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Indian American elected district trustee of Nevada |
A journalism graduate from Punjab University has been elected District Trustee to the Office of General Improvement in Nevada. Rajan Zed who graduated with an MBA from the University of Nevada was a journalist before he migrated to the US. He serves on the governing Board of Directors of Northern Nevada International Centre, the Board of Directors of the Nevada World Trade Council and the Police Chief’s Advisory Board in Reno.
Zed is also involved in various community and professional organisations, including the Society of Human Resource Management and the American Society for Information, Science and Technology.
He was honoured with the International Professional of the Year-2005 Award, by the International Biographical Centre of England and is on the list of nominations for Great Minds of the 21st Century by the American Biographical Institute.
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Indian woman to be UK’s first Asian MP
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A young woman of Indian origin is to be Britain’s first Asian woman MP, upon being elected to stand in a safe seat, that leading conservatives had apparently wanted only ‘a white male’ to occupy.
Priti Patel, 34, whose parents fled to Britain before she was born, to escape Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, has worked for the Conservative Party since her teen years. She was spokeswoman to former shadow foreign secretary William Hague. Patel is a public relations executive at the drinks company Diageo.
A year ago Priti had triggered a major controversy when she said that bigoted elements in the Conservative Party were blocking her candidature. “Racist attitudes do persist within the party …. There’s a lot of bigotry around,” she had said.
Patel said it was an honour to have been selected to fight in a diverse and vibrant area. A thriving city with many universities and well-known universities Nottingham has a fairly large segment of Asians but whites are in the majority.
The seat of Witham in Essex, was the focus of a row as the party’s deputy chairman in charge of candidates that the association wanted a ‘white middle class male’. Local activists, however, defiantly voted in Priti Patel over the sitting MP John Brokenshire. There are 10 Asian MPs, all men.
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NRIs can get PAN using passport and bank accounts
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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) says NRIs, foreign citizens and other entities based abroad can obtain an income tax permanent account number (PAN) for trading in the market on the basis of their passport and a copy of a bank account in the country of residence.
“Since NRIs/PIOs/foreign nationals have now been enabled by the income tax department to obtain PAN as stated above, it has been decided to withdraw the facility of opening a limited purpose beneficiary owner (BO) account/trading account by them without PAN,” A SEBI circular added.
However, NRIs and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) who have already opened such BO accounts or trading accounts without PAN shall be required to comply with the mandatory requirement of PAN on or before December 31, 2006.
Obtaining a PAN card has become a lot easier in the past few months, with institutions such as the Unit Trust of India being allowed to allot the numbers to individuals. In the past, the income tax department had failed to allot people PAN cards despite repeated reminders. Sacks of applications were dumped after they kept pouring in and the taxmen were simply unable to cope.
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Indian-born is Miss Great Britain
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Born in the UK, Preeti Desai from Gulsborough, North Yorkshire, has been awarded the title of Miss Great Britain, after the original winner Danielle Lloyd was stripped of the title for dating contest judge Teddy Sheringham and agreeing to pose for Playboy magazine. Desai, 25, will now represent Britain in the Miss Universe beauty pageant.
Preeti's parents and sister are very delighted with her win in the contest, particularly as Preeti’s mother is recovering from a serious illness. Preeti credited her mother for her success and dedicated her crown to her. Seeing her well and smiling makes all the difference, she stated. |
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NRI bank deposits in India topped $22 billion last year
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A recent report in Newsweek International, says that overseas Indians, who till recently were viewed as cash cows who’d taken their highly subsidised education and abandoned their motherland to get rich abroad, are now returning to fuel the country’s technology growth. And their money has begun to follow them back to India. The newly confident sub-continent has begun to re-look at its relationship with its expatriate population, while the diaspora has begun looking at India again, as the country’s economy pulls away into the stratosphere. Quoting author Gurcharan Das, whose book India Unbound maps the country’s rise, it says: “The mindset of India changed in the 1990s, and young Indians especially became decolonised.”
The World Bank records cash remittances from Indians abroad totalled $22 billion last year. More than 20 million Indians have moved overseas, and include 200,000 dollar millionaires in the US alone. |
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An ageing world will have to rely on Indian talent |
With a projected fall in the ‘productive population’ of the developed world within a few years, Indian students will be at the centre of the ‘global talent war’, Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, said recently.
“By 2025, the number of people in the age group 15-64 is projected to fall by 7 per cent in Germany, 9 per cent in Italy and 14 per cent in Japan. It will also make a big difference in China thanks to its ‘one child’ policy”.
Even in America, it is estimated that 500 of its biggest companies will lose half their senior managers in the next 10 years, he said, adding “you will be coveted by the best corporates and will be at the heart of the global talent war”. |
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