NRIs Corner

South Asian human rights campaigners here joined forces to organise a protest against an invitation for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to visit the UK.

The South Asia Solidarity Group led a demonstration along with 10 other groups outside the office of Labour Party MP Barry Gardiner in north London yesterday.

Gardiner, in his capacity as the chair of the Labour Friends of India group, sparked widespread debate last month
with an invitation for Modi to speak on “The Future of Modern India” at a special event in the House of Commons.

A Sikh rights group has obtained an order from a US federal court for delivery of summons to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, who is in New York for medical treatment, through hospital staff or security personnel assigned to her, according to the group’s attorney.

US-based group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and some victims of the November 1984 anti-Sikh violence had last week obtained summons against Gandhi in a class action suit for shielding party officials allegedly involved in inciting attacks on Sikhs in November 1984.

An Indian man has been charged with human trafficking in the UAE for forcing his wife into prostitution while another compatriot was charged for having sex with the woman on several occasions against her will.

Indian identified only as AS, 38, is said to have brought his 30-year-old spouse to the UAE in 2011 before threatening to kill her and their three children if she refused his wishes, a court here heard.

The husband was also said to have pretended not to know that the men he was bringing to his room were there for sex.

Two Indian-Americans running a grocery store in the US state of Indiana have been reportedly shot dead by two masked assailants during a robbery attempt.

The killing of 55-year-old Jagtar Singh Bhatti and 20-year-old Pawan Preet Singh, originally from Punjab, has sent shock waves among the Sikh community in the country.

According to reports, the two masked men shot and killed store owner Singh and his employee Preet at Middlebury Street in the northern Indiana city of Elkhart on Thursday.

US President Barack Obama has appointed a top Indian-American fund raiser, who worked for his re-election campaign, to a key administration post.

San Francisco philanthropist, Azita Raji, who reportedly raised more than USD 3 million in contributions in 2011-2012 re-election campaign of Obama, has been appointed as Member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowship.

The announcement came along with nine other appointments to key administration post.

A court in Australia Thursday rejected the bail application of a 27-year-old woman who is one of two people accused of murdering an Indian-origin businessman.

Melissa Shaw, remanded in custody till Nov 5 for the murder of Shyam Dhody, had moved the bail application. But the Supreme Court in Brisbane rejected it, the media reported.

Dhody, 37, was shot dead July 5 in his bed at his home at Gilston, a suburb of Gold Coast city in Australia’s Queensland state.

Shaw was reportedly Dhody’s partner and had claimed that she found his body after she returned from work.

Eminent Hindi poets, writers and artists from India and across North America have participated in a convention to promote and connect Indian-American youths with the language.

The 16th International Hindi Association (IHA) Convention was held in Houstan from August 30 to September 1. The main theme of event was “Hindi evam Yuva varg” (Hindi and Youth Class).

Various seminars, workshops, cultural programmes and youth competitions were organised to draw Indian-American youths, connect them with Hindi language and excel their proficiency in it.

A recent research has revealed the long-running exploitation of Indian immigrant workers tricked into coming to Australia on 457 visas.

Dr Selvaraj Velayutham published the research in a forthcoming issue of The Economic and Labour Relations Review in SAGE publications.

The 457 visa is also called ‘Temporary Work’ visa that allows skilled workers to come to Australia and work for an approved business for up to four years on sponsorship of the employers.

Majority of people in Britain believe immigration is doing more harm to the country than good, according to a major poll.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of respondents felt there were more disadvantages than advantages to foreigners coming to live in the UK.

Just one in six believed that immigration was a good thing for Britain overall, the research commissioned by the former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft found.

As Congress wrestles with immigration legislation, a central question is whether the 11 million immigrants already in the United States illegally should get a path to citizenship.

The answer from a small but growing number of House Republicans is “yes,” just as long as it’s not the “special” path advocated by Democrats and passed by the Senate.

“There should be a pathway to citizenship not a special pathway and not no pathway,” Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz told ABC 4 Utah after speaking at a recent town hall meeting in his Utah district.

Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott has said that the Muslim attire ‘burqa’ is very confronting and should not be very widespread on the streets of the nation.

Abbott said that although burqa was not the sort of attire that he would like to see much on the streets of Australia, everyone was entitled to make their choice in what they wear as it’s a free country, the Courier Mail reports.

The statement came in response to earlier comments made by McMahon Liberal candidate Ray King that burqas are a “sign of oppression” and can be linked to criminality.

Singapore will address “head-on” the minority Indian community’s concern about discrimination during employment in the city-state, a report said today.

Singapore’s Environment and Water Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said employment discrimination is a key concern raised by Indian community leaders during a recent closed-door dialogue with him and three other members of parliament of Indian-origin.

“It was an issue the minorities were most sensitive to, and I think it’s a perception that we must address head-on,” The Straits Times quoted Balakrishnan as saying.

