Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has hailed Hugh Jackman and said that the Hollywood actor always inspires him with his performances.

“My love and thanks to my friend Hugh Jackman for always inspiring us with his performances. You are ‘The Greatest Showman’ in Wolverine’s clothing,” Shah Rukh tweeted on Friday.

Directed by Michael Gracey, “The Greatest Showman” is a period musical drama film, which also features Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya.

Jackman, who plays the role of P. T. Barnum in the film, had earlier praised Shah Rukh at the Sydney premiere of the film.

According to media reports, Jackman said at the premiere: “I have done a lot of dancing and singing in this film and I had Shah Rukh Khan in mind while shooting for it. He is my mentor and I need to take more dance lessons from him.

“I have also done the signature SRK move, spreading my arms wide.I would love to see Shah Rukh in the Indian version of this film.”

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh, who is currently seen as the host of “TED Talks India Nayi Soch”, said the show is making him a better person.

While replying to TED Talks curator Juliet Blake on Twitter, Shah Rukh wrote: “It’s all your hard work Juliet Blake and tenacity. Hosting ‘Nayi Soch’ is making me a better person. Thanks for watching.”

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Hollywood couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who are in India with their children Dylan Michael and Carys Zeta on a family vacation, roamed around the streets here and got excited looking at the hustle-bustle in the city.

Zeta-Jones, 48, shared a video on Instagram on Friday in which she looked excited while observing the colourful outfits.

“Excuse me, where are you,” Douglas, who shot the video, asked Zeta-Jones.

“I’m in Jaipur. Welcome of to Jaipur,” she said.

Zeta-Jones captioned the video: “Life in the city. The colours, the sounds, so exciting to be amongst it all”.

Zeta-Jones, 48, has been sharing photographs and videos from their India holiday on Instagram.

Earlier this week, she shared a video of herself and Douglas walking hand-in-hand in front of Taj Mahal and wrote: “The Taj Mahal, today in India. Breathtaking to view and experience. It’s just the ultimate love story.”

She also shared a photograph of her family in front of Taj Mahal.

“At the Taj Mahal with the three other ‘wonders of the world’ in my life,” Zeta-Jones, best known for her roles in films like “Chicago”, “The Terminal”and “Broken City”, wrote alongside the image.

Besides that, the Hollywood family also got to witness the wildlife in Agra.

On Wednesday, Zeta-Jones shared a video in which she and Douglas looked amazed as they saw a tiger.

“Before breakfast this morning, we watched tigers eat theirs,” Zeta-Jones said.

The actress also shared that it was her “dream” to visit India.

“When you dream of visiting a country all your life, and it lives up to everything you hoped it would be,” she wrote.

Douglas, 73, has appeared in films like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Wall Street”, “Solitary Man” and “The American President”.

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Actor Karan Wahi says he decided to be a part of “Hate Story 4” because the upcoming film doesn’t just feature sex and is basically a thriller story.

“I think the most special thing about ‘Hate Story 4′ is that the franchise is very successful. I don’t know about the other parts because I haven’t done them, but when they came to me with this story, their entire perspective was just not to sell sex,” Karan said in a statement.

“It’s a thriller, there is a quotient of sex in it, but we don’t want to make it look like erotic thriller. We rather make it look like a thriller which has a story.

“In ‘Hate Story 4′, I am playing the son of a very affluent tycoon who works with his father. His name is Rajveer and is in his mid-20s. He is more flamboyant and expressive than his father or his brother,” he added.

Directed by Vishal Pandya, “Hate Story 4” will also feature Urvashi Rautela, Vivan Bhatena and Gulshan Grover.

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Five years after we first saw him on screen as the all-conquering Indian spy Tiger, Salman Khan reprises the role in Ali Abbas Zafar’s “Tiger Zinda Hai” (The Tiger is Alive).

The years haven’t been kind to him – he lumbers through snow, fights CGI-enhanced wolves in a remote Austrian forest with his son, who is oddly called “Junior”, and squabbles with his Pakistani wife Zoya (Katrina Kaif)

Meanwhile, in Iraq, a militant organisation takes over a city and holds Indian and Pakistani nurses hostage in a hospital. That’s when the head of India’s external intelligence agency, RAW, calls up Tiger and sends him on a rescue mission. Our hero, we are told, already has a foolproof plan. But as the film progresses, you realise that both his plan and the film are all over the place. It might be too much to expect Bollywood to keep geopolitical realities and international relations in mind while making a film, but Zafar’s script and direction can barely keep pace with the basics of filmmaking.

He would have us believe that the RAW chief can tell the Americans to wait for seven days before they bomb a city where the world’s most wanted man is holed up, because that’s how much time our hero needs to rescue the nurses.

Tiger and his team are supposed to enter Iraq discreetly, pretend to be oil rig workers and sneak into the hospital unnoticed. Instead, by the time they reach the location, they’ve had gunbattles with militants, killed one of their top leaders, and blown up half the buildings in the city. And after all that, Tiger’s grand plan is to subdue the militants by subjecting them to food poisoning.

Midway through the crisis, Zoya also lands up in the city, having been recruited by Pakistan’s spy agency to rescue Pakistani nurses. From here on, the film turns into another tired advertisement for unity.

“Tiger Zinda Hai” is written for Salman Khan and everything else is peripheral and doesn’t matter – at least from the filmmaker’s perspective. But it is Kaif who comes out shining. She puts her mostly frozen expressions to perfect use during the action sequences, kicking and chopping with abandon. She is certainly more agile, more alive and seems to be having more fun than Khan.

If there is ever a third film in the works in this action franchise, then the filmmakers would do well to put Kaif in the spotlight and give Tiger some down time.

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On the Ground in India: Perspectives from American India Foundation’s Clinton Fellows*

The scenes of towering hills come into view while the dust of the plains settled as the car meanders up this hill, then down and then repeats onto the next hill. With the cold wind coming through the open window, I took in all the sights; the mountains piercing the clear blue sky as if to tear the heavens. I fixate on those snowy peaks in the distance. Their looming existence as corporal as my own; a rush of emotions – joy and excitement with a hint of sadness—come over me as the car meanders down the steep and rugged roads of the remote Mori region in Uttarkashi district. The Himalayas remind me that somewhere across those formidable ridges, another group of mountain people – the Tibetans—also habit the frigid terrain like the ones I was about to go visit. I was headed to survey the largest village called Hakhel, home to about 400 families in the region enclosed in a national wildlife sanctuary. The village stood in the clear backdrop of the Himalayas. The journey into the village was as perilous as the unpaved, rocky paths beside steep cliffs of the mountains; my fellow co-workers recant cautionary tales of road accidents that claim many lives into the plummeting depths of the cliffs.

In the village, the MANSI (Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative) field supervisors greet their contacts with pleasantries, asking to hold a community meeting while gleaning information about adolescent girl population in the community. Afterwards, the field supervisors arduously visit each home to call the people for a community meeting; the onerous task of crowd gathering takes approximately an hour before a motley crew of men, women, children – both young and old—surround the Mender ‘Temple’ grounds. My alien face among the Garhwali people, against the background of the Himalayas, serve as a constant reminder of my presence and identity as a Tibetan-American here in India. Everywhere I go, I notice lingering glances of curiosity. Each introduction in the villages begins with ‘she is Tibetan, but lives in America’ which seems to satiate the cognitive dissonance of the villagers’ image of what an American looks like in contrast to my image. After the fact, I am often greeted with bright smiles and head nods of approval to begin my self-introduction in Hindi and conduct my research from village to village while my co-workers begin their dissemination of information and resources about Home-Based Newborn Care to the villagers.

