www.theindianpanorama.news

# 1 Indian American Weekly: Since 2006

VOL 13 ISSUE 17 ● NEW YORK / DALLAS ● APRIL 26 - MAY 02, 2019 ● ENQUIRIES: 646-247-9458

SUDHAKAR DALELAASSUMES CHARGE ASCONSUL GENERAL OF

INDIA AT CHICAGOC H I C A G O

(TIP): MrSudhakar Dalela,who washandling Nepaland Bhutan inSouth Block, tookover as the newConsul Generalof India atChicago afterNeeta Bhushan.He succeeds Neta

Bhushan. Sudhakar Dalela joined theIndian Foreign Service in 1993. He beganhis career in Tel Aviv, Israel, where healso acquired proficiency in Hebrew. Hehas since served in Indian Missions inBrasilia, Geneva, Dhaka, andWashington D.C. contd on Page 32

TRUMP TAKES ACTIONTO REDUCE B-1 AND B-2

VISA OVERSTAYS

WASHINGTON (TIP): In aPresidential memorandum issuedApril 22, President Donald Trumpordered the Department of State towork with governments to address thehigh number of nonimmigrant visarecipients who stay past theirauthorized time in the US.

According to a White House release,Trump is directing the Secretaries ofState and Homeland Security to findeffective ways to combat the rampantnumber of B-1 and B-2 nonimmigrantvisa overstay rates.

"We have laws that need to befollowed to keep Americans safe and toprotect the integrity of a systemwhere, right now, there are millions ofpeople contd on Page 32

Biden launches bid for 2020 presidencyWASHINGTON (TIP): Former Vice-

President Joe Biden formally joined thecrowded Democratic presidentialcontest on Thursday, April 25, bettingthat his working-class appeal and ties toBarack Obama's presidency will helphim overcome questions about his placein today's increasingly liberalDemocratic Party.He made hisannouncement in a video posted onTwitter.

Thursday's announcement marks theunofficial end of the chaotic early phaseof the 2020 presidential season. The fieldnow features at least 20 Democratsjockeying for the chance to take onPresident Donald Trump next year.Several lesser-known candidates maystill join the race. Biden, a 76-year-oldlifelong politician, becomes an instantfront-runner alongside Vermont Sen.Bernie Sanders, who is leading

contd on page 32The 76-year-old Joe Biden is confident he will get the support of the working classes to occupy

the White House

Ambassador Shringla holds meetingwith Consul Generals of India in USA

WASHINGTON (TIP): India'sAmbassador to the USHarsh VardhanShringla hosted a welcome & networkingdinner April 24 for visiting delegationsfrom the Indian Chamber of Commerce,Kolkata and the Delhi Policy Group atwhich representatives of the US Govt,

prominent business representatives andIndia's five Consuls General in USA werepresent.

Ambassador Shringla held a separatemeeting with Consul Generals whoupdated the ambassador on the workingof their Consulates.

AmbassadorShringla at hismeeting withConsul Generals atthe IndianEmbassy inWashington, April24.

From L to R:Sudhakar Dalela(Chicago), DrAnupam Ray(Houston),Ambassador HarshV Shringla, SanjayPanda (SanFrancisco) Dr.Swati VijayKulkarni (Atlanta)and SandeepChakraborty (NewYork)

Sudhakar Dalelajoined the IndianForeign Service

in 1993

SC AGREES WITH EC: NO SCREENING OF MODI

BIOPIC TILL MAY 19

NEW DELHI (TIP): The SupremeCourt on Friday, April 26, refused tointerfere with the ElectionCommission's order banning release ofthe biopic contd on Page 32

2 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019ADVERTISEMENT

HICKSVILLE, NY (TIP): IndiaAssociation of Long Island celebratedVaisakhi on April 14th at Antun's on LongIsland. Vaisakhi is very important day inthe history of Punjab . There wasgathering of around two hundred guests inspite of many celebrations of Vaisakhi inLong Island the same day.

Main attractions of the function werethe Bhangra dance , Dhol, DJ & speciallyGIDDA prepared by IALI team of Women'sForum & other committee members. IALIPresident Lalit Aery was introduced byWomen's Forum Chair Veena Lamba.President Lalit Aery welcomed all theguests& community leaders&congratulated them on the historic day .

President Aery also thanked past

presidents &his committee members fortheir participation and making theprogram very successful and requested Mr.Mukesh Modi ,IALI Community OutreachChair to introduce Mr. Jasbir(Jay) Singh,IALI Executive Council Member,PublicRelations Chair & IDP President ,who washonored for his services to the community

A cultural program began with aBhangra dance which was very wellreceived with a lot of applause. IALI ladiesperformed a Gidda dance. DHOL beats &Punjabi bolian made everyone dance.

Among those present was Mr. ZahidSyed ,Commissioner of Human Rights,Nassau County.

(Based on a press release issued by InduGajwani)

3THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 NY/NJ/CT

India Association of Long Island (IALI) Celebrates Vaisakhi

The Bhangra team which cast a magic spell with their spirited dance with President Lalit Aeryand his committee members

Organizers with Jasbir (Jay) Singh ( 6th from left) who was honored for his services tocommunity

Asia Society Hosts Book talk: An Italian son-in-law in IndiaNEW YORK CITY (TIP): The Asia

Society, New York is hosting a discussionwith writer and journalist Carlo Pizzati,the author of the memoir Mappillai: anItalian son-in-law in India on Mon 29 Apr2019, 6 - 8 p.m. at Asia Society, 725 ParkAvenue, New York City.

Mappillai, which translates into "son-in-law" in Tamil, tells the story of anItalian who married into the "marveloushuman experiment called India."

The book is the rollicking story ofjournalist Carlo Pizzati, a Europeanliving with his in-laws in urban Chennaiand with his wife in rural Paramankeni.When in Paramankeni, he finds himselfin the company of fishermen and goat-herders, in a house where 3G assertsitself in a corner of the bathroom andelectricity courses through rooms in fits

and starts.At one level, Mappillai is deeply

personal. With beguiling candour, Carlotells of his struggle with two extreme,contradictory responses to India-fascination and suspicion-and hisawkward attempts at cruising through amaze of bribery, bureaucracy and traffic.Yet, at another level, the book offers aglimpse into the world of expats incontemporary India by introducing us toa host of colourful 'firangi friends'-fromthose who are overwhelmed by thisnation's noise and colour; to those who'go native' in kurtas; to those who believethat India is vast enough toaccommodate their diverse selves asdreamers or yogis or artists. But, beyondall of this, Mappillai is the story of India.Over his decade long stay in this nation-

one that has taken him north and south,west and east-Carlo has witnessed a landin flux-from the gloom and doom of 2008when the New India dream shattered, tothe heady optimism of 2015 withpromises of 'acche din', right up to today,marked by the domination of anti-Romeosquads and gau-rakshaks.

With wry humour and jollity, wisdomand acceptance, Mappillai offers anintimate capsule of contemporaryIndian history- of the concomitantHinduization and Westernization ofIndia, intertwined with theIndianization of a European

Pizzati appears in conversation withauthor and professor of creative writingEli Gottlieb, and the evening featuresopening remarks by Consul General ofItaly in New York Francesco Genuardi.

Mappillai, which translates into "son-in-law"in Tamil, tells the story of an Italian who

married into the "marvelous humanexperiment called India."

Mayor De Blasio releases executive budget for fiscal year 2020

Mayor claims the FY20Executive Budget isbalanced; Citylawmakers aredisappointed

NEW YORK CITY (TIP): Mayor Billde Blasio presented New York City'sExecutive Budget for Fiscal Year 2020(FY20) here on April 25.

The FY20 Executive Budget is

balanced, totaling $92.5 billion, claimsMayor's office.

The budget, the Mayor's office claims,achieves $916 million in savings overFY19 and FY20, exceeding the City'soriginal target of $750 million in order tomeet over $150 million in additionalcritical needs identified since February.Of the $916 million in savings, $629million were achieved through theAdministration's first ever Program toEliminate the Gap (PEG), a mandatorysavings program that includes agency

efficiencies, programmatic cuts and ahiring freeze. The original target for thePEG was $545 million;

contd on Page 6

"In February, I spoke about uncertainty in oureconomic future and announced my

Administration's first-ever mandatory savingsprogram. We're still in an era defined by

fiscal caution, which means we're focused ondeepening our savings and making strategic

investments in core priorities that continue tomake New York a fairer city." -Mayor Bill

de Blasio

4 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019INDIANS ABROAD

INDIAN AMERICANPSYCHIATRY PROFESSOR

AT PITTSBURGHHONORED WITHDISTINGUISHED

SCIENTIST AWARDPITTSBURGH,

PA (TIP) MaryG a n g u l i ,professor ofp s y c h i a t r y ,epidemiology andneurology inUniversity ofP i t t s b u r g h ' sDepartment ofPsychiatry, wasrecently given the2 0 1 9D i s t i n g u i s h e dScientist Awardby the American

Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.Ganguli received the award in

recognition of her many years ofsignificant contributions to the fieldand her mentorship of successfuljunior researchers in the field ofgeriatric psychiatry.

Ganguli has conducted seminalresearch on the epidemiology of theaging brain and late life mentaldisorders and is recognizedinternationally as a leader in the fieldof geriatric psychiatry.

She received numerous awardsincluding Outstanding AcademicianAward, Indo-American PsychiatricAssociation,

Golden Apple Award for TeachingExcellence, House staff, Department ofPsychiatry, University of Pittsburgh,Distinguished Alumni Award forResearch, University of PittsburghGraduate School of Public Healthamong others. She is listed annually inBest Doctors list since 1998 by BestDoctors, Inc.

INDIAN AMERICANPHYSICIAN SENTENCEDTO PRISON FOR HEALTH

CARE FRAUDSTUART, FL (TIP): On April 21, an

Indian American doctor whopreviously worked in Stuart, Florida,was sentenced to prison after havingbeen convicted by a federal jury ofcommitting repeated acts of healthcare fraud.

Sheetal Kanar Kumar, M.D., 48,formerly of Stuart, Florida, was foundguilty by a trial jury, on February 15,2019, of committing twenty-threecounts of health care fraud (Case No.18-14063-CR-Marra). U.S. DistrictJudge Kenneth A. Marra, sitting inFort Pierce, Florida, sentenced Dr.Kumar to a total of 24 months inprison, to be followed by 2 years ofsupervised release.

According to the court record,including evidence introduced at trial,Dr. Sheetal Kumar owned and operatedthe medical practice AdvancedHealthcare for Women in Stuart,Florida. (Read full story on

www.theindianpanorama.news)

Indian American Professor inPrinceton Manjul Bhargava elected

to Royal Society of LondonPRINCETON, NJ (TIP): The Royal

Society of London for ImprovingNatural Knowledge announcedApril 18that Manjul Bhargava is one of the 62scientists who has become fellows orforeign members of the Royal Society.

Bhargava , Princeton's BrandonFradd, Class of 1983, Professor ofMathematics, is recognizedinternationally as one of the foremostmathematicians of our times. He is aleading expert in number theory, abranch of mathematics in which he hasmade several pioneering breakthroughs.His research includes foundationalcontributions to arithmetic statisticsand to the theory of quadratic andhigher degree forms, number fields,class groups, and ranks of ellipticcurves.

Bhargava is also well-known for his

contributions to the publicpopularization of mathematics, andheld the first Distinguished Chair forthe Public Dissemination of

Mathematics at the National Museum ofMathematics in New York.

The Royal Society was founded in the1660s to promote "the development anduse of science for the benefit ofhumanity." It is made up ofapproximately 1,600 of the most eminentscientists, engineers and technologistsfrom the United Kingdom and theCommonwealth. Fellows and foreignmembers are elected for life through apeer review process on the basis ofexcellence in science. Each year up to 52fellows and up to 10 foreign members areelected from a group of around 700candidates who are proposed by theexisting fellowship.

Bhargava will be formally admitted asfellows of the Royal Society at aceremony on July 12, when he will signthe charter book in London.

Bhargava is recognized internationally as oneof the foremost mathematicians of our times

Mary Gangulireceived the awardin recognition of her

many years ofsignificant

contributions to thefield

CAMDEN, NJ (TIP): IndianAmerican Neal Katyal, former ActingU.S. Solicitor General and Kenneth C.Frazier, chief executive officer andboard chair of Merck & Co. will receivehonorary Doctor of Laws degrees fromRutgers University-Camden during theRutgers Law School commencementceremony on Thursday, May 23, theRutgers University Board of Governorsannounced at its regularly scheduledmeeting on April 9.

"Prof. Katyal is one of our nation'smost powerful voices in defending therights that our nation holds so dear. Hiscareer has helped to protect the corevalues of our democracy and hisongoing work contributes to ourunderstanding of how American lawand history define our daily lives", saysRutgers University-Camden ChancellorPhoebe A. Haddon.

Katyal is the Paul Saunders Professorat Georgetown University Law Centerand is a partner with Hogan Lovells inWashington, D.C. As Acting Solicitor

General of the United States, he arguedseveral major Supreme Court cases,including his successful defense of theconstitutionality of the Voting RightsAct of 1965 and his victorious defense offormer U.S. Attorney General JohnAshcroft for alleged abuses in the war onterror. As a professor at Georgetown, inhis first Supreme Court argument,Katyal won Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, thecase that shut down the Guantanamomilitary tribunals.

He has orally argued 38 cases beforethe U.S. Supreme Court, where herecently surpassed Thurgood Marshallas the minority attorney who has arguedthe most Supreme Court cases in thehistory of the United States. Katyal isthe recipient of the very highest awardgiven to a civilian by the U.S.Department of Justice, the EdmundRandolph Award, which the AttorneyGeneral presented to him in 2011. He wasnamed American Lawyer's Litigator ofthe Year last year, selected among allattorneys in the United States.

Katyal previously served as nationalsecurity advisor in the U.S. Departmentof Justice and was commissioned byPresident Bill Clinton to write a reporton the need for more legal pro bonowork. He served as Vice President AlGore's co-counsel in the Supreme Courtelection dispute of 2000, and representedthe deans of most major private lawschools in the landmark University ofMichigan affirmative-action caseGrutter v. Bollinger (2003). Katyalclerked for U.S. Supreme Court JusticeStephen Breyer as well as Judge GuidoCalabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

(Source - Rutgers-Camden News)

Indian American Neal Katyal to receivehonorary Doctor of Laws degrees from

Rutgers University-Camden

Katyal previously served as national securityadvisor in the U.S. Department of Justice

INDIAN AMERICANUCHICAGO STUDENT

EARNS TRUMANSCHOLARSHIP

CHICAGO (TIP): VivekRamakrishnan, a University of Chicagostudent, awarded a prestigious Harry S.Truman Scholarship, which provides upto $30,000 for students pursuing careersin public service, Ramakrishnanintends to explore how applied andpredictive methods can be used toanalyze the child welfare system.

Ramakrishnan was one of 62 studentschosen for the nationally competitiveaward from a pool of 840 undergraduatecandidates. He is the ninth UChicagostudent to earn the award in the past 10years.

After his first year in the College,Ramakrishnan worked for Chicago-based nonprofit MAPSCorps, leading 16high school students around the city tocollect data on resources and assetswithin various disadvantagedcommunities. The following summer, heworked as an intern in the dataanalytics unit of the PhiladelphiaDepartment of Human Services andcompleted a quantitative evaluation ofyouth at risk of aging out of the fostercare system. (Source - UChicago News)

Third-year student Vivek Ramakrishnan,currently studying abroad in Hong Kong, was

awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

5THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 ADVERTISEMENT

6 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019NY/ NJ/CT

Mayor De Blasio releases executive budget for fiscal year 2020CONTD FROM PAGE 3

maintains funding for more than $300million in cuts and unfunded mandatesfrom the State's Executive Budget relatedto vital services and recently enactedState legislation, and covers additionalcritical needs to keep the City in a strongfiscal standing and makes strategicinvestments in vital programs that buildupon continued efforts to make NewYork City the fairest big city in America.

However, City lawmakers aredisappointed with Mayor's Fiscal 2020budget proposals.

In a Joint StatementSpeaker CoreyJohnson, Finance Committee ChairDaniel Dromm and Capital BudgetSubcommittee Chair Vanessa L. Gibsonsaid:

"The Council is disappointed thatMayor de Blasio has failed to fund manysignificant citywide Council priorities inthe Fiscal 2020 Executive Budget,including many social service programsas well as $250 million in reserves.

"The reserves are necessary to protectthe City in the event of an economicdownturn and should not have beenexcluded in the Executive Budget. This isthe fiscally responsible path for our City,and the Council is once again demandingwe prioritize reserves.

"And by not funding vital services, thede Blasio Administration is engaging inthe same 'budget dance' that it had oncepledged to end. This is completely unfairto the nonprofits who run theseprograms and who are now unable toplan their future. This is unacceptable,and they deserve to be treated betterthan this.

"The Council did not propose $1 billionin Alternative Savings to the PEGProgram to only have theAdministration take many of thosesavings and not fund many of ourpriorities - priorities that were includedin the Fiscal 2019 Adopted Budget.

"The Council will continue to fight forour priorities and programs that make

our City stronger. That includes FairStudent Funding and pay parity forhuman service providers and earlychildhood educators.

"We will also continue to be vigilantregarding the upcoming 2020 Census.The Administration has proposed $26million to help make sure New YorkCity is properly counted. This is adecent start, but the Council requested$40 million. We will keep pushing forthat to meet our needs. Our future is atstake.

"We look forward to the upcomingExecutive Budget hearings."

Here are some features of thebudget. Cuts and Unfunded Mandatesfrom Albany:

In February, the City faced over $600million in cuts and unfunded mandatesfrom the State. Through the hard work ofthis Administration and our partners inAlbany, the cuts and cost shifts to NewYork City in the State Executive Budgetwere limited to over $300 million. Thesecuts and unfunded mandates include:● $125 million: financial assistance to

families in need (TANF).● $96 million: unfunded election

reform mandates.● $59 million: vital health services for

vulnerable New Yorkers, includingservices that help combat measles.

● $25 million: education fundingshortfall.

● These are all funded by the City inthe Executive Budget.

Citywide Savings:In February, the Mayor set a citywide

savings target of $750 million, $545million of which would be reached withthe Administration's first ever PEG.During the budget process, the Cityidentified additional critical needs thatpushed the Administration to findadditional savings. The end result was

$916 million in savings, of which $629million was the result of the PEG. Thisbrings total savings since last June to$2.5 billion. These savings include:● Deepening the hiring freeze by

removing 1600 vacant positions($116 million).

● More efficient methods for thepurchasing of goods and services atDOE ($27 million).

● $104 million in cuts at theDepartment of Education, whichincludes the elimination ofextended learning time at Renewaland Rise schools ($19M).

● Modest cuts cultural institutions,including subsidies ($6 million).

● Right-sizing classroom slots forafterschool programs ($2.5million).

● Providing senior NYCHA residentsaccess to Community Centers byconsolidating under-used seniorclubs ($900,000).

Responsible Budgeting:The City is maintaining historic

reserves. Specifically:● The General Reserve is at $1 billion

in FY20 and every year of thefinancial plan.

● The Capital Stabilization Reservethat was established by thisAdministration is at $250 million inFY20 and every year of the financialplan.

● The Retiree Health Benefits TrustFund is at $4.47 billion, $3.6 billionthe result of actions taken by thisAdministration.

Meeting Critical Needs:Taking into account State budget cuts,

unfunded mandates, additional criticalneeds and potential future economicuncertainty, the Administration reachedand ultimately exceed its savings goal.Savings were then used to meetadditional critical needs, including:● Special Education initiatives for

DOE, including new and enhancedprograms, hiring schoolpsychologists and speech teachersto support evaluations of studentneeds ($33 million).

● Additional mandated CharterSchool Costs ($88 million).

● State cut to Pre-Trial Mental HealthEvaluations ($35 million).

Making Strategic Investments:The Administration also made

strategic investments in crucialprograms New Yorkers rely on,including the following in Fiscal Year2020:● Retrofitting City buildings to make

them more energy efficient ($60million).

● Ramping up for the 2020 Census toensure a fair count of New YorkCity residents, which will securefair representation in Congress andthe City's fair share of federalfunding ($22 million).

● Improving EMS response times byexpanding the "Fly Car" program inthe Bronx ($15 million).

● Baselining funding for Bridging theGap to provide support for studentsin shelters ($12 million).

● Emergency repairs at NYCHAcommunity centers to refurbishpipes, air conditioning and heatinginfrastructure ($6 million).

10-Year Capital Strategy:The City's 10-Year Capital Strategy is

$116.9 billion and includes:● Expanding school capacity and

enhance facilities ($16.4 billion).● Repairing and implementing safety

improvements to roads and bridges($13.1 billion).

● Building and preserving affordablehousing ($9.7 billion).

● Building smaller, safer, borough-based jails ($8.7 billion).

● Maintaining clear water ($6.5billion).

City offers new business courses in multiple languages toaspiring and established immigrant entrepreneurs

NEW COURSES WILL BE AVAILABLE TO OVER 5,000 ENTREPRENEURS THIS YEAR; REGISTRATION IS OPEN NEW YORK CITY (TIP): NYC Department of Small

Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Gregg Bishopannounced, April 25 that registration is now open fornew business courses available to over 5,000entrepreneurs, with a focus on aspiring and establishedimmigrant entrepreneurs. The courses, including a 5-course Introduction to Entrepreneurship series and 6-course Digital Marketing series, will offer newculturally-competent curricula tailored to the needs ofimmigrant communities. Throughout the year, courseswill be offered in multiple languages including Spanish,Mandarin, and Russian.

This announcement was made today, during the City'sImmigrant Heritage Week, at the Chinatown ManpowerProject, which will be hosting courses in Chinesebeginning in July 2019. To register now for upcomingcourses, visit nyc.gov/businesscourses.

"Since nearly half of small businesses owners acrossthe city are foreign-born New Yorkers, our local economythrives when immigrant entrepreneurs thrive," said

Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the NYC Department ofSmall Business Services. "With the launch of these newcourses, we are committed to ensuring that New YorkCity remains a city of opportunity for all."

