner and maintain a good
relationship.
Lucky month: April, June, October and January
16th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Neptune Ruled by no: 7
Traits in you: As you are governed by planet Neptune, you
are blessed with various positive characters. You are confident, decisive, generous, humorous, honest, modest and optimistic. You are not an admirer of arguments or silly fights.
You should work on your nature of being selfish, pessimistic,
and arrogant.
Health this year: You will enjoy a better health this year as
compared to last year. However, the health of an aged family
member may deteriorate and that will make you bothered.
You may end up spending lot of money for the health issues
of your family members.
Finance this year: Though you will be able to improve your

financial status, you may end up spending a lot of money in
buying luxury and comfort for yourself and your family. You
may put your money in real estate for better returns.
Career this year: Your interest and enthusiasm to perform
will make you an extraordinary performer in your professional circuit. You will be respected and rewarded for your
work. You need to take the leadership responsibility to cement your position in your organization.
Romance this year: Your plans to go for holidays with your
partner may not work because of huge work pressure and this
may create disturbance in your marital life. You need to take
care of the emotional requirements of your partner to lead a
peaceful life this year.
Lucky month: June, September, November and February
17th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Saturn Ruled by no: 8
Traits in you: Your ruling planet Saturn makes you humble,
honest, focused, practical, realistic and enthusiastic. You are
blessed with enormous talent and imagination. Along with
the positive characters in you, there are some negative aspects
in your nature. You need to work on your nature of being envious, unreliable, and indiscipline.
Health this year: Though you would not face any major
health related issues, you should take extra care of your
health. Do not take unwanted risk of putting your health in
stake. Go for regular medical checkups.
Finance this year: You may try your entrepreneurship skills
this year and you will be successful unexpectedly. You will
be able to get many projects, which you help you establish as
a good businessperson. You should go for investments in real
estate and stock market.
Career this year: Your confidence will convert you into a
winner. You will be capable enough to overcome any challenge you need to face. The chances of your promotion and
transfer are high due to the organizational change.
Romance this year: Your relationship with your spouse or
partner will blossom this year. If you are not married, you
may have to wait for few more years though you are eligible
for marriage.
Lucky month: May, October, November and January
18th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Mars Ruled by no: 9
Traits in you: Your ruling planet Mars makes you strong, determined, courageous, enthusiastic, intelligent, ambitious,
and motivated. You have a strong dislike towards fake people and fake emotions. You are a huge fan of truth and cleanliness. You need to work on your nature of showing dictatorship and being rude and stubborn at times.
Health this year: You will enjoy a better health this year as
compared to last year. However, the health of an aged family

member may deteriorate and that will make you bothered.
You may end up spending lot of money for the health issues
of your family members.
Finance this year: Your financial conditions will be very
stagnant this year. As you will not earn much or spend much,
you will lead a peaceful life in money matters. You may invest for future. Do not lend or borrow money from your
friends or colleagues.
Career this year: You will enjoy a good professional atmosphere this year. You will be appreciated by your seniors and
higher management. This may bring you promotions and
salary hike. You need to concentrate more on your work to
get a better position in your profession. You may go for a job
change this year. However, you should not decide anything
hastily.
Romance this year: Your relationship with your spouse or
partner will blossom this year. If you are not married, you
may have to wait for few more years though you are eligible
for marriage.
Lucky month: July, September, November and February
19th June, 2015
Ruled planet: Sun Ruled by no: 1
Traits in you: Your ruling planet the Sun blesses you with a
unique character. You are pretty confident, creative, intellectual, optimistic, and enthusiastic. You are gifted with an artistic perception. You are very much social and like to make new
contacts wherever you go. However, you need to control your
mood swings and selfishness.
Health this year: You will enjoy a normal health this year.
Though you will not have any major health issues, you need
to take proper medication. You may practice yoga and meditation for better results.
Finance this year: You will be among major financial gains
this year. You may go for a real estate transaction later this
year and this will bring you a lot of money to cherish. You
may start up a new business. If you are already into business,
you may plan for expanding its territory this year.
Career this year: Professionally, you are a very smart and
efficient worker. So you may need to clarify doubts and help
you peers and juniors in their work. People in your professional circuit will seek your help at every crucial situation.
You may get promoted as a result of your spectacular performance throughout the year. You may be assigned a new responsibility this year. You may go for a job change as well as
there will be plenty of opportunities available.
Romance this year: Your romantic relationship will reach
new heights this year. You may get married this year, if you
are unmarried yet. You need to take care of the emotional requirements of your partner to strengthen your relationship.
Lucky month: April, July, August, November and March
30
June 13-19, 2015
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Concluding part of the discourse 'Show gratitude by giving'
Inculcate virtue of giving

