NRIs Corner

Three Australians of Indian origin have received one of the Australian Government’s most prestigious honours in recognition of their exceptional contribution to Australian society.

Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling congratulated the three recipients of the Australia Day Honours, which were announced on January 26, the national day of Australia.

Dr Sadanandan Nambiar, Radhey Shyam Gupta and Dr Pratish Chandra Bandopadhayay have all been awarded a place in this year’s Australia Day (26 January) honours list.

A group of students from various schools of Gulf countries attending the programme ‘Proud to be an Indian’ called on President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Speaking on the occasion, the President complimented Asianet News for this novel initiative aimed at familiarizing Indian students from the Gulf countries to the history and heritage of our great nation.

He said the great ancient civilization of India has survived because of the spirit of tolerance and acceptance.

An Indian-origin researcher and his team demonstrated that a composite paper – made of interleaved molybdenum disulfide and graphene nanosheets – can be both an active material to efficiently store sodium atoms and a flexible current collector.

The newly developed composite paper can be used as a negative electrode in sodium-ion batteries.

Gurpreet Singh, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering in Kansas State University, said that most negative electrodes for sodium-ion batteries use materials that undergo an ‘alloying’ reaction with sodium.

Investment opportunities in India were the focus of discussions between the new Indian Ambassador S. Jaishankar and a group of 90 industry executives and businessmen from the US-India Business Council (USIBC).

The meeting here Wednesday was followed by a welcome reception of over 200 member companies of the trade group comprising 350 top-tier US and Indian companies advancing US-India commercial ties, US government officials, think tanks, and friends of India.

An Indian-origin woman banker has arrested in Britain as part of an ongoing anti-terrorism operation in London.

Kuntal Patel, who works at Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf, has reportedly been under arrest since Sunday after her home in east London was raided by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

She is the daughter of magistrate Meena Patel, who sits on the bench at Thames Magistrates’ Court in east London.

An Indian family in Saudi Arabia, which could not return to India during the amnesty period granted by the country’s authorities to illegal expatriates last year, has finally been repatriated.

Members of Zahid Hussain’s family, hailing from India’s Maharashtra state, have been deported and have reached home, the Arab News reported Wednesday.

Zahid, however, was not deported as he holds a valid iqama or identity card issued to expatriates in the country.

The family wanted to return home during the grace period but could not as a woman in the family was pregnant.

A 24-year-old Indian construction worker has died after falling from the eighth floor of an under-construction building in Sharjah.

The incident took place on Sunday when he was working on a building in Al Mamzar area in Sharjah, Khaleej Times reported today.

The engineers notified the police about the accident following which a probe was launched, a police spokesman said.

The body of the victim, who was not identified, was sent for postmortem, the report said.

An Indian-American researcher at the Cornell University has used 3D printing to make a loudspeaker that work almost as soon as it comes out of the printer.

Apoorva Kiran and Robert MacCurdy, both graduate students in Mechanical Engineering, worked with Hod Lipson, associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering to customise a device that could print a variety of materials.

The loudspeakers are made up of a plastic body, conductive coil and a magnet. The researchers had to figure out how to design and print materials that could fit together and work right away.

An Indian-origin babysitter in the US state of Connecticut was charged with manslaughter and risk of injury to a 19-month-old child she was caring for.

Kinjal Patel, 27, allegedly told police that she got angry with the baby and forced him to the floor at her home in New Haven city, injuring his skull Jan 16.

The baby died Sunday at a hospital of head injuries, the NBC News reported Monday.

Patel told police that she called the baby’s father to tell him that the child was injured and he took him to the hospital.

A team of researchers have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products.

Chemist Achyut Kumar Panda of Centurion University of Technology and Management Odisha, India is working with chemical engineer Raghubansh Kumar Singh of the National Institute of Technology, Orissa, India, to develop a commercially viable technology for efficiently rendering LDPE into a liquid fuel.

Speaking on the occasion Hussam Al Qahtani, Chairman of Qhatani Group of Industries said that Arabs in general and Saudi Arabia in particular have centuries old Cultural and Trade relation. The impact of which are visible with the adoption of various traditional and cultural values by people of both the countries.

He said Indian food, Jewelry and bollywood are very popular in Saudi Arabia.

Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, General Secretary of IYWA said that celebration of national occasion and cultural events helps to strengthen the ties between the two countries and its people.

The distraught family of a 32-year-old Indian-origin British surgeon, found dead in a Syrian prison, plan to open a medical facility in his memory for victims of the ongoing civil war in that country.

Abbas Khan, an orthopaedic surgeon from south London, was taken into custody soon after entering Syria on a humanitarian mission in 2012.

The British government believes Khan was “effectively murdered” by elements of the Syrian regime after being held in detention for over an year.

When Neel Kashkari announced he was running for governor last week, he became the latest Californian of Indian descent to step onto the political stage, the most recent example of a rising trend in one of America’s most ethnically diverse states.

Kashkari is part of a surge of second-generation Indians emerging in politics, despite their relatively small population in California.

