As
land hassles stem the flow of NRI investment in Punjab, the Government
takes steps to ease the legal woes of expatriates.
WEB
ONLY FEATURES
Digvijay's friends continue to
benefit from his generosity as they are allotted prime land for peanuts.
India Today's Neeraj Mishra reports. UNQUESTIONED
LARGESSE
INDIA
TODAY CONCLAVE
The
Conclave concludes on a high note. Al Gore, Stanley Fischer and other world
leaders listen and are heard. Catch up on the highlights. Take
me to Conclave now
CARE
TODAY
INDIA
TODAY HINDI
CURRENT
ISSUE MARCH 17, 2003
IN THE NEWS
Rare
Fare
The
spring auction of south-east Asian art-a series of rare sculptures
and paintings- by Sotheby's includes a meditational painting depicting
the red elephant headed deity Maharakta Ganapati with his right
leg raised. It is one of the three thankas known to be in western
collections and is estimated to sell at $60,000-90,000. All the
items will be on view at an exhibition for five days before being
put under the gavel on March 26.
Pledge to Give
Half the people on kidney
dialysis in the UK may soon be Asians and in need of a transplant.
It's a grim scenario, all right, one that has led the UK Government
to launch an intensive campaign-featuring three British-Asian patients-to
encourage Asians to donate organs. Launching the initiative, Health
Minister David Lammy has urged everyone to "take action"
and carry a donor card. "Currently 841 Asian people are awaiting
transplants in the UK but there are not enough people of Asian origin
on the NHS (National Health Services) organ donor register,"
Lammy said. "Unfortunately this means that some people die while
waiting for a transplant." The time to act is now.
Some Men Have it All
Let's face it. The rich list compiled by the
Sunday Mail is getting rather predictable with the same Indian faces
making the grade. However, marking a change in that constancy is the
fact that most of them have only got richer and are ranked higher.
For instance, steel magnate L.N. Mittal again tops the list of wealthiest
NRIs with an estimated worth of £1.25 billion. He is now placed
14th-a climb of four positions-among the 300 richest millionaires
in Britain. The Hinduja brothers remain on 40th slot though their
worth has spiked by £20 million. On 93rd-up eight places-are
the cosmetic giants Jatania brothers with an estimated wealth of £330
million. Their company, the Lornamead Group, was founded in 1978 and
is based in Dubai but has affiliated offices in London, Dublin, Moscow,
Lagos, Johannesburg, Holland and Scandinavia. Others to make the grade
are Tom Singh of New Look (113th; worth: £290 million), hoteliers
Jasminder Singh and family (134th), brothers Bharat and Ketan Mehta
(239), Lord Swraj Paul (262) and Dinesh Dhamija (279). If you're wondering
what it takes to top the rich list, it's an asset worth something
in the vicinity of £6.3 billion. That's what Dr Hans Rausing
has.
Positive
Concern
Rena
Patel, 23, one of 20 students on USA TODAY's-USA Academic First
Team, lets actions speak of her desire to serve as a catalyst for
social change. The University of Illinois, Chicago, senior has developed
an HIV/AIDS peer education curriculum for Asian immigrants and Asian-American
youth in Chicago. Patel has also conducted HIV/AIDS prevention programmes
for youth in Tanzania and India. "The burden of prevention,
testing and treatment has fallen on individual healthcare professionals
and NGOs," she points out. "I want to help bring the HIV/AIDS
epidemic to a standstill while addressing the needs of women and
youth in healthcare around the world," Patel adds.
— Nitish S. Rele
The Write Move
HarperCollins is poised to release Siddartha
Deb's debut novel, The Point of Return, in the US. The book, a coming
of age story tracked through a difficult father-son relationship,
is located in the Northeast where Deb grew up. A former journalist,
Deb has moved to writing full-time and is already working on his second
book. "This story, too, is set in the Northeast and revolves
around a central character who is a Kolkata-based journalist. The
plot traces the journey of the journalist in search of an elusive
story," says Deb. Now a resident of Massachusetts, Deb and his
American wife Amy Rosenberg will soon be returning to the Big Apple.
Legal Eagle
Senator Orin Hatch, chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, has nominated Rumu Sarkar for federal judgeship, a post
that has fallen vacant. If appointed, Sarkar would be the first Indian-American
in the prestigious position. The Washington-based lawyer, who has
already indicated her willingness, has served in several positions,
including the USAID's acting chief of mission in Macedonia in 1993.
She is currently the assistant general counsel for administrative
affairs, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)-a position
in which she also provides procurement and fiscal law-related advice-and
serves as deputy board counsel to OPIC's board of directors.
A Journey in Time
The Ambassador may have been sidelined ever
since the Japanese brand of vehicles took charge of Indian roads from
around the mid-1980s. For many it still brings back nostalgic memories.
In the case of the late Raghubir Singh it was a mission. Now his photographic
journey all over India on the Ambassador's tail is part of an exhibition
being hosted in the prestigious Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and
Arthur Sackler Gallery in Washington. Titled Auto Focus, the exhibition
will run till August.
Global Giant or Pygmy
CURRENT
ISSUE MARCH 17, 2003
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