"Immigrants are a critical part of entrepreneurship inNew York City. They own 52% of the city's businessesand, in 2017, contributed about 22% of the city's GrossDomestic Product," said Bitta Mostofi, Commissioner ofthe Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. "SBS' newmulti-lingual business course offerings signal toimmigrant entrepreneurs that the city is committed tosupporting them on their journeys to become businessowners, and to celebrating the diversity that makes thiscity great. Thank you to SBS and its partners forbringing this to fruition during Immigrant HeritageWeek."

"New York City's diversity is our greatest strength, andto guarantee that diversity is reflected in our economywe need to give everyone, especially minority andwomen-owned businesses, a fair shot," said NYC

Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. "I commend the launch ofthese new courses to help immigrant entrepreneurs get aseat at the table as part of our ongoing efforts to makethis City a fairer and more equitable businessenvironment for all." (Read full story on

www.theindianpanorama.news)

New York City'sCommissioner, SmallBusiness Services, NYC,Gregg Bishopannounced,April 25 that registrationis now open for newbusiness coursesavailable to over 5,000entrepreneurs

NEW YORK (TIP): The EmpireCenter, a nonprofit group that breaksdown payroll payments of theMetropolitan Transportation Authority,also found that overtime spending for theLIRR increased $50 million, almost 30percent, from 2017 to 2018, according to areport published in Newsday. .

Last year, seven of the top 10 MTAearners, including overtime pay, workedfor the Long Island Rail Road, accordingto the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The Metropolitan TransportationAuthority, which hiked fares for ridersthis month, paid one employee morethan $344,000 in overtime in 2018 inaddition to his $117,499 salary, accordingto data released this week by a fiscalwatchdog group.

The transit agency last year paid itsworkers a total of $418 million inovertime, a 16 percent increase from ayear earlier, according to the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy.

A database of employee salaries showsthe top 10 earners pulled in more than$350,000 each, and seven of them workedfor the Long Island Rail Road, which isoperated by the MTA.

The MTA on Thursday, April 25,disputed the total payroll increases inthe data. Empire Center said its figurescame after reviewing employee overtimedocuments through a Freedom ofInformation Law request.

Thomas Caputo, a chief measurementoperator for the LIRR, made $344,147 inovertime plus his annual salary, bringinghis total compensation to $461,646,according to the database. He retired thismonth, the MTA said.

"The collective bargaining agreementand its rules about seniority allow thosewith the most years on the job to get firstpick at overtime opportunities," saidMax Young, an MTA spokesman. "We areabsolutely committed to reducingspending, including a hard target of anadditional $500 million in annual savingsacross all MTA agencies next year."

Caputo could not be reached Thursdayfor comment. He drove the advancedtrack geometry car, operated theinspection equipment and maintained

the car, the MTA said. The trackgeometry car is used to check railroadtracks for defects, the agency said.

The LIRR's overtime spendingincreased $50 million - almost 30 percent- from $175.4 million in 2017 to $224.6million in 2018, according to the EmpireCenter, a nonpartisan, nonprofit thinktank group that annually breaks downthe MTA's payroll.

The overtime spending came during ayear in which the LIRR had its worse on-time performance percentage, 90.4, innearly two decades.

Fifty-eight of the 100 highest-paid MTAemployees in 2018, including the top four,worked for the LIRR, according to thereport. Pay included overtime and otherextra pay, such as shift differentials.

The two other highest-paid hourlyemployees for the LIRR were surfacingforeman Dallas Bazemore III, at $395,397,and track foreman Joseph Ruzzo, at$380,407. In salaried managementpositions, the three highest paid werePatrick Nowakowski, former agencypresident, at $454,288; Phillip Eng,current LIRR president, at $294,243; andAfshin Hezarkhani, chief engineer ofspecial projects, at $260,380.

"Sixty percent of MTA costs overall areon personnel. And when those costs goup, you either have to collect moremoney or do less. It makes sense to focusthe conversation on that," said KenGirardin, a policy analyst at the EmpireCenter. "Overtime is a normal part ofmanaging any organization. There willalways be overtime. But when you see ajump in overtime, it's worth noting."

LIRR employees on average earned$34,000 in overtime pay last year, 50percent more than 2017's average of$22,701, according to the report. LIRRpayroll spending last year grew by morethan 10 percent, or $84 million.

Since 2008, the railroad has increasedpayroll spending by $280 million, or 45percent. At the same time, the number ofemployees increased by 9.6 percent. LIRRemployees were paid an average of$112,404 last year, compared to $84,484 in2008.

Overall, the MTA spent more than $7

billion on salaries and wages for its80,057 employees in 2018.

Shams Tarek, an MTA spokesman,said in an email that payroll rose $238million, from $5.7 billion in 2017 to $5.938billion last year. Overtime costs,meanwhile, increased by $122 million,from $1.202 billion in 2017 to $1.324billion, he said.

The MTA has been trying to cut costsamid a dire budget forecast. It expects abillion-dollar budget gap by 2022 - evenwith another fare hike planned for 2021.To help close the shortfall, the agencysaid it is targeting fare evaders, callingfor police to catch people who don't payon city buses and subways. Fare evasioncosts the MTA $225 million last year,according to the authority.

Tarek reasoned that overtime often ismore cost-effective than hiring full-timeworkers.

"In the meantime, the MTA isundertaking very aggressive cost-cuttingmeasures across all agencies, achievingmore than [$2 billion] in recurringsavings with a target for an additional$500 million of savings next year," Tareksaid in a statement. "We're alsoundergoing reforms, including a forensicaudit, consolidation and reorganization,a reduction in construction costs acrossthe system, and ultimately the netsavings will be far greater than any

investments being made to achieve thesemajor improvements."

Top 10 MTA salaries in 2018:- Thomas Caputo, LIRR: $461,646;

Patrick A. Nowakowski, LIRR: $454,288;Dallas Bazemore III, LIRR: $395,397;Joseph M. Ruzzo, LIRR: $380,407; MichaelG. Gundersen, NYC Transit Authority:$379,454; Veronique Hakim, MTAheadquarters: $366,441; Christopher M.Kroll, LIRR: $354,168; Christopher J.Jerome, LIRR: $352,935; Ricardo G. Ruiz,LIRR: 350,575; Anthony Jones, NYCTransit Authority: $350,360

(Source: Empire Center for Public Policy)

(Story source: Newsday)

7THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 NY/NJ/CT

MTA paid railroad employee more than$344,000 in Overtime for 2018, says a report

Indian National Extradited to US to Face Charges forRole in Multimillion-Dollar India-Based Call Center Scam

HOUSTON, TX (TIP): An Indiannational has been extradited to theUnited States from Singapore to facecharges related to his role as an operatorof a call center network that targeted U.Svictims. The massive India-basedtelephone impersonation fraud andmoney laundering conspiracy defraudedthousands of U.S. residents out ofhundreds of millions of dollars.

Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 42, ofAhmedabad, India, arrived in the UnitedStates and was arraigned April 19 beforea U.S. magistrate judge in federal courtin Houston, Texas.

The indictment, which was unsealedin October 2016, charged Patel and 60

other individuals and entities withgeneral conspiracy, wire fraudconspiracy and money launderingconspiracy.

The indictment alleges that Pateloperated the HGlobal call centerconglomerate and participated in acomplex fraudulent scheme involving anetwork of call centers based inAhmedabad, India. Using informationobtained from data brokers and othersources, India-based conspiratorsallegedly called potential victims whileimpersonating officials from the IRS orU.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices. (Read full story on

www.theindianpanorama.news)

Ukraine's new President mustquickly take on the geopoliticaland governance challenges

W hat is extraordinary aboutSunday's Ukrainianpresidential runoff is that it

turned out to be so predictable. Thecomedian Volodymyr Zelensky, a rankpolitical outsider until he announcedhis candidacy over New Year's Eve,recorded the expected landslide victory.He had consistently led in the opinionpolls, way ahead of incumbentPresident Petro Poroshenko and aformer Prime Minister. The politicalneophyte's prospects were enhanced by

a sequence of events. In February,Ukraine's top court struck down ananti-corruption law in a setback forseveral prosecutions andjeopardizingaid flows to Kiev. Soon, Mr.Poroshenko was forced to ease out anally in an arms trade scandal. Thedevelopments dented the government'simage ahead of the elections in acountry where the drive against grafthas been a live issue for years. And alandslide became a probability withevery passing day after Mr. Zelenskybeat Mr. Poroshenko by a hefty marginin the first round of polling on March31. Since Russia's seizure of Ukrainiannaval vessels in November, Mr.

Poroshenko had pitched his campaignmerely on the need to bolster nationalunity against the threat from Moscowand assert Ukraine's unique nationalidentity. But the final battle turnedbrutal and bitter, even if the rivalcandidates' campaigns were woefullyshort on substance. Mr. Poroshenko, anex-oligarch in confectionaries, attackedhis opponent as a puppet of anotheroligarch. The reference was to IgorKolomoisky, whose TV channel ran Mr.Zelensky's popular show, and hasbusiness interests spanning financeand media. The commercial bank heowned was nationalized by theoutgoing dispensation as part of aneconomic clean-up, and Mr. Kolomoiskymay have sensed an opportunity in theelection to settle scores.

For his part, Mr. Zelensky used a finalpre-election debate in Kiev to argue thathis candidacy was a judgment on theincumbent, and that his bid was the

result of Mr. Poroshenko's mistakes. AsPresident, Mr. Zelensky entersuncharted territory. The first challengebefore him is the parliamentary electionlater this year, in which he will have towork with established institutions andparties he had railed against during thecampaign. There is also the continuingconflict with Russia in the rebel-heldterritories in eastern Ukraine, wherehis political inexperience might be aserious handicap. Finally, Mr. Zelenskywill be expected to deliver results in thecountry's crusade against corruption.Progress in each of these areas will becrucial determinants in Ukraine's bidfor European Union membership. Thetelevision star will soon discover thatwhile theatre might be a goodlaunchpad for the start of a politicalcareer, it is no preparatory ground forthe real tasks of governance.

(The Hindu, India)

T he Democrats have been left in adilemma after the release of theMueller Report. For, consider what

Robert Mueller concluded after two yearsof investigation.

Candidate Donald Trump did notconspire or collude with the Russians tohack the emails of the DNC or JohnPodesta, Chairman of Hillary Clinton'scampaign. Trump did not distribute thefruits of those crimes. Nor did anyone inhis campaign. No collusion, no conspiracy,said Mueller, Trump is innocent.

Mueller did not say Trump did notconsider interfering with hisinvestigation. But we know theinvestigation went on unimpeded.Mueller's document demands were all met.And Mueller did not conclude that Trumpobstructed justice.

On obstruction, then, not guilty byreason of no indictment.

We are told Trump ranted tosubordinates about firing Mueller.

Yet, as Attorney General Bill Barrpointed out, Trump had excellent reasonsto be enraged. He was being pilloried for 2-1/2 years for a crime he not only did notcommit but a crime that had never takenplace.

From the fall of 2016 to the spring of2019, Trump was subjected to scurrilousattacks. It was alleged that his victory hadbeen stolen for him by Russians, that hewas an illegitimate president guilty oftreason, and an agent of the Kremlin, thathe was being blackmailed and that herewrote the Republican platform on

Vladimir Putin's instructions. All buthockey, and Mueller all but said so. Yet thefalse charges did serious damage to hispresidency and the nation. Answeringthem has consumed much of Trump'stenure and ruined his plans to repair ourdangerously damaged relations with theworld's other great nuclear power.

Yet, it is the Trump haters who are nowin something of a box. Their goal had beento use "Russiagate" to bring down theirdetested antagonist, overturn his 2016election, and put Trump in the historybooks as a stooge of Putin who, had thetruth be known, would never have won theWhite House.

Mueller failed to sustain theirindictment. Indeed, Mueller all but threwit out. Yet Trump's enemies will not quitnow. To do so would be to concede thatTrump defenders had been right all along,and they had not only done a graveinjustice to Trump but damaged theircountry with their manic pursuit. ANDTHEY OWE AMERICA AN APOLOGY.And admitting they were wrong wouldinstantly raise follow-up questions.

If two years of investigation by Mueller,his lawyers and his FBI agents could notunearth hard evidence to prove thatTrump and his campaign with theRussians, what was the original evidencethat justified launching this historic andmassive assault on a U.S.presidentialcampaign and the presidency of theUnited States? If there was no collusion,when did Mueller learn this? Did it take 2-

1/2 years to discover there was noconspiracy?

The names tossed out as justifying theoriginal investigation are GeorgePapadopoulos and Carter Page, with thelatter subjected to four consecutive secretFISA court surveillance warrants. Yetneither man was ever charged withconspiring with Russia. Was "Russiagate"a nothing burger to begin with, aconcocted excuse for "deep state" agenciesto rampage through the campaign andpersonal history of Trump to destroy himand his presidency?

Senator Elizabeth Warren, apresidential candidate, has called forimpeachment hearings in the HouseJudiciary Committee. But her call seemsless tied to evidence of high crimes in theMueller report than her own anemic pollratings and fundraising performance inthe first quarter.

It is difficult to see how those Democratsand their media allies, who have investedso much prestige and so many hopes in theMueller report, can now pack it in andconcede that they were wrong. Theirinterests will not permit it; theirreputations could not sustain it.

SO WHERE ARE WE HEADED?The anti-Trump media and second-tier

candidates for the Democratic nominationwill press the front-runners to join theircall for impeachment. Some willcapitulate to the clamor.

But can Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Beto

O'Rourke, Pete Buttigieg or KamalaHarris, who have agendas they wish toadvance, accept becoming just anothervoice crying out for Trump'simpeachment?

THE CREDIBILITY OF THEDEMOCRATIC PARTY IS NOW ATISSUE

If Mueller could not find collusion, whatreason is there to believe Rep.JerryNadler's judiciary committee will find it,and then convince the country that theyhave discovered what ex-FBI DirectorMueller could not. With conspiracy andcollusion off the table, and Mueller sayingthe case for obstruction is unproven, therenewed attack on Trump takes on theaspect of a naked and desperate "deepstate" -media coup against a president theyfear they cannot defeat at the ballot box.

(Ven Parameswaran is Chairman, AsianAmerican Republican Committee, founded in

1988; lives in Scarsdale, NY. Email:vpwaren@gmail.com)

8 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019EDITORIAL

AS I SEE IT

By Ven Parameswaran

CREDIBILITY OF THE DEMOCRATICPARTY AT STAKE

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GUEST COMMENT

MUELLER COULD NOT FIND COLLUSION. HOW WILL NADLER'S JUDICIARY COMMITTEE FIND IT?

Comedian's triumph: On Ukraine's new President

Charles Dickens, in a Tale of Two Cities, started

with:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, itwas the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, itwas the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

On December 15, 2013, in Independence Square, Kiev,then-Senator John McCain addressed everydayhardworking Ukrainians and said, "The world is withyou. America is with you. And I am with you." And withthose three short sentences the die was cast: Ukraine,which was faltering, could either slip back into RussianOrbit, or embrace a full measure of destiny by beingfree and her own master.

Five years ago, end of February 2014, Russian "GreenMen" invaded Crimea. Russia loudly and repeatedlydenied the invasion, until they had captured Crimea -and then, it was theirs, and they said so. Ukrainiansoverthrew President Viktor Yanukovych, as he wasperceived a Russian puppet, and elected PetroPoroshenko to stand up to the powerful president ofRussia, Vladimir Putin. And stand up, and stand tallPresident Pororshenko did. He became - what I calledhim - the Lion of Ukraine.

With his nation at war, and economy squeezed byRussia and her friends, he tried to reform the economy,move the nation towards European Union, NATO andAmerica. But domestically, despite Russian Meddling,his number one priority was to have a strong militaryand to keep his soldiers well supplied, fed and strong.Few nations-at-war end up with a better economy. As itis well established, the choice is always: "Guns orButter." He provided more guns to his soldiers. LikeWinston Churchill, Petro Poroshenko, who succeededin limiting Russia at war, was not wanted anymore bythose seeking a better economy. By October 2018,Poroshenko was polling in single digits. Then Russiaattacked three Ukrainian navy boats in the UkrainianWaters on November 25, 2018 and captured 24 Sailors.

This forced Poroshenko to fight harder and redoublehis efforts, and not walk away and let someone else dealwith the headaches from allies and enemies. He came toUnited Nations on February 20, 2019 to speak in theGeneral Assembly, and meet with Secretary General to

get help in securing the freedom of 24 innocent sailorsRussia had wrongfully captured to make them pawns. Imet him, and got a bear hug from him; and I hugged him- and by so doing, hugged every Ukrainian yearning forfreedom and a better life at-peace with their ownAmerican Dream.

In the recent presidential elections, Ukrainianshonored Poroshenko by having him come second in thefirst round, and then in the second and final round witha roar, of almost 75% , voted to elect a comedian-actorVolodymyr Zelensky lead them with a simple-person'shonesty and hatred for corrupt government. In sodoing, Ukrainians elected their version of a RonaldReagan, a "B" actor, who will honor Abraham Lincoln'sGettysburg recipe: a government "for" the people. Anhonest fiduciary who will help them get what theydeserve from all their hard work and suffering.

With all eyes on Putin, the untrampled Czar ofRussia, he didn't send the president-elect Zelensky anyflowers, as the German Ambassador Heusgen, asPresident of the UNSC, complained during the SecurityCouncil Meeting on April 25th, but issued a PresidentialDecree to award Russian Passports to Ukraine'sCitizens - thereby weaponizing passports to stealcitizens and pierce sovereignty. Amb. VolodymyrYelchenko, unlike his predecessor Yuriy Sergeyev whowas shocked at the Russian betrayal in 2014, strongly

bemoaned Russia's "creeping aggression." WhileFrench Amb. Delattre reminded Amb. Nebenzia, who isalways supported by Amb. Dmitry Polyansky, themeaning of international law and norms, and the needfor Russia to honor them, it was United States Amb.Jonathan Cohen - who strongly and clearly woke up theChamber, as it is perpetually tired by one crisis afteranother, to take note of passports becoming a tool ofwar and sovereignty-piercing.

Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jew, and so is Ukraine'sPrime Minister. I mention this, because just like in theUnited States, Nazis flourished everywhere, including,in Ukraine in the last Century. Ukraine is now cleansed.And this young man, untested in geopolitics, but whotested his comedic routine daily before a live audience,knows what his people want, and how they want it. Hehas a leg up on being an Abraham Lincoln.Professionally, he is closer to a Ronald Reagan - whofamously told Gorbachev - "trust, but verify." All of usmust him - and the young Republic that he will soonlead - our best wishes and undivided support, even asJohn McCain's words ring in my ear: America is withyou!

I have no doubt that Donald J. Trump will fullysupport Ukraine, even as it may be to President Putin'ssurprise, as he is now POTUS; and Dickens is watching.

(The author is a senior attorney. He is Legal & HumanitarianAdvisor to Ukrainian Mission to United Nations. He can be

reached at ravibatralaw@aol.com)

9THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 PERSPECTIVE

By Ravi BatraLegal & Humanitarian Advisor to

Ukrainian Mission to United Nations

From Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to President-Elect Volodymyr Zelensky

From Lion of Ukraine to Ukrainian Roar, with America’s full backing

President Poroshenko & Ravi Batra at the United Nations onFebruary 20, 2019

Pres. Poroshenko seeking world's help to get a UNSC P5-Nation to stop being an outlaw

Pres. Pororshenko, FM Klimkin and Amb. Yelchenko

United Nations SecretaryGeneral & Pres. Poroshenko

10 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019SOUTH ASIA

AUSTRALIAN CAFETHAT CHARGED ‘MANTAX’ TO CLOSE

KUALA LUMPUR (TIP) : Avegan cafe in Australia that chargedmen an 18 per cent premium toreflect the gender pay gap with thefunds given to charity is to close, itsowners said on April 25. Soon afteropening its doors in August 2017,Handsome Her in Melbourne causedan online and media storm when aphotograph of a chalkboard outsidethe cafe explaining its voluntary“man tax” and women priorityseating hit Twitter. reuters

POLICE TO ALLOWTRANSGENDERRECRUITS IN PAK’SSINDH

KARACHI (PAKISTAN) (TIP):

Transgenders in Pakistan’s Sindhwill be able to serve as regular dutypolice officers, the police chief said,adding it was time to offer moreopportunities to a group relegated tomenial jobs in government.

Transgender Pakistanis gainedrecognition in 2009 when theSupreme Court granted themspecial status with rights equal toother citizens. While discriminationstill persists, the move to allowtransgender police recruits wouldbe a significant step for thecommunity, activists say.

Many transgenders live insecluded communities, earning aliving as dancers or forced into sexwork or begging. A 2017 censuscounted 10,418 transgenders in thecountry of 207 million, but rightsgroup Charity Trans ActionPakistan estimates there are at least5,00,000. — Reuters

FIRE GUTS SHANTIES INBANGLADESHROHINGYA REFUGEECAMP

DHAKA (TIP): An official says afire in a sprawling Rohingya refugeecamp in southern Bangladesh hasdestroyed more than two dozen hutsand a mosque.

The official in Cox’s Bazardistrict, Mikaruzzman Chowdhury,says no injuries occurred in the fire,which broke out on Wednesday in acamp in Kutupalong. He says 28 hutsand a mosque were destroyed.

Chowdhury says firefighters wereable to douse the blaze before itspread further.

More than 700,000 RohingyaMuslims have fled to Bangladeshfrom western Myanmar’s Rakhinestate to escape an army-ledcrackdown on the minority groupthat started in August 2017.

Critics have described thecampaign as ethnic cleansing, oreven genocide, on the part ofMyanmar security forces. — AP

Sri Lanka: Not 359, Easter blasts toll 253

COLOMBO (TIP): Sri Lanka on April25 night revised the Easter blasts deathtoll downward to 253, saying the previousfigure of 359 was due to a “calculationerror”.

Authorities earlier said that ninesuicide bombers, believed to be membersof local Islamist extremist group calledNational Thowheed Jamath, carried outthe blasts that killed 359 persons andwounded more than 500 others. However,in an embarrassing revision, Dr AnilJasinghe, the Director General of theHealth Services, said the larger deathtoll was released as a result of a“calculation error”.

