US Killings in 2019, Highest than any other Year from 1970s December 30, 2019 12:06
The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University compiled a database which shows that, there were more killings in 2019 than any other year from the 1970s.The first one was where a man killed four family members which includes his infant daughter with an axe and this occurred just 19 days after entering into the new year. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a shooting which took place in a workplace in Virginia. The incident at a Walmart in El Paso witnessed twenty two people being dead in August.It was found that, more than 41 mass killings took place where in four or more people are killed with perpetrator being excluded. Of the 41 mass killings, 33 were mass shootings and more than 210 people were killed.In the majority of the killings, the incidents took place involving the people knew each other as in family disputes, drug or gang violence or as anger being showed at co-worker or relatives.The very first incident that took place in Oregon was one of the 18 mass killing which involved family members and one of the six that had no involvement of a gun. According to the AP/USA Today and Northeastern database, the second most killings prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota said that, "What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down.” he added saying that, “as a percentage of homicides, these mass killings are also accounting for more deaths.”He believes that the mass shootings can be a by product of an “angry and frustrated time” and he mentioned that crime tends to go in waves with number of serial killers in the years 1970s and 1980s, school shootings in 1990s and child abductions and concerns of terrorism dominated the early 2000s.By Shrithika Kushangi
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Executive Committee for TRS NRI Canada Unit Announced December 30, 2019 10:37
Mahesh Bigala, coordinator of TRS NRI wing announced the full-fledged executive committee for the Canada unit of TRS NRI on Sunday after consulting K Kavitha, honorary advisor and former MP. Krishna Kumar Komandla has been appointed as the president of TRS NRI wing of Canada and the general secretary will be Sairama Krishna.The other executive committee members include Prabhakar T as the vice-President, Chetan K as joint secretary, Satish V as treasurer and the other members Lalith A, Sumanth G, Saicharan G, Uday A, Ramachandra T, Madhusudhan P, Vineesh M, Sandeep M, Lokesh R and the advisors as Karunakar P and Srinath K.All the newly appointed members took a vow in working for the victory of TRS in the result of municipal polls through the social media campaign and they thanked K Chnadrashekar Rao, TRS president and Chief Minister, the working president KT Rama Rao and the wing advisor of TRS NRI K Kavitha for providing them an opportunity to serve people of the state of Telangana.By Shrithika Kushangi
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Andhra NRI society announces 50 teacher posts in the US December 26, 2019 15:22
The applications for 50 teaching posts of Mathematics and Science in the US are invited by the Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu Society (APNRTS) which has tied up with Acclaim Global Education India Private Limited (AGE) which is a subsidiary of Star Tech Group (STG) of the US for the recruitment process from where the candidates who are selected will be placed in Ector County Independent district and Kermit Independent district.Venkat S Medapati, president of APNRTS said that 26 teachers were appointed by the STG from the State in August this year at Ector County Independent School district and Kermit Independent School district of Texas. The educational qualifications required is BEd/MEd with a minimum of five-plus years experience in Primary/High school/ Colleges and the teachers who are selected will travel to USA under J1 visa (3+2).An orientation programme will be held at the APNRTS office for all the teachers before the departure in order to familiarize will teaching techniques, protocols and the syllabus that will be followed in the schools in the US. In order to clear the visa, a minimum score has to be obtained in the TOEFL exam i.e., 22 in reading, 22 in listening, 24 in speaking, 21in writing. This has been a part of the ‘Global Placements Programme’ which provides a platform for teachers dreaming of global teaching experience. says Venkat S Madepati.The candidates wishing to apply can do it online at HereBy Shrithika Kushangi
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Ignorant to Oci Card Provisions Leads to Indian-Americans being Stranded December 23, 2019 13:05