Throughout the ten village visits and two hundred plus surveys of adolescent girls in Uttarkashi, I have felt the contrast in the cultural difference between the spatial boundaries and the notion of privacy in India versus the United States more than ever before. Initially intending on conducting one-on-one surveys of young girls to protect their privacy, I quickly realize that was not possible in the field. The communal and clustered home design of the Garhwali villages meant for extended families made a controlled space impossible and impractical. Instead, I adapted to an outdoor classroom setting—predominantly in the open grounds of the town Menders— proctoring surveys in a semi-test environment to ensure individualized answers. Despite countless attempts to ensure privacy, curious onlookers and friends, drawn by my strange presence, would crowd around the survey participants. However, I have ensured that no male members would intrude the premises when survey is underway; with much difficulty, I am making sure that no female onlookers would feed or influence the participant’s answers directly.

Through these field experiences, I am struck by unique sense of communal sorority that I’ve observed in some villages where older girls would often shield their younger counterparts from partaking in the survey as a means to protect them from the sensitive topic of menstrual hygiene. Assuring the purpose of the survey and emphasizing again the willing consent of the participant, I show them that the young need only to answer questions pertinent to them. The business of gaining and maintaining trust in communities has definitely been a challenging experience; however, with the facilitation of MANSI field supervisors and the hospitable culture of the Garhwali people, I have thus far encountered very limited difficulties in interacting with the local people.

After one month into Uttarkashi District’s Nuagaon and Mori regions, I have enjoyed a steep learning curve in field research as well as the beauty and richness of Garhwali culture and village life. Amid the excessive amount of teeth-achingly sweet chai and ‘chura’—a roasted, then flattened rice snack— that I’m offered at every house in each of the villages I visit, I am amazed by the unquestioning hospitality and genuine kindness of the Gharwali people. Comically fumbling through language barriers – I misspoke once and asked if there were any adolescent girls aged 11 to 90, when I meant 11 to 19—and cultural differences, I have navigated many firsts: first rejections from girls to participate in the study, first time eating pahadi (of the hills) delicacies, and first time living in a village setting with no phone or internet service and extremely limited electricity among many other firsts. In these many firsts, I have also met such an incredible and devoted group of people who work in the most remote of areas in hopes of imparting a public health change into their local communities.

—
About the Author
Tsering was born in Tibet and raised in a Tibetan Refugee school in India before immigrating to the United States. She studied international relations, focusing on environmental sustainability and global health, and minored in biology from American University. She created and co-led her university’s month-long study-service program to Tibetan Refugee settlements in Northern India to study the impacts of political identity on the social health of the refugees. Originally intending to pursue a medical education, her volunteer experiences abroad in the hospitals of the Philippines and India inspired her passion for global health and the political ecology of disease. Prior to joining the AIF Clinton Fellowship, Tsering worked as a laboratory associate at Yale New Haven Hospital and interned at an international development NGO. She serves as AIF Clinton Fellow with AIF’s MANSI program in Uttarakhand.

*A previous version of this article was originally published on 12/06/2017 at American India Foundation.

AIF’s William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India builds the next generation of leaders committed to lasting change for underprivileged communities across India, while strengthening the civil sector.

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Congress started 2017 in uncharted territory: A controversial real estate developer-turned-reality star effectively hijacked the Republican Party and became president.

And members of Congress ended the year still bewildered by their president, but a little more certain of their place in this new era.

Here are five tough lessons Congress learned in the first year of President Trump that could help them survive next year.

1. Work around Trump, not with Trump: Over and over again, the president proved himself an unreliable dealmaker. Lawmakers would leave a meeting at the White House thinking they had a deal – like Democrats did on protecting “dreamers,” or Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., did on a bipartisan health-care proposal – only to have him renege or hedge it on Twitter.

Eventually, Republicans settled on writing major legislation themselves, and basically asked the White House to trust them.

It worked on taxes, when Congress passed the first rewrite of the tax code in 30 years. But that strategy failed miserably on an Obamacare repeal effort, where Trump blamed Congress for its failure – and he arguably had a point.

Trump ended the year with virtually no working relationship with Congress, even though at a year-end tax bill celebration, Republican lawmakers couldn’t stop praising the president.

But the lack of cohesion could hurt both Congress and the president next year. “One of the biggest challenges that Trump presents congressional Republicans is that he’s not well-positioned to help them overcome differences within the party,” said Molly Reynolds, a congressional expert at Brookings Institution.

2. Bipartisanship is less useful than it used to be: “This has not been a very bipartisan year,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told NPR. That’s spot on. Congressional Republicans’ two major legislative accomplishments – putting Judge Neil M. Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and passing a tax overhaul – only got done because Republicans went around Democrats.

Bipartisanship isn’t entirely dead. A near-unanimous Congress forced Trump to implement more sanctions on Russia. Republicans also needed Democrats to pass a year-end spending bill when conservatives defected.

But 2017 ends with the most high-profile bipartisan compromise still in limbo: a plan to subsidize health insurance premiums for lower-income people.

3. Both parties might be losing control of their base: Just how much sway do Republicans in Washington have over their own voters? It’s a fair question to ask, since if Senate Republicans had their way from the start, Luther Strange would be the senator from Alabama, not Democrat Doug Jones.

Republicans tried everything to get the eventual GOP nominee Roy Moore to drop out after he was accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old. He stayed in – and lost. It may have just been a preview of Stephen Bannon-backed GOP primary challengers in Nevada and Arizona that could decide the control of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ base swung far to the left in the Trump era, forcing potential 2020 contenders to scramble to catch up. A number of Democratic senators signed onto a single-payer proposal that has no chance of becoming law right now.

But there’s another way to interpret this lesson, at least for Republicans: The base matters less than it used to. Republicans just passed a tax bill that wasn’t that popular with their base. Forty percent of Republicans thought they’d be better off if Republicans passed their tax bill, according to a CNN poll. And it’s law anyway.

“They learned they don’t have to listen to their base,” said Norm Ornstein, a congressional ethics expert.

4. It’s time to do something on sexual misconduct: Politicians leveraging their power for sex appears to be a systemic, bipartisan problem that has carried on for decades. But in the span of a few weeks, seven sitting members of Congress lost their jobs in the wake of sexual misconduct scandals.

In the post-Harvey Weinstein, current #MeToo era, it’s clear that Washington can no longer ignore some very tough questions.

Like: What’s creating this culture? What makes one accuser’s story more credible than the next? Why did Senate Democrats force out Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., after the seventh accusation and not the first? Should we question accusers’ motives, like Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore did? How do Democrats answer for former president Bill Clinton’s accusers and Republicans for Trump’s? Should politics ever trump sex abuse allegations, like when Trump urged Alabama voters to vote for Moore anyway?