“The approximate total of the deadwould be 253 and not 359 as reported inmedia," he said. Jasinghe said that atleast 485 injured were admitted to sixhospitals throughout the country. "By 10am today, the casualty number athospitals has been reduced to 149. Only

six had died in hospitals,” Jasinghe said.“As it was not easy to count the correct

number of dead due to extensivedamages suffered in some cases, thefigures issued were all approximatenumbers,” he defended. Jasinghe saidthose who died in the three hotel blastswere mostly beyond recognition as theirbody parts had suffered comparativelymore damages than those who died atchurch blasts.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry saidthe number of foreigners killed has risento 40, including 11 Indians.

Meanwhile, the island nation onThursday suspended its plans to grantvisas on arrival to citizens of 39countries after the Easter suicidebombings. "Although arrangementswere in place to issue visas on arrival forcitizens of 39 countries, we have nowdecided to hold it for the time being inconsideration of the current security

situation,” Tourism Minister JohnAmaratunga said. “Investigations haverevealed foreign links to the attacks andwe don't want this facility to be abused.”

The visa-on-arrival pilot programmewas part of an initiative to increasetourist arrivals to the country during thesix month off-season period from May toOctober. — PTI

DRONES BANNED; HUNTON FOR SUSPECTS

A minor explosion occurred onThursday in the Sri Lankan capital’soutskirts even as security forcescontinued a search for accomplices ofsuicide bombers

The government also banned the useof all drones and unmanned aircraftwithin the Sri Lankan airspace witheffect from Thursday for securityreasons

“Investigations have revealed foreignlinks to the attacks and we do notwant this visa-on-arrival facility to beabused,” Tourism Minister JohnAmaratunga said

The visa-on-arrival pilot programmewas part of an initiative to increasetourist arrivals to the country duringoff-season from May to October

SRI LANKAN DEFENCESECRETARY QUITS

Sri Lankan Defence SecretaryHemasiri Fernando resigned onThursday, accepting responsibility forfailing to prevent the Easter Sundaysuicide bombings. Fernando told aninternational news agency that whilethere had been no failure on his ownpart, he was taking responsibility forthe failures of some institutions whichwere under his command. PresidentMaithripala Sirisena had earlier askedthe Defence Secretary and the policechief to quit

Casualties by US, Afghan forces more than TalibanKABUL (TIP): Afghan civilians are, for

the first time, being killed in greaternumbers by US and pro-government forcesthan by the Taliban and other insurgentgroups, a UN report released on April 24revealed.

The bloody milestone comes as the USsteps up its air campaign in Afghanistanwhile pushing for a peace deal with theTaliban, who now control or influence moreparts of the country than at any time sincethey were ousted in 2001.

During the first three months of 2019,international and pro-government forceswere responsible for the deaths of 305civilians, whereas insurgent groups killed227 people, the United Nations AssistanceMission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in aquarterly report.

A majority of the deaths resulted fromUS air strikes or from search operations onthe ground, primarily conducted by US-backed Afghan forces, some of whichUNAMA said “appear to act withimpunity”. UNAMA started compilingcivilian casualty data in 2009 amiddeteriorating security conditions in

Afghanistan. Colonel Dave Butler,spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan, saidthe US military holds itself “to the higheststandards of accuracy and accountability”and that it strived for precision in all itsoperations.

“We reserve the right of self-defence ofour forces as well as the Afghan SecurityForces,” Butler said in a statement. “The

best way to end the suffering of non-combatants is to end the fighting throughan agreed-upon reduction in violence on allsides.” In 2017, the US military startedquickening its operational tempo afterPresident Donald Trump loosenedrestrictions and made it easier forAmerican forces to bomb Taliban positions.AFP

11THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 ADVERTISEMENT

12 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019US

Consul General Sudhakar Dalela & IABC Hosts VibrantGoa Global Expo/Summit 2019 Roadshow in Chicago

CHICAGO, IL (TIP): Consul Generalof India Mr. Sudhakar Dalela incollaboration with Indian AmericanBusiness Council [IABC] headed byHarish Kolasani, IABC FoundingPresidentheld Vibrant Goa roadshowhighlighting Goa's phenomenal successstory in areas such as such as innovation,sustainability, industries, technology,youth, skill development and knowledgesharing and networking at the IndianConsulate premises in downtownChicago on April 16, 2019. The entiregamut of Goa's illustrious story will beextensively showcased at the Vibrant GoaGlobal Expo & Summit 2019 to be held inGoa, India on October 17-19, 2019.

Consul General of India Mr. SudhakarDalela in his keynote addresscomprehensively outlined India'sgrowing economic eminence and thetrajectory of its extraordinary growth.Consul General Mr. Sudhakar Dalelacommended the initiatives of the Goa'sleadership and the roadshow delegationincluding Dr. Jagat Shah and Raj KumarKamat in helping advance the vision ofGoa through this magnificent VibrantGoa 2019 Expo. Consul General of IndiaMr. Sudhakar Dalela said that thisVibrant Goa 2019 will augur well invalidating Goa's fastest growingeconomy which is driven by strong

performance of industrial, mining,tourism and pharmaceuticals -- thatwhich was reaffirmed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Dr. Jagat Show, Founder ManagingDirector of Global Network & ChiefMentor of Vibrant Goa 2019 in hispresentation expansively delineated thegoal of Vibrant Goa Global Expo &Summit and presented a host ofaudiovisuals illustrating thephenomenal trajectory of growth of thestate of Goa vis-à-vis India's burgeoningeconomic eminence. Dr. Jagat Shah saidVibrant Goa Global Expo Summit would

be an ideal convergence of Goa'sindustries and business community toshowcase their strengths, highlightbusiness opportunities and facilitateknowledge dissemination across 19countries worldwide and 20 states inIndia. He added Vibrant Goa 2019 wouldprovide a practical opportunity to itsparticipants to understand the potentialof Goa across various sectors

Harish Kolasani, IABC Presidentwelcomed the corporate, business andcommunity leader and explained theoverview of Indian American BusinessCouncil and its significant role in creating

platforms in connecting businessentrepreneurs; more importantlyconnecting the small to medium businessesbetween the United States and India. In astatement, Harish Kolasani said that in lessthan 24 hours IABC has received huge waveof interest in participating in the VibrantGoa 2019 including prominent leader SmitaShah, Chair of Delhi Committee onChicago Sister Cities International hadmade remarks on ways Delhi Sister CityCommittee can complement the VibrantGoa 2019.

Read full story atwww.theindianpanorama.news

Consul General Sudhakar Dalela addressingthe gathering A view of the gathering

Volunteers from 92 cultures convene to plan the 29th Annual Skokie Festival of Cultures

SKOKIE IL (TIP): Representatives from 92 differentcultures convened on Monday - April 15, 2019, to organizethe 29th Skokie Festival of Cultures scheduled to takeplace on May 18 & 19, 2019 at Oakton Park. The three-dayevent is expected to draw an estimated 25,000 people fromthe Village of Skokie and surrounding areas.

The festival will kick- off on Friday evening with anInternational Short Film Festival and feature more than 60ethnic performances throughout the weekend as visitorsexperience the cultural diversity existing within Skokiethrough the event theme "Passport to the World."

John Marquardt, chairman of the Planning Committeeand Pamela Zeid from the Village of Skokie led thevolunteer meeting to finalize the cultural booth selectioncriteria.

This year's event is expected to feature cultural boothshighlighting cultural diversity existing within the Skokiecommunity. The purpose of the festival is to bringtogether people from the Village for an entire weekendallowing them to celebrate one another's customs andcultural backgrounds in a fun and colorful setting.

The food vendors for this year's event include SkokieRotary, Windsor Ice Cream, Blackhawk BBQ & Seafood,Lee Concessions, Tamale Express, LC Restaurant, UncleZorba's Greek Foods, Urhai Community Service Centerand the Perk & Pickle Food truck.

This year's event is sponsored by Geico, NorthShoreUniversity HealthSystem, State Farm, Nicor Gas, Renewalby Andersen, Bright Horizons Early Education &Preschool, Byline Bank, Chiro One Wellness Centers, EyeLevel, Power Home Remodeling, First Bank Chicago-Highland Park, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Kiwanisand Rotary Clubs of Skokie Valley.

John Marquardt, and Pamela Zeid who led meeting didan excellent job at addressing questions from participating

organizations; and generating enthusiasm and excitementof the upcoming event.

Krishna Goyal, Member, Skokie Human RelationsCommission, who has been serving the Village of Skokiefor more than 20 years and Chandrakant Modi, M.D.Chairperson, Gandhi Memorial Chicago,also attended themeeting. Due to Easter Sunday Babu Verma could notattend this meeting however he is part of culturalcommittee executive member in Village od Skokie.

"This is the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi andwe are elated to be participating in this event to celebrateGandhi's life through literature and photos," saidChandrakant Modi, M.D.

Gandhi Memorial Chicago will also participate in

Skokie's annual Fourth of July Parade. Arnold Oskin whoorganizes the parade shared that slots are starting to fill upand those who care interested can register on the website.Gandhi Memorial Chicago float will be part of Fourth ofJuly Parade in Skokie.

For businesses or community organizations interestedin supporting the festival through donations may contactJon Marquardt at 847- 674-1500, ext 3520. In return for theirsupport Friends of the Festival will receive advertisementduring the event Skokie Park District facilities and lobbies.

The planning committee is also looking for volunteersfor the event. Volunteers may go to the Festival websiteand submit an online application.

(Photographand Press release / Asian Media USA )

Representatives from 92 cultures convene to plan the 29th Annual Skokie Festival of Cultures

13THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 US

INDIAN AMERICANIMPACT FUND

ENDORSES KAMALAHARRIS FOR PRESIDENT

WASHINGTON (TIP): The IndianAmerican IMPACT Fund ("IMPACTFund") on April 18 announced itsendorsement of U.S. Senator KamalaHarris for President of the UnitedStates.

"In such a critically importantelection, one that will shape policyand politics for generations to come,Indian Americans can't afford to stayon the sidelines. That's why IMPACTFund is proud to be the first IndianAmerican or Asian Americanpolitical organization to endorseSenator Harris," said Raj Goyle, co-founder of IMPACT and a formermember of the Kansas House ofRepresentatives. "In the comingmonths, we look forward tomobilizing our network of resourcesto ensure Senator Harris secures theDemocratic nomination and iselected the next President of theUnited States of America."

A lifelong public safety and civilrights leader, Senator Harrispreviously served as DistrictAttorney of San Francisco andAttorney General of California,before being elected by voters of themost populous state in the nation,California, to the U.S. Senate in 2016.If elected President of the UnitedStates, Harris will be the firstwoman, the first Indian American,the first Asian American, and thefirst African American woman tohold that post.

"The Indian American IMPACTFund is proud to endorse SenatorKamala Harris. She is a tested leaderwho has demonstrated, throughouther career, a strong commitment toour community's progressive andpluralistic values," said ArunaMiller, Executive Director ofIMPACT.

"This endorsement and the supportof the Indian American Impact Fundand its members means so much tome," Harris said. "Together, we willfight for an America that restores thevalues of truth and justice and worksfor working people, from raisingincomes to expanding health care."

In 2018, over 100 Indian Americansran for office in 29 states; IMPACTFund endorsed 27 of thesecandidates, 44% of whom won theirraces in November.

U.S.-India Political ActionCommittee Hosts fundraiser for

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi

WASHINGTON / NEW DELHI

(TIP): In response to queries onIndia's reaction to the announcementby the US to discontinue theSignificant Reduction Exemption toall purchasers of crude oil from Iran,India said that they 'are adequatelyprepared to deal with the impact ofthis decision.' India was one of theeight countries affected by the Trumpadministration's decision to endwaivers that allowed it to buy Iranianoil without facing U.S. sanctions. Iranwas the third largest oil supplier forIndia after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.Imports account for more than 80% ofIndia's oil needs. Washington hadreimposed sanctions on Iran inNovember after pulling out of a 2015

nuclear deal between the IslamicRepublic and six global powers. TheUS had granted waivers that allowedIndia and seven other countries tocontinue importing reduced quantityof Iranian oil for six months endingMay 1.

The Trump administrationannounced April 22 that it will nolonger exempt any countries from U.S.sanctions if they continue to buyIranian oil. "President Donald J.Trump is taking action intended tobring Iran's oil exports to zero anddeny the regime its principal source ofrevenue", said the White House.

While China, another major oilimporter from Iran, lashed at theTrump administration, India saidthe

Government would continue to workwith partner nations to find asolution.

"Government has noted theannouncement by the US Governmentto discontinue the SignificantReduction Exemption to allpurchasers of crude oil from Iran. Weare adequately prepared to deal withthe impact of this decision. Ministryof Petroleum and Natural Gas hasalready issued a statement in thisregard. Government will continue towork with partner nations, includingwith the US, to find all possible waysto protect India's legitimate energyand economic security interests." anofficial spokesperson from Ministry ofExternal Affairs said.

Trump's Iran Oil Ban: Prepared to deal with the Impact, says India

LOS ANGELES (TIP): Last month,the U.S.-India Political ActionCommittee (USINPAC) launched itsCalifornia chapter, with prominentlawyer, Navneet Chugh, serving aschapter head. The launch coincided witha fundraiser for Congressman RajaKrishnamoorthi, representing theIllinois 8th Congressional district.

In her opening remarks, Dolly Kapoor,co-founder of USINPAC, expressedthanks to Congressman Krishnamoorthifor attending the launch and commendedhim for his outstanding service inrepresenting the interests of IndianAmericans. She also welcomed NavneetChugh, noting his achievements andstature in the community.

"We stand with India as it confrontsterrorism," US Secretary of State MikePompeo said on Twitter. Calling outPakistan, Pompeo said, "Pakistan must

not provide safe haven for terrorists tothreaten international security."

Navneeet Chugh is ManagingPartner of Chugh LLP, a full servicelaw and CPA firm. He is on the boardsof HAB Bank, Ignify Consulting, SikhCenter of Orange County, PrathamUSA's Los Angeles chapter, IndiaCommunity Center, Dhando Holdings,and Premier Media (the publisher ofIndia Journal). He is also a formerboard member of the Asia Society ofSouthern California as well as theAmerican India Foundation (AIF),which was chaired by former PresidentBill Clinton. Mr. Chugh is a graduate ofUSC and Harvard.

"USINPAC is pleased to welcomeNavneet Chugh as our CaliforniaChapter head," Sanjay Puri, Chairmanand Founder of USINPAC said. "Ourcommunity will be better served having

a changemaker like Navneet workingwith us to bring about outcomes thatmatter."

Mr. Puri also expressed strong supportfor Congressman Krishnamoorthi, whowas selected as an Assistant Whip andserves on the Steering and PolicyCommittee. "Our community isfortunate to have CongressmanKrishnamoorthi in the in the U.S. Houseof Representatives," Puri said, "and weshould continue our support through theballot box and fundraising efforts."

"We are deepening our partnershipand engaging at the grassroots levels invery practical ways," Mrs. Kapoor said,"and, with Mr. Chugh on board, I ampositive we will be able to galvanize andengage our California community morefully as we work together locally andfederally to move the Indian Americanagenda forward."

The launch coincided with a fundraiser for Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi

If elected President of the United States,Harris will be the first woman, the first

Indian American, the first Asian American,and the first African American woman to

hold that post

14 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019INDIA

AKHILESH, MAYA,CONG CAN’T KEEPNATION SAFE: SHAH

GHAZIPUR (TIP): BJP president AmitShah on April 25 claimed Oppositionleaders could not look after the country’ssecurity.

Addressing a rally in Ghazipurconstituency of Uttar Pradesh, he allegedBSP supremo Mayawati and her SamajwadiParty and Congress counterparts AkhileshYadav and Rahul Gandhi were upset withthe Balakot air strikes.

“These ‘mahamilavati’ people talk aboutthe country. Akhilesh, Mayawati andCongress cannot keep the country safe,” hesaid.

Shah said the BJP could not do “ilu-ilu”with terrorists, an apparent reference to thepopular short form of ‘I love you’. “Thoughterrorists of Pakistan were killed (in theBalakot air strikes), there was anatmosphere of mourning in the offices of‘Bua’ (Mayawati), ‘Bhatija’ (Akhilesh) and‘Rahul baba’,” he said.

“I could not find out as to why they wereso sad. Why were they moving about withlong faces? Were those terrorists theirmaternal or paternal cousins?” he said.

BJP fields Sunny Deolfrom Gurdaspur

NEW DELHI (TIP): The BharatiyaJanata Party has fielded actor Sunny Deolfrom Gurdaspur seat in Punjab for the LokSabha elections. Releasing its 26th list, theparty also declared the names of SomPrakash and Kirron Kher for the Hoshiarpurand Chandigarh seats respectively. Earlier,Deol joined the saffron party in the presenceof Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman andPiyush Goyal in New Delhi, saying he wasimpressed with Prime Minister NarendraModi. “The way my father (film starDharmendra) was attached with Atalji, todayI have come to join Modiji,” said Deol whohas worked in several blockbuster films likeGhayal, Damini and Ghatak.

Seeking second term, PM Modifiles nomination from Varanasi

VARANASI (TIP): Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on April 26 submitted hisapplication to fight the 2019 Lok Sabhaelection from the Varanasi parliamentaryseat, the constituency he won in the 2014general election. PM Modi will file hisnomination papers from Varanasi, earlierknown as Banaras, which will vote in theseventh phase of the seven-phase 2019 LokSabha election.

On April 25, Modi took part in a grandroadshow in Varanasi that saw the holy cityturn into a sea of saffron. Frenzied crowdscheered the prime minister on as he made hisway from the statue of Banaras HinduUniversity founder Madan Mohan Malaviya tothe Dashashwamedh Ghat, where PM Moditook part in the daily aarti.

PM Modi is seeking a second term in officefrom Varanasi, a parliamentary seat hehandsomely won in 2014, defeating AamAadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal by amassive margin of 3.37 lakh votes.

Narendra Modi stormed to power in 2014with his Bharatiya Janata Party winning 282of the Lok Sabha's 543 constituencies. The BJPwon an absolute majority in 2014, reducing thethen-ruling Congress to a miserly 44 seats.

WORRIESThe Modi-led BJP will be looking to better

its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabhaelection. However, the state of the economymay prove to be the party's undoing.

A leaked government survey suggested thatunemployment is at a four-decade high inIndia. The opposition Congress has also beenquestioning the government on the 2016 shockdecision to demonetise around 85 per cent ofthe currency notes that were in circulationthen.

The Congress has alleged the NarendraModi government has run the country'seconomy into the ground. According to theCongress, the government's demonetisationexercise and the rollout of the Goods andServices Tax have greatly harmed the Indianeconomy.

'LIVES EASIER'The Narendra Modi government has

responded by saying that citizens' lives havebecome easier in the last five years, thanks to

a number of the government's schemes.These range from projects offering housing

and power to all to setting up a mechanism todeal with companies (or individuals)defaulting on bank loans.

The government also prides itself on arelative 'tougher' stance with respect toPakistan. The 2016 cross-LoC surgical strikesand the 2019 cross-border airstrike, both ofwhich targeted terror camps in Pakistan-controlled territory, have been offered as proofof the Narendra Modi government'sdetermination to take on Pakistan-sponsoredterrorism.

WILL MODI COME BACK TO POWER?The answer will be out on May 23, when

counting begins for the seven-phase LokSabha election. India Today's Mood of theNation poll, conducted in January this year,predicted a hung parliament if elections wereheld then.

The Narendra Modi and Amit Shah-ledBharatiya Janata Party is confident of victoryin the Lok Sabha election. For India's grandold party, the Congress, it's a battle for

survival.The Congress was reduced to a historic low

in the 2014 election. Rahul Gandhi, who comesfrom a family of three Indian prime ministers,is now at the helm of the party and is hopingto revive the party's fortunes.

Regional parties are expected to play adisruptive role in this election.

Parties such as the Samajwadi Party andBahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh,Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, ShivSena in Maharashtra, All India Anna DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu,Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) inTelangana, Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka,and the Left may end up playing kingmakersin deciding who forms the next government inDelhi. Some of them have already allied witheither the BJP or the Congress.

For PM Narendra Modi, who stormed tooffice on a promise of disruptive change, May23 will be the day he knows if the five years ofhis rule have indeed turned the countryaround. The clock is ticking.

Source: India Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Varanasi to hold a major roadshow in the temple town of UP.

Rahul Gandhi will be responsible if BJP comes back to power: KejriwalNEW DELHI (TIP): “If the BJP comes

back to power, only one person would beresponsible for it and that would be RahulGandhi,” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenerArvind Kejriwal said on Thursday, attackingthe Congress president for the failure of thetwo parties to forge and alliance in Delhi.

The Delhi chief minister also hit out at theBJP, accusing the ruling party of fulfillingPakistan’s agenda of “dividing the country”.

Talking to reporters at the launch of AAP’sDelhi manifesto, Kejriwal said the AAP wouldnot have “dreamt” of forming an alliance withthe Congress but had agreed to do so “only tosave the country”.

“I want to ask Rahul Gandhi which allianceis formed on Twitter. If they were seriousabout forming an alliance, they should havecome to the table for negotiations. Givingstatements in public is not going to solve theproblem,” he said.

On Gandhi’s comment that he would try till

the last moment to form an alliance with theAAP in Delhi, Kejriwal said, “This isposturing. They don’t have an intention.”

The Congress, in response, said Kejriwalwas himself confused. “The Congress’ topleadership had extended a hand for alliancetowards him, but he did not reciprocate. Then,he says the Congress is responsible if Modijiwins. In Delhi, now he is mixing politics andreligion,” said Ragini Nayak, Congressspokesperson,.

“I remember the big dreams that he hadshown -- morality in politics, transparency inpolitics, inclusive politics and today, he isdoing what the BJP does, that if you areHindu, vote for them, or if you are Muslim,vote for them. I feel this is not good for thedemocracy,” Nayak said.

Speaking on the seat-sharing arrangementproposed by the Congress, Kejriwal saidgiving three seats to the Congress would meanlosing on all those seats. Kejriwal went on to

say that the Congress was not getting a singleHindu vote, while the Muslims were a littleconfused as well.

