GOPIO NEWS
BULLETIN
March 2006
NOTE: GOPIO News is a monthly newsletter of GOPIO International, based in the
CONTENTS
INDIAN CABINET
CLEARS VOTING RIGHTS FOR NRIs
GOPIO WELCOMES CUT IN NRI FEES
PRAVASI CENTERS IN FIVE
COUNTRIES PLANNED
INDIAN BRAIN POWER
CONTRIBUTE TO AMERICAN TECH BOOM PRESIDENT BUSH
US
GOPIO CHAPTER NEWS
GOPIO
GOPIO TO PARTICPATE IN
CONFERENCES
GOPIO-
NRIs/PIOs
ACHIEVE
KOSMIK DEVELOPED BY NRIs
TO CHALLENGE GOOGLE
MITTAL
INDIAN AMERICAN APPOINTED MEMBER-AT-LARGE OF
DEMOCRATIC PARTY
LORD NAREN PATEL TO HEAD SCOTTISH VARSITY
INDIAN AMERICAN APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION IN
NJ
DR. SABEEHA MERCHANT IS WINNER OF
DR. PARVEEN CHOPRA APPOINTED TO BOARD OF UNITED NEW YORKERS
FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION
PROF. TOM KAILATH INDUCTED INTO SILICON VALLEY ENGINEERING
HALL OF FAME
32
INDIAN ORIGIN CANDIATES WIN CANADIAN ELECTIONS
EIGHT INDIAN AMERICANS SELECTED TO US
SEVEN INDIAN AMERICANS WIN SOROS GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP
HINDUJAS TO
CONTRIBUTE TO DUKE OF ENDINBURGH AWARDS
NEWS OF INTEREST TO NRIs AND PIOs AROUND THE WORLD
US
BASED
US
INSURER BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD COVERS SURGERY IN
INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVE TRAINING SCHEDULED IN PUNE IN
DEC.
GOPIO LIFE MEMBERSHIP AND CHAPTER FORMATION
EDITORIAL BOARD
INDIAN CABINET CLEARS VOTING RIGHTS FOR NRIs
The
Indian Union cabinet held on February 15th
cleared amendments to Representation of Peoples Act bill under which
non-resident Indians could now have voting rights. The cabinet meeting, chaired
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
cleared the amendments in section 20 of the Act so as to amplify the definition
of "ordinarily resident".
Under the amended law, Indian nationals residing in foreign
countries who have been absented from their place of their ordinary residence in
India owing to their employment, education or otherwise to get their names in
the electoral rolls and thus exercise their voting rights.
The
cabinet also gave its approval for introduction of an amendment bill on the same
in the current session of Parliament so that the NRIs have a sense of belonging. The amendment bill
will entitle the eligible citizens of
GOPIO had passed a resolution for granting OF voting rights
to Indian citizens living outside
GOPIO RESOLUTION
8
RESOLUTION ON VOTING RIGHTS FOR INDIAN CITIZENS LIVING
OUTSIDE
WHEREAS, about 30% of the PIOs and NRIs living outside
WHEREAS, most of the countries provide opportunities for their
citizens living outside their countries to participate in the election process
of their countries,
WHEREAS,
The
Global Convention of people of Indian origin meeting in
URGES Government of
GOPIO again passed this resolution at the GOPIO Conference
in
GOPIO WELCOMES CUT IN NRI FEES
The
Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), has welcomed the decision of the government of
In
2002, GOPIO had presented several resolutions to Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee during his visit to
GOPIO RESOLUTION
PRICE DIFFERENTIATION FOR NRIs AND PIOs FOR HOTELS & ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES
WHEREAS, it
may be understandable that those who can afford should pay more, it is a poor
policy to differentiate between the citizens of
NRIs/PIOs by
asking them to pay more for the same Hotel accommodation and for the same
entrance ticket to the archeological sites such as Taj Mahal, and
WHEREAS, the
intent and actions of PIOs to
support
WHEREAS,
there is a grave concern about the feelings of Indians abroad who are against
this "double standard"
THEREFORE,
GOPIO urges the Government of India to stop this discriminatory practice.