And perhaps most importantly, just how equipped is Congress to deal with all these allegations? Right now there’s a secret slush fund that lets lawmakers who settle a sexual harassment accusation basically get off without any consequences. Lawmakers didn’t have required sexual harassment training until this year. Expect bipartisan work next year on making it easier for accusers to file sexual harassment claims against lawmakers.

5. Ditch Trump, be ready to lose your job: Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., end the year as three of Trump’s most vociferous critics of either party.

It’s not a coincidence that two of those senators, Flake and Corker, are not seeking re-election. In fact, Flake basically admitted he couldn’t win a GOP primary with his virulent anti-Trump views. (McCain, as we all know, is battling brain cancer.)

The lesson here: If you ask Republican voters to choose between you and Trump, right now, they’ll chose Trump.

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SINGAPORE – India is set to surpass China as the biggest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this month as a drive to replace wood and animal dung fires for cooking boosts consumption.

Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows LPG shipments to India will reach 2.4 million tonnes in December, pushing it ahead of top importer China, on 2.3 million tonnes, for the first time.

India’s LPG purchases have surged from just 1 million tonnes a month in early 2015 on the back of a government programme to bring energy to millions of poor households relying on open fires.

“The growth in India is amazing. The fact that they have grown from 140 million subsidized household connections in 2015 to 181 million now is very impressive,” Ted Young, chief financial officer at Dorian LPG told Reuters.

With a fleet of 22 tankers, U.S.-based Dorian is one of the world’s biggest LPG shippers.

LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, is used for cooking and transport, as well as in the petrochemical industry. The global market is similar in size to liquefied natural gas (LNG), at around 300 million tonnes traded a year, although both are dwarfed by the market for crude oil, which stands at well over 4 billion tonnes a year.

India’s average monthly imports in 2017 of about 1.7 million tonnes are well still behind China’s 2.2 million tonnes, but it has jumped ahead of third-placed Japan on about 1 million tonnes.

Dorian LPG expects “plenty of upside for Indian LPG” imports due to rising use in cars following an Indian tax on gasoline, the company said in a presentation this month.

China, India and Japan together make up about 45 percent of global LPG purchases.

NEW SUPPLIER: USA

India’s biggest supplier by a large margin is the Middle East, which has so far enjoyed a virtual supply monopoly.

However, a surge in U.S. shale drilling, which yields LPG as a byproduct of crude oil and natural gas output, means American LPG exports have started to appear in India.

Eikon data shows the first regular U.S. LPG shipments to India began at the start of 2017 at around 50,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes a month, rising to more than 200,000 tonnes in December.

While that is just a tenth of Middle Eastern shipments, U.S. LPG is becoming increasingly price competitive.

Propane at the Texan Mont Belvieu hub costs $99 cents per gallon ($516 per tonne), excluding freight. The current Saudi contract price is $590 a tonne, excluding shipping.

U.S. suppliers have already made big inroads in Japan, currently meeting half of all demand.

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Indian American Rangarajan “Raghu” Sundaram was appointed as the dean of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

“Stern’s reputation is such that it had an outstanding group of candidates for the dean’s post.  But in the end, the Search Committee found the best candidate here in our own midst.  And rightly so.  Raghu Sundaram has a strong, highly regarded record of leadership and innovation, scholarship and teaching, and collegiality and service to both Stern and the University.  In a field of distinguished candidates for Stern’s deanship, Raghu stood out,” said NYU President Andrew Hamilton.

Sundaram is the Edward I. Altman Professor of Credit and Debt Markets and Professor of Finance and has been the Vice Dean of MBA Programs since 2016.

He joined the faculty at Stern a little more than two decades ago.

Sundaram’s scholarly interests include agency problems, executive compensation, corporate finance, derivatives pricing, credit risk and credit derivatives as he has published extensively in these areas along with in areas such as mathematical economics, decision theory, and game theory.

His articles have appeared in journals as Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Business, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, and Review of Financial Studies.  He is also the author of A First Course in Optimization Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Derivatives: Principles and Practice (Mcgraw-Hill, 2010).

Sundaram has received research grants from the National Science Foundation and other organizations and has won the Jensen Prize, was a finalist for the Brattle Prize, and was the recipient of the Stern School’s inaugural Distinguished Teaching Award.

Sundaram received his BA in economics from the University of Madras in 1982, he then received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahemedabad in 1984, his MA in economics from Cornell University in 1987 and his PhD in economics from Cornell in 1988.

Prior to joining Stern in 1996, Sundaram joined the faculty of the University of Rochester in 1988.

In 2016, he was selected by Dean Peter Henry to join Stern’s leadership team as Vice Dean for MBA Programs in which he oversaw the school’s full-time MBA program, the Langone part-time MBA program and other various programs.

As Vice Dean, Sundaram was able to establish the Creative Destruction Lab, launch a new, specialized one-year MBA program, and secure the support of business leaders from major companies and much more.

Sundaram will resume his new position on Jan. 1, 2018.

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All good things must come to an end, including the holidays. But leftovers from your holiday celebrations can help stretch out your holiday cheer.

When the party is over and you’re cleaning up, it’s important to assess the safety of the foods that are leftover. If perishable foods (meat, poultry, cooked foods, cheese, cut up fruits and vegetables) were out for more than two hours, they should be discarded. If you kept hot foods hot (above 140°F), with chafing dishes, warming trays or slow cookers you will want to refrigerate any leftovers right away. Perishable foods that were not out for more than two hours, or that were kept on ice also can be saved. Prompt storage can prevent pathogenic bacteria that cause foodborne illness from growing in your leftovers. These bacteria have no odor and can’t be tasted or seen.

Leftovers should be stored in shallow pans or containers so that they cool down quickly. The quicker your leftovers cool, the less time they spend in the “Danger Zone” (40–140°F). Most leftovers will keep for about four days in your refrigerator. Use this Cold Storage Chart to keep track of foods in your refrigerator and freezer.

As you are putting food away, ask yourself if you can finish the leftovers in 4 days. If not, go ahead and package them for the freezer. Most cooked foods will keep their best quality for 2-4 months in the freezer. To protect your foods from the drying effects of the freezer, package them in heavy duty plastic containers, freezer bags, aluminum foil or freezer paper.

If you don’t know what to do with your leftovers, visit USDA’s What’s Cooking? USDA Mixing Bowl. You’ll find safe and healthy recipes to use up leftover meat, poultry and other foods.

Consumers with questions about food safety can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or chat live with a food safety specialist in English or Spanish at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. AskKaren provides live chats as well as food safety information 24/7.

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NEW DELHI – The Lok Sabha passed a bill on Thursday aimed at prosecuting Muslim men who divorce their wives through the “triple talaq”, or instant divorce.

The bill now moves to the Rajya Sabha, where it is likely to be approved.

In August, the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a law which allows Muslim men to divorce their wives simply by uttering the word “talaq”, which means divorce in Arabic, three times.

Muslim women had petitioned the court, arguing the practice of husbands divorcing them through triple talaq not only violated their rights but left many women destitute.

“Only a law can explicitly ban triple talaq, we have to enforce legal procedures to provide for allowances and protect custody of children,” said Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The bill would make the practice a non-bailable offence with a possible three-year jail term.

Muslims are the biggest religious minority in Hindu-majority India and relations between the communities have sometimes been strained since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won a 2014 election.