“The AAP will support any secularmahagathbandhan after the general elections.This election is the fight to save the nation,democracy and the Constitution of thecountry,” he said.

Congress leader PC Chako said his party

will have a direct fight with the BJP in the LokSabha elections in Delhi and asserted that thepossibility of a triangular contest is “slowlydisappearing” in the national capital.

Kejriwal also attacked BJP president AmitShah for an alleged tweet that the BJP willremove every single infiltrator from thiscountry except Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs,Kejriwal said it meant that the BJP’s plan wasto remove all religions except these three fromthe country.

“Even Pakistan wanted to divide India. TheBJP is fulfilling Pakistan’s agenda of dividingIndia…of weakening it,” Kejriwal added.

The AAP has already announced itscandidates for the seven seats in Delhi —Pankaj Gupta from Chandni Chowk, Atishifrom East Delhi, Gugan Singh from NorthWest Delhi, Raghav Chadha from South Delhi,Dilip Pandey from North East Delhi, BalbirSingh Jakhar from West Delhi and BrajeshGoel from New Delhi. Source: HT

India delaying talks tofinalise agreement onKartarpur: Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (TIP): Pakistan onThursday accused India of delaying thedelegation-level talks to finalise theagreement to operationalise the Kartarpurcorridor.

On April 16, India and Pakistan held ameeting on technical aspects of thecorridor. Experts discussed timing forcompletion of a bridge, alignment of roadsand engineering aspects of the crossingpoints. The Foreign Office said work wasproceeding rapidly on the Pakistani side.

“In view of paucity of time, we are keento hold the meeting at the earliest tofinalise the draft pact. The meeting isspecifically to discuss differences,” it said.

Source: PTI

Mumbai serial blastsconvict Turk dies

NAGPUR (TIP): Abdul Gani Turk, whowas among those convicted of their role inthe 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, died at thegovernment hospital here on Thursday.

Nagpur Central Jail superintendent,Rani Bhonsale, said Turk’s situationsuddenly deteriorated and he wasimmediately rushed to the hospital. “A postmortem will be conducted at the hospitaltomorrow,’’ she said. “We have informedthe family members of Turk about hisdeath at the hospital.”

Turk was brought to Nagpur central jailin 2012.Turk was convicted for planting thebomb at Mumbai’s Century Bazaar, one ofthe 12 sites devastated by serial blasts onMarch 12, 1993. A special TADA court hadconvicted him for driving a van loadedwith RDX from the house of the primaryaccused, Ibrahim Mushtaq ‘Tiger’ Memon,in Mahim, to Century Bazaar in Worli.

Nirav Modi's hotwheels fetch Rs 3.29cr

MUMBAI (TIP): Of the 13 carsbelonging to Nirav Modi and MehulChoksi, all but one found takers at theauction held in Mumbai on Thursday. Thesale fetched the Enforcement Directorate,entrusted with selling the cars to recoverpart of the Rs 14,000 crore owed by thediamantaire and his uncle to PunjabNational Bank, Rs 3.29 crore. A profit overthe total reserve price of Rs 3.01 crore.

The online auction was conducted bystate-run Metal Scrap Trade Corporation(MSTC), and comes a month after 68artworks belonging to a shell companyowned by Modi went under the hammer. Ofthe 13, two cars — a BMW and a ToyotaInnova – belonged to Choksi. One car, aSkoda Superb, belonged to Nirav's brother,Neeshal.

The most expensive car on the list — apewter Rolls Royce Ghost that, rumour hasit, ferried his three lap dogs — fetched Rs 1,33,10,000. That's Rs 10,000 more than thebase price of Rs 1.33 crore. Registeredunder Firestone International Pvt Ltd, theluxury car originally cost Rs 5 crore.

15THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 INDIA

SC sets up panel to look into allegations of conspiracyframing Chief Justice of India

NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Courton April 25 constituted a one-man panel offormer apex court judge Justice A K Patnaikto hold inquiry into the allegations of largerconspiracy to frame Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi and fixing of benches in the topcourt.

The apex court asked the Directors of CBIand IB as also the Delhi Police Commissionerto cooperate with Justice (Retd) Patnaik asand when sought by him during the inquiry.The top court said however that the inquiryby will not deal with the allegations of sexualharassment against the CJI. It said theoutcome of the inquiry will not affect the in-house committee which is dealing with thecomplaint against the CJI.

The apex court said that on the completionof inquiry, Justice (Retd) Patnaik will file areport in a sealed cover before the court afterwhich the matter will be heard again. It left itto the panel to take assistance of the peoplerequired for the inquiry.

In the order, a special bench headed by

Justice Arun Mishra said: "Considering thefactual gamut and the affidavits filed byadvocate Utsav Singh Bains, we are appointingJustice A K Patnaik, retired judge of thiscourt, to hold inquiry into the allegationslevelled in the affidavit filed by Bains." Thebench, also comprising Justices R F Narimanand Deepak Gupta, clarified that he "would notdeal with the allegations of mis-behaviour by

the CJI". It also said that the "outcome of theinquiry and its findings" would not affect thein-house inquiry which has been ordered.

The bench further said: "Directors of CBIand IB and Delhi Police Commissioner wouldrender cooperation to Justice (Retd) Patnaik asand when required during his inquiry." Thebench ordered that the affidavit filed byadvocate Bains be transferred to Justice (Retd)Patnaik in a sealed cover.

While dictating the order, the bench at theoutset said, "We have decided that no privilegecan be claimed on certain communications theadvocate is claiming and he has to disclose theinformation as and when required." TheSupreme Court earlier on Thursday expressedanguish over the "systematic attack" on thejudiciary and said time has come to tell therich and powerful of this country that they are"playing with fire". The apex court made thisobservation while hearing claims made by anadvocate that there was a larger conspiracy toframe the CJI on allegations of sexualharassment.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi

Military Court GivesCentre 3 Weeks ToDecide Plea AgainstNew Navy Chief

NEW DELHI (TIP): A militarytribunal on Thursday gave three weeksto the Defence Ministry to decide on apetition by Vice-Admiral Bimal Verma,challenging the appointment of ViceAdmiral Karambir Singh as the nextNavy Chief overlooking his seniority.

Vice Admiral Verma, the senior-mostnaval commander, on Tuesday onceagain moved the Armed Forces Tribunalin Delhi challenging appointment ofVice Admiral Singh to the top post afterthe defence ministry did not respond tohis statutory complaint.

Verma, commander-in-chief of theAndaman and Nicobar Command,approached the Armed Forces Tribunal(AFT) on April 8, but withdrew hispetition the next day after the tribunalasked him to first explore "internalremedies".

"The AFT has directed thegovernment to dispose of Vice AdmiralVerma's petition by May 15 and fixedMay 20 as the next date of hearing in thecase," Mr Verma's lawyer AnkurChhibber said.

He said though the governmentsought four weeks' time, the AFTgranted only three weeks to it.

Vice Admiral Verma filed a statutorycomplaint with the Defence Ministry onApril 10, challenging appointment ofVice Admiral Singh as the next navychief, and asked it to respond within 10days. However, as there was no responsefrom the ministry, he again approachedthe AFT on Tuesday.

Verma, the senior most navalcommander, is contesting appointmentof his junior Vice Admiral Singh to thetop post.

In a first, army starts process toinduct women as military policeNEW DELHI (TIP): In a historic first, the

Army on Thursday began the process to inductwomen in the military police, nearly two yearsafter Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said womenwill be recruited as jawans.

The Army started the online registration forrecruitment in the Corps of military and thelast date for filing application has been fixed asJune 8.

At present, women are allowed in select areassuch as medical, legal, educational, signals andengineering wings of the Army.

The role of the military police includespolicing cantonments and army establishments,

preventing breach of rules and regulations bysoldiers, maintaining movement of soldiers aswell as logistics during peace and war andextending aid to civil police whenever required.

India, China begin to preparefor 2nd informal summit

NEW DELHI (TIP): With nearly a month togo for the results of the general election, Indiaand China have quietly begun preparing for thesecond informal summit between their topleadership that is expected to build on the gainsof the first such meeting in Wuhan and bridgedifferences on key issues.

New Delhi initially suggested dates inNovember for the meeting, set to be held inIndia, but later agreed on dates in October afterBeijing said the timing of the summit should beadvanced so that the momentum created by theWuhan meeting isn’t dissipated, peoplefamiliar with the developments on both sidessaid.

A full plate of issues, including contentiousmatters such as the disputed border, especiallyin Arunachal Pradesh; India’s opposition toChina’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); andChina’s position on Pakistan-based terrorists,will be on the agenda for the summit, which anIndian official said would be “qualitativelydifferent” from the Wuhan meeting between

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and PresidentXi Jinping in April 2018.

“The Wuhan summit was held against thebackdrop of the military standoff at Doklamand was aimed at a reset in ties. There wasstrategic guidance from the leaders that thingswere better at the top and this message wassent down and resulted in better understandingin all arms of the government,” said the Indianofficial, who didn’t want to be identified.

“It restored some of the trust that had beenlost and there has been better management ofeach other’s sensitivities. In the secondsummit, we expect to move beyond the ghost ofDoklam and truly build on the Wuhan spirit,”the official added, noting how both sides weremaking a conscious effort not to play updifferences, including issues such as India’sdecision to skip China’s second Belt and RoadForum and Beijing’s hold on efforts todesignate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief MasoodAzhar at the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee.

Source: HT

16 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019THEATER

BENNY & JOON - At Paper Mill PlayhouseBy Mabel Pais

PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE, a not-for-profit arts organization underthe direction of Mark S. Hoebee

(Producing Artistic Director) andMike Stotts (Managing Director),recipient of the Regional Theatre

Tony Award, is one of the country'sleading regional theaters.

A beloved New Jersey artsinstitution since 1938 and a

nationally renowned not-for-profitregional theater, Paper Mill has

been consistently recognized forthe high-quality artistry of its re-

imagined classic musicals as wellas its commitment to supporting

the development of new works andthe careers of Broadway's best

talent and emerging artists bothonstage and behind the scenes.For additional information, visit

www.papermill.org.facebook.com/PaperMillPlayhouse

Twitter: @paper_millInstagram: papermillplayhouse

MARK S. HOEBEE has been thePlayhouse's Producing Artistic

Director since 2000. Under hisleadership, Paper Mill was

presented with the RegionalTheatre Tony Award in 2016 and in

recent years launched suchnoteworthy projects as the world

premieres of Newsies, inpartnership with Disney Theatrical

Productions like "Honeymoon inVegas," "A Bronx Tale," "The

Honeymooners," and "The Sting"starring Harry Connick, Jr., as well

as the American premieres of the25th Anniversary Production of

"Les Miserables," workingalongside Cameron Mackintosh,

Alan Menken and StephenSchwartz's "The Hunchback of

Notre Dame," and the national tourof "The Bodyguard" starring

Deborah Cox.His directing credits at Paper Mill

include "West Side Story;""Annie;" "Mary Poppins;"

"Dreamgirls;" "Hello, Dolly!"starring Tovah Feldshuh; "Haroldand Maude;" "The Musical" with

Estelle Parsons; "The Will RogersFollies" starring John Davidson;

"Meet Me In St. Louis;" "The KingAnd I;" "Miss Saigon;" "Disney's

High School Musical;" "Peter Pan;""Smokey Joe's Café;" "Oliver!;""Damn Yankees;" "Thoroughly

Modern Millie;" "Curtains;" and"The Full Monty" starring

Broadway legend Elaine Stritch.

Michael Stotts is the ManagingDirector of the Playhouse returning

to New Jersey after serving asManaging Director of Hartford

Stage in Connecticut for the past13 years. He is credited with

producing world premieres of newmusicals like "Anastasia" which

opened on Broadway in April2017, and "A Gentleman's Guide to

Love and Murder" whichtransferred to Broadway and won

the 2014 Tony Award for BestMusical.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S.Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director,Mike Stotts - Managing Director),

recipient of the Regional Theatre TonyAward, presents the East Coast premiereof "Benny & Joon" with book by KirstenGuenther, music by Nolan Gasser, lyricsby Mindi Dickstein, based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture writtenby Barry Berman and Leslie McNeil.

Directed by Jack Cummings III, withchoreography by Scott Rink and musicdirection by J. Oconor Navarro, theprincipal cast features Claybourne Elder("Sunday in the Park with George") asBenny, Hannah Elless (Paper Mill's "TheOther Josh Cohen") as Joon, BrycePinkham ("A Gentleman's Guide to Loveand Murder") as Sam, Conor Ryan as Sam(alternate, Paper Mill's "My Very OwnBritish Invasion") and Tatiana Wechsler("Oklahoma") as Ruthie, with ColinHanlon ("Falsettos") as Mike, PaoloMontalban (Paper Mill's "The King and I")as Larry, Natalie Toro ("A Tale of TwoCities") as Dr. Cortez/Mrs. Smail, JacobKeith Watson ("Carousel") as Waldo/VideoStore Owner and Belinda Allyn (PaperMill's "West Side Story").

Based on the 1993 film starring JohnnyDepp, Mary Stuart Masterson and AidanQuinn this new musical is a smart, funny,tender-hearted celebration of love:between children and parents; romanticpartners; friends; and, most of all,siblings. The pair at the heart of the showare siblings Benny and Joon who whenthey are younger, their parents die andBenny has the responsibility of takingcare of Joon who is schizophrenic, a typeof mental illness.

These two siblings are sort of stuck intheir lives and that begins to change whenthey meet a charming and eccentricstranger, Sam. Sam comes into their livesand shakes things up…. maybe for thebetter. Large in emotional scope andartistic ambition, "Benny & Joon"embraces a difficult subject with warmth,honesty, and wit.

What this show does really well is showhow people deal with change in their lives.

The production team includes scenicand costume design by Dane Laffrey,lighting design by R. Lee Kennedy, sounddesign by Kai Harada, flying by Foy,movement coordinator Lorenzo Pisoni,and orchestrations by Michael Starobin.The production stage manager is Victoria

Navarro. Casting by Nora Brennan, CSA."Benny & Joon" is presented by specialarrangement with Larry Hirschhorn.

"Benny & Joon" began performances,April 4, 2019, and will continue throughSunday, May 5, 2019, at Paper MillPlayhouse located at 22 Brookside Drive,Millburn, NJ. "Benny & Joon" is beingperformed eight times a week, Wednesdaythrough Sunday.

Accessibility Performances forBenny & Joon

Paper Mill Playhouse, a leader inaccessibility, will offer audio-describedperformances for "Benny & Joon" onSunday, April 28, 2019, at 1:30pm and

Saturday, May 4, 2019,at 1:30pm. Prior tothese performances at noon, the theaterwill offer free sensory seminars. Sensoryseminars offer an opportunity for patronswith vision loss to hear a live, in-depthdescription of the production elements ofthe show and hands-on interaction withkey sets, props, and costumes. There willbe a sign-interpreted and open-captionedperformance on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at7:00pm.

Free Audience EnrichmentActivities for Benny & Joon

CONVERSATION CLUB: Join PaperMill's Education team on Thursdayevening May 2, one hour before curtain foran informal, informative gathering tolearn more about the performance aboutto happpen.

Q&A WITH THE CAST: After thematinee on Saturday, May 4, will be alively Q&A with cast members directlyfollowing the performance.

TICKETS: Tickets may be purchasedby calling 973.376.4343, or visiting thePaper Mill Playhouse Box Office at 22Brookside Drive in Millburn, or online atwww.PaperMill.org.

Groups of 10 or more may receive up toa 40% discount on tickets and should call973.315.1680. Season subscriptions are onsale now and are available by calling973.379.3717. Students may order rushtickets over the phone or in person at thePaper Mill Playhouse Box Office on theday of the performance.

(Mabel Pais writes on the Arts & Entertainment,Social Issues, Spirituality, and Health &

Wellness)

Hannah Elless (Joon)Photo / Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Hannah Elless (Joon) and Claybourne Elder (Benny)Photo / Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Bryce Pinkham (Sam) and Hannah Elless (Joon). Photo /Jerry Dalia.

“100% enjoyable, poignant andaffecting"

- Times of San Diego“(Benny And Joon) It's anadventurous, tunefulexploration of complex issuesincluding mental illness,romantic love, and the lovebetween siblings, employingsome magic, some ballet, andeven some grilled cheese."

- Mark S. Hoebee, Producing Artistic Director-Michael Stotts,

Managing Director

17THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 ADVERTISEMENT

PARINEETI CHOPRA TO STARIN OFFICIAL HINDI REMAKE

OF ‘THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN’

PRIYANKA CHOPRAWINS PEOPLE’SBEAUTY OF THE YEAR

Priyanka Chopra, who has been namedthe Beauty of the Year by PeopleMagazine, has said that she has realised

‘looks aren’t everything’. She told People intheir upcoming Beautiful Issue, “In the worldwe live in, the standard of beauty is not reallyreal, and that’s something that we have done toourselves.”

She added, “I think I realized what all ittakes to actually look the way we do onmagazine covers and the work we do. That’swhen I realized looks aren’t everything, it’s theconfidence with which you walk into a room,it’s the ability to do your job to the best of yourcapabilities.”

Priyanka has appeared on dozens ofmagazine covers over the years, the mostrecent being for Vogue’s Netherlands edition.Priyanka appeared in her bridal gown for themagazine, and wrote in an Instagram post,“My fairytale. Thank you @nlvogue formaking me your first cover girl of the Love &Wedding issue.”

Parineeti Chopra has been roped in for the officialHindi remake of Hollywood thriller "The Girl OnThe Train", the makers announced Wednesday.

The actor will play an alcoholic divorcee, whobecomes involved in a missing person's investigation.The role was originally played by Emily Blunt, whoreceived critical acclaim for her performance in the 2016film.

Parineeti said the viewers will see her in a differentavatar with this film.

"I want to do roles that audiences haven't seen me inbefore and ones that require a lot of prep and homework,which is why 'The Girl On The Train' really worked forme. The character is an alcoholic and a victim of abuse,and I haven't explored anything like her on screenbefore," she said in a statement.

The yet-to-be-titled film, based on Paula Hawkins' 2015bestseller, will be directed by Ribhu Dasgupta.

The director said he is looking forward to workingwith Parineeti.

"The character is edgy, dark, and gritty along withbeing extremely emotional. So it is great to team up withsomeone like Parineeti, who is an extremely sincereactor and a powerful performer," Dasgupta said.

The movie is produced by Reliance Entertainment."'The Girl On The Train' is one of the best

psychological thrillers and also a heartwarming story ofthe female protagonist and her discovery of life. We haveprocured the rights of the book and the film, and will beadapting it from an Indian story telling perspective.Amblin will be a partner in this film," Shibasish Sarkar,Group CEO Reliance Entertainment, added.

The Hollywood film was backed by Steven Spielberg'sDreamWorks Pictures. Spielberg is AmblinEntertainment co-founder.

Set in the UK, the film is expected to go on floorsaround July. The makers are eyeing a 2020 release.

18 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019BOLLYWOOD

SARA ALI KHAN TO STAR OPPOSITE VARUN DHAWAN IN

COOLIE NO 1 REMAKEBollywood actor Sara Ali Khan, who made

her debut last year withAbhishekKapoor’s box office dud Kedarnath and

went ot feature in Rohit Shetty’s blockbusterfeaturing Ranveer Singh, is set to star in theremake of Coolie No 1 alongside VarunDhawan, the makers announced Wednesday.

“It’s official... After 25 years David Dhawanand Vashu Bhagnani come back together toadapt their timeless comedy, Coolie No 1. Thefilm starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khanbegins shoot this August,” a statement from themakers read.

There were speculations that the actor, whomade her Bollywood debut with 2018’sKedarnath”, would be playing the female leadopposite Varun Dhawan in the modernadaptation of the hit comedy.

The original, which starred Govinda andKarisma Kapoor in the lead, was directed byVarun’s father, filmmaker David Dhawan.David is returning to direct the new movie,which is produced by Vashu Bhagnani who alsobacked the 1995 film.

After Judwaa 2, the film marks David andVarun’s second collaboration.

While Varun’s latest release was Kalank,Sara was last seen in Simmba.

Sara shares pic of her ‘Easterbunnies’ Taimur and Ibrahim

Sara Ali Khan, who was in New York for a well-earned vacation, is back in Mumbai. Looks likeSunday was a busy day for the Simmba actor. OnEaster Sunday, Sara shared picture of herbrother Ibrahim Ali Khan and half brotherTaimur Ali Khan and dubbed them her ‘EasterBunnies’. Later in the day, accompanied by hermother actor Amrita Singh, Ibrahim and writerKanika Dhillon, she stepped out for a movieouting.

Sharing a picture of Ibrahim and Taimur, Sarawrote on Instagram: “My Easter Bunnies#munchkins #brothersinarms #doubletrouble.”In the picture, Taimur looks at the camera like apro; a slight smile lights up his face whilespectacled and smiling Ibrahim, looking quitelike his dad from his younger days, has hisprotective arms around his kid brother.

At the movie outing later in the evening, Sarais a picture of grace. In pictures and videos thatare now online, Sara can be seen laughing andsmiling as she enters the cinema complex. At onepoint, she greets someone with a namaste. Saracan be seen in a light green salwar kameez, asshe is often seen at public events.

MY DAUGHTERS HAVESTRONG THEATRICAL FAMILY

GENES: DREW BARRYMORE

ELLE FANNING: WANTEDTO BE A POP STAR

Hollywood actress Elle Fanning, knownfor films like 'Teen Spirit', 'Maleficent'and 'We Bought a Zoo', dreams of

becoming a pop star."It's definitely crossed my mind. That's not

out of the question and I feel like I did get a tasteof maybe what pop stars go through with theperformance element because also there wouldbe days where I would have to just sing like thesong 30 times," Fanning told a Chicago-basedonline magazine website.

She added, "That element of it I was like,'Whew'. That's an element people don't think ofwhen they think of pop stars. The strength ofhaving to go on tour ... that would be a lot but Idon't know, maybe an album or something ofsongs would be cool. Country songs to surpriseeverybody!"

Fanning also said she has been a huge musicfan since her youth.

Charlize Theron ‘blessed’ towork with Seth Rogen

Hollywood star Charlize Theron saysshe feels blessed to get anopportunity to collaborate with Seth

Rogen on their upcoming film 'Long Shot'.The 43-year-old star said she has alwaysbeen a 'fan' of the 38-year-old actor and wasdelighted to work with him in the comedy.