in our lives
By Sant Rajinder Singh
Ji Maharaj
nother example of this spirit of giving is illustrated in
the life of Sant Darshan
Singh Ji Maharaj. During the partition of India, train service was not
running as usual. Sant Kirpal Singh
Ji informed Sant Darshan Singh Ji
that the health of their Master,
Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji
Maharaj, was failing and he should
come immediately to see Hazur.
Sant Darshan Singh Ji rushed to the
train station in Delhi to catch a train
to Beas. Unfortunately, the last
train was already packed, and the
gates to the train were closed.
Being athletic and determined to
get on that train, Sant Darshan
Singh Ji climbed the fence. There
were absolutely no seats left in any
train compartment. Thus, he had to
ride along with other passengers on
the top of the train. The ride took
many hours. At night, the temperature dropped, and it grew colder. As
Sant Darshan Singh Ji rode on the
top of the train, he noticed a man
who had no coat. The man was
shivering tremendously. Sant
Darshan Singh Ji, moved by compassion, took off his own coat and
wrapped it around the shivering
man. As a result, Sant Darshan
Singh Ji had to bear many hours of
being in the cold night air, with the
wind whipping around him. As a
result, Sant Darshan Singh Ji contracted chronic asthma. This asthma
plagued him for many years to
come. But, as is the case of all
saints, he put the needs of others
before his own needs. His compassion for the suffering of others was
so great that he gave of himself,
even if it meant he had to sacrifice
his own health, his own time, his
own money, or his own comfort.
Such cases are just a few examples of the long history of saints
giving of themselves to help others.
As we advance spiritually, we
become immersed in the love of
God and are filled with a neverending stream of bliss coming from
within. This love is so great that we
no longer feel pleasure from the
outer gifts of the world or for wanting things for ourselves. We then
realize that whatever we have is a
gift of the Lord. We also realize
that all creation is part of our family, as brothers and sisters in God.
Just as we freely share what we
have with our parents, children, or
siblings, in the same way we see all

as our family and freely share with
them. We are then generous not
only to our own family but even to
strangers. We no longer consider
anyone a stranger. We are then
ready to give to anyone who needs
our help.
As Sant Darshan Singh Ji
Maharaj said in a verse:
Others have disowned their kith
and kin,
But I have made even strangers
my very own.
Sant Darshan Singh Ji is saying
that most people feel obligated to
help their families. We mostly
focus on our immediate family who
lives in our household, such as our
parents or children. Then, we go
out of our way due to family obligations for our brothers and sisters,
our aunts and uncles, our grandparents, or our grandchildren. But
beyond that, most people stop.
They think that the problems of
people who are not related to them
are the problems of other peoples
families. We often only give out of
social obligation at the time of
Christmas or Thanksgiving to
organizations that collect money
for the poor. We may donate to an
organization that provides toys to
needy children or toiletries to
needy families. We may open up
our pockets at the time of an international disaster such as a flood,
hurricane, tsunami, earthquake,
volcano, or fire. Some people do
this because everyone else is
doing it, and they do not want to
be perceived as being selfish. But
beyond these occasions for giving,
we seldom consider the need to
help a stranger.
It is only when we meditate and
rise above consciousness of this
physical world to travel as soul in
the spiritual realms beyond that we
gain a new awareness. We begin to
see that we are not separate people
anymore. There is no such thing as
a stranger. We experience that the
same Light of God shining in us is
in all other people. We feel connected to all other human beings as
if we were all one family of God.
We love others and want to help
them. We turn a new page in our
life and begin to help everyone. We
live by the principle that Sant
Kirpal Singh Ji lived by which said,
I have come to serve all.
The more we meditate, the more
we develop this angle of vision.
Then, one day, we too will be filled
with extreme generosity and will
share whatever we have with all
creation.
Let Thanksgiving not just be a