India is one of the few countries where the practice of instant divorce has survived in law, and while some Muslim groups have said it is wrong, they believe it should be reviewed by the community itself.

Members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said the government had no right to outlaw instant triple talaq, as it was directly interfering with Muslim personal law.

India’s civil codes are designed to protect the independence of religious communities. Unlike most Hindu civil laws, which have been codified and reformed, Muslim personal laws have largely been left untouched.

Zakia Soman, founder of a Muslim women’s group, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, said that once triple talaq became a legal offence, victims could approach the police and the legal system to initiate action against offenders.

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Women: From the President’s right-hand person at the United Nations, to his fiercest critic in Congress, Indian-American women have stolen the limelight on the national scene in conspicuous measure in the year ending 2017.

Top Five

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, listed in Gallup poll’s World’s Most Admired Women of 2017, and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, are the two ends of the political spectrum of women who have made a name for themselves by their stands on issues of importance to the American people.

But equally important is the possible Democratic presidential candidate who could be running against Trump in 2020 – Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California. Very important to the nation’s healthcare system is Seema Verma of Indiana, President Trump’s pick for Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency with an FY 2017 Budget estimate of $1.0 trillion in mandatory and discretionary outlays, a net increase of $26 billion above the FY 2016 level.

Several others made our list for being critical to the political and social landscape as it unfolds in the coming year – when former Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for King County, Washington state, anti- domestic violence advocate and community leader, Manka Dhingra was elected to the Washington State Senate in a key race that turned over control o the Upper House to Democrats; Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs at the State Department Manisha Singh. She is the first woman appointed to the role and is responsible for advancing American prosperity worldwide, the State Department noted. Even though Singh was confirmed late in the year, Nov. 22, she has years of expertise under her belt as former deputy assistant secretary and as aide to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. She leads a team of more than 200 employees in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

Even though Haley was one of President Donald Trump’s first nominees, and first Indian-American to hold a cabinet-level position in history, she carved out a space and held her own amid the buffeting policy positions and pronouncements from the White House, from Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, sexual harassment accusations against the President where she said the women must be heard, to announcing U.S. cuts to the tune of $285 million in the United Nations budget. Haley was included Foreign Policy magazine’s Global Rethinkers list, “For trying to preserve America’s traditional vision of international affairs.” Contrary to White House positions, Haley pushed to keep sanctions against Russia, championed human rights, and advocated renewed commitment to NATO, which “smacks more of traditional Republican (and, arguably, traditional U.S.) policies more closely in line with Ronald Reagan than with the current president,” the magazine said, noting that the daughter of Indian immigrants and former South Carolina governor had made her mark, “In a cabinet stacked with decorated generals and multimillionaire moguls…”

Jayapal has been among those calling on President Trump to be investigated and worse. When a Congressman called Jayapal a “young lady” who didn’t “know a damn thing” the lawmaker from Seattle became a cause celebre not just in her own state of Washington, but around the country. A high-octane Congresswoman who takes on issues of sexual harassment, immigrant rights and the future of Dreamers or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, hate crime, Jayapal takes the lead on Capitol Hill and beyond.

Sen. Harris is on the Democratic Party’s short-list of presidential candidates for 2020. She made headlines for her prosecutorial questioning in June, of former Sen. Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. Attorney General, and before that, leading the charge at the women’s rally in Washington, D.C. the day after President Trump’s inauguration.

Harris topped the Foreign Policy magazine list of “Global re-Thinkers” “For giving the Democratic Party hope in the Trump era”.

“Suddenly, California’s 53-year-old junior senator has become an early favorite to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election,” the magazine noted.

Not to be forgotten is former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal, who in the latter half of 2017, became head of the U.S.-India Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Outside The Beltway

Indian-American women continued to make their mark in civil society and the business world in 2017. Vanita Gupta, President Obama’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, left in January to take over the largest umbrella organization for rights groups, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.Over the year, she used her podium to call out President Trump and his pronouncements as well as policies on justice matters as well as ongoing investigations into Russian interference in U.S. elections.

Reshma Saujani, once a candidate for Congress, and deputy public advocate for New York City, now heads an impactful non-profit, Girls Who Code, an organization she founded to minimize the gender gap in technology, starting early at the middle and high school level, by encouraging and mentoring girls to go into Scienct, Technology, Engineering and Math fields. “I’ve always felt that, as a woman, and particularly as a woman of color, it’s important to pay it forward,” Saujani recently told Atlantic Magazine when asked why she spent at least 25 percent of her time mentoring. Forbes magazine listed Saujani among the 2018 women founder of enterprises to keep an eye on.

Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, continued to make waves. From being on an advisory panel for President Trump, to deciding along with a number of other business leaders, to breakaway from the U.S.-India Business Council, and form the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum in 2017. She made it to Number 2, in Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women of the year in September. She has been on that list in 18 of the 20 years that the magazine has published it. Nooyi took over the helm at PepsiCo in 2006, and Fortune recognizer her as an industry leader who early on identified the need to rethink the company’s portfolio away from sugary drinks and salty snacks.

Nooyi, who gets little sleep and answers the pings on her phone every hour of the day or night, predicted in her interview in Fortune that in an industry that has seen an unprecedented pace of change and disruption, “You’re going to have consolidation, disruption, and a shakeout in the industry. You’re going to see the emergence of new players.” And she plans to go with the flow and ahead of the curve.

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NEW YORK – Indian Americans exceeded in the field of entertainment in 2017. While some won awards, others tried to just get their point across.

Here are a few top Indian Americans who made headlines in 2017:

Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari was nominated in four categories at the Emmys in September for his show “Master of None” on Netflix and won the Emmy for “outstanding writing for a comedy series” for the “Thanksgiving” episode in the first season.

He is also nominated in three categories at the Golden Globe Awards including “best actor in a TV series, comedy,”“best TV movie or limited release” and “best TV series, musical or comedy” and was the first Indian American to host “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 21, earlier this year.

The most memorable episode from the second season of Ansari’s “Master of None” was “Religion” where the audience sees Ansari’s character, Dev Shah, eating bacon for the first time as a kid.

When his mom calls at the friend’s house where Dev is and tells him “we’re Muslim – we’re not allowed to eat pork,” Dev hesitates but ends up eating it anyway while Tupac’s “Only God Can Judge Me” begins to play in the background.

The episode was a relatable one for all as it started off with scenes of Christian, Hindu and Jewish kids all complaining to parents about having to go to their regular religious services.

Riz Ahmed

Riz Ahmed won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie for “The Night Of” which tackles the issues of race and Islamophobia. He is the first Muslim-British actor of Pakistani descent to win such an award.

For nearly seven decades, a South Asian man had never won an Emmy in an acting category and the only other South Asian star who has won an acting award before was Archie Panjabi for her role in “The Good Wife” in 2010.

“It’s always strange reaping the rewards of a story that’s based on real world suffering. But if this show has shown a light on some of the prejudice in our society, Islamophobia, some of the injustice in our justice system, then maybe that’s something,” Ahmed said in his acceptance speech.

“What we’re starting to see is more awareness around how beneficial it can be to tell a diverse range of stories and to tell them in a way that’s authentic and I think awareness is the first step to real change,” Ahmed told The Washington Post.