"I've been a sincere, down to the core ofmy body, fan of Seth Rogen's. I have watchedeverything that he's touched and never in amillion years did I think I would be in a

movie with him, so I am hashtag blessed,"Theron told a magazine.

In the film, Rogen plays a journalist whois spending time with Theron, apresidential hopeful who also happens to behis former babysitter.

Theron said working in a comedy was adifferent experience for her.

''I usually die or kill people in my movies,or get assaulted. This is not mywheelhouse," she said.

19THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 HOLLYWOOD

Brie Larson's vocal feminist stance hasearned her both fans and trolls but theactor, who fuels her portrayal of

'Captain Marvel' with extreme confidence,says she has learnt to tune out the 'outsidenoise' and focus on doing what she feels isright.

Larson's casting as Captain Marvel, 'thestrongest superhero in the Marvel CinematicUniverse', has made her a target of onlinenegativity.

"I made a promise to myself a long time agothat I won't pay attention to either of it(positive or negative). I just do what feels rightin my heart and all that stuff is outside noise,"

Larson told when asked about dealing withonline trolls.

The actor, 29, says she relies on a close set ofpeople for support.

"I know who I am and I know what it is thatfeels right and what I want to do. I just staytrue to that. And those other things aboutmyself that I need to learn, things I can dobetter, I trust that people that love me and areclose to me in my life, will tell me those things.Not that outside stuff."

Some fans have issues that Marvelintroduced such a powerful superhero so latein the game though her stand-alone film hasdone record numbers at the box office.

‘CAPTAIN MARVEL’ STAR BRIE LARSONON TROLLS: IT'S OUTSIDE NOISE

Hollywood star Drew Barrymore saidher daughters, Olive and Frankie, are'very theatrical' and enjoy coming on

film sets. The 44-year-old actor said she cansense her children are interested in pursuingacting.

"They're very theatrical. They definitelyhave a Barrymore gene strong within the twoof them, but they're funny and they're cooland they're adventurous and they lovecoming to set," Barrymore told Us Weekly.

The 'Santa Clarita Diet' actor, who shot tofame as a child star with Steven Spielberg's'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial', said she neverwanted her kids to choose the profession.

She, however, is okay with them joiningthe industry at an 'appropriate age'.

"I always thought the second they wereborn like, 'Oh God, I don't want you to be anactress.' But what I really realised is that Ijust don't want them to not have a childhood.

"If they were to go into acting in anappropriate age, I'd be, like, the mostsupportive, fiercest lion for it. Now I'm like,'If you want to do that and go into theatre inhigh school and do that for a living, I'mbehind you.' I just want them to have, like, anormal childhood," Barrymore said.

20 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019ADVERTISEMENT

In a tweet to mark Mother Earth Day,UN chief António Guterres said itwas vital "every day" to "commit to

taking better care of our planet. Pleasedo everything in your power to tackleclimate change - the defining issue ofour time", he said.

Marking International Mother EarthDay, the UN on April 22 debated howbest to build "an equitable andsustainable future" for all, throughenhanced education and climate action,on the road to a key internationalsummit on the issue due to take place inSeptember.

Billed officially as an InteractiveDialogue on Harmony with Nature, theUN General Assembly session involvedMember States and top officialsdiscussing the need to take urgentaction against the pace of globalwarming, in line with the 2015 ParisAgreement, to keep carbon dioxideemissions to well-below two degreesCelsius.

Climate Action Summit, 23September 2019

Climate change is the defining issueof our time and now is the definingmoment to do something about it. Thereis still time to tackle climate change, butit will require an unprecedented effortfrom all sectors of society.

The Summit that will be hosted by theUN Secretary General Guterres willshowcase a leap in collective nationalpolitical ambition and it willdemonstrate massive movements in thereal economy in support of the agenda.Together, these developments will sendstrong market and political signals andinject momentum in the "race to thetop" among countries, companies, citiesand civil society that is needed toachieve the objectives of the ParisAgreement and the SustainableDevelopment Goals.

Climate change: Let's listen to theworld's young people

15 March 2019

UN Secretary-General AntónioGuterres, in an op-ed in The Guardian,said leaders need to listen to theconcerns of youth on climate changeand presented plans for the ClimateAction Summit in September forconcrete and ambitious solutions.

Tens of thousands of young peopletook to the streets on Friday with a clearmessage to world leaders: act now tosave our planet and our future from theclimate emergency.

These schoolchildren have graspedsomething that seems to elude many oftheir elders: we are in a race for ourlives, and we are losing. The window ofopportunity is closing - we no longerhave the luxury of time, and climatedelay is almost as dangerous as climatedenial. My generation has failed torespond properly to the dramaticchallenge of climate change. This isdeeply felt by young people. No wonderthey are angry.

Despite years of talk, globalemissions are reaching record levelsand show no sign of peaking. Theconcentration of carbon dioxide in ouratmosphere is the highest it has been in3m years. The last four years were thefour hottest on record, and wintertemperatures in the Arctic have risenby 3-4°C in the last 50 years. Sea levelsare rising, coral reefs are dying and weare starting to see the life-threateningimpact of climate change on health,through air pollution, heat waves andrisks to food security.

Thankfully, we have the Parisagreement - a visionary, viable, forward-looking policy framework that sets outexactly what needs to be done to stopclimate disruption and reverse itsimpact. But the agreement itself ismeaningless without ambitious action.That is why I am bringing world leaderstogether at a climate action summitlater this year. I am calling on all leadersto come to New York in September withconcrete, realistic plans to enhance

their nationally determinedcontributions by 2020, in line withreducing greenhouse gas emissions by45% over the next decade, and to netzero by 2050.

The summit will bring togethergovernments, the private sector, civilsociety, local authorities and otherinternational organizations to developambitious solutions in six areas:renewable energy; emission reductions;sustainable infrastructure; sustainableagriculture and management of forestsand oceans; withstanding climateimpacts; and investing in the greeneconomy.

The latest analysis shows that if weact now, we can reduce carbonemissions within 12 years and limitglobal warming to 1.5C. But if wecontinue along our current path, theconsequences are impossible to predict.

While climate action is essential tocombat an existential threat, it alsocomes with costs. So action plans mustnot create winners and losers or add toeconomic inequality: they must be fairand create new opportunities for thosenegatively impacted, in the context of ajust transition.

Business is on our side. Acceleratedclimate solutions can strengthen oureconomies and create jobs, whilebringing cleaner air, preserving naturalhabitats and biodiversity, andprotecting our environment.

New technologies and engineeringsolutions are already delivering energyat a lower cost than the fossil-fuel driveneconomy. Solar and onshore wind arenow the cheapest sources of new bulkpower in virtually all major economies.But we must set radical change inmotion.

This means ending subsidies for fossilfuels and high-emitting agriculture andshifting towards renewable energy,electric vehicles and climate-smartpractices. It means carbon pricing thatreflects the true cost of emissions, fromclimate risk to the health hazards of airpollution. And it means accelerating theclosure of coal plants and replacing jobswith healthier alternatives so that thetransformation is just, inclusive andprofitable.

Momentum is building, people arelistening and there is a newdetermination to unleash the promiseof the Paris agreement. The climatesummit must be the starting point tobuild the future we need.

I will close with a message for thosewho marched on Friday. I know youngpeople can and do change the world.

Many of you are anxious and fearfulfor the future, and I understand yourconcerns and your anger. But I knowhumankind is capable of enormousachievements. Your voices give mehope. The more I see your commitmentand activism, the more confident I amthat we will win. Together, with yourhelp and thanks to your efforts, we canand must beat this threat and create acleaner, safer, greener world foreveryone.

(Excerpted from UN.ORG)

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues,Spirituality, Health & Wellness and the Arts

& Entertainment)

21THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 FEATURE

Mother Earth Day 2019By Mabel Pais

Striking Students in over 100 countriesdemanding urgent action on climate

change. Photo / Courtesy UN.ORG

Residents living in a slum in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.Photo / Courtesy World Bank-Dominic Chavez

(It is vital) every day (to) commit to taking better care of ourplanet. Do everything in your power to tackle climatechange." "Our shared challenge is to make the internationaltrading and financial systems fit for purpose to advancesustainable development and promote fair globalization"

- UN Chief Antonio Guterres, on Mother Earth DayThe responsibility rests with governments to recommit tomultilateralism, and to take policy actions that will create asustainable and prosperous future"

- Zhenmin Liu, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

22 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019WORLD

KIM, PUTIN VOW TOSEEK CLOSER TIES ATFIRST TALKS

VLADIVOSTOK (TIP): Russia'sVladimir Putin and North Korea'sKim Jong Un met for their first-ever summit on April 25, vowing toseek closer ties as they look tocounter US influence.

Putin emerged from the talkssaying that like the United States,Russia supports efforts to reducetensions on the Korean peninsulaand prevent nuclear conflicts.

But he insisted that Pyongyangneeds guarantees of its securityand sovereignty, and took a veiledswipe at Washington for trying tostrong-arm North Korea."We needto... return to a state whereinternational law, not the law ofthe strongest, determines thesituation in the world," Putin said.

The summit in Russia's FarEastern city of Vladivostok camewith Kim locked in a nuclear stand-off with Washington and Putinkeen to put Moscow forward as aplayer in another global flashpoint.

The two leaders shook hands andshared smiles before heading intoone-on-one talks that lasted nearlytwo hours, longer than expected, ata university campus on an islandoff the Pacific coast city. Both mensaid they were looking tostrengthen ties that date back tothe Soviet Union's support for thefounder of North Korea Kim IlSung. — AFP

PRINCE WILLIAMMEETS NZ MOSQUEATTACK RESPONDERS

WELLINGTON (TIP): Britain’sPrince William on April 25 metwith some of the police officersand medics who were the first torespond to last month’s mosqueattacks in Christchurch, NewZealand.

The Duke of Cambridge arrivedin Christchurch in the afternoonafter earlier attending an AnzacDay service in Auckland alongsidePrime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Atthe service, the prince laid awreath of red and white flowers onbehalf of his grandmother, QueenElizabeth II. William is on a two-day trip to New Zealand and plansto meet later with survivors of themosque attacks in which 50persons were killed and 50 otherswounded.

New Zealand PoliceCommissioner Mike Bush toldreporters after the meeting withfirst responders that the prince hadbeen very supportive and hadwanted to make sure the officersand medics were looking afterthemselves.

Bush said the prince told staffthat “A good friend doesn’t pick upthe phone when people are in need.You travel to their place and youput your arms around them.” — AP

China seeks to allay Belt and Road debt concerns

BEIJING (TIP): China aims to makethe Belt and Road initiative sustainableand prevent debt risks, its financeminister said on April 25, seeking toallay criticism that the infrastructureplan to boost trade and investmentcreates a heavy burden for some nations.

The policy championed by ChinesePresident Xi Jinping has become miredin controversy, with some partnernations bemoaning the high cost ofprojects, though China has repeatedlysaid it is not seeking to trap anyone withdebt.

Western governments have tended toview it as a means to spread Chineseinfluence abroad, saddling poorcountries with unsustainable debt.

Finance minister Liu Kun, speaking ata forum to kick off a three-day Belt andRoad summit in Beijing, said China willestablish an analysis framework on debtsustainability for Belt and Road projectsto “prevent and resolve debt risks”.

Chinese financial institutions,countries involved in Belt and Road andinternational agencies are encouraged touse this framework to enhance debtmanagement, Liu said.

While most of the Belt and Roadprojects are continuing as planned, somehave been caught up by changes ingovernment in countries such asMalaysia and the Maldives.

Those that have been shelved forfinancial reasons include a power plantin Pakistan and an airport in SierraLeone, and Beijing has in recent monthshad to rebuff critics by saying that not

one country has been burdened with so-called “debt traps”.

Yi Gang, China’s central bankgovernor, said at the same event thatlocal currencies will be used forinvestments related to the Belt and Roadplan to curb exchange rate risks.

China will follow market principlesand rely on commercial funds for Beltand Road financing, Yi said, adding thatChina will improve transparency forthose projects.

“We should strengthen debt and riskmanagement. We should objectively andfully understand debt problems ofdeveloping countries,” he added.

“Investment decisionsshould...effectively control risks andfully consider a country’s overall debt

capacity and ensure debt is sustainable.”In a nod to debt concerns, a draft

communique seen by Reuters said that 37world leaders attending the summit willagree to project financing that respectsglobal debt goals and promotes greengrowth.

Visiting leaders will be headlined byRussia’s Vladimir Putin, as well asPrime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan,a close China ally and among the biggestrecipients of Belt and Road investment,and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte ofItaly, which recently became the first G7country to sign on to the initiative.

The United States, which has notjoined the Belt and Road, is expected tosend only a lower-level delegation, andnobody from Washington. Reuters

11 DIE AS ELEVATORCABLE SNAPS AT WORKSITE IN NORTH CHINABEIJING (TIP): Eleven workers

were killed and two seriouslyinjured April 25 when an elevatorat a construction site in northernChina fell due to snapped cable,state media reported.

The Voice of China radio said theaccident, the latest in a series ofdeadly industrial incidents,occurred around 8 a.m. in theHebei province city of Hengshui. Itdidn't say how far the elevator fell.

Recent months have beenparticularly deadly for Chineseworkers, underscoring shoddyenforcement of safety regulationsand a desire by management to cutcorners as the economy slows.

In March, 78 people were killedin a blast at a chemical plant in theeastern city of Yancheng that hadnumerous safety violations,making it one of China's worstindustrial accidents in recentyears.

Earlier, in November, at least 22people were killed in an explosionoutside a chemical plant in thenortheastern city of Zhangjiakou,which will host competitions in the2022 Winter Olympics. AP

Britain ‘approves’ Huawei role in 5GLONDON (TIP): British Prime Minister

Theresa May has reportedly approved alimited role for China's Huawei to helpbuild a 5G network in the UK, shrugging offsecurity warnings from senior ministersand Washington surrounding the telecomsgiant, media said on April 24. Britain’sNational Security Council, which is chairedby May, agreed on Tuesday to allow theChinese technology giant limited access tobuild “non-core” infrastructure, such asantennas, The Daily Telegraph newspaperwrote. The Financial Times, citing thoseclose to the meeting, added that the Chinesecompany had been banned from moresensitive “core” parts of the project.

May’s move comes despite concernsraised by Home Secretary Sajid Javid,Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, DefenceSecretary Gavin Williamson, InternationalTrade Secretary Liam Fox andInternational Development SecretaryPenny Mordaunt.

May’s office declined to comment on thestory. However, Digital Minister MargotJames dismissed the media speculation.

“In spite of cabinet leaks to the contrary,final decision is yet to be made on managingthreats to telecoms infrastructure,” shetweeted.

She later told Sky News that while a finaldecision had not been made, a securityreview had concluded. “The decision has

not been finally made yet and the PrimeMinister will take advice from all of therelevant agencies and departments,” Jamesadded.

Huawei itself welcomed the report.“Huawei welcomes reports that the UKgovernment is moving towards allowingHuawei to help build the UK’s 5G network,”it said. Britain’s move would be at odds withthe United States, which has bannedHuawei's 5G technology from its territoryand urged allies in the so-called Five Eyesintelligence sharing collective, comprisingAustralia, Britain, Canada and NewZealand, to follow suit. AFP

HUAWEI FACES PUSHBACKBritain’s National Security Council, whichis chaired by May, agreed on Tuesday toallow the Chinese technology giantHuawei limited access to build “non-core” infrastructure, such as antennas

Her move comes despite concerns raisedby Home Secretary Sajid Javid, ForeignSecretary Jeremy Hunt, DefenceSecretary Gavin Williamson, InternationalTrade Secretary Liam Fox andInternational Development SecretaryPenny Mordaunt

Huawei, the leading manufacturer ofequipment for next-generation 5G mobilenetworks, faces pushback in someWestern markets over fears that Beijingcould spy on communications and gainaccess to critical infrastructure

23THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 WORLD

WILL HE? WON’T HE? NKOREA’S KIM LATE FOR

VLADIVOSTOKCEREMONY

VLADIVOSTOK (TIP): NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un kept anhonour guard and officials waiting fortwo hours on April 26 but eventuallyshowed up for a wreath-layingceremony in Russia’s Far Eastern cityof Vladivostok.

Visiting the city a day after his firstsummit with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, Kim had beenscheduled to take part in the ceremonyat 10 am but at first was a no-show.

As soldiers and a military bandwaited in the rain, word came that theevent--at a World War II memorial toRussia’s Pacific Fleet--had beencancelled and the red carpet was rolledup.

Around noon the honour guardreturned and a few minutes later Kimpulled up in his black limousine.

The band played solemn music andceremonial guards placed a largewreath on a stand next to an eternalflame.

In a black hat and double-breastedovercoat, Kim went up to the wreathbriefly, then stepped back and stoodwith his hat in his hand, lookingsombre.

Behind him stood local officialsholding carnations, including regionalgovernor Oleg Kozhemyako.

A ceremonial guard marched past,Kim spoke briefly with a Russianmilitary official, then got back into hislimousine and drove off with amotorcade.

Kim arrived on Wednesday in thePacific coast port on his armouredtrain, then met with Putin for fivehours on Thursday for a summit thatsaw the two leaders vow to pursuecloser ties.

Putin left the same day for China andKim stayed on for a series of culturalevents.

Russian media had reported that hewas due to visit Vladivostok’saquarium and see a ballet, but onFriday said his programme had beensignificantly reduced and that Kimwould be departing earlier thanplanned. AFP

FACEBOOK SUES NEWZEALAND COMPANY TO

THWART FAKE LIKESSAN FRANCISCO (TIP): Facebook

on April 25 filed a lawsuit in a USfederal court to bar a New Zealandcompany from selling fake “likes”,views and followers to Instagramusers. The company and three peopletargeted in the lawsuit operated aservice to raise the profile ofInstagram accounts by bolsteringthem with bogus followers, views and“likes”, Facebook director of platformenforcement and litigation JessicaRomero said in a blog post. “By filingthe lawsuit, we are sending a messagethat this kind of fraudulent activity isnot tolerated on our services, and wewill act to protect the integrity of ourplatform,” Romero said. AFP

Japan court grants $4.5m bail to Carlos Ghosn

25 PEOPLE KILLED INBOLIVIA ROAD ACCIDENT

LA PAZ (TIP): At least 25 peoplewere killed and 23 others injuredwhen a bus ran off the road andplunged 350 metres to the bottom of aravine near the Bolivian capital, asenior police officer told Efe news.

The officer said the accidentoccurred on April 23 near the town ofYolosita, some 90 km from La Paz in amountainous zone, reports Efe news.

Initial indications are that it wasthe “driver’s error” that caused theaccident, while he was reportedlytrying to overtake a truck “and hitthe other vehicle” in the process, hesaid.

According to the officer, who wentto the accident site, the bus “wascompletely destroyed, with the bodiesscattered due to the impact andplunging down (into the ravine)”.

The vehicle was transporting 48passengers from La Paz to the town ofRurrenabaque, in Bolivia’snortheastern Amazon region.

Bolivian President Evo Moralessaid in a tweet: “Our condolences tothe families of the dead. To thebrother drivers, we ask you to alwaysexercise great caution; protecting lifeis above everything.” IANS

TOKYO (TIP): A Japanese courtgranted Carlos Ghosn bail on April25, meaning the former Nissan bosscould soon walk out of his Tokyodetention centre to prepare hisdefence against multiple charges offinancial misconduct.

The Tokyo District Court set bailat 500 million yen ($4.5 million) asthe 65-year-old auto sector legendfaces four charges ranging fromconcealing part of his salary fromshareholders to syphoning offNissan funds for his personal use.

Prosecutors are likely to appealthe court’s decision, delaying hisimmediate release but publicbroadcaster NHK said he could walk outof his detention centre “as early asThursday”.

Ghosn denies all the charges, with aspokesperson for the executive saying onMonday he would “vigorously defendhimself against these baselessaccusations and fully expects to bevindicated”.

The spokesperson said Ghosn wasbeing detained “under cruel and unjustconditions, in violation of his humanrights, in an effort by prosecutors tocoerce a confession from him”.

On Monday, he was hit with whatexperts have described as the mostserious charges yet as prosecutorsaccused him of syphoning off $5 millionof Nissan cash transferred from thecompany to a dealership in Oman.

He also faces two charges of deferringsome $80 million of his salary and hiding

this in official documents toshareholders and seeking to shiftpersonal investment losses to the firmduring the 2008 financial crisis.

Ghosn has already been granted bailonce, posting $9 million and vowing notto leave Japan and to live in a smallcourt-appointed apartment in centralTokyo--a far cry from his former luxurysuite.

Last time he left the detention centrein northern Tokyo, he was dressed in acap, face mask and workman’s uniformin an apparent attempt to evade dozensof journalists from around the worldhoping to snap a picture of the fallentycoon.

The bizarre stunt was cooked up byone of his lawyers, Takashi Takano, wholater apologised for “tainting” thereputation of his client who usuallyappears in public in sharp suits.

Ghosn was preparing to hold a much-

anticipated news conference to “tellthe truth” about his case but he wasre-arrested shortly beforehand toface questioning about the alleged$5 million embezzlement.

Clearly aware he was about toreturn to custody, Ghosn pre-recorded a video in which heattacked “backstabbing” Nissanexecutives of a “plot” against him,as they feared closer ties withFrench partner Renault.

Japanese media reported onTuesday that the French firm hadoffered a “management integrationproposal” to Nissan, which was

poised to reject it as they believed it didnot provide equality to the Japanesecompany.

Unless re-arrested over furtherallegations, Ghosn will be free toorganise his defence ahead of a possibletrial that is likely to take months toprepare.

Ghosn’s lead lawyer JunichiroHironaka has told reporters that a trialas early as the autumn was “not possiblefor various reasons”.

His lawyers have demanded he be triedseparately from Nissan, which also facescharges for submitting the suspectfinancial documents, and have voicedfears he will not receive a fair trial.

