NRIs Corner

An Indian-American teenager from California is among the recipient of this year’s prestigious Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.

Kiran, age 16, of California, has received the prize for creation of Waste No Food, a free web-based service that links food donors with charities that feed the hungry.

His group has redistributed food to serve 100,000 meals and has kept thousands of pounds of food out of landfills, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes said in a media release.

An Indian-American perfume trader from Texas has been indicted by a federal court on charges of failing to report over 40 cash transactions exceeding USD 10,000, which totalled more than USD 1.6 million.

The accused, Virender Sharma, who is owner and president of a wholesale and retail perfume store in Laredo in Texas, has been indicted on 44 counts, US Attorney of the Southern District of Texas, Kenneth Magidson said.

The indictment claimed that Sharma, 59, was responsible for complying with the cash reporting requirements for the company.

An eight-year-old Indian girl who went missing from her home in Sharjah was found unharmed, five hours after her pictures were shared on social media.

“She was spotted by a passerby in Rolla. He asked her why she is alone and took her details. Then he sought the help of a family to get her back to us,” her father said.

A grade three student, Malavika, slipped out of her home in Al Musalla area in Rolla on Saturday evening, soon after her mother went for her evening shift duty, media reports said.

A group of NRIs have come together to set up a company with the purpose of planning and promoting India-related events in UK, with the two-day Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas being their first assignment.

The company, NRI UK Limited, is set up under charitable status and is looking forward to organize more NRI related functions after successfully organizing the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (RPBD) alongwith the Indian high commission here and ministry of external affairs in New Delhi.

An Indian-American foundry owner, who claimed that he had been invited to participate in building the world’s largest statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Gujarat, has been sentenced to prison for selling fake bronze sculptures for millions of dollars in the US.

A top Indian American doctor who heads the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, will be inducted into the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in recognition of his research into cell mechanics related to malaria, blood diseases and certain types of cancer.

Dr Subra Suresh, would be one of the only 16 living Americans to be elected to all three national academies — IOM, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering.

Suresh is the first Carnegie Mellon (CMU) faculty member to hold membership in all three academies.

Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Sushma Swaraj Friday urged the Indian diaspora in Britain to invest in India as the country offers tremendous opportunities.

“There are tremendous opportunities today for you to join us, especially in the fields of manufacturing, science and technology, research and innovation, knowledge economy and youth development,” Sushma Swaraj, who is also India’s minister of external affairs, said while inaugurating a two-day Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, a conclave of the Indian diaspora.

An Indian engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation for stealing trade secrets from medical technology giant Becton Dickinson and another New Jersey company.

Ketankumar Maniar, 38, who is also known as Ketan Maniar, had pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets in May, according to Northjersey.com.

Maniar, who has been in custody since his June 2013 arrest, was sentenced in federal court in Trenton Thursday. He was also ordered to pay BD restitution of $32,454.

A leading body of Indian-American physicians plans to hold its 9th annual Global Healthcare Summit aimed at bringing accessible, affordable and quality world-class healthcare to India in Mumbai from Jan 2-4.

The Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), one of the largest ethnic professional bodies, is organizing the summit at Trident Oberoi Hotel in collaboration with the Indian Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Overseas Indian Affairs.

Telugu Association of North America (TANA), the largest Telugu organization outside India, has announced that it will be making an initial contribution of $100,000 for relief efforts for the victims of cyclone Hudhud.

Expressing shock at the unprecedented disaster caused by cyclone Hudhud in the northern districts of Andhra Pradesh, TANA President Mohan Nannapaneni said TANA intends to help with both immediate relief and long term rebuilding measures.

As a new poll showed Indian-American Rohit ‘Ro’ Khanna closing the gap in the Congressional battle for Silicon Valley, he vowed to focus on the community’s key concerns – education and the economy.

“With the polls tied at 38/38 percent, this is the best pick up opportunity for an Indian American in the country,” said the former Obama administration official challenging veteran fellow Democrat seven term incumbent Mike Honda in the Nov 4 election.

A stitch in time saves nine. Not knowing how to sew and repair, American youths contributed to 14.3 million tonnes of textile waste in a single year in 2012, says a study.

A significant gap exists in the degree of clothes repair skills possessed by members of the baby boomer generation – people who were born between the years 1946 and 1964 – and millennials, the findings showed.

“In 2012, Americans created more than 14.3 million tonnes of textile waste,” said researcher Pamela Norum, a professor from the University of Missouri in the US.

A 28-year-old Indian woman facing trial for the murder of her husband in front of their young daughter in Bahrain has pleaded not guilty to the charges, media reported today.

The woman, said to have murdered her husband at their home in Bahrain’s capital Manama in April, was charged with premeditated murder and she appeared in the court yesterday to deny the allegations.

Three other people, including the victim’s brother, have been charged with aiding and abetting the murder.