Ahmed is also a new member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that gives out the Oscars.

Hasan Minhaj

Hasan Minhaj headlined the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, which President Donald Trump decided to not attend. Minhaj roasted Trump and his administration and made some of the harshest jokes according to the Washington Post.

Minhaj also released his own Netflix special called “Homecoming King” where he discusses his struggle of growing up as an Indian American Muslim in a white dominant, Californian town.

In the 72-minutes-long special directed by Christopher Storer, Minhaj focuses on his childhood and how he had to live alone with his father until the age of 8 after his parents immigrated to the United States and was not aware that he had a sister because she came back with his mother who was still in India, obtaining her medical degree.

Minhaj also talked about the difficulties he faced in school and what his family had to go through the day after the 9/11 attacks when some men called at their house with threats and slurs and then destroyed their Toyota Camry, recalling the moment when he and his father went outside to pick up the broken pieces of glass.

“That’s the price we pay for being here,” his dad told him.

Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling was invited to dinner back in March by United States Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J but has not accepted the invitation yet.

In July though, Oprah Winfrey announced that Kaling was pregnant which Kaling herself confirmed the month after telling Ellen DeGeneres that “I’ve had a pretty great time of it so far, but I think I took a lot for granted before this, now that I’m in my current situation. Like, sitting. I’m obsessed with sitting and even when I was standing back there I was looking at this chair and I was like, ‘Awww, can’t wait to sit in that chair!’”

Also on the “Today Show” she said “I know I’m going to be the dorky mom.”

She recently gave birth to a baby girl on December 15 in Los Angeles and named her child Katherine Swati Kaling, but did not reveal the name of the father.

CBS has reported that Kaling will be starring in “Ocean’s 8” along with Sandra Bullock and Cate

Blanchett as well as “A Wrinkle in Time” with Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon.

Dev Patel

Dev Patel received the 2017 Asia Game Changers award for his role in his debut film Slumdog Millionaire.

His performance in “Lion” earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor earlier this year.

Patel, who divides his time between Los Angeles and the UK, also starred in a film called “Hotel Mumbai” which was based on the 2008 terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and said that it was a “harrowing experience.”

“I feel especially when you are tackling a project that is about real events, that affected real human lives, in a massive catastrophic way, there is great responsibility in that,” he told IANS.

Patel will be playing the lead in Michael Winterbottom’s “The Wedding Guest.”

Lilly Singh 

YouTube sensation Lilly Singh, a Canadian Indian, released her debut book ‘How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life’ on March 28.

Known as “Superwoman” online, Singh has over 11 million subscribers and is the highest-paid woman on YouTube, raking in $7.5 million last year, according to Forbes.

Much of the book is targeted to the millennial audience who is accustomed to viewing life through social media.

“It’s hard to grow up in a world where you’re constantly seeing everyone’s accomplishments or highlight reels,” she said. “I want to bring this back to, ‘Hey, don’t focus on that picture. Work hard.’ ”

Singh was also ranked No.1 on Forbes Magazine’s Top Influencers List in the entertainment category.

“There are certain things you cannot put on YouTube, certain content you cannot post on your channel, and you have to play by those rules because that is not your platform. So, ultimately, I think if you are doing things in the public eye, you do have to play by some rules,” she told IANS in July.

“I always believed that you should come up (with content) which you love… If you watch something and that offends you I do believe that you should just watch something that does not offend you,” she added.

DJ Rekha

The New York City-based DJ Rekha called it quits in August to pursue other creative projects and further studies, marking the end of Basement Bhangra.

Her hip-hop and bhangra fusion beats made everyone dance before Panjabi MC made everyone in New York City groove to his song “Mundian To Bach Ke.”

Rekha started Basement Bhangra in 1997 after the first wave of immigrants arrived from India and Pakistan though she won’t stop spinning.

Some other South Asian-origin entertainers who made headlines in 2017:

• Arjun Ivatury, who is up for a Grammy nomination for his song titled “1-800-273-8255.”
• Nimesh Patel, who was hired to be one of the writers on NBC’s hit show Saturday Night Live.
• Neil Patel, who helped bring “Time and the Conways” to life on Broadway.
• S. Olympic athlete Ibtihaj Muhammad, who launched the first ever Hijab Barbie in November.
• Vidya Vox, who released her album “Kuthu Fire.”

Indian Celebrities who made headlines in 2017:

Manushi Chhillar

Manushi Chhillar was crowned Miss World 2017.

Chhillar is from Haryana and is the sixth Indian to win the title and the first since Priyanka Chopra won the crown in 2000.

The feeling is still sinking in and I am very excited to make India proud too. I’m also looking forward to the year ahead,” Manushi said in a statement after the win.

In the question-and-answer round she was asked: “Which profession deserves the highest salary and why?” and her response was “a mother deserves it most.”

Priyanka Chopra

Former Miss World Priyanka Chopra made her Hollywood debut in the film Baywatch as well as continued with the ABC network show Quantico for which she won another People’s Choice Award.

Chopra also spoke up for girl empowerment at the UN and felicitated an Indian woman working towards supporting acid attack victims, at the Global Goals Awards.

She was also named the world’s sexiest Asian woman for the fifth time by a UK-based magazine and will be producing an American comedy series based on Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit’s life in America.

The post Top Indian Americans in entertainment industry in 2017 appeared first on News India Times.

NEW YORK – Indian American Neal Katyal has been named as the grand prize winner for The American Lawyer 2017 Litigator of the Year awards.

Katyal, 47, has already argued more Supreme Court cases in U.S. history than any other minority attorney and has also broken Thurgood Marshall’s 50-year old record for the most arguments made before the Supreme Court by a minority lawyer in the United States.

The American Lawyer said that Katyal has fought seven Supreme Court cases in the last term, which is more than any other lawyer in the country.

Katyal’s Supreme Court victories include: Bristol-Myers Squibb limiting forum-shopping in mass torts cases and Wells Fargo reversing a decision allowing cities to sue under the Fair Housing Act.

The American Lawyer also pointed to his ongoing representation of the state of Hawaii as it challenges the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

According to his bio on The American Lawyer’s website, Katyal is the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, which focuses on appellate and complex litigation and has had extensive experience in matters of patent, securities, criminal, employment and constitutional law.

Katyal has orally argued 35 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, 33 of them occurring in the last eight years with seven cases taking place in the 2016 – 2017 term alone.

The post Indian American Neal Katyal wins 2017 Litigator of the Year award appeared first on News India Times.

A federal judge in Oakland, California has rejected a request from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) to dismiss the 2015 lawsuit accusing them of violating anti-discrimination laws by favoring Indians Americans.

Although, the District Court in California expanded the anti-discrimination lawsuit into class action against the company over termination of American employees, India’s largest IT firm told the Economic Times that it will vigorously defend itself.

“TCS will vigorously defend its position and expects positive outcome. There are no discriminatory practices in any part of the company and TCSBSE 0.30 % is confident that it will be able to defend its position at the Trial,” TCS said in a statement.

According to the economic Times report, TCS was sued back in 2015 by a white, American IT worker named Brian Buchanan, who accused them of overwhelming favoritism toward Indian American workers, adding that he experienced “substantial anti-American sentiment” in his 20 months at TCS, and was ultimately terminated.