"Higher tariffs were an act of outright discrimination
against NRIs," said GOPIO
President Inder Singh. "There was no reason to continue with this dual policy
when the government of
GOPIO Chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham said that this decision
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
will help to remove the distrust on Govt. of India policies toward NRIs/PIOs. "When our children visit the
Taj Mahal, they are outraged at the ticket counter when
they are asked to pay much higher entry fee," Abraham said. "This is a right
decision from Govt. of India to stop this discriminatory practice," Abraham
added.
GOPIO officials presented this and other resolutions to the
former minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes at the last Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in
GOPIO was happy to note that the government of India not
only acted promptly but also went a step further by doing away with this
practice for all foreign visitors whether they are of Indian origin or not. "We
hope that this decision will be implemented by the various government agencies,
hotels and private companies," Singh added.
PRAVASI CENTERS IN FIVE COUNTRIES PLANNED
Vayalar
Ravi, the new minister for overseas Indian affairs, has announced that Pravasi centers would soon be set up in
five countries, including in the Middle East, the
But he said that each center would have two or three
officials and would be directly under his ministry. The centers will be equipped
to deal with all issues faced by the Indian Diaspora including providing
assistance in legal matters, said
Ravi further said that his ministry's prime concern was to
ensure the welfare of NRIs
especially in the
He also said that his other concerns are to see that the
present Emigration Act of 1983 is amended. "The existing act lacks teeth and
there is not enough provision to punish those who engage in fraudulent
recruitment. I have also asked my team to draw up a plan for computerizing the
emigration department," said
INDIANS BRAIN POWER CONTRIBUTE TO AMERICAN BOOM PRESIDENT
BUSH
"As the high-tech boom helped transform our society, a lot
of the brain power behind that boom have been Indian Americans, as well as
Indians educated here in
"Let me make one other point, if
you don't mind, that I should have made in my speech today and that is that
there are a lot of Indian Americans who made a tremendous contribution to our
country, as well," said Bush.
He also glowingly described a radical change in the image
of
Bush specially lauded the Indian American community of
software wizards for this dramatic transformation of
He also promised to lift visa
restrictions for educated Indians with high skill levels.
"And so the American people, as
well, have begun to get kind of a different perspective on the great
contributions that
US
The main post
office in Temecula, a city about 100 miles from
The city of
Congressman Issa had introduced the bill to rename
the post office after Saund in
the US Congress and piloted through till its passage. President George Bush
signed the bill into a law last July.
Temecula city
mayor Ron Roberts said that the renaming of the post office after Saund was a matter of pride for the
town. Speaking on behalf of the Indian American community, Inder Singh thanked
Congressman Issa for taking the
initiative to honor Saund. He
said, "Saund entered the same
Congress in 1956 which a few years earlier had passed Asian exclusionary laws to
bar them (Asians) from owning
property, marrying a
The ceremony was
conducted by former
GOPIO CHAPTER NEWS
GOPIO LONDON TO LAUNCH WEB RADIO PROGRAM ACCESSIBLE
WORLD-WIDE
GOPIO -London resident Raj Lakha has announced that GOPIO London UK will launch
its own radio program on March 12th, 006 from
14.00hrs-16.00hrs GMT be broadcasting a live internet radio programme accessible
world-wide on www.gfmradio.com
GFM has 4 million listeners across the globe from Africa,
Asia and
Please feel free to phone in live and speak to our guests
or email us whilst we are on air at info@gfmradio.com. The program is presented by
Raj Lakha and Guests. This will
enable us to build the GOPIO family across the
GOPIOS new chapter
GOPIO TO PARTICPATE IN CONFERENCES
GOPIO Secretary General and President of GOPIO Belgium
Sunil Prasad has been invited to speak at a panel which is organized as
a public debate by the well know publication, The Economist
in association with Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International
Affairs), in London on the evening of the 2nd March 2006. The debate will be
based on the following motion '
GOPIO Chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham will speak at a
conference on South Asian Americans Prospects and Issues, being organized by
GOPIO-
GOPIONew York President Lal Motwani, who is also the Vice President of the
National Federation of Indian-American Associations (NFIA), served as the host
for over four hundred Indian Americans and others who joined for a reception and
viewing Pearls of the Parrot on India, Emperor Akbars Illustrated Khamsa, 1597-98, held at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York city on February 22nd. The reception and cultural program were
held at the
NRIs/PIOs ACHIEVE
KOSMIK DEVELOPED BY
NRIs TO CHALLENGE GOOGLE
Two Indian computer wizards who studied along with Google
co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at
Google basically searches pages
based on a sort of popularity contest and not necessarily its content but Kosmix' creators says they took a
different approach and developed a new kind of 'categorization' technology.