Braving sub-zero temperatures, the Indian community in South Korea celebrated the 65th Republic Day at the Indian embassy and at the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) here Sunday.

Ambassador Vishnu Prakash unfurled the tricolour to the cheers of hundreds of individuals, including members of the embassy and their families, who assembled for the occasion.

It was followed by the rendering of the national anthem and a brief cultural programme put up by Korean students of the Indian Cultural Centre and members of the community.

Upset over failure to bear a child, an Indian national allegedly murdered his wife before slashing his own throat, but failed in his suicide bid after it turned out to be too painful.

The couple, married for 10 years, had a fight after which the husband decided to commit suicide, police said.

The Dubai Police Operation Room on Thursday received information of a murder in a flat in Al Manama area here following which they rushed to the studio flat, the Khaleej Times reported, citing police officials.

Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative scholar who made the documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he violated campaign finance laws and was released on 500,000 dollars bond.

Republican candidate Wendy Long told the investigators that D’Souza lied to her about the source of donations made to her U.S. Senate campaign in 2012, CBS News reports.

An Indian has been arrested at Sharjah International Airport for attempting to smuggle gold, moulded into the form of luggage handles, to India.

The suspect was nabbed by customs officers at the airport while heading to India, according to an official spokesperson from Sharjah Police.

He was arrested after failing to declare the gold to the airport authorities and inspectors at the cargo village at Sharjah Airport. When the bag was inspected, authorities realised that the suspect had removed the metal handle and replaced it with one made of gold, the Gulf News reported.

Eight companies co-founded and headed by young Indian-American entrepreneurs are among Forbes magazine’s America’s 100 most promising privately-held high growth companies with under $250 million in annual revenues.

“Rocketship growth isn’t uncommon on our list,” said the US business magazine. “In fact, it’s what we look for. But to watch a management team crack open a ripe new market and hang on for dear life as top line explodes is still good fun.”

A 30-year-old Indian-origin woman will go on trial for allegedly stealing 1,20,000 pounds while working as a customer adviser at The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Satnam Kaur is alleged to have stolen the cash from two accounts at the bank on Albyn Place, Aberdeen between October 20 to November 21, 2011.

She will go on trial in June, with a pre-trial hearing in May, Evening Express reported yesterday.

Kaur withdrew money as euros and deposited a 120,000 pounds cheque into her own account. She was sacked from her job after the allegations came to light, a BBC report earlier said.

Two Indian-origin employees and the owner of a convenience store have been charged by US authorities for secretly selling a psychoactive drug commonly known by the street name “spice”.

Manisha Yogeshkumar Patel, the owner of the Capital Food Mart at 2929 Capital Boulevard in Raleigh city in North Carolina, was also charged with possessing pirated music CDs and illegal liquor, the News & Observer reported.

Her employees Karanjit Singh Sahota and Ami Natvarlal Patel were each charged with selling and possessing synthetic cannabinoids.

Indian-American professor Rakesh Khurana has been appointed Dean of the prestigious Harvard College, becoming the latest addition to a long list of Indian-origin academicians assuming leadership roles at renowned global universities.

Khurana, 46, is currently the ‘Marvin Bower’ Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School (HBS), professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), and co-master of Cabot House at Harvard.

The US military has reportedly relaxed its uniform rules, allowing Sikhs, Muslims, Jewish and Wiccan personnel to request for certain exemptions.

The uniform relaxation would allow personnel from different religions to wear turbans, skullcaps, keep beards and tattoos.

Soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen belonging to the said religions can now request exemptions to strict military uniform and grooming policies, the BBC reports.

However, the requests would be evaluated individually and could be denied if they hinder military readiness.

Japan based SPARX Asia Capital Management Limited Executives called a courtesy meeting with Dr. Ghalib Al-Mashoor, The Investment Manager of United Arab Shipping Company, Kuwait at UASC premises on 21st January 2014. The delegation was accompanied by Shinji Naito, (Managing Director & Head of Global Business Development Division), Fumihito Akiyama,( Chief Macro Real Estate Strategist), and Shinichi Uchiyama, (Head of Real Estate Investment Planning).

They discussed about the Japanese Economy and Real Estate investments in general.

Indian born scientist and Professor (Emeritus) at Stanford University Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj has been awarded the prestigious 2014 Marconi Society Prize for developing the theory and applications of MIMO antennas.

His idea for using multiple antennas at both the transmitting and receiving stations – which is at the heart of the current high speed WiFi and 4G mobile systems – has revolutionised high speed wireless delivery of multimedia services for billions of people, said the Marconi Society in a release said.

An Indian-origin man in New Zealand Wednesday won NZ$100,000 after clasping a huge six from all-rounder Corey Anderson during the second India-New Zealand one-day international (ODI) match in Hamilton.

Jatinder Singh, 23, from Te Aroha in Hamilton, has become the second winner of the competition, after Michael Morton from the city won the prize in the fifth ODI against the West Indies earlier this month at Seddon Park cricket stadium, Fairfax New Zealand reported.

In three other ODIs and two T20s against the Windies for which the competition was held, no one won the prize.