According to an International Business Times report, Buchanan further claimed that he was among 400 people terminated though was asked to stay for a few months to train the Indian TCS employees who were replacing him.

However, TCS has argued that Buchanan’s experience does not prove he was a victim of bias as “he has ‘no idea’ whether the application process was discriminatory because he did not attend any of the town hall meetings he was invited to during the Edison transition to learn about open positions with TCS and how to apply for them—and he did not apply for a specific job, the company said in a court filing.”

Another IT firm, Infosys also faced a similar lawsuit in Milwaukee four years ago and both the IT firms have come under pressure from President Donald Trump’s desire to hire more American locals and he is also wanting to decrease the amount of H-1B visa applications in a year.

Earlier in May, Infosys announced plans to hire 10,000 American workers over the next two years and open four technology centers in the US, starting with Indiana.

The following month, TCS said it had hired more than 12,500 Americans in the last five years and expects to remain at par or exceed prior years’ levels for the remainder of 2017 as TCS operates in over 50 countries, including the U.S.

The post Tata Consultancy Services denied dismissal over 2015 discriminatory lawsuit appeared first on News India Times.

President Donald Trump made a pledge to India even before he was elected, declaring he was going to be the “Best Friend” New Delhi ever had in the Oval Office. Putting aside the hyperbole, India came out quite well through 2017 compared to other U.S. allies and enemies, and in light of the unprecedented domestic political and social divide in this country.

Things were good even before Trump came into the White House. The arc of U.S.-India relations was on the upswing characterized also by an extraordinary bonhomie between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expanding bilateral relations in the backdrop of India’s “Looking-East” policy with America’s leaning toward Asia-Pacific build-up to counter China’s aggressive attempts at colonizing the South China Sea.

After President Trump came to the Oval Office, his administration’s policy toward India played out on parallel tracks that insinuated a gap between word and deed. A “100 Year Vision” for India outlined by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, played side-by-side with the administration’s threats to cut skilled worker visas, and “chain migration.”

Policy toward India, on trade, national security, and geopolitics in 2017, was shaped by the U.S. domestic political scene and a presidency that has questioned existing tenets and tried to bring back old ones, playing with isolationism, alongside engaging in a war of words with North Korea, praising then blackballing China, and putting European and other allies on tenterhooks.

Ignoring The Noise

However, India has come out well through the first year of the Trump administration if one looks at the bottom line and ignores the noise both on social media and on the ground.

Back in March, News India Times ran predictions by South Asia and India experts on what could transpire over the year. Their assessment was that counterterrorism and economic deals would be the cornerstones of the relationship between the Trump and Modi administrations going forward, as both leaders strengthened their positions domestically, and Washington put its diplomatic ducks in a row for dealing with the Subcontinent. They also predicted a hardening of policy toward Pakistan; that H1-B visa concerns would rise as protecting American jobs (America First) were top on President Trump’s slogans. So was Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India.”

However, while Trump’s arrival has shaken European countries and allies around the world, India is one of the few countries that has had it good, according to C. Raja Mohan, director of Carnegie India. As the year progressed, Washington took a tougher line on Pakistan, issuing a warning in August that Islamabad put paid to terrorist bastions within its borders, or else.

“U.S. has gone one step further than the previous administration which acknowledged these groups existed but did not do anything much,” Raja Mohan told News India Times.

Before she joined the Trump administration as an advisor on South Asia, Lisa Curtis, who was with a Washington think-tank, told News India Times in March that counterterrorism would have to drive Trump’s policy toward Pakistan. “They will have to toughen the demand that Pakistan crack down on terrorists,” She was right. “Pakistan is part of the global terrorism problem,” said Curtis who is now a Trump insider.

Wider Role for India

Before the year was out, Secretary of State Tillerson spoke of a “100 Year Vision” for India as a rising global power, laying down an expanded role for India not just in South Asia, but also East Asia, before he visited that country.

Among the best things President Trump has done since he came to office is naming an “Indo Pacific” region, says Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post Dec. 27. “Trump … renamed the “Asia-Pacific” the “Indo-Pacific” to include India in the larger task of preventing Chinese hegemony in Asia,” Thiessen notes. Putting ‘India’ front and center in the East Asia policy is a first, Raja Mohan added.

The President’s initial mixed messages on China, and the continuing uncertainty about China’s strategic goals for dominance of Asia, and sharpening differences between Washington and Beijing, have in the process, been a windfall of sorts for India, agreed Raja Mohan.

Trade policy on the other hand, has remained predictably tough on India, largely because in President Trump’s assessment, bilateral trade must be balanced, and India had the advantage. Indian policymakers are well aware of the problem and are working to equalize trade by increasing oil and gas imports and making weapons deals, Raja Mohan contends. The Trump administration had taken a “sharp turn” on trade issues, noted Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, an expert on economic, political, security and risk management trends in India and Pakistan, and founder of South Asia Hand.

By the same token, Schaffer had said, U.S. exporters, importers and the business community are in a hurry to negotiate with India, she said especially as Modi goes forward with reforms and the GST regulations get implemented in a way that helps foreign investors.

Bumps On The Road

So also, visa issues and high skilled labor have compounded bilateral relations, not least because of pressures Indian companies face operating in the U.S., and the long-held view in India that America was the land of opportunity. But this is a matter India and Indian companies have to work more with the U.S. Congress.

The specter of cutting H1-B visas, ending chain migration that has long been the ‘family reunification’ favorite of Indian-Americans, continues to hang and will be seeing changes in the coming year, according to most analysts and observers. By year end, the hype around H1-B, the fate of Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and chain migration hung in the air.

So far as H1-B visa is concerned, Raja Mohan says Indian companies have to deal directly with U.S. lawmakers, which they are already doing. New Delhi recognizes that, but has also shown a sensitivity toward those affected and has rightly taken a low key approach to it, experts say. The door is far from shut however. “The National Security Strategy both countries signed on to clearly spells out that the U.S. will remain open to high skilled people,” Raja Mohan noted.

In the galloping technological progress, the phase when low-skilled workers could come to America in large numbers from India is over, he adds.

On the domestic front, a number of hate crimes against Indians in America has brought a studied diplomatic response from New Delhi, and a recognition of the problem by the White House.

The Trump administration has also placed numerous Indian-Americans in high-level positions, expanding their influence in strategic areas of domestic and foreign policy, including United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, the first ever Cabinet -level Indian-American; Administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Service Seema Verma; Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah, a position never before held by an Indian-American; and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Manisha Singh, another unprecedented position for an Indian-American.

A Good Wicket

“India is quite happy. It is on a good wicket,” said Raja Mohan. In the upcoming year, New Delhi must be alive to the volatility in U.S. domestic politics where the debate on the country’s role on domestic and foreign policy issues roils. “So India has to build on the positives, mitigate on issues like trade, and find ways to deal with the international fallout of U.S. policies,” he added.

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Chief executive officers in the U.S. are paid much better than their peers abroad, and the gap between their compensation and that of average American workers is wider than in other countries.

CEOs of the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies averaged $14.3 million in annual pay, more than double that of their Canadian counterparts and 10 times greater than those in India, according to a Bloomberg analysis that used benchmark stock indexes in 22 nations.