A 28-year-old Indian has been sentenced to death in the US for killing an Indian baby and her grandmother in a 2012 kidnapping plot that went horribly wrong after a trial during which the accused said he would rather accept the death penalty than sit through arguments.

Raghunandan Yandamuri was convicted by a Montgomery County Court jury of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Satyavathi Venna, 61, and the suffocation death of her 10-month-old granddaughter, Saanvi Venna, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The State has received a major setback in Anni Dewani’s murder trial case in Cape Town with the High Court terming the evidence related to Shrien Dewani’s sexuality “irrelevant.”

Dewani’s sexuality has been brought up time and again in the five-days of the trial and is an important component of the State’s case against him, reported News 24.

The British millionaire has been accused of orchestrating the murder of his bride, Anni, during an apparently botched hijacking during their honeymoon in Cape Town in 2010.

He has pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him. (ANI)

An Indian woman, accused of killing her husband while he was asleep by stabbing him 30 times in front of their minor daughter, appeared in court, media reported Wednesday.

The 28-year-old woman killed her husband Siraj Al Din Ebrahim at their home in Manama in April this year, Gulf Daily News reported.

The woman has been charged with pre-meditated murder and prosecutors argue she planned the attack in advance.

She appeared at the High Criminal Court Tuesday.

The Telugu Association of North America (TANA), the largest Telugu organisation outside India, will contribute USD 100,000 for relief efforts for the victims of the cyclone Hudhud that has wrecked havoc in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

TANA President Mohan Nannapaneni expressed concern over the loss of lives and damage caused by the cyclone and said the organisation intends to help with rescue and rehabilitation, immediate relief for displaced and effected people and assist with long term rebuilding measures.

The bodies of two Indian businessmen who drowned in Mauritius on Oct. 11 were flown back here today, airport sources said.

Rajesh Kamal (27) and Sarath Chandran (29), both hailing from Coimbatore, had travelled on business to the island nation on Oct. 8. They drowned in a swimming pool there on Oct. 11, the sources said.

The bodies were flown back on an Air Mauritius flight and later taken to Coimbatore by road, they added.

An Indian in the UAE, who had access to her employer’s bank account, faces charges for allegedly embezzling more than 247,000 dirhams (about $67,000), media reported Monday.

The Dubai Court of First Instance heard that the 38-year-old woman, a manager, who had been given a power of attorney by her Kuwaiti employer to run her art gallery, allegedly abused that power and embezzled money, the Khaleej Times reported.

She has been charged with forgery, breach of trust and fraud.

The accused allegedly committed the fraud between February 2012 and July 2013.

Tributes have poured in from around the globe after a much-loved member of the Foreign Correspondents Club died suddenly of a suspected heart attack at the Central club on Friday evening.

Club staff found former journalist VG Kulkarni, 77, collapsed in a steam room at about 7pm on Friday.

They immediately called an ambulance, and several doctors who were at the club at the time stepped forward to help, but they could not revive Kulkarni.

Club president Jitendra Joshi said the death came as a shock and that past and present members had sent in dozens of tributes already.

An Indian designer is among five global innovators to win a coveted enterprise award for designing an inexpensive, easy-to-use device to improve the screening process of new-born babies for hearing loss.

Neeti Kailas won the Rolex Award for Enterprise 2014 for her design and ongoing efforts to set up an associated network of healthcare professionals in India who can diagnose and treat deafness in infants.

The International Educational Development (IED) and its working partners – the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (AHL) and the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) — have welcomed the draft principles on international solidarity prepared by Independent Expert Dandan, and presented during the 26th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) on June 13.

India’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), T.P. Seetharam, has said that the mission is taking steps to end the delay in the giving of passports by requisitioning more passport booklets.

Ambassador Seetharam told the Gulf News that he was in touch with the concerned officials in New Delhi on the matter, and expected the problem to be resolved soon.

Indian missions in the UAE used to issue between 1,100 and 1200 passports a day, but shortage of booklets in India has caused delays in passport issuance and renewal.

At least 16 Indian seamen are reported to be trapped onboard an empty cargo ship.

According to the Gulf News, the ship has been anchored in Rashid Port for almost a year.

The daily quoted Captain Aninda Sengupta of the Maharishi Devatreya cargo ship, as saying that the vessel had arrived at Rashid Port in July last year from the New Mangalore Port.

The cargo ship is owned by Varun Shipping. Captain sengupta said that he joined the ship in November last year.

The ship is anchored 12 miles into the sea from Port Rashid.

A 50-year-old Indian man has been sentenced here to 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting a child for nearly five years and transporting and possessing images of child pornography.

Narendra Tulsiram of Bronx had pleaded guilty in April last year to child pornography-related charges and was sentenced in Manhattan federal court yesterday by US District Judge J Paul Oetken.

In addition to the prison term, Oetken sentenced Tulsiram to a lifetime of supervised release and ordered that he registers as a sex offender.