Indian national Gopinathan Nair Remadevi Bijukumar was today re-sentenced to life imprisonment under Singapore’s amended penal code that saved him from a mandatory death penalty for the murder of a prostitute.

Justice Choo Han Teck also sentenced Gopinathan to 18 strokes of the cane for the murder.

Gopinathan, a 37-year-old former shipyard worker, was found guilty of murdering Filipino prostitute Roselyn Reyes Pascua in her rented room on Bencoolen Street in Singapore’s Central business district in March 2010.

Kerala’s economy, propped up by diaspora remittances from about two million Malayalees abroad, can expect windfall remittances to touch Rs.75,000 crore ($12.5 billion) this financial year which could form an all-time high of nearly 35 percent of its net state domestic product, migration expert S. Irudayarajan says.

The cost of prosecuting Jayant Patel, the disgraced Indian-origin former surgeon in an Australian hospital, has crossed $2.98 million, including almost $85,000 on his living since his trial began in 2008.

The data is according to the Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper report which obtained through the Right to Information Act the cost, including Patel’s accommodation and the accommodation of jury members.

According to the report, Patel has spent $36,824.30 on living – $23,873.86 on accommodation this year alone. In 2010, he spent $37,000 on living.

A hospital in Manchester has agreed to compensate the Indian origin family of a baby who died due to the negligence of its staff, a media report said Saturday.

As the mother, Geeta was administered double-strength epidural and could not feel anything below her waist, the baby was born between the sheets without the midwives realising this and was starved of oxygen. The baby suffered a catastrophic brain injury due to the delay and died six months later.

The Kerala diaspora is up in arms over the proposed moratorium on a scheme that allowed free import of television sets worth up to Rs.35,000 without payment of any customs duty.

The new rules come into effect from Aug 26 from when anyone bringing in a TV set will have to pay a 35 percent duty. The central government has decided to levy this duty on account of the depreciating Indian rupee.

Civil liberties advocates say they have uncovered a US government programme that has blacklisted some Muslims and put their citizenship applications on hold for years as it screens immigrants for national security concerns.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said in a report that the criteria used by US Citizenship and Immigration Services to blacklist immigrants are overly broad and include traveling through regions where there is terrorist activity.

(Syed Mujeeb) On a bright sunny morning of Sunday 18th August 2013, the sun was shining in its full glory and a crowd of hundreds had gathered to watch the Indian Tri-colour to be unfurled by the Indian High Commissioner, Shri A.K Pandey; Bhartiya Samaj Charitable trust with Humm106.2FM and associated community organisations celebrated the 67th India Independence Day in the true spirit of pride and glory for India & people of Indian origin.

Indian diplomatic missions in the UAE have launched an ambitious pension and resettlement scheme for Indian workers.

The Indian Government-sponsored scheme is relevant in the wake of a recent survey among low-and middle-income Indian expatriates in the Gulf states about their saving habits.

Police in Australia have charged two people with the murder of a India-born businessman last month.

A 27-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man were arrested and charged Tuesday with the murder of Shyam Dhody July 5, local media reported.

Dhody, 37, was shot dead while he was on his bed in his home at Gilston, a suburb of Gold Coast city in the Australian state of Queensland July 5.

The woman, who has been charged with the murder, was reportedly Dhody’s partner and had claimed that she found his body after she returned from work the evening of the incident.

Air India Express’s recent announcement that it will bring down the free baggage allowance from 30kg to 20kg has sparked debate among various socio-cultural organizations in Abu Dhabi.

Air India Express has decided to reduce the limit on flights operating into India from the Gulf and passengers will be charged 50 dirham for the extra 10kg.

Singapore has honoured Indian origin librarian, Rasu Ramachandran, for his contributions to the development of the library profession over the past four decades.

70-year-old Ramachandran received Lifetime Contribution Award from Singapore President Tony Tan at a ceremony yesterday.

Ramachandran, who joined the library in 1969, has helped draft the National Library Board (NLB) Act in 1995 which established the library with more flexibility and freedom to expand.

The world’s largest spirits maker Diageo Plc has proposed an annual pay package of up to 10.9 million British pound (about Rs 105 crore) for its newly appointed, Indian-origin, CEO Ivan Menezes.

Menezes, who has been with UK-headquartered Diageo for about 13 years, was paid total remuneration of 7.8 million pounds (Rs 75 crore) in the last financial year ended June 30, 2013 when he served as Chief Operating Officer.

An Indian-origin girl, charged for murdering her ex-lover”s fiancee in Australia, has been denied bail by an Australian court.

Manisha Patel allegedly stabbed Purvi Joshi several times in the stomach before leaving her to die in Sydney last month. Patel was produced in Fairfield Local Court and charged with a count of murder. According to smh.com.au, police said Joshi”s fiance found her wounded in their Bestic Street home at 7 am on July 30. He called an emergency service but she was later pronounced dead. Patel is now expected to appear in the Central Local Court in October. (ANI)