CEOs of companies listed in India’s Sensex Index still earn 229 times more than the average worker there, the second-biggest gap worldwide after the U.S.’s ratio of 265, according to a separate Bloomberg ranking. Norway and Austria have among the smallest margins. CEOs of companies in the Norwegian OBX Index got on average $1.28 million, roughly equal to the income generated by 20 people.

A company listed on a U.S. exchange must disclose the ratio between a CEO’s compensation and the pay of its median worker for any fiscal year starting on or after Jan. 1, 2017. Peter Simon, a German lawmaker in the European Parliament, proposed a similar ratio for banks, aiming to bring executive pay to a “more appropriate level.”

There are myriad reasons for compensation discrepancies between executives. The U.S. is home to several of the world’s largest corporations, which tend to pay more. Cost of living is often higher in North America and Western Europe than some parts of Asia. And even the mere disclosure of detailed figures can push pay higher as boards set CEOs’ compensation in line with their peers, said Tim Quigley, associate professor of management at the University of Georgia.

Bloomberg’s ranking of CEO pay against earnings across society bases income generated per person on gross domestic product per capita, adjusted for price-level differences between countries. It’s not a perfect measure: GDP measures just the value of goods and services produced, not how they were distributed.

Each country’s compensation figure is based on the average CEO pay package for companies in one major stock index, weighted by market capitalization. The pay, disclosed in public filings, includes salary, bonuses, perquisites and non-cash pay such as equity awards, deferred-compensation programs and pensions. Markets with pay data from fewer than 100 public companies or less than 50 percent of the benchmark index members were excluded.

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Beauty pageants are often slammed for being “shallow” and focusing just on the outer looks of a woman. But in the year gone by, India got its first transgender beauty queen and Miss Peru pageant contestants broke stereotypes by sharing statistics on gender-based violence instead of body measurements.

All eyes were on Kerala when the announcement of Queen of Dhwayah, the first beauty pageant for transgender women in the state, was made in May.

A few months later, auditions were held in Delhi, Mumbai and Manipur for Miss Transqueen India. Its organizer, Reena Rai, told IANS that she wanted to promote transgenders because some of them are her friends and she knows “how they feel”.

“If this pageant helps them to be more confident, then I don’t see any harm in showing support to them,” she said.

For the pageants’ first runner-up Loiloi Haorongbam, it was a way to spread awareness about her community.

“We got to meet so many trans women from different parts of the country. We got to know about their cultures and how they lead their lives, their struggles. And after winning the second position, I am set to represent India in Thailand next year,” she said.

It’s certainly a great move, but how can there be beauty pageants without drama?
A week after the winners of the pageant were announced, fake mark sheets began to surface online.

“I don’t know who did this, but we were not dethroned,” said Haorongbam.

Would she blame the organizers who are new in the industry?

“No, but I felt disgusted,” she said. Apart from pageants championing the cause of transgenders, there was also a Miss Wheelchair World. It was the inaugural edition which took place in Warsaw in October. Its aim was to change the “image and attitude for the woman in wheelchairs”.

Then there was the Miss & Mrs Curvy Queen 2017 that celebrated curves and provided all the “plus-size” beauties a platform.

It wasn’t just this beauty pageant that didn’t emphasize on the traditional body measurements.

Miss Peru pageant contestants, who represented different parts of the South American country, skipped sharing their body measurements (bust/waist/hips). Instead, they announced statistics on violence against women in Peru.

Mrs. India Universe 2017-World Shreya Krishnan saw it as a good move.

“Vital statistics are probably a wrong way to measure fitness. If you want to be healthy, fit and happy, you don’t have to be essentially of a specific size. There is some perception change that needs to be brought in… which some pageants are trying to do.

“They are moving away from the traditional requirement for having specific measurements. It should be emulated,” she said.

Further breaking the stereotype, Kavita Malhotra, founder of Crowning Glory, came up with Motherhood — Jewel in My Crown, a beauty pageant involving mothers and their children.

“We gave a platform to mothers and their children so that they could express their feelings for one another. We often take for granted that all mothers love their children and vice-versa. They don’t say it verbally. There was no age bar. Boys also participated,” she said.

The concept is unique, but what about its success rate?

“We are not going to stop it. We will return for its second edition. It will happen in August 2018,” said Malhotra.

If this isn’t enough, the next year will see women from royal families vying for the “I Am Me Mrs Royal India 2018” title.

“The focus of the pageant will be on revival of old architecture, but the participants can also support causes related to wildlife or rivers. We are planning to involve government bodies as well,” said transgender model Aizya Naaz Joshi, who has also conceptualized Mrs. India Home Makers.

Stressing on the importance of a beauty pageant, she said: “I have interacted with many women. They want to live like a model at least once in their lifetime. So, I want to give them the joy and happiness of winning a crown and nice subtitles.”

Going off the beaten path means having less support and, in this case, sponsors. While some put in their own money, others like Joshi “pull in money through kitty”.

Still, they are raring to go.

The post The Year Beauty Pageants Found A Purpose appeared first on News India Times.

Big names, extravagant budgets, picturesque locales and brilliant promotions — and yet, insufficient box office collections. The Year 2017 has been a mixed bag for stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Kangana Ranaut and Ranbir Kapoor.

While hopes were pinned high on some of their films, they fell flat in front of the audience, who had expected much more than what they got.

Industry experts like Girish Johar and Vinod Mirani have described 2017 as a “very disappointing” and “bad” year as the Hindi film industry was rattled by failures. And amidst that came films like “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”, “Golmaal Again” and “Fukrey Returns”, which received a good response.

IANS has compiled a mix of films that came with high expectations but failed to strike a chord with the audience.

“Jagga Jasoos”: A musical drama starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film had been in production for over three years. It was finally released in 2017. The film met with a lukewarm response at the box office as it collected a mere Rs 54.16 crore. The brouhaha over the film’s collection even led to Ranbir’s father Rishi Kapoor lashing out at director Anurag Basu, calling him a monkey and saying that he “indulged too much in the film”.

“Tubelight”: After a string of blockbusters including “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” and “Sultan”, Salman Khan failed to light up the box office with “Tubelight”, set against the 1962 Sino-Indian war. The expectations from the film were high due to the pairing of Salman and director Kabir Khan, who have in the past given hits like “Ek Tha Tiger” and “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”.

The “Dabangg” star had reportedly promised to return money to the distributors for the loss and later trade analyst Komal Nahta confirmed on Twitter that the actor will refund approximately Rs 35 crore.

“Bhoomi” : Ever since actor Sanjay Dutt was released after serving his jail term for illegal possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, all eyes were set for his comeback film, helmed by Omung Kumar. Though the film ran high on emotions, it failed to impress his fans.

“Jab Harry Met Sejal”: Great destinations, lots of travel and a very strong story line — this is what one expects from an Imtiaz Ali film. Featuring superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, the film, which was criticised for its incoherent story line, didn’t mint the expected moolah. Shah Rukh too reportedly gave refunds to the movie’s distributors.