The two Indians, who were among
the co-founders of web database company 'Junglee', hope their deep search technology can
improve upon Google's one-size-fits-all approach. Kosmix asks users to define a category for a search.
If a search term is related to health, users can make a query in a
health-related search box. That way, it can find webpages closely associated in meaning with the
search term.
It then looks at what webpages linking to other pages say -
to take a bigger stab at judging the page's subject. If a webpage is saying
something similar to the page it links to, you can get enough information to
categorise it by topic, says
Harinarayan.
Kosmix has already started testing a health search
on its website. Over the next year, the company will release numerous categories
of search - from health to travel, politics and finance. It plans to unveil a
general search box within a year.
MITTAL
Lakshmi Mittal has
been chosen for the 2007 Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Leadership Award by a
leading New York-based Business Council. It was announced by the Business
Council for International Understanding (BCIU), a non-profit making
The award will be presented at
BCIU's Annual Opera Gala at the
Metropolitan Opera House at
Since its inception in 2003, the Dwight D. Eisenhower
Global Leadership Award has been given to business executives who exemplify the
definition of an international business leader by exhibiting outstanding
contributions to global commerce.
MIttal
owns the largest steel company in the world.
INDIAN AMERICAN
APPOINTED MEMBER-AT-LARGE OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Entrepreneur Kamil Hasan, the first Indian American to be appointed as
Member-at-Large of the Democratic Party, hopes to use his position to jockey
greater influence for the community in policymaking. Hasan, founder of the Silicon Valley-based Hitek Venture Partners, was appointed
by Howard Dean, who heads the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Hasan will be involved in policymaking and development of the platform
for the party, helping the presidential candidate.
Born in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, Hasan got his Bachelors in Engineering from
Hasans wife, Talat, is the daughter of
After a successful entrepreneurial career, the Hasans decided to diversify into
"social entrepreneurship. Apart from the family foundations, they have been
active in the American India Foundation. In 2000, they endowed a chair in Indian
Classical Music at the
LORD NAREN PATEL TO HEAD SCOTTISH VARSITY
Lord Naren Patel, an obstetrics expert in
Born in
He is currently chairman of the
British stem cell oversight committee and the patron of several
charities.
INDIAN AMERICAN
APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION IN NEW
A prominent Indian-American Kris Kolluri has been appointed as the commissioner of
transportation in the
Ashok Mirchandani, Honorary Consul General of India to the
The Benin NRI Indian Community also honored Mirchandani, with a Lifetime
Achievement Award with a citation and a gold memento for his 30 years
of service to the Indian and Beninese community during the Grand Annual Indian
Gala.
DR. SABEEHA MERCHANT IS WINNER OF
Indian-American scientist Dr.
Sabeeha Merchant has won the US
National Academy of Sciences' Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal for her research on
green algae. A professor of biochemistry at the
The research on algea explores how living organisms manage to cope
with little or no metals which are necessary for vital biological functions.
The award is given every three years for excellence in
published research on marine or freshwater algae. Merchant is one of the 15
scientists selected by the Academy for the awards. The awards will be presented
on April 23 at a ceremony in
Born in Mumbai, Merchant attended JB Petit High School till
she was 15. When her parents immigrated to
DR. PARVEEN CHOPRA
APPOINTED TO BOARD OF UNITED NEW YORKERS FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION
Dr. Parveen Chopra, Co-Chairman of GOPIO Human Rights
Commission, has been appointed to the Board of Advisors of the United New
Yorkers for Choice in Education (UNYCE). Chopra is the first Asian to be
appointed to this position. Mr. Timothy P. Mulhern, President of UNYCE said in a letter that
Dr. Parveen Chopra was appointed because of his high profile within the Indian
and broader Asian Communities.