The dramatic case has thrown theinternational spotlight on the Japanesejustice system, derided by critics as“hostage justice” as it allows prolongeddetention and relies heavily on suspects’confessions. AFP

Peru probes murders at world’shighest gold mine

LIMA (TIP): Police in the world’shighest town are investigating themysterious killing of seven men whosebodies were found with gunshot woundsinside a Peruvian gold mine.

The prosecutors; office said in astatement on Wednesday that they were“directing the first steps in theinvestigation to clarify the allegedmurder of seven miners” at LaRinconada gold mine.

Seven bodies with gunshot wounds tothe head were discovered on Monday bysecurity guards inside a tunnel, locatedmore than 5,000 metres (16,000 feet)above sea level. The mine’s manager

Policarpio Calla said none of the deadmen were employed at the mine, wherework had been suspended for the Easterholidays. Calla said the seven men couldhave entered the tunnel during the four-day holiday period to steal gold andclashed with another group.

La Rinconada is the world’s highestpermanent settlement, perched atopMount Ananea in the Peruvian Andesclose to the Bolivian border.

The population snowballed to around50,000 during the 2000s when a spike inthe price of gold drew tens of thousandsof prospectors to brave the often sub-zero conditions. AFP

You may not have set out to fall inlove with a married man, butthere are times in life when even

the most intelligent women find theiremotions getting the better of them.Loving and dating a married man can beextremely painful and seldom works outwell.

But this article is not intended tojudge anyone or tell you to "just dumphim!" This article will openly andhonestly describe what the typicalexperiences and outcomes are in theserelationships so that you may be moreprepared, educated, and informed aboutwhat you should expect, and how tohandle it.

Things to rememberRemember that his first priority will

always be his children and his wife, nomatter what he says.

If he lied to you in the beginningabout whether or not he was married,you should seriously consider whetheror not you can trust him.

Do not sacrifice everything for him.Be independent. Go on dates with othermen. Have other hobbies. He's not givingup everything for you, so you shouldn'tgive up everything for him either.

Your relationship will change if hedivorces his wife for you. It will not all befun and games anymore.

Make your relationship worth yourtime. Ask him to support you financially,or at least make sure you're getting asmuch out of it as you're putting in. Don'tlet him take advantage of you.

Be honest with yourself. What you'redoing is risky. Own up to the risk.

Very likely, he will not leave his wifefor you.

No matter what he says, he's still

having sex with his wife. Don't let yourrelationship with him keep you fromseeing other people.

Questions to AskThere are issues to seriously consider

if you think that this man may be theone.

One of the first things to consider isthis: Did he tell you he was married fromthe beginning or did he lie to you andthen have to tell the truth? This will be amajor factor as to whether or not youcan ever trust him.

Another thing to give some seriousthought to is whether children areinvolved. No matter how much he loves

you, he is obligated to his children, andif you come between him and the kids,he may resent you in the long run.

Is your relationship strong enough towithstand the turmoil of a divorce? Howlong have you been seeing this guy? Oneyear is about right when it comes toshifting from playing around to gettingserious. Right now you may beexperiencing the best of the best, butwhen you are living in the real worldtogether, things will change.

Moreover, if he divorces his wife foryou, the two of you will go through a lotof sad, and trying times together. Willyou still love him as much as you dowhile things are nothing but fun?

HOW TO HANDLELOVING A MARRIED MAN

CHEESE CORNBALLS

IngredientsPotatoes - 100 gms, boiled, peeledCheese - 100 gms, grated + little extraSweet Corn Kernels - 50 gmsGreen Chillies - 4 to 5, finely choppedCorn Flour - 1 to 2 tblspOil as requiredSalt as per taste

Method Mix the corn, potatoes and cheese in a bowl. Add the green chillies and salt. Mix well and make small balls of the mixture. Heat oil in a deep frying pan over medium flame. Roll the prepared balls in corn flour and add them to

the hot oil. Fry until golden brown and remove. Drain excess oil and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Serve with sauce or mint chutney.

FOOD CORNER

24 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019WOMEN

Get rid of a sun tan naturallyHolidays are all fun and games until you look into the

mirror and see your skin two or more shades darker.While a tan will fade out eventually, if you're in a hurry,

give these home remedies a try. Here's a quick look at how youcan get rid of sun tan in a jiffy! You no longer have to worryabout spending too much time out in the sun, or at the beach.

Lemon juice and honeyLemon juice has bleaching effect which helps in removing

tan quickly. Take fresh lemon juice, add some honey to it and apply

on your skin. Let it stay for 30 minutes and wash off. You can also add some sugar to the lemon juice and

scrub your skin gently to slough off dead cells from thesurface.

Yogurt and tomatoTomato is rich in antioxidants that helps in brightening

skin..Yogurt on the other hand contains lactic acid whichsoftens the skin. Take raw tomato and remove the skin. Blend it with 1-2 tsp of fresh yogurt. Use this paste on your tan, and wash off after 20

minutes.

Cucumber extractCucumber is highly beneficial for tanned and sunburnt

skin. Cucumber has a cooling effect and helps remove tan. Shred a cucumber, and squeeze to get the juice out.

Using a cotton ball, apply the juice all over your skin. Let it dry and wash. You may also add a little lemon

juice for added benefits.

Bengal gram flour and turmericTurmeric is an excellent skin brightening agent while

Bengal gram flour (besan) lightens skin effectively. Add 1 tsp of turmeric to a cup of Bengal gram flour, and

mix some water or milk to make a thin paste. Apply this mixture on your face and body, and let it dry,

before gently scrubbing it away using lukewarm water. Regular use will help fade the tan from your skin.

CHILLI CHEESE TOASTIngredients Bread Slices - 8 to 10 Butter - 5 to 6 tsp Onions - 2, finely chopped Green Chillies - 2tblsp, finely chopped Cheese - 1/3 cup, grated (you can also use cheese

slices, see the end of the recipe for instructions) Salt as per taste Black Pepper Powder as per taste

Method Mix the cheese, onions, green chillies, pepper

powder and little salt in a bowl. Spread butter on half of the bread slices. Spread some of the cheese-onion-green chillies

mixture evenly on top. Cover with the remaining slices. Heat a toaster/sandwich maker for 45 seconds. Place the prepared bread slices and cook until set. Alternately, heat a tawa over medium flame. Add little butter and place the prepared bread on top. Cover with a lid and cook on both sides until lightly

browned and cheese has melted. Serve with ketchup.

GENEVA (TIP): The world’s firstmalaria vaccine has been launched inMalawi after concerted efforts of over 30years to protect children from the deadlydisease that claims over 435,000 livesglobally every year.

The World Health Organization(WHO) welcomed the Government ofMalawi’s landmark pilot programme.

The launch of the first and onlymalaria vaccine, known as RTS,S, makesMalawi the first of three countries inAfrica where it will be made available tochildren up to 2 years of age.

Ghana and Kenya will introduce thevaccine in the coming weeks, WHO saidin a statement.

Malaria remains one of the world’sleading killers, claiming the life of onechild every two minutes. Most of thesedeaths are in Africa, where more than250,000 children die from the diseaseevery year.

WHO estimates that India accountsfor 89 per cent malaria cases in South-East Asia. According to National VectorBorne Disease Control Programme(NVBDCP), 1,090,724 cases and 331deaths due to malaria were reportedduring 2016 in the country.

Children under five are at greatestrisk of its life-threateningcomplications. Worldwide, malaria kills435 000 people a year, most of themchildren.

“We have seen tremendous gains frombed nets and other measures to controlmalaria in the last 15 years, but progresshas stalled and even reversed in someareas,” said Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

“We need new solutions to get themalaria response back on track, and thisvaccine gives us a promising tool to getthere. The malaria vaccine has thepotential to save tens of thousands of

children’s lives,” Ghebreyesus said in astatement.

Thirty years in the making, RTS,S isthe first, and to date the only, vaccinethat has demonstrated it cansignificantly reduce malaria in children.

In clinical trials, the vaccine wasfound to prevent approximately four in10 malaria cases, including three in 10cases of life-threatening severe malaria.

“Malaria is a constant threat in theAfrican communities where this vaccinewill be given. The poorest childrensuffer the most and are at highest risk ofdeath,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHORegional Director for Africa.

“We know the power of vaccines toprevent killer diseases and reachchildren, including those who may nothave immediate access to the doctors,nurses and health facilities they need tosave them when severe illness comes,”Moeti said. “This is a day to celebrate as

we begin to learn more about what thistool can do to change the trajectory ofmalaria through childhoodvaccination,” she added.

The pilot programme is designed togenerate evidence and experience toinform WHO policy recommendationson the broader use of the RTS,S malariavaccine.

It will look at reductions in childdeaths; vaccine uptake, includingwhether parents bring their children ontime for the four required doses; andvaccine safety in the context of routineuse. The vaccine is a complementarymalaria control tool—to be added to thecore package of WHO-recommendedmeasures for malaria prevention,including the routine use of insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying withinsecticides, and the timely use ofmalaria testing and treatment.

Source: PTI

DR. SATISH AND GITANJLI ANAND DDRR.. SSAATTIISSHH AANNAANNDD

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PPAAGGEE SSPPOONNSSOORREEDD BBYY

Almonds may cut heartdisease risk in diabetics

Eating tree nuts, such as almonds, may help reduce therisk of cardiovascular disease for adults with type 2diabetes, a Harvard study has found.

The study shows that people with diabetes who ate at leastfive servings of nuts per week had a 17 per cent lower risk oftotal cardiovascular disease incidence compared to thosewho ate one or less weekly servings.

They also had a 20 per cent lower risk of coronary heartdisease, a 34 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular diseasedeath and a 31 per cent reduced risk of death from all causes.

The study included 16,217 men and women who either hadtype 2 diabetes at the start of the study or who werediagnosed during the time of the study. A serving in the studywas defined as one ounce or 28 grammes of nuts.

The researchers from Harvard University in the US saidthat compared to those who did not change their nut-eatinghabits after their diabetes diagnosis to those who did begin toeat more nuts had an 11 per cent lower risk of cardiovasculardisease, a 15 per cent lower risk of coronary heart disease, a25 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease death and a27 per cent lower risk of all-cause premature death.

Turmeric compounds may help combat cancer: Study

Compounds found in turmeric—a condimentcommonly used in Indian cuisine—can help preventprevent and treat stomach cancer, scientists claim.

Researchers Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP)and the Federal University of Para (UFPA) in Brazilidentified possible therapeutic effects of curcumin—theyellow powder derived from the roots of the turmeric plant.

"We undertook a vast review of the scientific literature onall nutrients and bioactive compounds with the potential toprevent or treat stomach cancer and found that curcumin isone of them," Danielle Queiroz Calcagno, a professor atUFPA.

According to Calcagno, compounds such as cholecalciferol(a form of vitamin D), resveratrol (a polyphenol) andquercetin can prevent or combat stomach cancer becausethey are natural regulators of histone activity.

Histones are proteins in cell nuclei that organise the DNAdouble helix into structural units called nucleosomes,according to a study published in the journal Epigenomics.

Each nucleosome is made of DNA coiled like a spoolaround eight histone proteins (a histone octamer) tocompact the DNA so that it fits in the cell, where it ispackaged into chromatin.

Posttranslational chemical modification of the amino acidchain in these proteins, such as acetylation (introduction ofan acetyl group) or methylation (addition of a methylgroup), can affect chromatin compaction and hence geneexpression.

WORLD’S FIRST MALARIA VACCINELAUNCHED IN AFRICA

Physical activity may offsethealth risks of desk-bound workAweekly dose of at least 150 minutes of physical activity

could substantially reduce the health risks in desk-bound office workers, a study has found.

Sitting is often touted as 'the new smoking', but it is unclearif it is the sitting itself or the lack of physical activity thatcauses the harm.

It has also been unclear what level of moderate to vigorousintensity physical activity—routine activities like walkingbriskly to work, as well as sport and exercises—might offsetthis risk.

Scientists from University of Sydney in Australian haveexamined the associations of sitting and physical activitiywith premature death and cardiovascular disease mortality,and estimated what level of moderate to vigorous intensityphysical activity might offset health risks of sitting.

The researchers statistically modelled physical activity andsitting against death records of nearly 150,000 studyparticipants aged 45 years and over and followed up overalmost nine years.

According to the study, physical activity is particularlyimportant for people who sit a lot. Reducing sitting would be agood start but is not enough: the most important lifestylechange for such people would be to look for or createopportunities to move more daily.

Replacing sitting with physical activity—but not standing—reduced mortality risk among 'high sitters', people who sit oversix hours per day, said Emmanuel Stamatakis, from theUniversity of Sydney. "In our study, sitting time was associated

consistently with both overall premature mortality andcardiovascular disease mortality in the least physically activegroups—those doing under 150 minutes of moderate to vigorousintensity physical activity per week," Stamatakis said.

"For example, people who were physically inactive and satfor more than eight hours per day had 107 per cent higher riskfor cardiovascular death compared to those who did at leastone hour physical activity per day and sat less than fourhours," he said.

25THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 HEALTH

WHATSAPP TO DENY PRIVATECHAT SCREENSHOTS: REPORT

Facebook-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp istesting an ‘Authentication’ feature which would barusers from taking screenshots of their private

conversations.The new feature comes as part of a plethora of security

changes that the app has been working on and introducing,keeping in line with the app’s commitment to user-privacy,web portal Independent reported on Tuesday.

The screenshot-blocking feature would be made availableto users whenever WhatsApp plans to release the‘Authentication’ feature, which is currently underdevelopment.

Before accessing into the app, the ‘Authentication’ featurewould ask users to confirm their identities via theirfingerprints, WABetaInfo reported.

On enabling the feature, even after confirming theiridentities, users would not be able to take a screenshot oftheir chats.

“Fingerprint Security: When enabled, fingerprint isrequired to open WhatsApp and conversation screenshots areblocked. You can still reply to messages from notificationsand answer calls if WhatsApp is locked,” a screenshot of thebeta version of the ‘Authentication’ feature reads.

Information surfacing about this upcoming feature has leftusers in a state of confusion.

“I don’t get it. What’s the point. How’s this useful. You’veauthenticated fingerprint security, that means your chat issecured. Why blocking screenshot, after all its your own chat,its your own WhatsApp, you should be able to do what youwant,” a user replied on WABeta’s tweet informing usersabout the feature.

Details about the roll-out of the feature remains unknown.Source: IANS

iPhones to sport 3-camerasetup, 12MP selfie shooter

Apple is planning to upgrade camera resolution andsetup in iPhones, to be unveiled this year.

While the front camera would be upgraded from 7MP to12MP, triple-camera setup would be implemented in the 6.5-inch and 5.8-inch OLED iPhones, along with a new super-wide 12MP lens, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, famous Appleexpert and predictor.

Both super-wide and front camera lenses will be coatedblack to make them blend better with the surrounding bezelfor an "inconspicuous" look, 9To5Mac reported on Saturday.Thus, it would be almost impossible to see the new lens,improving the apparent aesthetic symmetry.

The new front camera will be included in all three new 2019iPhones, whose names remain undisclosed. Apple is expectedto officially announce new iPhones in the Fall, likely at aSeptember media event, the report noted. Source: IANS

26 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019SCIENCE AND TECH

AMAZON’S ALEXA REVIEWERS CAN ACCESS

USERS’ HOME ADDRESSESAn Amazon.com Inc. team

auditing Alexa users’ commandshas access to location data and

can, in some cases, easily find acustomer’s home address, according tofive employees familiar with theprogramme.

The team, spread across threecontinents, transcribes, annotates andanalyses a portion of the voicerecordings picked up by Alexa. Theprogramme, whose existence Bloombergrevealed earlier this month, was set upto help Amazon’s digital voice assistantget better at understanding andresponding to commands.

Team members with access to Alexausers’ geographic coordinates can easilytype them into third-party mappingsoftware and find home residences,according to the employees, who signednondisclosure agreements barring themfrom speaking publicly about theprogramme.

While there’s no indication Amazonemployees with access to the data haveattempted to track down individualusers, two members of the Alexa teamexpressed concern to Bloomberg that

Amazon was granting unnecessarilybroad access to customer data thatwould make it easy to identify a device’sowner.

Location data is more sensitive thanmany other categories of userinformation that would be moredifficult to trace back to a real person,said Lindsey Barrett, a staff attorneyand teaching fellow at GeorgetownLaw’s Communications andTechnology Clinic.

“Anytime someone is collecting

where you are, that means it could go tosomeone else who could find you whenyou don’t want to be found,” she said.Widespread access to location dataassociated with Alexa user recordings“would set up a big red flag for me.”

In an April 10 statementacknowledging the Alexa auditingprogramme, Amazon said “employeesdo not have direct access toinformation that can identify theperson or account as part of thisworkflow.”

New sensor spotsrare metals used in

smartphones

Researchers have developed a new protein-based sensor that candetect lanthanides, the rare earth metals used in smartphones andother technologies, in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

The sensor changes its fluorescence when it binds to these metals,according to the study published online in the Journal of the AmericanChemical Society.

The protein undergoes a shape change when it binds to lanthanides,which is key for the sensor’s fluorescence to “turn on”, said the study.

To develop the sensor, the researchers from Pennsylvania StateUniversity in the US used a protein they recently described andsubsequently used to explore the biology of bacteria that use lanthanides.

“Lanthanides are used in a variety of current technologies, includingthe screens and electronics of smartphones, batteries of electric cars,satellites, and lasers,” said Joseph Cotruvo, Assistant Professor at PennState and senior author of the study.

“These elements are called rare earths, and they include chemicalelements of atomic weight 57 to 71 on the periodic table,” Cotruvo added.

Extracting rare earths from the environment or from industrialsamples, like waste water from mines or coal waste products, is generallyvery challenging and expensive.

“We developed a protein-based sensor that can detect tiny amounts oflanthanides in a sample, letting us know if it’s worth investing resourcesto extract these important metals,” Cotruvo said.

MS Paint app to remainpart of Windows 10

Good news for Windows 10 users as Microsoftis keeping the Paint app, for now at least.Microsoft earlier said it would remove MS

Paint from Windows 10 but the company hasreversed the decision.

In the latest Windows May 2019 Update (1903),Microsoft hasn’t issued any warnings fro MS Paintapp removal. The software maker had beenwarning Windows 10 users for months that Paintwould eventually be removed, The Verge reported

“Yes, MS Paint will be included in 1903. It’llremain included in Windows 10 for now,” BrandonLeBlanc, Senior Programme Manager, WindowsInsider Programme Team at Microsoft, confirmedin a reply to a tweet.

Previously, the software-maker marked Paint as“deprecated”, meaning it was not in activedevelopment and could be removed in futurereleases of Windows. The company had planned toremove it from Windows 10 and include it later as afree optional download from the Microsoft Store.

Most of the main MS Paint functions were to beintegrated into the more modern Paint 3D app, aspart of a broader push to entice creators to useWindows 10. It remains unclear if Microsoft stillremains committed to Paint 3D or why there willcontinue to be two paint apps included withWindows 10 in the future, the report said.

AUDI LAUNCHES NEWEDITIONS OF Q7 SUV, A4SEDAN IN INDIA

NEW DELHI (TIP): German luxury carmaker Audi onWednesday launched new variants of its SUV Q7 and sedanA4 in India.

The Audi Q7 Lifestyle Edition is priced at Rs 75.82 lakhwhile the A4 Lifestyle Edition is tagged at Rs 43.09 lakh (ex-showroom prices).

“The successful feedback and strong demand from ourcustomers for our recently launched Audi A6 LifestyleEdition has inspired us to introduce the popular Audi models— the Audi Q7 and the Audi A4 Lifestyle Edition in India,”Audi India Head Rahil Ansari said in a statement.

CBI’s lookout notice againstBhushan steel chairman, wife

NEW DELHI (TIP): The CBI has issued Look OutCirculars (LOCs) against chairman of Bhushan Power andSteel Limited Sanjay Singhal and his wife Aarti, who is vicechairman of the company, in connection with cheating inloans worth over Rs 2,348 crore, sources said.

The LOCs have been opened recently to prevent anyattempt by the accused to leave the country withoutpermission from the authorities, the sources said.

A look out circular is a letter used by authorities to keep atab on an individual. The Immigration authorities at allairports and entry-exit points across the country will have toinform the CBI if Singhal and his wife attempt to leave thecountry.

The agency had on April 6 carried out searches at 18locations connected to the company after registering a case ofcheating amounting to Rs 2,348 crore against Singhal andothers. Loans worth Rs 47,204 crore were availed from 33banks and financial institutions from 2007 to 2014 and thecompany defaulted on their repayments, the CBI said.

The searches were carried out in a number of cities,including the Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Odisha, atthe office and residential premises of the company, itsdirectors and promoters and their associates in the bankfraud case.

The CBI has also already booked Sanjay Singhal, AartiSinghal, directors Ravi Prakash Goyal, Ram Naresh Yadav,Hardev Chand Verma, Ravinder Kumar Gupta and oneRitesh Kapoor besides unidentified public servants.

27THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 BIZ AND FINANCE

BOEING AXES ORDERS FOR210 PLANES AFTER JETAIRWAYS STOPS FLYING

Boeing Co removed 210 aircraftfrom its order backlog and took animpairment charge over customer

financing losses on Wednesday followingthe near-collapse of India’s Jet Airways.

The adjustment pushed the world’slargest planemaker behind Europeanrival Airbus in the race for business thisyear as both companies grappled withcancellations that outweighed neworders in the first quarter.

Under recent changes in accountingrules, Boeing hives off orders that nolonger meet its criteria for recognisingrevenue into a separate category, whiledefending contractual claims.

As a result, Boeing net orders for thefirst quarter slid into negative territory,with a total of minus 119 net orders aftercancellations, despite a slew of newwide-body sales.

Airbus posted a negative total of 58 netorders over the same period.

Boeing finance director Greg Smithconfirmed the adjustment was related tofinancial problems at Jet Airways, whichhalted all flight operations indefinitelyon April 17 after its lenders rejected aplea for emergency funds.

Reuters reported earlier onWednesday that Boeing’s order

adjustment, which initially emerged on aroutine web page for orders anddeliveries, came after Jet Airwaysstopped flying. Boeing also posted a first-quarter operational loss of $707 millionin a specific category grouping togethercertain unallocated items, comparedwith a loss of $326 million a year earlier.Overall, it posted a $2.35 billionoperating profit.