day in which we thank God and our
family for our many gifts. Let this
be a day in which we make a commitment to give and serve others.
We should not be like a sponge in
which we soak up all the gifts from
others. We need to squeeze the
sponge so that the water within us
flows out to others.
How can we inculcate the virtue
of giving in our own lives? We can
give in many ways. We can give
physically, intellectually, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.
There are two areas of the intro-
for our own gains, but doing so in

the name of God and the Master.
During these moments, we are
humble. We are spending our time
engaged in helping others. What is
more, we are spending our lifes
breaths engaged in activities that do
not create any new karma. When
we act in our own name, we are
creating karma. Even when we do
good deeds we are accumulating
good karma for which we must stay
in the physical world to reap physical rewards. If our aim is to wind
up karmas in our lifetime, then we
do not want to come back to this
Let Thanksgiving not just be a day in which we thank God and

our family for our many gifts. Let this be a day in which we
make a commitment to give and serve others. Seen in the
picture, in a group effort, women preparing food for langar.
spection diary designed to help us
develop the qualities of giving and
selflessness. One area of the diary
lets us record the number of times
we fail per day in a particular
virtue. One of these is selfless service, which is also called seva. Each
time we are presented with an
opportunity to help someone and
we do not avail ourselves of that
chance, we note that as a failure. In
this way, we become more attuned
to these opportunities that present
themselves and make a concerted
effort to help someone next time
around. The other area of the introspection diary provides a place in
which we mark the time we spend
in selfless service or giving. This
means that it is not only that we
take each opportunity for selfless
service, but that the amount of time
we spend in serving selflessly is
equally as important. Why? Time
spent in seva is time in which we
are remembering God and are acting as a humble vessel through
which Gods grace can flow to
reach others. We are not doing seva
physical realm. Any karma,

whether for good deeds or bad
deeds, requires us to reap rewards
or consequences. This physical
realm is one in which we pay for all
our karmas. Thus, any karma is
going to bring us again and again to
this world. When we do so, we
have to pass through the ups and
downs of life in this physical realm
again.
Our goal should be to rise above
the three lower realms of karma.
We need to transcend the physical
realm, the astral realm, and supracausal realm. When we do so, we
enter the supracausal realms and
Sach Khand, where we are no
longer touched by our karmas. We
are then free from the cycle of
births and deaths, and live in an
eternal realm of all peace, joy, and
bliss. To free ourselves of this cycle
of births and deaths, we have to
stop accumulating new karma and
burn off our old karma.
How can we pay off our karma?
There are three blessings we
receive when we come to a spiritual
Master that wind up our karma.

First, the Master takes over our
karmic accounts at the time of initiation. This means that Master is the
accounts keeper of our destiny. He
can determine how best we can
wind it up for our maximum
progress.
Second, the Master helps us pass
through the sanchit karmas allotted
for this lifetime in an easier fashion. Thus, what was supposed to be
the gallows could be reduced to a
pin prick.
Third, the Master lays out a path
by which we can avoid incurring
further karmas. He tells us that
daily meditation on the inner Light
and Sound can help burn away new
karmas we create just by the
process of living. Each day, without
intending to do so, we may step on
insects, drive over insects or tiny
creatures, kill microscopic life
forms just by breathing, and take
the lives of plants given by God to
eat for food.
Even though killing plants incurs
the least karma of all living things,
there is still some karma. Thus,
each day we are adding karma just
by virtue of being human. By meditating, we can burn off the added
karma we create each day. Also,
when we keep the introspection
diary, we are weeding out the negative traits that incur more karma.
By leading lives of nonviolence,
truthfulness, chastity, humility, and
selfless service we are avoiding
creating bad karmas for which we
will have to return to the earth to
pay off.
The Master also gives us the gift
of meditation and selfless service.
When we spend time in those two
activities, we are not incurring any
new karma, as long as we remain
selfless. That is why entering the
time spent in seva is important,
because each hour we spend in selfless service, we are not incurring
more karma. But that seva must be
selfless, in which we do not want
any material gains for ourselves.
We do seva in the name of God and
the Master, whereby our help is
given and we only reap the spiritual
rewards in the form of blessings
from God and the Master. It is okay
to want spiritual blessings from
God and the Master for our seva.
That is because those spiritual
blessings move us to the true purpose of our lives, union of our soul
with God. Each time we give of
ourselves in selfless service, we are
not incurring more karma and are
attracting the grace of God and the
Master, whose blessings will uplift
us so our soul can merge back into
God.
June 13-19, 2015
CELEBRATIONS INC. & VEDIC HERITAGE INC.

CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO JOIN THE
INTERNATIONAL
YOGA DAY EVENT
With Chief Guest
Honorable Acharya
Dr. Lokesh Muni
AND OTHER INVITED DIGNITARIES
Saturday, June 20, 2015,

6 PM 9 PM
At the Pandit Jasraj Auditorium
of Vedic Heritage Shree Hanuman Temple,
111 Jerusalem Ave.,
Hempstead, NY 11550. USA
YOGA PRESENTATION BY
MS RANJU NARANG GROUP
Free Admission. RSVP is mandatory.

Limited seats available.
Acharya dr. Lokesh Muni

Founder Ahimsa Vishwa Bharati, New Delhi, India
Refreshments and dinner

will be served
Sponsored by Celebrations & Kamlesh Mehta.
RSVP
Nilima Madan (516) 603 5022
Media Partners:
Uma Sengupta (718) 380 0724
The South Asian Times, The Asian Era
Shalu Chopra (917) 754 3463

Kamlesh Mehta (516) 395 3764
email: yogainternational2015@gmail.com

Vol 8 Issue 6 - June 13-19, 2015

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The South Asian Times

Vol.8 No. 6 June 13-19, 2015 60 Cents

New York Edition

After India, US to test India says Pak rattled by

New York: After being banned in

Maggi is still selling at Indian

New Delhi: India on Thursday said

The Indian troops involved in operation along the border with

unspecified number of insurgents

simple action against insurgents

Pak parliament passes anti-India resolutions

Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Swami Maheshwarananda,

ART & CULTURE 15

Islamabad: Terming the recent

In Dhaka, Prime Minister Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart

ments by the Indian leadership."

countries. Indian Minister of State

June 13-19, 2015

A glimpse of events held by Indian Embassies in various parts of the

Ambassador of India to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya meets

Ambassador Bhattacharyya addressing the Yoga instructors during the meet.

Embassy of India, Phnom Penh & Ministry of Tourism, Royal Government of

The High Commission of India, Port

June 13-19, 2015

Anshu Jain steps down at Deutsche Bank; pressed by regulator

Anshu Jain was co-CEO of Deutsche

leading banks charge each other for shortterm loans.

Aarthi Agarwal dies in New Jersey after

tors. The penalty was the biggest in the

Jain guru Lokesh Muni to grace Yoga Day

Indian woman with rare TB sets off scare in US

(CDC) said that as a precautionary measure

Information about where she was from

said. CDC said it is now working with the

June 13-19, 2015

Nikhil Seth to head

Dr. Tushar B. Patel of South

moon in Tajikistan. "Kashmir cannot be

Chairman and Co-Founder

Managing Editor: Parveen Chopra

President: Arjit Mehta

Contributing Editors:Nilima Madan,

Strategy and Marketing

June 13-19, 2015

terrorists and Bin Laden, said

bullied in school. Kaur highlighted

Indian American Stanford professor

their turbans in public is akin to be

and data to find creative solutions to

New body formed to attract US business to India

(from left) Mohinder Verma, President of IABA, honoree Darshan Bagga,

New York: The recently formed Indian

Indian communities in the US in promoting

June 13-19, 2015

Council Member Peter Koo honors Dr Uma Mysorekar

for the Handicapped and Aid to the Disabled, Orphaned and

INOC celebrates B. R. Ambedkars

INOC USA members at the event with Chief Guest Arjun

t a grand function organized by the Indian

June 13-19, 2015

Former Oregonian editor Peter Bhatia to lead Reynolds Center

HAF honors Murthy

opportunity to lead it and help nd new

Bhatias history with the Reynolds Center