Around 16 Indian-Americans experienced miserable moments at the John F Kennedy airport on Sunday as they were not carrying their old passports along with the new passport and the valid OCI card. The Indian-Americans are said headed to New Delhi from the US and as the Air India which is a national carrier was not able to process their boarding passes as they were not carrying their old passports which were canceled, said officials.The new temporary rules were made where in the passengers were requested to carry their old rejected passports whose number is mentioned in their Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card. The OCI card gives lifelong visa to the card holder and under its provisions, the individuals below 20 years and above 50 years of age has to renew their OCI cards each time they get their passports renewed. Though the provisions were extended till June 30, 2020, the OCI cardholders were asked to carry their old passports with them in order to fly to India.The passengers were allowed to board the Air India only after an email was written to Air India by Chakravorty at the JFK Airport just minutes before the scheduled take off."I believe there are 16 Air India passengers who are not carrying their old passports. However, they are carrying valid US passports and valid OCI cards. You may please allow for boarding the aircraft. Indian immigration will allow them to enter the country," as written by Chakravorty wrote in the email. People not being completely aware of the provisions regarding the OCI card leads to increase in the problems being faced by the India-Americans for their journey to India in the recent weeks.By Shrithika Kushangi
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UAE Based NRI Held for Cheating Students, Denied Bail December 19, 2019 18:01
The bail of an NRI who was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir crime branch for cheating students of Rs. 1.53 crore in order to make them get admission to the Ramaiah Medical College in Bengaluru, has been denied by the Jammu court. The magistrate of Jammu chief judiciary denied bail to Sudip Syama Chakrabarty, a native from Uttar Pradesh and currently resides in UAE as he has been evading arrest for long.As the court rejected Mr Chakrabarty’s bail, said that the case is at a crucial stage and the possibility of the accused hampering the probe, tempering with the evidence or influencing witnesses cannot be ruled out.The case has been lodged by several parents who aspired that their children would get educated in various prestigious institutions. They filed a complained accusing the NRI of introducing himself as an admission counsellor of various private medical colleges and tricking them by asking a whole sum of Rs 1.53 Crore in order to get their children into the medical colleges.Based on the prosecution, Mr Chakrabarty had fled abroad which lead the police of Jammu and Kashmir to issue a look out circular against him.However, Chakrabarty was arrested last week just minutes later he landed at the International Airport in Mumbai as the Jammu crime officials were waiting for him at the airport on the basis of a tip off about his return.Sudip Syama Chkrabarty is currently in the judicial custody.By Shrithika Kushangi
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Indian-American Entrepreneur to Run for the US House of Representatives December 17, 2019 18:27
Krishna Bansal, an Indian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist will enter the race for the US House of Representatives.Mr. Bansal launched his campaign as he was about to enter the race from 11th Congressional District from Republican Party which was attended by more than 20 officers who were elected, leaders of Indian-American and the members of his constituency.Krishna Bansal says that, the reason behind running for Congress is that, he loves the country and will be promoting or defending the country against several threats which may occur from socialism, career politicians and taxes being out of control.“I am running for Congress because I love our country. I will promote and defend her against the threats from socialism, career politicians, and out of control taxes and spending,”Mr. Bansal said.Mr. Bansal added saying that, the nation has fulfilled his dream and that it is his chance now, to fulfill the dream of the American nation.“I believe in this great nation, its values and its constitution in the entirety. This great nation has given me a lot ,made my dream real. Now I want to work to keep this American dream real…for all of us,” said Mr. Bansal. He mentioned his issues of policy being free enterprise, fiscal discipline, family values and a firm foreign policy.Darlene Senger, Former Naperville State Rep. and Illoinois State Comptroller Republican 2018 nominee, mentioned this being an easy win in the race for Mr Bansal.Senger said that, Bansal would win as he had already earned 47 per cent against Democratic incumbent Bill Foster five years ago.Demetra DeMonte, Republic National Committeewoman praised his business acuity, community service and leadership skills and announced to endorse him.By Shrithika Kushangi
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25 Year Old From Mysuru Shot Dead In California November 30, 2019 10:50
