NEW YORK

News India Times and Desi Talk has endorsed Anthony Santino as the candidate for Town of Hempstead on the Republican Party line.

Supervisor Santino has a distinguished career in public service. An eight-year veteran of the East Rockaway Village Board, he was elected a village trustee in 1983 at the age of 22 and re-elected in 1987, serving as Deputy Mayor for two years.

He also served as District Director and Executive Assistant to Congressman Norman F. Lent before joining the staff of the Nassau County Board of Supervisors. Prior to Supervisor Santino’s service on the town board, he was the town’s Director of Communications for six-and-a-half years.

As Town of Hempstead Supervisor, Tony will be committed to ending the corruption that has compromised the public’s trust in government, protecting local property taxpayers and creating an economic renaissance to provide a brighter future for the middle class.

Tony’s goals are to cut spending, reducing costs and saving tax dollars with innovation, doing more with less, strengthening ethics and increasing transparency, working for our families and seniors and protecting our environment.

Supervisor Anthony J. Santino has a proven record of fiscal success. He continues to put our middle class families and seniors first. His top priority has always been maintaining town programs and services while showing the highest degree of respect for each and every taxpayer who calls our township home.

Under Santino’s leadership, Hempstead Town has reduced spending to control costs. These positive steps have allowed the town to provide top-notch municipal services and programs…while minimizing the financial burden on taxpayers.

Since taking office last year, Santino introduced and enacted a comprehensive Ethics Reform package – the toughest on Long Island– that targets pubic corruption and conflicts of interest while enhancing government transparency.

Protecting taxpayers and working for our middle class families and seniors define Supervisor Santino’s record in public service. He is a tireless advocate for Hempstead Town and its residents, standing squarely in the corner of homeowners. What’s refreshing is that Supervisor Santino presides over an effective and responsive municipal government…and he’s a constant advocate to enhance our community’s quality of life.

Harnessing the environment for sustainable energies helps promote conservation. Hempstead Town earned the unique distinction as being named a New York State Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) “New York State Research & Development Authority” during his first term.

Providing quality housing for people of all income levels must be an integral component in any neighborhood in Hempstead Town. Supervisor Anthony J. Santino is committed to creating housing opportunities for all Hempstead Town residents. His opponent Laura Gillen wants to look backward and talk about corruption of other people.

We urge voters to elect the right candidate, Tony Santino, in the best interest of the county.

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NEW YORK

The Board of Education of Millburn Township Public Schools (MTPS) in New Jersey, in a meeting on October 9, reportedly unanimously approved to declare the Hindu festival of Diwali a holiday, in 2018.

The Board recognizes the importance of finding a way to include on the school calendar days off for students that coincide with Lunar New Year and Diwali.

The Board is reportedly scheduled to consider the draft calendar for 2018-2019 at its meeting on October 23, which shows schools closed on November 7, the date when the most popular Hindu festival of Diwali falls in 2018.

Some Hindus have commended the Board’s decision, terming it as a step in the positive direction.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada, urged the MTPS Board to unanimously approve this Diwali day-off for students, included in the 2018-2019 calendar draft, when it meets on October 23. Board should respect the feelings of Hindus, who had been pushing for Diwali holiday in MTPS for many years, he said, in a press release.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that the Hindu community felt left out in New Jersey as despite fast changing state demographics and continuing growth of Hindu populations, only three public school districts had reportedly declared holiday for students on October 19, the date on which Diwali fell this year.

For 2017 in New Jersey, Glen Rock Public Schools has announced closure of schools and offices on Diwali; in West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, schools will be closed on October 19; and in Piscataway Township Schools, there is “No School for Students” on Diwali.

In neighboring New York, six school districts have declared holiday for students on October 19, which include: East Meadow School District, East Williston Union Free School District, Half Hollow Hills Central School District, Herricks Union Free School District, Hicksville Union Free School District and Syosset Central School District. Another Mineola Union Free School District announced that no homework or examinations would be given on Diwali, reports add.

In Pennsylvania, Unionville-Chadds Ford School District headquartered in Kennett Square approved closure of schools on Diwali; while Harvard Public Schools in Massachusetts has declared October 19 as “early release day”, reports note.

