United States

Germany - After years of praying in a cellar, Berlin’s 6,000 Hindus can look forward to worshipping in two brand new temples. A local Hindu group plans to build a temple to Lord Murugan, just three months after Hindus conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for one dedicated to Ganesha.
"We want to create a religious place for worshippers from the south of India and Sri Lanka," said Nadarajah Thiagarajah, chairman of the Sri Mayurapathy Murugan Temple Association.
To be built at a cost of 170,000 euros, the temple will accommodate 120 worshippers when completed in 2009. It will have an 11-metre tower that will symbolise the link to heaven.

S. Sivasankaran, who made big news when he sold his telecom business Aircel to Maxis of Malaysia for $800 million in 2005, has hit the headlines again by acquiring Norwegian shipping company JB Ugland Shipping (JBUS).
JBUS is headquartered in Norway with a fleet of 40 owned and chartered vessels with an aggregate capacity of some 2 million deadweight tonnage. Its fleet consists of tankers and chemical and bulk carriers. Apart from Norway operations also exist in Oslo and Singapore.
Sivasankaran, who heads Siva Ventures, routed the acquisition through his Group company that controls Sterling Infotech.

United States
Pepsico’s India-born chief Indra Nooyi is among Forbes’ list of 10 best women CEOs of large corporations based on their total return to investors since each of them took up the top job. Nooyi is ranked 10th on the list.
Her company has an annual revenue of $39.47 billion, far more than the revenue of other companies on the list, most of which have yearly revenues ranging between $1 billion and $10 billion.
Nooyi’s strategy and style of functioning at the global food and soft drinks behemoth has been analyzed by Fortune magazine in a cover story in its current issue.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team led by India-born Ram Sasisekharan has explained just how bird flu spread to humans in 1918, leading to a pandemic that killed millions worldwide.
Scientists fear the emergence of a new bird flu strain that could jump easily from birds to humans—potentially unleashing a pandemic.
Sasisekharan’s team reports that two mutations in the 1918 bird flu virus played a key role in transmitting it to humans.
The mutations allowed it to infect humans, by binding tightly to the human upper respiratory tract, said Sasisekharan an IISc alumnus. These two HA mutations dramatically changed the virus’ ability to bind with receptors on the human respiratory tract.

Australia

The plush new India Passport and Visa Services Centre opened by the Indian consulate in Sydney in February will provide relief to those who have sweated in long queues to get an Indian passport, visa or Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card.
The huge demand for Indian visas in Australia made it necessary for the High Commission and consulates to outsource the receipt and delivery of passports, visas and OCI cards to a private company, VFS Global, a subsidiary of the Kuoni Travel Group's India branch.

India
India is considering giving Overseas Indian Citizens parity with NRIs in admission and scholarship programmes for diaspora children in the higher and technical educational institutions in the country.
A policy framework for the set up of an NRI/Person of India Origin university at a suitable venue has already been approved, that will ensure flexibility in the choice of disciplines and courses offered.
A major project under the auspices of the Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs has also been planned that will train and orientate Indian workers and upgrade their skill levels to meet job requirements in the countries where they will work.

China
Indian men living and working in China are falling in love with local women—and marrying them too.
The growing rapprochement between the Asian giants has led to increased human traffic between India and China. Today thousands of Indians, almost all of them men, are making a mark in many parts of China in a wide variety of fields.
Diplomats and other Indians in China admit love is definitely in the air.
"Yes, there is this trend (of Indians and Chinese marrying)," said Mehernosh Pastakia, a restaurant owner who came to China 17 years ago from Mumbai and married a Chinese a decade ago.
"There are strong similarities between the two societies on issues like family values," says Pastakia. "Of course, there are also differences. So a lot of understanding and adjustment are needed."
Thanks to the booming economies in both countries, there are some 10,000 Indians in China, including some 6,000 students in the age group of 18 to 23.
The mainly male Indians work for multinational companies or are in business—and thus economically well off.
A diplomat said she had come across "quite a few cases" of Indians marrying Chinese. "But what is interesting is that it is always Indian men marrying Chinese women and not the other way round." Why? "Maybe because there is hardly any single Indian woman in China!"