BENGALI

New York-based writer Jhumpa Lahiri's new book Unaccustomed Earth has hit the top of the best selling fiction list in the US.
Lahiri's second collection of short stories is said to be a powerful demonstration of her newfound commercial clout, that evinces subtle mastery that has few contemporary equals.
USA Today wrote: "Immigrants may be the stories' protagonists, but their doubts, insecurities, losses and heartbreaks belong to all of us. Never before has Lahiri mined so perfectly the secrets of the human heart." 
Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. Her novel The Namesake was made into a movie by Mira Nair.

Son of legendary Indian magician the late P.C. Sorcar, Manick Sorcar of Denver, Colorado, an animation and laser artist, beat 99 contenders worldwide to win the ILDA Award for his entry in the category for best laser photography.
Manick first shot to fame in the early 1990s for his first animation/live action production that won a Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival. This year there were a total of 100 entries from 21 companies and Manick's creation was unanimously selected for first place. Second place went to a company from Italy and third to one from the USA.
Manick is the first Indian American to receive the ILDA Artistic award twice.

United Kingdom

Shami Chakrabarti, 39, who heads the human rights group 'Liberty' is on the list of the top ten most powerful lawyers in Britain compiled by The Times. Chakrabarti was listed at number 9.
Chakrabarti is one of the most prominent commentators seen and heard on broadcast media and is a persuasive voice in the civil liberties debate. Her responses can be counter-intuitive and she defends the government or the police where she believes they are right.
In 2005 she was voted by BBC Radio 4 Today listeners among the ten people who could run Britain.

India

KPC Medical College Hospital, a sprawling campus, is to be launched in Jadavpur by an NRI businessman. The sophisticated institution has glass exteriors, airy corridors and huge labs at the sprawling 350 bed hospital that will be the first in the state to admit foreign students and have teachers from the USA visiting on a regular basis.
Once the green signal is received from the Medical Council of India, admission to MBBS courses will begin with processes of admission for first year students still on the table and state government and norms to decide fees.

Zubin Mehta, enthralled thousands of Poles when he paid his musical tribute to the memory of millions of Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
The Polish government had specially invited Zubin Mehta, who is also the conductor of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Warsaw ghetto uprising. It was on April 15, 1943 that the remaining Jews of Warsaw came out from their ghetto to fight against Hitler's army with their Polish brethren. 
Zubin Mehta specially selected the fifth symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven to display his genius. People were left spellbound not only in the Grand Theatre of Warsaw, but in many Polish homes as the programme was telecast live on the national TV channel. 
The main guest was Israeli President Shimon Peres, who himself is a Polish born Jew. 
"It is remarkable that Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra is being conducted by a non-Jew and that too an India born. It seems music has no religion and it has no spatial territory. The appeal of music is universal," said Anna Sancewicz, a musicologist and an English language lecturer at a private Warsaw university.

GUJARATI

United States

Neil S. patel of Washington D.C. is one of the five individuals nominated by President George W. Bush to serve in his administration.The president has nominated Neil Suryakant Patel, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce.
Patel will become the highest ranking Indian American in the administration, at a time when senior community officials have been resigning in droves.
Patel currently serves as Assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for Domestic and Economic Policy. Prior to this he served as Staff Secretary to the Vice President. Earlier in his career, he served as Assistant General Counsel at UUNET Technologies, Inc. Patel received his bachelor's degree from Trinity College and his JD from Georgetown University.
According to a White House spokesperson, the president has valued Patel’s committed service. While serving on the vice-president’s staff, Neil has been a tireless worker and a trusted advisor on domestic policy issues, especially telecom and technology.

United Kingdom

Three NRI brothers are building a £90 million modern accommodation complex for students near Bradford University. The environment friendly complex is designed to house 1400 students and is being built by an investment management company. Known as Apartment 4 U it is being managed by brothers Amratlal Shah, Mayur Shah and Hasmukh Shah.
The student village will have sustainable modular units made of harvested forests with facilities such as flat screen TVs, Internet access and deluxe rooms and will be built on the assembly line in Manchester and transported by articulated lorries.

Kenya

Indian businesses, mostly Gujarati-owned, have suffered almost $1 billion in damage in Kenya's ongoing ethnic violence. 
Business establishments owned by Indians were looted and destroyed by rioters, particularly in Kisumu, which has almost 5,000 Indians.
As many as 100 Indian stores were looted and set ablaze, according to Hitesh Patel, a Kenyan citizen, whose shop was among those destroyed by rioters. 
"Only five to seven shops that sell hardware and things other than eatables survived the attacks," said Patel.
Indian shops in Nairobi also were targeted by rioters.

Azad Moopen of Dubai has announced plans to set up MedCity, a complex of hospitals and allied services in Kochi, Kerala, targeting the growing number of medical tourists to the state.
The construction on the $374 million project is to start in six months and will have a 500 bed anchor hospital and ten smaller hospitals for specialties in a spacious master planned campus.
The group hopes to complete the first phase by 2010 and foresees that it will elevate Kerala to a higher pedestal in the delivery of advanced hi-tech treatments.

United States

US-based businessman, Abraham Kalamannil is trying to turn the mini airport at Kannur, some 100 km from Trivandrum and Cochin airports, into a major international one with the help of other NRIs.
Aranmula Aviation Ltd (AAL), a public limited company, has been floated in which Cochin-based real estate businessman P.S. Nair has been inducted as chairman, to help carry forward the ambitious project.
Nair hopes the project will materialise in three years even as they hope to get the go ahead from the Civil Aviation Ministry.