Zed suggested that all other 674 public school districts and private-charter-independent schools in New Jersey should seriously look into declaring Diwali as an official holiday, thus recognizing the intersection of spirituality and education. Zed noted that awareness about other religions thus created by such holidays like Diwali would make New Jersey students well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow.

Zed pointed out that it would be a positive thing to do in view of presence of a substantial number of Hindu students at schools around the state, as it was important to meet the religious and spiritual needs of these pupils.

Zed stated that it was not fair with Hindu pupils and their families as they had to attend school on their most popular festival while many schools in the state were closed on holy days of some other communities. This unfairness did not send a good signal to the impressionable minds of schoolchildren who would be the leaders of tomorrow; Zed said and added that New Jersey schools needed to urgently revisit their policies on this issue.

Zed further said that since it was important for Hindu families to celebrate Diwali day together at home with their children.
“We did not want our children to be deprived of any privileges at the school because of thus resulting absences on this day. Closing schools on Diwali would ensure that and it would be a step in the right direction,” he said.

Zed also urged New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, New Jersey State Board of Education President Arcelio Aponte and New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington to work towards adding Diwali as an official holiday in all the public school districts in the state, and persuading the private-charter-independent schools to follow.

Zed stresses that Hinduism is rich in festivals and religious festivals are very dear and sacred to Hindus. Diwali, the festival of lights, aims at dispelling the darkness and lighting up the lives and symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Hinduism is oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents. There are about three million Hindus in USA.

MTPS, known for academic excellence whose 99% of graduating seniors reportedly attend four-year colleges, has about 5,000 pupils. Emily Jaffe and Dr. Christine Burton are Board President and Superintendent, respectively.

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NEW YORK

The 8th annual Diwali mela of Indian Caucus of Secaucus held at Buchmuller Park in Secaucus, NJ, on October 14, was a grand success.

There was a huge turnout of around 3,200 people, who were entertained to some lively performances by local talent of all ages.

Chief guests H.R. Shah, founder and CEO of TV Asia and Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillary were felicitated by the Mayor of Secaucus Michael Gonneli by presenting them both with plaques.

Food vendors like Vatan, Curry On, Dosa Hut, and Dhoom participated in this event as well, to bring variety of food for the crowd.

Vendors selling beautiful ethnic Indian outfits, gift articles and lovely jewelry were of great attraction to the mela attendees.

Vendors like Prudential, Allstate, Lycra Mobile also had a chance to interact with people and market their products.

Along with free entry to the event, the Indian Caucus also sponsored free arts and craft for children to show creativity, by making hanging displays, diya painting, and large diya props.

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Jhoom Events and Tarang Soni organized a couple’s dance competition “Nach Baliye USA” on October 13, at Royal Albert’s Palace, Edison, NJ.

The meet was officially inaugurated by Edison Mayor Tony Lankey, who wished his best to all competitors, and Happy Diwali to all residents.

The event was kicked off by a grand fashion show with over 12 models, with Kim Kumar as show stopper. Movie stars Archana Joglekar, Aamir Ali, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Mr. India Global Prem Rahman and Bollywood director Hemant Pandya also walked on the ramp along with the models.

There were seven couple’s teams in the finale. Each team got two rounds to perform, with Round 1 as “Self Choice Round” and Round 2 as “Festival Round”. The show was judged by celebrity judges Archana Joglekar, Aamir Ali, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Prem Rahman and Hemant Pandya.

The judges took their time, rechecking, calculating and taking the final decision. Raj and Neelam Selvi won the “Best Costume” Award, Aindrila and Tejas won the “Best Choreography” award. the “Nach Baliye USA” winner was Amit and Shilpi Jain.

There was also a grand Diwali party with lavish dinner, dance and music for everyone.

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NEW YORK

Raising the issue of acid attacks in India, Varsha Naik of Navrang Dance Academy and Bollywood celebrity choreographer Sandip Soparrkar organized and conducted “USA Dance Day – Dance for Cause”, in Edison, New Jersey, on October 14.

USA Dance Day had around 15 performances, where varied dance forms like ballet, Bollywood, Garba, Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam, Chinese, Hip-hop, contemporary, jazz and many more were showcased.

The Chief Guest of the ‘USA Dance Day – Dance for a Cause’ was Monica Mahendra Singh, an acid attack survivor. She is a successful fashionista and an UN Women Global Youth champion, speaking out against gender-based violence and using fashion to empower and encourage survivors to pursue their dreams.