“The change in earnings from otherunallocated items and eliminations isprimarily due to a customer financingimpairment, higher deferred

compensation expense and increasedenterprise research and developmentinvestment,” Boeing said.

Industry sources say customer financearm Boeing Capital is carrying 75narrow-body orders on behalf of Jet inaddition to 125 that the airline ordereddirectly from Boeing CommercialAirplanes.

There have also been doubts over a 10-year-old order of 10 wide-body 787s. Atleast one of Jet’s 787s has already beenbuilt, according to recent visitors toBoeing factories. Source: Reuters

Cloud push continues to power Microsoft’s growthMicrosoft Corp.’s cloud computing business fuelled

quarterly sales and profit that topped analysts’estimates, boosted by several new deals with large

corporate clients.Revenue rose 14 % from a year earlier to $30.6 billion in the

quarter ended March 31, the Redmond, Washington-basedcompany said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts on averageprojected $29.9 billion. Net income was $8.8 billion, or $1.14 ashare, compared with an average analyst estimate of $1 ashare, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The fiscal third quarter featured a flurry of large brands,particularly in retail, signing agreements to use Microsoft’sAzure cloud software. Clients included grocer Kroger Co.,Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and oil company Exxon MobileCorp. Some, such as Walgreens, also committed to using cloud-based Office and security software. The deals reflect ChiefExecutive Officer Satya Nadella’s efforts to draw somecustomers away from cloud market leader Amazon.com Inc.and ink more significant clients. Microsoft also is benefiting asmore traditional companies that are longtime customers moveto the cloud.

Azure cloud-services revenue rose 73 %, slower than the 76% Microsoft posted in the fiscal second quarter. Someinvestors have been concerned that while Azure is stillgrowing rapidly, those increases have slowed from the pastwhen doubling was a regular occurrence. Sales of Office cloudsoftware to business customers rose 30 %.

“The Azure growth blew away Street expectations,” saidDan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “This was an A+quarter across the board for Redmond.”

The company’s shares rose about 4 % in extended trading on

the results, after closing at $125.01 in New York. Microsoftshares have gained 23 % this year, topping the 17 % increase inthe S&P 500 Index. The software maker, for a time, leapfroggedApple Inc. to become the most valuable publicly traded U.S.company by market capitalization.

Commercial cloud revenue, a measure of sales from Azure,internet-based versions of Office software and some smallerproducts, rose 41 % in the period from a year earlier to $9.6billion. Profit margins for the business widened to 63 %.

“The strength of our commercial clouds continued to boost’’the company overall, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer AmyHood said in an interview. “We saw demand for Azure acrossall of our geographic regions and among companies of allsizes,’’ including BMW AG and Renault-Nissan, she said.

Worldwide public-cloud services sales are expected to grow17.5 % this year to $214.3 billion, according to Gartner Inc.Software and cloud company stocks recovered in the first fourmonths of 2019, with Facebook Inc., Apple, Alphabet Inc. andAmazon all up this year, after a roller coaster end to 2018 thatsaw shares drop amid concerns spending might be declining.

Source: Bloomberg

FB beats profit estimates, sets aside $3 billion for US FTC penalty

Facebook on Wednesday blew awayWall Street profit estimates in thefirst quarter as it kept a lid on the

costs of making its social networks safer,and set aside $3 billion to cover asettlement with US regulators, calminginvestors who had worried about theoutcome of a months-long federal probe.

Shares of the world’s biggest onlinesocial network jumped more than 10 %after hours.

The US Federal Trade Commissionhas been investigating revelations thatFacebook inappropriately sharedinformation belonging to 87 million ofits users with the now-defunct Britishpolitical consulting firm Cambridge

Analytica. The probe has focussed onwhether the sharing of data and otherdisputes violated a 2011 agreement withthe FTC to safeguard user privacy.Facebook set aside $3 billion to coveranticipated costs associated with thesettlement, but said the charges couldreach as high as $5 billion.

If the settlement is in that range, itwould be the largest civil penalty paid to

the agency, said David Vladeck, a formerFTC official now at Georgetown LawSchool.

“Everyone expected there would be asubstantial civil penalty in this case,”said Vladeck. “There’s no question thatFacebook is going to have to settle thismatter. Investors want this behindthem.” The accrual cut the company’snet income in the first quarter to $2.43billion, or $0.85 per share.

Excluding the $3 billion it set aside,Facebook would have earned $1.89 ashare, up from $1.69 the year prior andeasily beating analysts’ average estimateof $1.63 per share, according to IBESdata from Refinitiv. Source: Reuters

28 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019ASTROLOGY

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE - APRIL 29 - MAY 5, 2019ARIES: Ganesha says there are different

commitments of all kinds confronting you now.Work and family will demand not only hardwork and effort, but also investments andoutlays in finance and time. You will have tocope with several demands made on you. Therecould also be an illness in the family, and eldersand children will need particular attention. Aparent or in-law may need to be hospitalised.You will also have to go slow and look for time torecuperate from the hectic periods of the recentpast.

TAURUS: Ganesha says that you have a busytime ahead, both professionally andemotionally. But you are determined to enjoy it.There could also be journeys, legal issues, anddealings at law courts, even some settlementsand compromises. You will be in the midst ofnegotiations of all kinds. There will be sharing,togetherness, bonding, warmth, love, trueaccord and harmony.

GEMINI: The earth element now balancesyour fiery temperament and grounds it. Youhave evolved, developed a vision of the future,worked hard and made all possible efforts toconvert your dreams and hopes into reality.There are many possibilities that you willexplore. Of course, finance remains a centraltheme and there will be much buying andselling, signing of lease documents, contracts,instruments of negotiation, promissory notesetc.

CANCER You have been striving hard for along time to achieve all this and now success,happiness and all the goodies of life are firmlyin your grasp. This is also a great time for love,adds Ganesha. There will be passion and severalintimate moments. This is also a time forconsolidation. Finances will keep you busy. Thefocus will be on property, acquisitions,possessions, buying and selling, stocks, reality,inheritances, wills and so on.

LEO: There will be genuine gains as you alsoplan carefully for the future. It is important in thisphase to protect your interests, not to getunethical in your dealings and to prevent othersfrom riding roughshod over your principles.There will be new love too and you could getwaylaid. The domestic scene also demands yourtime and attention. Ganesha asks you to takespecial care not to be pressurised and exploited.There is urgent need for peace and harmony, andyou should work towards that.

VIRGO: There will be business issues,acquisitions, capital, funds and other fiscal issuestaking up your time. This is also a good time tolaunch a project, finish pending work, take onnew assignments. Lending / borrowing /investing / buying / selling / shopping willcontinue to be very important. You continue onthe fast track of progress. You feel good aboutyourself as you follow your heart and your trueinclinations.

LIBRA: Moonlight and roses, love andstorybook romance, leisure and pleasure, funtimes and children are what this period has instore for you. There is also more money and greatluck in dealing with funds and investments. Youare ready to take risks but do not treat truelovewith disdain. You are on a high and will havemany affairs of the heart. In the process, do notlook down on someone who truly loves you. Youhave both, the resources and the chutzpah to makea success of whatever you take on.

SCORPIO: Ganesha asks you to guard againstcausing disappointment to a loved one,resentment or impatience with others, andinconsideration in your dealings. You expect toomuch from friends and colleagues and that canmean trouble. You will have to meet others halfway. There is also great danger in breaking heartsas we all know how a woman who has beenscorned is! You can look forward to happy times,says Ganesha

SAGITTARIUS: In this intense period, there isgenuine love, romance and laughter, fun andfrolic, the social whirligig, and many bouts ofprofound happiness. There is respite, relaxation,excitement and glamour and you will revel in it.Your burdens will seem to have fallen away. It willalso reflect happily on both your family life andpersonal interactions. You are now able to enjoylife, laughter, love, the good times. You bondpowerfully with loved ones and there will be anaddition to the family or a marriage orengagement.

CAPRICORN: You are happy and turn to prayer,spirituality or meditation. You are drawn to thecontemplative life, thinking and looking within,the merging of the lower and higher selves. Butthere are also mounting expenses and otherdomestic issues to deal with. But you tide over allthe roadblocks with Ganesha's help. You are wellequipped to handle life and turn to the spiritual selffor answers. It is a unique phase when material andspiritual progress will be linked.

AQUARIUS :There is a significant period andyou will reap the whirlwind in the days to come.Ganesha blesses you. There are also wonderfulmoments spent with loved ones. You are movingin many directions and not all of them are right.This could be a taxing, tiring, demanding time ofhighs and lows. While there is a probable wish-fulfilment, there is also much anxiety. There willbe a lot of work along with a fair amount ofsocialising. Family life will be good, but you maynot have much time for the home.

PISCES :There will be international travel andthose in the media, in particular, will do well. Thiswill be a busy and demanding period with manypleasant moves and a lot of pleasure. You makecontact with old friends and there will be manyhappy reunions. Life is good as you savour thegolden moments. Ganesha is happy. You will bebusy tending to an ailing relative. The family willbe the centre of attention in every way.

Shree Ganeshaya Namah

Bejan Daruwalla is world's most famousastrologertoday. He appears regularly onworld wide TV shows. Bejan who has been aprofessor in English, hasauthored a numberof books on astrology. India'sPrime MinisterNarendra Modi , on March 29, 2012,lunchedone of Bejan's books, '2012- End oftheWorld? Bejan contributes to a number ofjournals andnewspapers in many parts of theworld which includeBerkley Communications(London) Times of India(Delhi, Mumbai,Kolkata, Chennai) and The IndianPanorama (New York and Texas). Bejan'spredictionshave mostly been correct andpeople the world overrely on his predictions.

Bejan Daruwalla is available for astrological

consultations. He can be reached at

info@bejandaruwalla.com and on phone

011-91-8141234275www.bejandaruwalla.com

BIRTHDAY HOROSCOPEAPRIL 29 - MAY 5, 2019

29TH: Ganesha says you've got agood head on your shoulders thismorning, able to make plans and setstrategies that show you're a good,responsible leader who can handlethings fairly and judiciously.

30TH: There will be an expansive

opportunity through a friend or allyor the chance to speak up aboutthings you know that will helpothers reach their goals. Insight issharpened.

1ST: The Moon falls in yourbusiness section, which meansyou're ready to forge usefulalliances and put into place aprofessional idea or union that willtake you places in the future.

2ND: An early-morning talk canbring up confidential matters,which best remain secret. As theday goes by, finding social harmonytakes more finesse andconsideration than expected.

3RD: Why not gather up somefriends and go out and enjoy theweekend? A morning idea may bejust the suggestion that will join thegroup in accord. A communal

project involves you deeply.4TH : During the day, you may

find intuition more surprisinglyaccurate than reason. By tonight,psychic energy shifts back to logicand forethought.

5TH: The Moon in your signoffers you everything you needtoday, making work, home, andconversations positive andbeneficial to you.

Nandi (Bull) is the vehicle of theSupreme lord of Hindus, Shiva. InHindu mythology, Nandi is the bearer

of truth and righteousness. Each Hindu godhas their own vahana (the Sanskrit root wordfor the English term of Wagon) that they usein war or in peacetime. Each of these vehiclesstand for specific qualities that are consistentwith the deity’s image & functions.

Nandi signifies strength, load bearingcapacity and virility. Given that Shiva didn’thave to fight fierce battles or travel quicklybetween the worlds (he spent most timemeditating) he didn’t have to choose for amore agile vahana similar to Vishnu’sGaruda. Given that bulls were the main formof transportation in rural India, it madeperfect sense for Shiva – who is the most downto earth & connected with rural India – to takea form that was close to the people.

How Nandi Became so Dear to Lord ShivaThere was once a sage called as Shilada.

Shilada did not have any children. Of his own,but he adored children. He wanted to adopt achild, but he did not want to adopt just anychild. He wanted a special child blessed byLord Shiva. So he worshipped Lord Shiva formany years.

Lord Shiva finally appeared before Shilada,‘What boon do you seek, Shilada?’

‘A child. I wish to have a child, Lord Shiva.’Shilada said bowing before Lord Shiva.

Shiva smiled. ‘You shall have it soon’ Hesaid and vanished.

Shilada returned home a happy man,knowing that the Lord would bless him with avery good child. The next day he went to thefarm to begin ploughing, when he found abeautiful baby in the field before his plough.The baby’s skin glowed with a beautiful whitelight.

Shilada stared at the baby transfixed, whenhe heard a voice from the heaven, ‘SHILADA,TAKE THE CHILD. BRING HIM UP WELL!’

Shilada was overjoyed as he took the boyhome. He named the boy Nandi. Right fromhis childhood, Nandi was devoted to LordShiva. Shilada brought up the child with loveand care. Shilada taught the child the Vedasand gave the child a good education. Nandiwas a brilliant boy and learnt everything veryfast. Shilada felt very proud of the child.

Some years later, two sages – Mitra andVaruna came to Shilada’s home. ‘Welcomegreat sages!’ Shilada gave the rishis somerefreshments, ‘Please sit and make yourselfcomfortable.’

‘Nandi!’ Shilada called his son. Nandi camefrom inside the house. ‘Nandi please makesure these sages are well looked after.’

Nandi smiled and nodded his head. ‘Yesfather!’

Nandi looked after the two sages well andafter enjoying the stay, the sages said that itwas time they left. Before they were about tolive, Shilada and Nandi both prostrated beforethe two sages.

Mitra and Varuna first blessed Shilada,‘Have a long and happy life, Shilada. You havemade us very happy!’

When Nandi fell at the feet, the two sageslooked slightly sad. Slowly they said, ‘Be wellson! Be good to your parents and yourteachers!’ And they walked off, outside thehouse

However Shilada noticed the change in theexpression of the sages. He ran outside thehouse, ‘Great rishis!’ He said breathlessly. Heturned around and made sure that Nandi wasinside the house and could not hear him, andtalked to the sages, ‘You looked sad whileblessing my son!’ Shilada said feelingterrified, as he was thinking of unpleasantthings…’is…is something wrong?’

Mitra looked at Shilada with pity, ‘I cannotwish your son a long life….’ Mitra said softly.

Shilada looked in absolute panic. ‘What isgoing to happen to my son?’ He whispered.

‘Your son, does not…’ Varuna cleared histhroat, ‘…does not have long to live, Shilada. I

am sorry…’ He said lamely, looking at thehorrified expression on Shilada’s face.

Shilada stood there transfixed for a longtime. After a long time, he slowly walked backhome with stooping shoulders and a brokenheart.

Nandi immediately guessed something waswrong, ‘What is it father? What happened?What…’ Nandi asked, vigorously shaking hisfather.

Slowly and painfully, Shilada narrated hisconversation with the two sages.

He expected Nandi to be scared or even thatNandi would even start crying. HoweverShilada was surprised when he heard Nandi’slaugh. ‘You were scared of what the sagessaid!’ He said still laughing.

Shilada wondered what could be so funnyand looked at his son without any expression.

‘Father, you have told me that you have seenLord Shiva…’ Nandi said with great devotionin his eyes. ‘Anybody who has seen Lord Shivacannot be afraid of what the sages just said.’

Shilada still looked dumbly at his son, notunderstanding. ‘Father, it is my fate to die,then Lord Shiva can reverse my fate! He is themost powerful God and can do anything. Doyou think he would let anything happen to us,when we worship him?’ Nandi looked at hisfather challengingly. ‘I don’t think so., father.’Nandi said softly.

Shilada looked at his son as if looking athim for the first time. Slowly Shilada noddedhis head and smiled.

Nandi bowed to his father. ‘Bless me father!’Shilada blessed his son, ‘be victorious my

son!’

Nandi Becomes Shiva’s Vehicle or VahanaNandi then went near the River Bhuvana.

He entered the river and began his penance.His devotion was so great and hisconcentration was so high, that Lord Shivaappeared almost instantaneously.

‘Nandi, open your eyes!’ said the three eyedGod tenderly, looking at Nandi.

Nandi opened his eyes and before his eyesstood the most beautiful person he had seen inhis whole life. Nandi looked at the Godwanting to savor his image. He felt that he hadnothing more left to ask. If only I could staywith the Lord always.

Shiva looked at Nandi with lots of love,‘Nandi, you penance was so powerful that itdragged me here immediately! Ask meanything I will grant it to you!’ Shiva said.

‘Lord I wish to be with you always.’ Thewords were out of Nandi’s mouth before hecould stop them.

Shiva smiled. ‘Nandi I have just lost mybull, on which I used to travel. HenceforthNandi, you shall have a face of a bull. Youshall stay in my home at Kailash. You shall bethe head of all my Ganas. You will be mycompanion, my vehicle and my friend,always!’

Nandi closed his eyes as tears flowedthrough them. The Lord had granted him hiswish and a lot more…

Since then Nandi became Shiva’s vehicle,doorman, his companion and the head of all ofShiva’s attendants, the Ganas. Thus by sheerdevotion Nandi was not only able to overcomehis fate, he also rewrote it!

A few days later the Devas and the Asurastogether churned the ocean for nectar.However the first thing that emerged from thechurning was the poison Halahala. Thepoison was so strong that it threatened to

destroy the whole world. To protect the world,Lord Shiva collected the poison in his handand swallowed it. Goddess Parvati who wasnear Lord Shiva clutched Shiva’s throat tomake sure that the poison was stored in thethroat and would not affect Lord Shiva.

However some Halahala slipped out ofShiva’s hands and fell on the ground. Nandigathered the fallen Halahala and seeing hismaster drink it, he also drank it!

The Devas were staring shocked at what

Nandi had done! Lord Shiva was a God andbesides he had Goddess Parvati to protecthim, so nothing would happen to Lord Shiva.But Nandi,

However nothing happened to Nandi. Shivalooked at the dumb folded gods and smiled,‘Nandi is my greatest devotee! All my powersare his too and Parvati’s protection will go tohim too!’

The three of them smiled and then returnedto Kailash.

NANDI, THE VEHICLEOF LORD SHIVA

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““IIff IInnddiiaa’’ss oowwnn cchhiillddrreenn ddoonn''tt cclliinngg ttoo tthheeiirr ffaaiitthh,, wwhhoo sshhaallll gguuaarrdd iitt??””

““IInnddiiaannss aalloonnee ccaann ssaavvee IInnddiiaa,, aanndd IInnddiiaa aanndd HHiinndduuiissmm aarree oonnee..””

29THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 SPIRITUALITY

30 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019INDIANS ABROAD

INDIAN AMERICAN UAJUNIOR ABHIJAY

MURUGESAN NAMEDTRUMAN SCHOLAR

YUMA, AZ

(TIP): The HarryS. TrumanS c h o l a r s h i pF o u n d a t i o nannounced thatUniversity ofArizona juniorA b h i j a yMurugesan hasbeen awarded aT r u m a nScholarship, thenation's premier

graduate fellowship for studentspursuing careers as public serviceleaders. Murugesan is majoring inpublic health and molecular andcellular biology, with a minor inbiochemistry, in the UA HonorsCollege. He is expected to complete hisundergraduate studies in May 2020.

The Truman Scholarship is thelatest in a series of honors forMurugesan, who participated in theUA's KEYS Research Internshipprogram and graduated asvaledictorian of Cibola High School inYuma, Arizona. He also was named aFlinn Scholar, a National MeritScholar and a National Institutes ofHealth Undergraduate Scholar.

This year, 840 Truman Scholarcandidates were nominated by 346colleges and universities, a recordnumber of both applications andinstitutions. The 62 new TrumanScholars will receive their awardsduring a ceremony at the Harry S.Truman Presidential Library andMuseum in Independence, Missouri,on May 26.

INDIAN AMERICANELECTED MAYOR OF

CERRITOS CITY,CALIFORNIA

E R R I T O S

CITY, CA (TIP):

Indian Americanb u s i n e s s m a nNaresh Solanki,who served asMayor Pro Tem,was appointedmayor of Cerritos,Californiaat theannual CerritosCity CouncilM a y o r a ltransition, April18. Naresh

Solanki was elected to the CerritosCity Council in 2015. He became MayorPro Tem in 2016 and 2018.

A Cerritos resident since 1988,Mayor Solanki previously served as aCerritos Planning Commissioner from2007 to 2015. Mayor Solanki is amember of the City Council'sBudget/Finance, Performing Arts,Personnel and Business and Industrycommittees.

(Read full story onwww.theindianpanorama.news)

University ofArizona junior

Abhijay Murugesanhas been awarded aTruman Scholarship

Indian American Sanjay RamanNamed Dean of College of

Engineering at UMass AmherstAMHERST, MASS (TIP): Sanjay

Raman, associate vice president for theVirginia Tech National Capital Regionand president and CEO of the VirginiaTech Applied Research Corporation, hasbeen named the new dean of the Collegeof Engineering at the University ofMassachusetts Amherst. John J.McCarthy, provost and senior vicechancellor for academic affairs, madethe announcement.

Raman begins his new duties atUMass Amherst in August.

At Virginia Tech, Raman is a tenuredfull professor in the BradleyDepartment of Electrical and ComputerEngineering based at the Virginia TechResearch Centre in Arlington, Va. From1998-2009, he was assigned to theVirginia Tech main campus inBlacksburg.

As the associate vice president (AVP)for the Virginia Tech National CapitalRegion (NCR), Raman is responsible for

planning and executing region-wideinitiatives to enhance the university'sresearch, education, and outreachmissions, focusing on cross-cuttingthemes of data and decision science,integrated security, intelligentinfrastructure, global systems science,policy, innovation andentrepreneurship.

Raman is a founding member of theVirginia Tech MultifunctionalIntegrated Circuits and Systems (MICS)group, focused on innovative researchin analogue, mixed-signal, andRF/microwave/mm-wave IC designs,optoelectronics, and RF interfaces.Raman is an Elected Fellow of theInstitute for Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) for leadership inadaptive microwave and millimetre-wave integrated circuits. He is also anelected member of the AdministrativeCommittee of the IEEE MicrowaveTheory and Techniques Society.

