PUNJABI DIASPORA

United States

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru Khosla have made a $500,000 donation to the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation promoting the sharing of free content via cyberspace. Khosla, 53, was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, and is one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley. Neeru Khosla is co-founder and chair of CK12 a non-profit organisation that supports the worldwide creation of collaborative open source textbooks.
Wikipedia is one of the fastest-growing and most popular general reference works on the Internet.

NRIs from Punjab will now have exclusive facilities at special police stations in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Moga and Nawanshahr. NRIs can now file their complaints and be able to monitor the status online. Police officials at the NRI stations would deal exclusively with NRI complaints to ensure speedy disposal.
Scores of NRIs, particularly from the districts where these NRI police stations have been set up, have migrated from Punjab over the last eight decades are settled in the US, Canada, Britain, European nations and several other countries in the world.
Punjab Police say the majority of the complaints by NRIs concern property and land disputes.

Ashok Nahata of the University of Utah has developed a computer that’s a thousand times faster than the fastest current super computers by using infrared wavelengths rather than electrical wires.
Nahata and his team made the equivalent of wires that carried and bent this form of infrared light or terahertz radiation, the least exploited segment of the electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists want to harness this spectrum, since vast loads of communication clog the existing spectrum.
This would make for faster computing and also help in designing scanners and sensors able to detect biological, chemical or other weapons.
Nahata said the long-term goal is to develop capabilities to create circuits that run faster than modern-day electronic circuits “so we can have faster computers and faster data transfer via the Internet”.
“We have taken a first step to making circuits that can harness or guide terahertz or infrared radiation," said Nahata. “Eventually—in a minimum of 10 years—this will allow the development of superfast circuits, computers and communications,” he said.

In an effort to reduce the dependence of priests coming to Malaysia from India, the Malaysian government has asked the 100,000 strong Sikh community to train priests locally.
The Sikhs say there are problems as local Sikhs are not willing to work for a wage of around $250 and in any case in-depth training is required. Learning Punjabi too is limited as all Punjabi schools run on a voluntary basis without grants from the government.
However, the cabinet approved the renewal of visas and permits for Hindu priests, musicians and artisans from India.

Lawmaker lawyer Karpal Singh has refused to apologise to the royal head of Kelantan State in Malaysia, Mohamad Faris Petra, who said minorities should not question primacy and special privileges of the majority Malays.
Singh, who heads the opposition Democratic Action party said the royal chief's statement negated the federal constitution and sought his prosecution for his remarks against the interests of ethnic minorities.
Singh received support from ethnic Chinese groups and political parties. However some leaders of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional asked Singh to apologise to the royal head who holds a constitutional office.

Canada

Two Indians, Kalwant Singh Sahota and Mander Singh Sohal, have filed a human rights complaint against a sawmill in Canada, saying its new hard hat policy prevents them from returning to their jobs because they will no longer be able to wear their turbans.
Both men are long-term forestry employees and this is the first time the law has been introduced. Sahota began work at the mill in 2004 and Sohal in 1988.
A human rights tribunal has accepted the men's complaint and has now asked International Forest Products to file a response.

India

PUNJAB POLICE records show over a thousand NRIs from the state are listed as proclaimed offenders. The other side of the coin however shows that a growing number of NRIs have been referring to police with complaints of crimes committed against them.
A total of 327 criminal cases were registered on complaints filed by overseas Punjabis. Most complaints were filed through the email or by phone, facilities recently introduced by the department.
A majority of the cases registered relate to property disputes and complaints by NRIs of properties owned by them being grabbed by family and relatives during their absence from the country.

The mayor of Gloucestershire, Harjit Gill, is at the top of an online voting list of the most popular people in the English county.
Prince Charles is second among the 200 personalities from the county that includes royalty, showbiz, business, politics and sports on the list. The voting is to be held over four weeks. Gill topped the list in the first week.
Gloucestershire county is home to a host of British celebrities including Prince Charles and Princes William and Harry who have their Highgrove address in the county, Kate Winslet and Liz Hurley of the Cotswold area. Princess Anne made it to third on the list after Mayor Gill and Prince Charles.

HIMACHALI

Krishan Attri, the British army's first Hindu chaplain, is among the first four faith chaplains appointed by the army. Others are a Sikh, a Buddhist and a Muslim.
Attri from Kasauli, uses the Mahabharata and the Bhagwad Gita to explain the need to go to war to British Hindu soldiers deputed to Iraq and Afghanistan. There are 470 Hindus (not including the Gurkhas) in Britain's armed forces. Attri says he teaches his men that duty is a priority and a karma to be faced, as they have undertaken a contract to protect their country.