UNYCE is heavily involved in all educational policies,
decisions and reform of educational legislation. Currently, UNYCE is trying to
get the School Choice Legislation bill passed in the State of
PROF. TOM KAILATH INDUCTED INTO SILICON VALLEY ENGINEERING
HALL OF FAME
Thomas Kailath, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University,
who has mentored some of Silicon Valley's best-known entrepreneurs, has been
inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame for his contribution
to engineering sciences during a formal Engineers' Week banquet at Silicon
Valley's Museum of Innovation on Feb. 24.
Pune-born Prof. Kailath, who has taught at Stanford for nearly four
decades, has graduated more than 70 Ph.D. students and is one of the teaching
legends in
Prof. Kailath received a B.E. (Telecom) degree from the
Prof. Kailath's research has spanned a large number of
disciplines, emphasizing information theory and communications in the sixties,
linear systems, estimation and control in the seventies, VLSI design and sensor
array signal processing in the eighties, and applications to semiconductor
manufacturing and digital communications in the nineties. He has authored,
edited and coauthored several books, including 'Linear Systems' 'Indefinite
Quadratic Estimation and Control' and 'Linear Estimation.'
32 INDIAN ORIGIN CANDIATES WIN CANADIAN ELECTIONS
The new Canadian House of Commons will see several
Indo-Canadians who won the election including
EIGHT INDIAN AMERICANS SELECTED TO US
Eight Indian American engineers
were among the 76 new members elected by the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering (NAE) for 2006. The
eight honorees of Indian origin Zre: Rakesh Agrawal, IBM fellow and senior manager IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA;
Vijay Dhir, Dean of the School of
Engineering at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA); Pradeep Khosla, Dean of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon
University; Priya Prasad, Ford
technical fellow and manager at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI; A. Joseph
Paulraj, professor of electrical
engineering (research), Stanford University; Surendra Shah, Civil Engineering professor,
Northwestern University, IL; Madan Bhasin, currently a scientist with the Dow Chemical
Company in South Charleston, WV; and D.R. Nagaraj, research fellow, Cytec
Industries Inc, Stamford, CT.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional
distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have
made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education,
including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering
literature.
SEVEN INDIAN AMERICANS WIN SOROS GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP
Seven Indian Americans are among the 30 2006 Paul and Daisy
Soros New American Fellows.
Fellows receive up to a $20,000 stipend plus half tuition for as many as two
years of graduate study at any institution of higher learning in the
The seven Indian Americans are: Achal Achrol (1st year MD
at Stanford), Amit Bouri (MPP/MBA student at Harvard and
Kellogg School of Management), Snehal Desai (MFA student at Yale School of Drama),
Susan Mathai (1st year MD at Yale), Vipin Narang (Doctoral student in the Dept. of Govt. at
Harvard), Shantanu Nandy (2nd year MD at Johns Hopkins) and Amandeep Singh (MDE/Ph.D candidate at Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering
Tri-Institutional Medical Scientist Training Program).
HINDUJAS TO CONTRIBUTE TO DUKE OF ENDINBURGH AWARDS
The launch of the 50th anniversary year of the Duke of
Edinburgh's Award was followed by the announcement of the Hinduja Foundation, joining it with the creation of
3.5 million endowment fund to finance the award's objecting of encouraging
youths in various skills worldwide.
Hosted by the Earl of Wessex the reception also highlighted the affluence
and influence of Indians, who had flown in from all over the world, and more
significantly the re-emergence of the Hindujas at the top echelon of the British
establishment.
The award, conceived by Prince Philip, which attracts half
a million young from all over the world vying for the Gold, Silver and Bronze
awards that enable them to better their prospects, would be vastly helped by the
donation of 3.5 million by the Hinduja Brothers.