Raman to begin his new duties at UMassAmherst in August

Indian American NASAScientist Receives DistinguishedAlumni Award from Swanson

School PITTSBURGH (TIP): Dr

Hanwant Singh, Scientist(retired) at the NASA AmesResearch Center and Directorof the AtmosphericChemistry Laboratory at SRI,was recently honoured withDistinguished Alumni awardby University of PittsburghSwanson School ofEngineering's Department ofChemical and PetroleumEngineering.

Hanwant Singh graduatedfrom the Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT) in Delhi,India in 1968 and earned hisPhD in ChemicalEngineering from theUniversity of Pittsburgh in1972. He completed further postdoctoral research at RutgersUniversity. His research focus shifted from engineering to theenvironment.

His primary research goal has been to better understand the impactof human activities on the chemistry and climate of the earth'satmosphere through direct observations and data analysis. Togetherwith his co-workers, Dr. Singh has published over 220 scientific papers(h-index: 84; 21000 citations) and one textbook in this area. Anenvironmental focus has provided him the opportunity to dedicate hisefforts towards a highly relevant societal concern as well as theprivilege of collaborating with partners from around the world. Heshared the HJ Allen Prize for best paper with Nobel Laureate P.Crutzen.

Prior to his recent retirement, Dr. Singh led a group of scientists atthe NASA Ames Research Center and was a Director of theAtmospheric Chemistry Laboratory at SRI, formerly the StanfordResearch Institute.

Hanwant Singh was awarded at the 55thannual Distinguished Alumni Banquet at

the University of Pittsburgh's Alumni Hall

INDIAN AMERICAN ALUMNUSFROM RUTGERS BUSINESS

SCHOOL RECOGNIZED AS RISINGSTAR IN SUPPLY CHAIN FIELD

NEWARK, NJ (TIP): Jasdeep Sandhu, whograduated from Rutgers Business School-Newark in2015, leads the Institute for Supply Management'sannual list of young talented professionals.

Megawatt winner Jasdeep Sandhu is a RutgersBusiness School undergraduate alumnus and a globalcategory leader of digital and technology innovationfor healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline.

"The accomplishments and talents of this group areremarkable," said Tom Derry, CEO of ISM. "Theystand out for their entrepreneurial spirit, strategicinnovations, digital problem-solving, and abilities todrive and showcase value enterprise-wide. Thesenext-generation leaders are providing theirorganizations with a powerful competitive advantageon the worldwide stage."

Now in its fifth year, the ISM program, sponsored byProxima, honors individuals who are 30 or youngerand demonstrate leadership, innovation,collaboration and other outstanding attributes - atwork and through their professional associations.Intended to help bridge the talent gap in procurementand supply management, the program provides rolemodels to millennials seeking exciting new careeropportunities.

Sandhu, who graduated from Rutgers BusinessSchool-Newark in 2015 with a double major in supplychain management and marketing, has a reputationas a self-starter.

(Read full story on www.theindianpanorama.news)

Sandhu graduated fromRutgers Business School-

Newark in 2015 with a doublemajor in supply chain

management and marketing

Naresh Solanki waselected to the

Cerritos City Councilin 2015

31THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 CLASSIFIEDS

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MARKETING STAFF REQUIRED

We are looking for marketing persons for The IndianPanorama print editions and the web portal at a couple oflocations which include Long Island, Queens, Manhattanand Buffalo in New York,Jersey City and Edison in New

Jersey, Stamford in Connecticut, Atlanta in Georgia,Houston and Dallas in Texas, and Chicago in Illinois.

Persons with experience in newspaper reporting will bepreferred.

The individual must be a person with experience inmarketing and public relations, confident, independent and

able to handle marketing on his/her own with minimumsupport from the management.

Compensation will be based on experience with up to 40%revenue created by the individual.

Anyone who would like to work with us part time and onthe basis of revenue sharing may email to

salujaindra@gmail.com or contact at 646-247-9458.

TAMPA, FL (TIP): U.S. District JudgeVirginia Hernandez Covington on April18 has sentenced Hemalkumar Shah, 27,a citizen of India, residing in Tampa, toeight years and six months in federalprison for conspiracy to commit wirefraud and aggravated identity theftrelated to his participation in an Indiancall center scam. As part of Shah'ssentence, the court also entered a moneyjudgment of $80,000.

Shah had pleaded guilty on January 28,2019.

According to court documents, from2014 through at least 2016, Shahconspired with U.S.-based co-conspirators and India-based call centersto extort money from U.S. residents byimpersonating IRS officers andmisleading victims to believe that theyowed money to the IRS and would bearrested and fined if they did not pay

their alleged back taxes immediately.The conspirators collected the fraudproceeds by (1) withdrawing cash fromprepaid cards purchased and funded byvictims; (2) hiring other conspirators(runners) to retrieve money wired by thevictims to those runners; and/or (3)hiring runners to open bank accountsinto which victims deposited fraudproceeds. The defendants collected theproceeds by providing the runners with

the victims' names, locations, andamounts paid. The runners weredirected to retrieve the fraud proceeds incash and turn the funds over to thedefendants, often less a payment to therunner for opening the account orconducting the transaction.

Four others previously pleaded guiltyfor their roles in the scheme. On March25, 2019, Alejandro Juarez was sentencedto 15 months in federal prison, and onMarch 29, 2019, Nishitkumar Patel wassentenced to 8 years and 9 months'imprisonment. Sharvil Patel and BrendaDozier are currently awaitingsentencing.

CONTD FROM PAGE 1

BIDEN LAUNCHES BID FOR2020 PRESIDENCY

many polls and has proved to be asuccessful fundraiser. AmongDemocrats, Biden has unmatchedinternational and legislative experience,and he is among the best-known faces inUS politics.

But the anti-establishment wave thatswept Trump into office has not beenkind to either party's statesmen. Biden'steam worries about his fundraisingability and his tendency to commitgaffes. His centrist approach in a partymoving left on major policy debatesraises questions about his appeal.

Four years Trump's senior, Biden willbe the oldest person ever electedpresident should he win. Yet his alliesbelieve the skeptics will ultimatelywarm to his strong connections to theObama years.

Biden has said he would campaign asan "Obama-Biden Democrat," who is aspragmatic as he is progressive. He'saiming to be a conduit between working-class white voters and the younger, morediverse voters who backed Obama inhistoric numbers. The Republican Partywasted no time seeking to undercutBiden's record, releasing a video onWednesday questioning economicgrowth under Obama and Biden whileresurrecting conservative argumentsagainst Obama's health are law and afailed investment in green energycompany Solyndra. The video ends withthe words, "Joe Biden: Backwards, notforwards." Yet privately, Trump allieshave warned that Biden might be thebiggest re-election threat given theformer vice-president's potential appealamong the white working class in theMidwest, the region that gave Trump apath to the presidency. The Republicanvideo notably does not argue a Biden

candidacy would lead to socialism, asTrump and his backers have said wouldhappen with many in the large 2020Democratic presidential field.

Biden is paying special attention toPennsylvania, a state that swung toTrump in 2016 after voting forDemocratic presidential candidates fordecades. The former Vice-President willbe in the state three times within theopening weeks of his campaign. He'll bein Philadelphia on Thursday eveningheadlining a fundraiser at the home ofDavid L. Cohen, executive senior vicepresident of Comcast. - AP

In 1972, Biden was elected to the USSenate at the age of 29 and took office afew weeks later when he turned 30.

Biden, a 76-year-old lifelong politician,becomes an instant front-runneralongside Vermont Sen, Bernie Sanders,who is leading many polls,has proved tobe a successful fundraiser. AmongDemocrats, Biden has unmatchedinternational and legislative experience,and he is among the best-known faces inUS politics However, Biden's teamworries about his fundraising ability andhis tendency to commit gaffes. Hiscentrist approach in a party moving lefton major policy debates raises questionsabout his appeal. (Source: Agencies)

SUDHAKAR DALELAASSUMES CHARGE ASCONSUL GENERAL OF

INDIA AT CHICAGOThis is his second assignment in the

United States; he previously served asMinister (Political Affairs) at the IndianEmbassy in Washington D.C.

He brings a wealth of experience intrade and economic policy to his role,having served twice at the PermanentMission of India to the WTO, includingas India's Deputy PermanentRepresentative. He was member ofIndia's negotiating team for the WTOMinisterial Conferences in Doha,Cancun, Hong Kong China and Nairobi.

Dalela has also served in critical rolesin New Delhi. He served as a Director inthe Prime Minister's Office, focussing onIndia's engagement with its South Asianneighbors, China, and countries in theAsia-Pacific region, Gulf, Middle East,and Africa. Most recently, he served asJoint Secretary (North), overseeingIndia's relations with Bhutan and Nepal.

Before joining the Foreign Service, heearned a Bachelor's degree inElectronics Engineering. He is marriedto Namrata, who is a textile conservator,and they have a daughter and son.

SC AGREES WITH EC: NO SCREENING OF MODI

BIOPIC TILL MAY 19on PM Narendra Modi until May 19. A

Bench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said it was not inclined toentertain the application filed byproducers of biopic challenging the EC'sorder. "What survives in this now?" theBench, also comprising Justices DeepakGupta and Sanjiv Khanna, said.

The counsel, appearing for producers,told the bench that the EC's order iscontrary to the clearance given to themovie by the Central Board of FilmCertification (CBFC).

"The issue is whether the movie can beexhibited at this time. The ElectionCommission has taken a decision. We arenot inclined to entertain this," the Benchsaid. The screening of Modi's biopic wasexpected to create a favorable impressionof Narendra Modi and boost the chancesof BJP candidates. There wastremendous push by the BJP to have thefilm screened. The BJP leaders areobviously disappointed. (With inputsfrom PTI)

TRUMP TAKES ACTION TOREDUCE B-1 AND B-2 VISA

OVERSTAYSwho are waiting in line to come to

America to seek the American Dream",said Trump. The Secretary of State willwork to ensure countries with visaoverstay rates higher than 10 percentaddress this problem. The Secretaries ofState and Homeland Security will makerecommendations within 120 days onactions to limit overstays.

One action being considered wouldsuspend or limit entry of individualsfrom countries with high rates of visaoverstays.The Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS) will explore ways toreduce overstays from countriesparticipating in the Visa WaiverProgram. The Trump Administrationwill develop measures for implementingadmission bonds as a potential way toimprove compliance with visas.

As of March 2019, there were over415,000 individuals in the United Statessuspected to still be in the United Statesafter overstaying their nonimmigrantvisas in fiscal year (FY) 2018. Twentycountries have overstay rates of morethan 10 percent-some with rates as highas 20, 30, or 40 percent. Countries notpart of the Visa Waiver Programaccounted for more than 300,000 totaloverstays in FY 2018.

32 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019MISCELLANY

PERMANENT MISSION OF INDIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS

New York

REQUEST FOR BIDS Permanent Mission of India to the

UN, New York, is empanelingcompanies for packing and

transportation of personal andhousehold effects. Reputed and

established companies in this field arerequested to submit their quotation as

per format which is available at www.pminewyork.gov.in/pdf/tender/tender_987704470.pdf

The last date for submission of proposals is 15 May, 2019.

Indian American Sentenced to more than Eight Years forRole in international Call Centre Scam

33THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 TRAVEL

Leh-Ladakh is a destination with ultrawide landscapes, gigantic mountains,and captivating trails along with rich

cultural heritage, beautiful Monasteries,mouth watering relishments, tranquilambience, and fabulous local hospitality. ThisLeh Ladakh Tour Package covers Leh,Pangong and Khardungla. It is tastefullycrafted so that traveler must get the chance toexplore the real essence of the destination.

LEH PALACEQuite an impressive replica of Lhasa’s

Potala Palace, the Leh Palace is a majorattraction in Leh. A nine storey structure indun colour, it was the erstwhile home to theroyals of Ladakh, built at the behest of KingSengge Namgyal in the 17th century. The LehPalace rises up against the backdrop of thelofty Himalayas, looking more like a painter’smuse. Built mostly of mud, rocks and wood, itis grand in its simplicity. The palace alsohouses a rich collection of traditional dressesand crowns, thangka paintings and someimpressive traditional ornaments. The bestpart about Leh Palace is its terrace for you canpore over Leh, Stok Kangri and the Zanskarrange from it. This one cannot be missed for itlooms high in the skyline of Leh, standingguard over this Himalayan kingdom.

STOK PALACEStok Palace is the less majestic yet more

famous of the palaces in Ladakh. At some 14km from Leh, it was the once summer palaceof Ladakh’s royal family. Built over 200 yearsago, Stok Palace houses some rare ancientpaintings of Buddhist deities Shakyamuni,Avalokiteshwara, Vajrapani, Tara, Amchi etc.The palace museum also houses some 100 plusvolumes of Buddhist teachings and a giantstatue of Avalokiteshwara. Some interestingartifacts like the jewel-studded crown ofLadakh’s erstwhile queen are also housed inthe palace. The palace also has a cafe on itsterrace and some rooms open for visitors.Prior booking has to be made in case you wishto stay here. Stok Palace is a major pit-stop ifyou are eager to hit some impressive treks inthe Himalayas around.

PANGONG TSOWhile no words can be apt enough to

describe Pangong Tso, words like ‘magic’ and‘surreal’ can be put to good use here. Thisastonishing, blue-water body at 14,270 ft isguarded by looming mountains. One of themost stunning lakes of the world, PangongTso covers 134 km and touches India and

Tibet. Also important as a major wetland, itsees flocks of migratory birds in summers.Visiting it in winters is, of course, an out ofthis world experience for it is completelyfrozen at that time. The lake lies in theChangthang region of Ladakh at some 170 kmfrom Leh, and has just one cemented stayfacility nearby. Foreign nationals need InnerLine Permit to visit the lake; thus it’sadvisable to check for visitor’s guidelinesbeforehand.

LAMAYURU MONASTERYLamayuru, fondly referred to as the Moon

Land, is a major stopover on the Leh-KargilRoad. Hidden in the folds of the mountains ofthis mystical land is the LamayuruMonastery. One of the oldest gompas inLadakh and Spiti, this monastery is perchedatop a cliff. Going by the legends, this regionwas once under a lake that was made to dry upby a holy man. The main sanctum of the

monastery has a cave where MahasiddhaNaropa meditated for years. The entire regionis considered sacred owing to the monastery'spresence and a visit is believed to liberatepeople from all their sins. Other than itsreligious significance, the place looks like apicture postcard that has turned real.

TSEMO FORThis fort cum monastery stands guard over

the city of Leh and is a major landmark,visible from everywhere in the city. Built byKing Tashi Namgyal, it sees elaborateBuddhist ceremonies in morning andevening. Take the trail leading to themonastery from Leh to witness the interestingrituals. It also houses a three-storey tall statueof Maitreya Buddha, its face made out of solidgold. Also a vantage point for photographers,its terrace gives a bird’s eye view of the wholecity. Visit it early in the morning to escape thescorching heat, witness the rituals as well as

click great shots in the almost golden lightthat lights it up.

STOK KANGRIStok Kangri is the highest mountain peak

in the Stok range of the Himalayas. At 20,500ft, it is also the highest trekkable summit inIndia. It has always been a great lure fortrekkers from all over the world and is quitepopular since it requires relatively lesstrekking skills. Ideally done between 6-10days, it is one of the must have Ladakhexperiences. You need to be properlyacclimatised to the high altitude conditionsbefore attempting this one. It is advisable tomake a summit attempt if you have priorexperience of scaling some 14,000 ft peaks. Alot of mental fitness also goes into this one, forweather can take sudden turns on the trek toStok Kangri. Still, it is a must do if adventureis your calling and you harbour a secret wishto scale a world-famous Indian peak.

EXPLORING LEH & LADAKH

34 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019SPORTS

Dale Steyn ruledout of IPL

NEW DELHI (TIP): After a brief two-match stint, RoyalChallengers Bangalore pacer Dale Steyn was on Thursdayruled out of the Indian Premier League owing to aninflammation in his shoulder.

The veteran South African fast bowler, who had recentlyjoined RCB as a replacement for injured Nathan Coulter-Nile, was forced to sit out of the match against Kings XIPunjab here on Wednesday after he picked up a niggle.

“Dale Steyn has been prescribed with ample rest due toinflammation in his shoulder. On account of state of hishealth, Dale will not be available to take part further in theongoing season of IPL,” Sanjeev Churiwala, Chairman ofRCB, said in a statement.

The injury-prone pacer had returned to the IPL after a gapof two years and straight away contributed to team’swinning cause by picking up four wickets in two games --against Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings.

“His presence has helped the team immensely and we arevery thankful for the inspiration and passion that hebrought to the squad. The team will deeply miss his energyand presence around. We wish him a speedy recovery and allthe luck for all future endeavours,” RCB Chairman said.

With the ODI World Cup scheduled to start on May 30 inUK, Steyn may not be willing to aggravate his injury. Theshoulder injury that the 35-year-old had suffered in Perthagainst Australia in 2016 kept him out of action for twoyears.

Steyn went unsold in the 2018 and 2019 auctions. He hadlast played for the now-defunct Gujarat Lions in 2016.

We have right combination forWorld Cup: Rahul Dravid

NEW DELHI (TIP): Former skipper Rahul Dravidreckons India’s recent 2-3 loss to Australia in a home ODIseries will not have much impact in their 2019 World Cupcampaign and their good show in the past few years hasmade them strong title contenders.

After taking a 2-0 lead in a five-match ODI rubber lastmonth, India faltered and were defeated in the rest threematches and lost the series.

“In the last 30 months, India has been playing really well,and the loss, much to the credit of the way Australia played,came at the back end of a very busy series,” Dravid wasquoted as saying by The Times of India.

“We have the right combination for the World Cup. IfIndia wins the World Cup, we will not be worrying aboutwho won 2-3 or 3-2. There will be an odd series that India willlose. But the (ICC) rankings prove that India is there andshould win the World Cup to become No. 1,” he said.

When asked what he thinks of the Indian squad for theshowpiece event as stumper Rishabh Pant and AmbatiRayudu were not included in the team, Dravid termed theside as “well-balanced”.

“India has a very good, balanced team for this World Cup.They have a lot of combinations, lot of options. It is aquestion of them performing in the tournament. You canalways argue one or two cases, one or two names. The teamhas been picked and hope they do really well,” the 46-year-old opined.

Dravid also felt that unlike the previous times, the wicketshave changed in England and the upcoming tournament willwitness high-scoring games.

“This World Cup will probably be a much high scoringone, and India is well equipped for that. English conditionshave actually changed, especially for ODIs. We were therelast year for an ‘A’ series, and the scores were really high, 300was par score, and was being chased consistently.

Lost ball halts play as umpirepockets it and forgets

BENGALURU (TIP): Umpiringhowlers refuse to end in the 12th editionof the Indian Premier League, and onWednesday night umpire Shamshuddinwas in the spotlight. He forgot where hekept the ball at the end of the 13th overof the RCB innings as players headed fora strategic break during the RoyalChallengers Bangalore and Kings XIPunjab face-off.

Resuming the game after the secondstrategic break, KXIP skipper R Ashwinand Ankit Rajpoot could not find the balleven as AB de Villiers and MarcusStoinis waited for the game to get underway. Ashwin walked up toShamshuddin, but even he couldn’t

track the ball.Play was halted as Bruce Oxenford

joined the scene and the fourth umpirerushed onto the field with a new box ofballs. But television replays showed thatShamshuddin had put the ball in hispocket before the players headed for thestrategic break at the M ChinnaswamyStadium.

The confusion left AB de Villiers insplits and what followed was anonslaught from the former Proteasskipper as RCB beat KXIP by 17 runs.

Speaking after the game, ABD saidthat he was only looking to stay calmand not get rattled by the situation.While his innings and the partnership

with Stoinis was the game-changer, deVilliers also praised the RCB bowlers forputting up a good show as it wasrelatively easy to bat in the secondinnings.

“I tried to stay calm in the last fewovers. It is not easy always, the game ishappening at a rapid pace. We know ourhome ground very well, it hasn’t been agreat hunting ground for us to start withbut we are turning things around now.And we are doing things well. We aredoing good as a team. I still think 160 wasa par score but it gets easier in thesecond innings. Our bowlers executedtheir plans to perfection in the end,” hesmiled. Source: IANS

R Ashwin explains angry reaction afterreceiving send off from Virat Kohli

BENGALURU (TIP): Kings XI Punjabcaptain Ravichandran Ashwin playeddown the animated reaction from hisRoyal Challengers Bangalore counterpartVirat Kohli after taking his catch duringtheir Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019encounter on Wednesday, saying both ofthem react out of passion.

With 27 runs needed from the final over,Ashwin hit the first ball for a six, but onthe very next delivery, he hit one straightto Kohli at long-on off Umesh Yadav’sbowling. Kohli celebrated in his usualstyle, giving Ashwin a fiery send-off.Ashwin, on his part, was also seenthrowing his gloves in the dugout inanger.

“I just played with passion, so does he(Virat). That’s it. As simple as that,”Ashwin said at the post-match pressconference here on Wednesday night afterKXIP lost to RCB by 17 runs.

KXIP skipper said his team failed tocome good during crunch situations.

“Three overs for 60 odd runs wasn’tdesirable, but we were in the chase allalong and I thought we couldn’t finish it offin crunch situation. That is what you back

the senior players to do. Didn’t quite turnout the way we wanted. That is exactlyhow that is gone for us the entiretournament.

“Whenever we played those crucialmoments, we won, and whenever wehaven’t, we have lost it, because the gamesare really really tight for us,” said Ashwin.

The 32-year-old said KXIP lost the plot inmiddle overs despite Nicholos Pooran andDavid Miller bringing them back into thegame.

“When you chase down 200, you ideallylike one of your batsmen to make 70-80. Wewere not in it. We were 105 in 10 overs orsomething like that. We lost momentumsimilar to what RCB did in middle overs,but I thought Nicholos Pooran playedreally well and he got us back into thegame.

“I thought we were cruising at 4 overs 45or 46 needed. From there on, it is quitedisappointing that we could not finish thegame on this ground.” Source: PTI

RCB batsman AB deVilliers plays a shot

during the IndianPremier League 2019

(IPL T20) cricket matchbetween Royal

Challengers Bangalore(RCB) and Kings XIPunjab (KXIP), at

Chinnaswamy Stadiumin Bengaluru,

Wednesday, April 24.

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