“Rangoon”: Directed by National Award winner Vishal Bhardwaj, the film had an ensemble cast of Kangana Ranaut, Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor. Despite garnering good reviews, the film was a disaster at the box office as it only collected Rs 20.68 crore. After facing a setback with the failure of the period drama, Kangana, who tasted success with films like “Queen”, said that “people have a tendency to encash on someone else’s failure”, and will give a “discount” after the box office debacle.

“Sarkar 3”: The third instalment of the popular “Sarkar” franchise saw some of the sought-after names like Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpayee and Jackie Shroff coming together, but the film reportedly made less than Rs 20 crore at the box office.

“Ok Jaanu”: Released in January, the audience was looking forward to the offering by Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor, who were teaming up again after they created magic with “Aashiqui 2”. A remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film “O Kadhal Kanmani”, it only raked in Rs 23.64 crore in India, and comparisons with the original didn’t work in its favour either.

The post Expectations Vs Reality: Bollywood films That Fell Flat appeared first on News India Times.

As we get ready to welcome 2018, most of us also commit to being better versions of ourselves. Leading a healthier lifestyle usually tops the list, but it is also one of the toughest things to achieve.

To finally break that cycle of unfulfilled resolutions, commit to just a few healthy habits and cultivate them throughout the year. Stick with them for a few weeks, andyou will start feeling so good that you will want to follow them for the rest of the year, says Dr Hariprasad, Ayurveda Expert at The Himalaya Drug Company. He recommends a four simple tips that you can incorporate this new year to finally become a new you.

Exercise daily: Promise yourself that you will spend a minimum of 40 minutes every day exercising. You don’t need to follow the same routine; just ensure that you work out every single day. This could be a great way to fulfill a second new year resolution of learning a new skill such as yoga or a fun dance form such as salsa. Exercising should be exciting, and something that you look forward to. Let it not become a chore. Simple forms of exercise go a long way in preventive care — they help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis, alleviate depression and anxiety, and even boost mental alertness and confidence.

Get enough sleep: The function of sleep is to not only relax the body, but also rest and restore the mind. It is necessary to heal and repair your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of various health issues that affect the heart as well as kidney, and also lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. While you can function for a while without getting the necessary amount of sleep every day, it will eventually take a toll on you. Commit to sleeping a minimum of seven hours a day while aiming for eight, and you will feel yourself getting healthier and happier in a short amount of time.

Go natural: This year, make long-term wellness your goal instead of just trying to solve the problem at hand. As per Ayurveda texts and modern research, Guduchi can significantly help in preventive care, as it is a great promoter of immunity, aids in the fight against respiratory problems, and helps you get healthier. The herb is rich in antioxidants, and including it in your daily life can help you achieve better health. Adopting preventive care by consuming appropriate supplements can help reduce the chances of facing health problems altogether, rather than simply resorting to curative care when it arises.

Drink enough water: If you want to keep the doctor away, eight glasses of water a day is the way to do it. Water is the fuel your body runs on; it is necessary to keep your body functioning well. Drinking enough water can help you with weight loss, detoxification, digestion, beautiful skin and hair, and even easy bowel movement. Work at this goal throughout the day and it will keep getting easier. There are many ways to achieve this goal. Download an app, play a game, or set a reminder, but ensure you keep reaching for that glass of water and hit that two-litre goal.

Take control of your health and life by cultivating these simple habits to ensure that you make the most of this new year.

The post 14 Healthy Habits To Cultivate In The New Year appeared first on News India Times.

Mumbai, Dec 29 (IANS) Fourteen persons, including a young woman celebrating her birthday, died from breathing toxic fumes and at least 55 others were injured in a major fire that engulfed a pub and other establishments here early on Friday, an official said.

According to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Disaster Control, the blaze was noticed around 12.30 a.m. from The Mojo Bistro and 1Above, both rooftop restaurants in The Kamla Trade House, a posh business-cum-entertainment hub in Lower Parel area of south Mumbai.

The flames, initially suspected to be triggered by an electric short-circuit, quickly spread to another adjacent pub and a restaurant, all housed in the Kamla Mills Compound, trapping over 200 people on the premises.

Among the victims was Khushboo Jayesh Bhansali who was celebrating her 29th birthday in the restaurant with her husband and their friends, her family said.

The tragedy cast an ominous shadow on the upcoming New Year 2018 celebrations in the maximum city renowned for its varied night life, late-night parties and outings.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have expressed grief over the incident and offered their condolences to the families of the victims.

Taking serious note of the incident, BMC Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta announced suspension of five officials, including Assistant Municipal Commissioner Prashant Sapkale, for various lapses and ordered a probe into the incident.

Fadnavis, who visited the site this afternoon, warned of very stringent action against the officials and others found guilty for the incident.

According to BMC, more than 12 fire tenders were rushed to fight the blaze which was finally brought under control and extinguished around 6.30 a.m. It was only then that the full impact of the disaster came to light.

While the majority of the victims were reported to have died on the spot, the firemen were able to rescue 10 people safely.

The injured were rushed to the KEM Hospital, Bhatia Hospital, and Airoli Burns Hospital. Two with minor injuries were taken to Sion Hospital, where they were treated and discharged. Another 14 are undergoing treatment in different government and private hospitals, and their condition is stable.

Autopsies of the victims have revealed that a majority of the casualties occurred due to asphyxiation and inhaling poisonous fumes from the burning materials, said KEM Hospital’s Dean Avinash Supe.

The entire pub and the surrounding complex was full of patrons, including many women and tourists with an estimated 400-plus thronging the fashionable area to unwind.

Mumbai police have booked the owner of one of the pubs for negligence and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

There are many major corporates, TV-radio-print media offices, more than three dozen high-end restaurants, pubs, etc, which also suffered damage in the fire and their working was affected on Friday.

The Times Network with offices of all its major channels in the same complex was hit temporarily and but employees were evacuated safely.

After the disruption, Times Now, Times Now HD, ET Now and Mirror Now were operational by late morning, while Movies Now, Movies Now HD, MN+, MNX HD, Romedy Now, Romedy Now HD, and Zoom would be back on air shortly, an official spokesperson said.

The blaze comes as a huge setback to the government’s plans to make nightlife attractive by permitting all shops/malls to function round-the-clock, to generate more employment and boost tourism in the state.

Barely nine days ago the state government had notified the relevant amendments to the laws, though it was not made applicable to bars, pubs, discotheques and wine shops.

However, these were expected to come under the ambit of the new laws in due course, with the BMC initiating several measures in this direction.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, alleging corruption in the BMC, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the tragedy, especially with the New Year Eve celebrations around the corner.

Blaming the BMC, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam sought stringent action against those responsible for allowing the eateries to function despite rules being blatantly flouted.

Quoting a friend who witnessed the conflagration, Congress legislator Nitesh Rane claimed that a hookah parlour caused the blaze and not a short-circuit as speculated. He added that Mojo and another restaurant are only issued food licences, but not for serving hookahs to customers.

Yuva Sena President Aditya U. Thackeray, one of the proponents of improving Mumbai nightlife, said implementation of fire safety norms was a must and BMC would come down hard on violators.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya attacked the Shiv Sena-controlled BMC for lapses on its part which led to the blaze and demanded a complete fire audit of all buildings in the city.

In separate statements, both The Mojo Bistro and 1Above said they had implemented all fire and safety norms as per rules and did not store any gas cylinders on their premises.

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