The donation will also enable the award to host an annual
reception at the time of the Hindu festival of Diwali in October, helping still further to raise
awareness of the award's activities among the Asian community.
Currently almost seven per cent of the 14-17-year-olds in
the
NEWS OF INTEREST TO NRIs/PIOs AROUND THE WORLD
US BASED
The
The
US INSURER BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD COVERS SURGERY IN
In a twist to the win-win outsourcing game, a
The insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield eventually
agreed to foot the bill, but not without some thorough homework on the track
record of the institution. The firm went the distance by even despatching a team to Chennai to inspect the
facilities at the Frontier Lifeline.
The inspection team gathered details such as the number of
paediatric surgeries done the
previous year and the mortality rate before the sanction came through.
"All we were asked to bear was the
cost of the flight tickets," said the boys mother, M. Shakeela, whose husband Murugan Mahesh hails from Chennai. They had heard
about the hospital from various sources.
"More than promotional, the expectations sparked by word-of-mouth is
all the more hard to match," K. M. Cherian, head of Frontier Lifeline points out.
The cost of the surgery here cost
only 10 per cent of the $50,000 it would have amounted to in any
INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVE TRAINING SCHEDULED IN PUNE IN
DEC.
An International Intensive
Training (IIT) is a 9-day, Nonviolent Communication, immersion experience. It is
a residential workshop, facilitated by certified trainers of Nonviolent
Communication (CNVC), and typically involves between 20 and 80 participants. The
purpose of an IIT training is to
offer people the opportunity to live the process of Nonviolent Communication in
community over an extended period of time, using this as an opportunity to
develop Nonviolent Communication skills and consciousness. The scheduled dates
in
The
workshop will be led by Marshall Rosenberg (cnvc.org). IIT Application
Form, may be obtained one from iit@cnvc.org or download one
from web at http://www.cnvc.org/iit-schedule.htm#iitapps.
For
more information write or call Dr. Hema Pokharna, ahinsa@mdiaccess.net,
Tel. in
Lord Patten, chancellor of
"Globalization doesn't end at the
He said there were about 17,000 Indian students in
He said
Lord Patten, who will also co-chair his first annual
meeting of the UK-India Round Table in Goa, spoke of a crisis in higher education and
research in
GOPIO, LIFE MEMBERSHIP AND CHAPTER FORMATION
GOPIO is a non-partisan, non-sectarian global organization
with chapters in several countries, actively promoting the interests of people
of Indian origin worldwide by monitoring and addressing current critical issues
of concern, and by enhancing cooperation and communication between groups of
Indians living in various countries.
GOPIO
Individual Life membership is open to all who believe in the mission of GOPIO.
The one time fee is $5,000 for Platinum Life Membership, $2,500 for Gold Life
Membership and $1,500 Silver Life Membership and half the amount for each
category for those from developing countries and
GOPIO
is looking forward to opening chapters in all major cities of the world so as to
network people of Indian origin all over the world. If you do not have chapter
in your city, please visit GOPIO website (www.gopio.net) and get details of chapter initiation
(visit http://www.gopio.net/chapter_initiative.htm). Process
involves sending a letter of intent to start a chapter by a committee of five
people or more. For
more information, contact:
GOPIO
President Inder Singh,
GOPIO
Secretary General Ashook Ramsaran, Fresh Meadows,
To
become a Life member of GOPIO, visit http://www.gopio.net/membership_form.htm, print and
fill up the form and send it with a check to: GOPIO,
EDITORIAL BOARD
Chief Editor: Dr. Thomas Abraham, Chairman, GOPIO (
Webmaster: Prashant Gupta (
Contributors of this issue: Inder Singh (USA), Ashook
Ramsaran (USA), Sunil Prasad (
GOPIO
NEWS welcomes NRI/PIO related stories from all over the world. Be a volunteer
correspondent or reporter. Contact Dr. Thomas Abraham, Tel: 203-329-8010,
E-mail: gopio@optonline.net
V
isit GOPIOs Official site at www.gopio.net or www.gopio.com