Abhishek Sudhesh Bhat, a 25-year-old boy from Mysuru who was doing his Master’s in Computer Science at California State University in San Bernardino was shot dead and the culprit is not yet identified.While he was returning home after his part-time job at a hotel he was shot. Srivastava, his friend who worked with him in the motel informed the family about the death.In the morning the family got another call and they were informed about the death and that his body is kept in a local hospital in San Bernardino. One of the family members mentioned that there was evidence of the attack through the CCTV footage. However, the police are yet to find the culprit."We have contacted US Consulate and the Indian High Commission for more details and as of now, there is no clear information about the incident and why Abhishek was shot dead. Modalities are being worked out for the parents and Abhishek's younger brother to travel to San Bernardino," a family member said.His family is from Udupi, his father, Sudesh Chand is a yoga guru and a founder of Sri Upanishath Yoga Centre Trust in Kuvempunagar in Mysuru and he has been handing this center for 16 years now. Abhishek's mother is Nandini Aithal and she was working at Sarada Vilas College.Abhishek studied at Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering and Technology at Mysuru and then started his Master’s from April 1st, 2018 in California. He was a Teaching Assistant of Dr. Ernesto Gomez for Computer Science class at the California State University, San Bernardino College of Natural Sciences, according to his facebook profile.Mysuru MP Pratap Simha has promised to help Sudesh and Nandini after being contacted. His parents further contacted the Ministry of External Affairs for assistance and coordination with the Indian Embassy in the United States.As per family sources, the parents are planning to leave for the US given the legal procedures and formalities to secure the body is a big process.By Neha Makhija
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6-8 Indians Imprisoned For Indulging In Immigration Fraud November 11, 2019 17:05
In January 2015, the ICE in Michigan set up Farmington University to partly monitor and bring out immigration frauds. They found out that there are International students who are illegally staying in the US by getting admission at Farmington University.As per the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 6-8 Indians from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been a part of this, 6 are in jail and 2 others will be put in jail as well.Khalid Walls, the Northeast regional communications director/spokesman of the ICE interacted with Times of India and quoted “ All eight of the defendants have pleaded guilty”. Additionally, he mentioned, “ They will be deported to India following their prison terms”.From Fermont, Santosh Sama has been sent to jail for 24 months. Barath Kakireddy and Suresh Kandala are going to be in prison for 18 months. Avinash Thakkallapally for 15 months, Aswanth Nune and Naveen Prathipati for 12 months.Besides, Prem Rapeesa will be put in jail on November 19th and Phanideep Karnati will be sentenced in January 2020. The defendants were aware that the school didn’t have classes and they kept their students a secret from the US immigration authorities, out of which they earned a little more of this scheme.This fraudulent practice had been going on from February 2017 to January 2019. They deceived the Immigration authorities and none of the participants came from their home country and took admission in the school. They were aware of the rules being non-immigrant students.By Neha Makhija
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NRI’s Initiative To Solve Stubble Burning Concern In Punjab November 09, 2019 15:20
Dr. Chiranjeev Kathuria, a Sikh NRI takes interest to work on the stubble burning problem in Punjab by investing in a mega-project that will help generate power.The Revenue Minister of Punjab, Gurpreet Singh Kangar gained confidence in Kathuria as he showed interest in working this out. Besides, he has a grip over the solar power sector and innovative ideas on generating energy through workable methods.This project will do good to the environment and help in reducing the recent concern that’s the smog all over in the air impacting the quality of air in and around Punjab.He plans to work on this by setting up 4000MW biomass energy generating plants in Punjab. Out of which, he intends to generate 3000MW for Solar power and rest of the 1000MW from biomass extracted from the stubble of paddy and wheat.He believes that this initiative will benefit the Punjab State Power Corp Ltd. To take this ahead, there was a press conference held in NCR and Chiranjeev Kathuria, the NRI and Gurpreet Singh Kangar, the Revenue Minister had a discussion on this.Pointers On The Discussion1. To solve the problem of environmental pollution it has been discussed that the stubble that used to be burnt and deteriorate the environment will now be used to generate power.2. Biomass power project of 5MW will be set up3. Stubble will be used as the raw material to increase the number of plants across Punjab and this will be a positive step towards solving the stubble burning problem4. 10-15 villages will have a plant close to the substation5. “The power produced by the plants set up will be fed directly into the main grid. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will get the benefit of this additional power and hence there will be saving of subsidy by Punjab government as per the net metering rule of the state,” said Gurpreet Kangar6. 25 thousand crores will be the entire cost of this project. The setup part will not be taken care of by Dr. Kathuria7. 15 years is the estimated time to run this power plant and the Punjab government is contemplating reducing the subsidy to Rs 500 crores in the future.By Neha Makhija