Speaking on the occasion Singh said: “Thank you Sandip and Varsha for taking an initiative on a sensitive topic like acid attack and taking the first dancing step to make the community here in United States more aware toward this raising global issue. I am glad to see so many people come forward to support.’

Guests at the meet included H. R. Shah, CEO, TV Asia, Antonio N. Sabas, Megumi N. Sabas (founding member of Freedom of Choice USA), Gulshan Chhabra, Dr. Daniel Sussot (M.D., MPH, Specialist on General Preventive Medicine & Public Health), Prakash Patil (Mr. India United Nations), Promila Suri from United Nations, Jyoti Singh from Atijeevan Foundation, Haleh Darabnia (a renowned social activist), and Madhu Valli (Miss India Worldwide 2017).

The Mayor of Edison township, New Jersey, Thomas Lankey honored Soparrkar with a Proclamation for his contributions to the art of dance and humanitarian efforts on behalf of the less fortunate.

A musical drama performed by Soparrkar and Naik moved the audience.

Naik said, ‘Navrang Dance Academy promises to continue Dance for a Cause every year and we promise that each year we will try n bring to light various causes that are prevalent in the society.’

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President Donald Trump officiated at his first Diwali at the White House Oct. 17, lighting the ceremonial diya with more than twenty  Indian-Americans in attendance.

In his speech which was available on Facebook, along with a video of the event, the President said he was “deeply honored to be joined by so many administration officials and leaders of the Indian-American community – to celebrate Diwali — the Hindu Festival of Lights.”

The President’s first highest, cabinet-level Indian-American appointee, Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, stood next to a seated Trump to his right. On his left was Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as Trump read out his speech. Another top Indian-American appointee, Seema Verma, head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, whose name has been mentioned to head the Department of Health and Human Services, was among the crowd. The President’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who will be leading a business delegation to India later this year, also joined the gathering. Also present was Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah, as was Hindu American Foundation founder Shalabh Kumar, who gave a brief speech praising President Trump for his achievements on taking office and recognition of the Hindu American community.

“As we do so, we especially remember the People of India, the home of the Hindu faith, who have built the world’s largest democracy,” Trump said, adding that he “greatly” valued his “very strong relationship” with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Diwali is one of the most important celebrations in the Hindu religion, he noted, a time of peace and prosperity for the New Year for the billion Hindus worldwide and the more than 2 million Hindus in the United States. It is also celebrated by millions of Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains in America, India and around the world, the President said.

“Our Indian-American neighbors and friends have made incredible contributions to our country – and to the world,” Trump said. “You have made extraordinary contributions to art, science, medicine, business and education. America is especially thankful for its many Indian-American citizens who serve BRAVELY in our armed forces and as first responders in communities throughout our great land,” said the President.

In front of Trump’s presidential desk was a special table covered with a tricolor cloth on which a tall silver diya stand was placed encircled by a red and yellow garland of flowers, mostly marigolds, the traditional flower used in Hindu religious ceremonies.

While the Lighting of the Diya is typically celebrated by families in their homes. Trump said, “Today, we proudly celebrate this holiday in THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE. In so doing, we reaffirm that Indian-Americans and Hindu-Americans are truly cherished, treasured and beloved members of our great American FAMILY.”

“We wish all of America’s Hindus and everyone who celebrates Diwali a joyous holiday and blessings of light, goodness, and prosperity throughout the New Year. And now we will light the Diya,” said the President as he proceeded to light the traditional lamp.

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A federal judge in Maryland early Wednesday issued a second halt on the latest version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, asserting that the president’s own comments on the campaign trail and on Twitter convinced him that the directive was akin to an unconstitutional Muslim ban.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang issued a somewhat less complete halt on the ban than his counterpart in Hawaii did a day earlier, blocking the administration from enforcing the directive only on those who lacked a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in the U.S., such as family members or some type of professional or other engagement in the United States.

But in some ways, Chuang’s ruling was more personally cutting to Trump, as he said the president’s own words cast his latest attempt to impose a travel blockade as the “inextricable re-animation of the twice-enjoined Muslim ban.”

The third iteration of Trump’s travel ban had been set to go fully into effect early Wednesday, barring various types of travelers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, North Korea and Venezuela. Even before Chuang’s ruling, though, a federal judge in Hawaii stopped it – at least temporarily – for all of the countries except North Korea and Venezuela.