TAMIL DIASPORA

Dr J.R. Gangaramani, chairman of the Al Fara'a Group, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award held under the patronage of Sheikh Faisal Bin Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi in the presence of Indian business and community leaders in the UAE, in recognition of his contribution in initiating social reforms that uplift the overall status of Indians in the Emirates.
Dr Gangaramani built a fully integrated construction services company of fifteen leading business entities across Dubai and India, that grew to a $3 billion enterprise that employs over 13,000 people and developed from a revenue driven organisation to a proponent of the welfare of Indians living in the UAE.
Shalini Gangaramani, group director of the Al Fara'a Group, was presented the 'Young Icon Award' for her passion for engineering and exposure to the business. She was educated in the United States and uses her training and experience to manage the expanding operations of the Al Fara'a Group.
The NRI Achievers award Gulf Edition is sponsored by the Government of India with a view to increasing NRI exposure and inspire future generations.

Malaysia’s kedah state may declare Tamil festival Thaipusam a state holiday, its Mentri Besar (chief minister) Azizan Abdul Razak said. 
Razak was quoted as saying in the Tamil journal Malaysia Nanban that the temple management committees submitted their memorandums to the previous government for many years but nothing had materialised so far.
He said he was aware that Thaipusam was celebrated grandly in this state and nearly 600,000 people converged on Sungei Petani for this annual celebration. 
Thaipusam, when Tamils cook and distribute rice and milk, and go out in colourful processions, is a holiday in parts of Malaysia, that has two million Tamil Hindus.

Tamil language daily Makkal Osai, which was banned by Malaysian authorities, is back in circulation.
Makkal Osai's application against the home ministry decision to refuse to renew the publishing licence had been rejected April 16. However, it filed an appeal against the ministry's decision and the approval for renewal of its licence was granted.
The daily began operations as Tamil Osai in 1981 and changed its name to Makkal Osai in 2005. It has a daily circulation of 52,000, and 95,000 on weekends.

A team of researchers led by Jayakrishna Ambati have challenged the validity of gene treatment based on Nobel prize winning work that attracted billions of dollars in investment into developing cures for cancer, diabetes and other diseases.
The gene treatment in a 1998 breakthrough earned the Nobel prize for medicine 2006 for Andrew Z. Fire of Stanford University and Craig C. Mello of the University of Massachusetts.
Ambati's study questions the method that uses tiny synthetic molecules to destroy specific disease bearing genes blocking or reversing the disorder, saying the method does not target a specific culprit gene but has a generalised effect that could harm a wide range of tissues.
Ambati's team is now close to achieving a modified method of specific gene silencing that he says should be ready in a year or two. His university is applying for patents based on his work.
Ambati, 37, was born in Vellore and went to the US at the age of 10 with his family. He is currently the vice chair of the department of ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Kentucky.

Indra nooyi, chief executive officer of PepsiCo, was paid $14.74 million in compensation for 2007, her first full year as head of the world's second largest soft drink maker. The amount is double the amount she was paid in 2006 when she was Pepsi's chief financial officer. The package makes her the highest paid executive in the company and includes her non equity incentive plan compensation and executive perks.
By contrast Pepsi’s archrival Coca-Cola paid its chief executive Neville Isdell $21.65 million in 2007.

Saru Jayaraman, one of the most prolific New York labour leaders, has made it to Crain’s ‘40 Under 40’ —an annual list of 40 people who are recognised by the magazine for having “achieved tremendous success in business in New York before turning 40.
The Yale and Harvard educated lawyer has been hailed for co-founding Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York to help former employees of Windows on the World get back to work after September 11, 2001.
Crain’s says Jayaraman’s battles with powerful restaurateurs like Daniel Boulud and Alan Stillman have netted workers $580,000 in back pay.

KANNADIGA

United States

Kalidas Shetty, a food scientist at the University of Massachusetts, says red wine and tea contain natural antioxidants that may slow the passage of glucose in the system which is an important step in managing diseases, particularly in people suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Red wine has been known to protect people from heart disease and the healing powers of tea regulate blood sugar.
Shetty says the tests were carried out on red wine that contains polyphenolics and is superior to white wine. In their testing they found that black tea was most effective followed by white and oolong teas.

Ravi Krishna Reddy, a software employee in the US, has decided to run as an independent candidate in Bangalore for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls.
Reddy stated that representatives are allowed to spend just Rs 10 lakh ($25,000) for elections but in some areas over a hundred times more is spent that skews the electoral process in favour of the representatives rather than the people.
Reddy plans to run his campaign within the Election Commission's monetary limit and through public participation has already raised a third of the money with more support coming in.
Reddy said he wanted to sow the seed because someone has to start somewhere. He is also going on a three day hunger strike with the backing of some Karnataka writers.
He maintains the election is about morals and ethics and believes if more people step forward governance may finally be about the people rather than the candidates.