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Hindi Is The Most Spoken Indian Language In The United States October 31, 2019 13:00
With recent reports, Hindi is regarded as the most abundantly spoken Indian language followed by Gujarati and Telugu. If the exact numbers are to be suggested, it was said that there were around 8.74 lakh Hindi speakers in the US as of July 01st, 2018. The same is believed to have been increased by 1.3% from 2017.Over the decade, the numbers of speakers have increased by 2.65 lakhs which includes a rise of 43.5%. But, the report also suggested that in terms of the percentage increase, the same was quite outstripped by the Telugu speakers which rose from 79.5% between the years of 2010 and 2018. According to the American Community Survey data for 2018, it showed from the reports of the US Census Bureau that around 67.3 million residents in the United States, over the age of 5 speak a different language at home other than just English. Furthermore, it suggested that a portion of the population, around 21.9% of the population do speak a foreign language apart from English at home. The number of people speaking Bengali rose to 68% including around 3.75 lakh people which is a lot that increased over the eight year period. The same was followed by Tamil which included 67.5% and included around 3.01 lakh people in the United States. But, the notable fact in this was the fact that people aside from India also do speak some of these languages. Like, people from Bangladesh speak Bengali and even the people from Sri Lanka do speak Tamil.The immigration experts do suggest that the sudden spike in the Bengali speaking residents in the US could also be because of the increased flow of people into the country from Bangladesh. On the contrary, the people speaking Telugu and Gujarati have actually dipped a bit between the year of 2017 and 2018. The Gujarati speakers in the country amounted to around 4.19 lakh which has reduced by 3.5% over the year. In addition to that, the number of Telugu speakers was also around 4 lakh which further experienced quite a drop in comparison to the year before.But, when the figures from 2010 and 2018 are compared, there was a steep rise in the number of Telugu speakers in US from 2.23 lakh to 4 lakh mainly because of the fact that majority of the IT and tech employees come from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.The downside with the US Censor Board is that they don’t provide country specific statics. So, when it came round to the Urdu and Punjabi speaking provinces, the same was attributed to hail more from Pakistan instead of India. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, they suggest that the number of people speaking a different language other than English at home in US has doubled since 1990 and has tripled since 1980. It also suggests that around 48% of the people in America’s top 5 cities speak a different language at home other than English. When CIS further conducted a better insightful study around on the kind of languages that people speak at home aside from English, Hindi secured the fifth position with 2.65 lakh speakers. CIS has time and time suggested that immigrants learn English so as to ensure better assimilation with the culture and the crowd of the US.English isn’t a very problematic language for majority of the Indians around which further makes it a lot easier to tackle through the shortcomings better in a different nation. It suggests that 80% of the Indians who can speak their native language can speak English quite fluently as well.-Somapika Dutta
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NRI Sponsors 480 Units Of Bio-Toilets To The Government Schools In Telangana October 21, 2019 14:23
Sanitation and hygiene has been one of the most talked about problems in the government schools in the rural villages in India. The lack of proper hygiene is often one of the reasons that prevent the students from coming back to the school for further education because they fear the lack of toilets and sanitation. An NRI from the Individual Social Responsibility decided to bring forth changes to some of the government schools in Telangana, India. Around 120 government and local body schools are all set to not experience any further issues with stinking washrooms and dirty and clogged drains as they are going to get bio-toilets in their schools. If the strategic planning is to be believed, it is said that around 480 such bio-toilets are all set to be installed in each of the schools, making it four bio-toilets in each of the schools. It will have two for girls and two for the boys.These bio-toilets have a very low maintenance cost and as mentioned before, is being sponsored by an NRI from the Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) initiative. The same was launched by the school education department. They department has already built a number of toilets in the schools which have become dysfunctional following the lack of water and maintenance. Following the enrollments, some of the government and the local body schools were granted around INR 15,000 to INR 60,000 per annum for the maintenance of the toilets installed in the schools. The sanctioned amount was supposed to be used for the scavenging purposes, the security salary, power bills and other maintenance works to name a few. The lack of grants was what made this endeavour a failure. The school education department gathered the necessary details and suggested saying that around 6251 government as well as the local body schools required one or two units of toilet for boys while 2971 such schools were in dire need of properly maintained toilets for the girls. A senior official said that a NRI came forward for the good cause and was willing to sponsor the bio toilets for around 120 schools which are in immediate need for the toilets. With the recent launch of the drive, several individuals, corporate companies and even the banks have come up with better interest in extending their services to some of the school students and the teachers alike. Even though this is just the beginning, the school education department does require more donations and support for ensuring that the children across India have a very secure and safe sanitation around in the washrooms that they use. The contributions by the NRI for the installation of bio-toilets in Telangana in India are a step forward towards better growth of the future of the nation.By Somapika Dutta
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NRI, Management Quota Fees To Be Showed As Income By Private Medical Colleges October 15, 2019 13:25
With the rising rate of corruption with the college fees, especially in the private medical colleges, the administration is working to bringing in transparency to the same. The Fees Regulating Authority (FRA) has turned down the proposition made by the private medical colleges to exclude the excess fees taken from the NRI as well as the management quota students. The same is believed to bring forth better clarifications, transparency and even help the students get a waiver from the unjust fees that they pay from time and time. The involved authorities from FRA witnessed that allowing these colleges to acquire four or five times the actual fees without including them in the annual income led to immense profiteering. In addition to that, FRA also advised to include the stipends that are paid to the resident doctors in both the medical and dental college as part of their overall expenditure. For deciding the fees for the academic session of 2020-21, FRA is going to be excluding the college stipends from the overall expenses and bring it under the hospital’s list.This is set to help the meritorious students secure seats in the private medical colleges at a very amount of the fees. During their observation through this, FRA witnessed that irrespective of whether it is a stipend or a salary, the services all are used for the beneficiary of the hospital. This makes it a rightly adjustment to be included in the overall hospital expenditure.Ravindra Dahad, an FRA member, in an issued a statement saying, “Though we consider hospital expenses too while deciding the fee structure, there is a cap. Students’ services are used for hospitals, so there is no reason for including it as college’s expenditure. If we account for it as a college expense, fees are bound to go up.”The Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges (AMUPMDC) has also suggested some of the effective changes in the process of the fee regulation back in September. The same was presented before FRA on September 04th, but the same was finally passed in a directive on Wednesday. Apart from that, the authorities also didn’t allow the 15% blanket hike on the notional basis. They said that the blanket rise of 15% without the consideration of the actual expenditure will not have impacts on the overall regulation of the fees and the problem associated with unsolicited profiteering. The same can’t necessarily be allowed anymore. One of the members from the AMUPMDC said that the regular fees that are collected from the students are used for the salaries of the professors along with the recurring expenses of the college. They further emphasised saying that the excess fees that they charged from NRI students were meant for the needs of the college development. Now that FRA has included the same under the income, it is going to be difficult for them to sustain the increased costs. The one demand made by the officials under the private medical colleges is to allow interest on the development of colleges. FRA clarified that this can be accepted if the college can successfully provide with a clear account of the development fees collected from the students along with the proof of the installation and acquirement of the extra equipment for the college.By Somapika Dutta
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