That judge, Derrick K. Watson, blocked the administration from enforcing the measure on anyone from the six countries, not just those with a “bona fide” U.S. tie. But his ruling did not address whether Trump’s intent in imposing the directive was to discriminate against Muslims. He said the president had merely exceeded the authority Congress had given him in immigration law.

The Justice Department already had vowed to appeal Watson’s ruling, which the White House said “undercuts the President’s efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States.” Both Watson’s temporary restraining order and Chuang’s preliminary injunction are also interim measures, meant to maintain the status quo as the parties continue to argue the case.

The administration had cast the new measure as one that was necessary for national security, implemented only after officials conducted an extensive review of the information they needed to vet those coming to the U.S. Those countries that were either unwilling or unable to produce such information even after negotiation, officials have said, were included on the banned list.

“These restrictions are vital to ensuring that foreign nations comply with the minimum security standards required for the integrity of our immigration system and the security of our Nation,” the White House said after Watson’s ruling. “We are therefore confident that the Judiciary will ultimately uphold the President’s lawful and necessary action and swiftly restore its vital protections for the safety of the American people.”

Like Watson’s order, Chuang’s 91-page ruling also found Trump had exceeded his authority under immigration law, but only partially.

The order – which has “no specified end date and no requirement of renewal” – violated a non-discrimination provision in the law in that it blocked immigrants to the U.S. based on their nationality, Chuang wrote.

But Chuang said he could not determine, as Watson did, that Trump had violated a different part of federal immigration law requiring him to find entry of certain non-immigrant travelers would be “detrimental” to U.S. interests before blocking them.

Chuang instead based much of his ruling on his assessment that Trump intended to ban Muslims, and thus his order had run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. When he was a presidential candidate in December 2015, Chuang wrote, Trump had promised a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” and all of his comments since then seemed to indicate his various travel bans were meant to fulfill that promise.

After his second ban was blocked, Chuang wrote, Trump described the measure as a “watered down version” of his initial measure, adding, “we ought (to) go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place.” The president had then revoked and replaced his first travel ban, which had also been held up in court.

In August, with courts still weighing the second version, Chuang noted that Trump “endorsed what appears to be an apocryphal story involving General John J. Pershing and a purported massacre of Muslims with bullets dipped in a pig’s blood, advising people to ‘[s]tudy what General Pershing . . . did to terrorists when caught.'”

In September, as authorities worked on a new directive, Trump wrote on Twitter “the travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific – but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!”

Chuang had pressed challengers at a hearing this week on what the government would have to do to make the new ban legal, and he noted in his ruling that the new directive had changed from the previous iterations. The government, for example, had undertaken a review process before inking the new measure, and had added two non-Muslim majority countries to the banned list.

But Chuang wrote that he was unmoved that government had simply relied on the results of their review, and instead believed they made “certain subjective determinations that resulted in a disproportionate impact on majority-Muslim nations.” He wrote that the government offered “no evidence, even in the form of classified information submitted to the Court, showing an intelligence-based terrorism threat justifying a ban on entire nationalities,” and asserted that even the new measure “generally resembles President Trump’s earlier description of the Muslim ban.”

“The ‘initial’ announcement of the Muslim ban, offered repeatedly and explicitly through President Trump’s own statements, forcefully and persuasively expressed his purpose in unequivocal terms,” Chuang wrote.

The suit in federal court in Maryland had been brought by 23 advocacy groups and seven people who said they would be negatively impacted by the new ban.

– Washington Post

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President Donald Trump created doubt and confusion Wednesday about a bipartisan deal to prop up Obamacare exchanges, saying on Twitter that he won’t support “bailing out” insurance companies that have profited from the health-care legislation.

As soon as the deal was announced Tuesday, the Trump administration was sending conflicting signals about the pact reached by Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, which also faces ambivalence from some Republican senators and outright hostility from many House Republicans.

His Wednesday tweet added to the uncertainty: “I am supportive of Lamar as a person & also of the process, but I can never support bailing out ins co’s who have made a fortune w/ O’Care.” He didn’t specifically say whether he opposes the legislation or whether he considers it a bailout of insurers.

Coming days after a decision by Trump to scrap subsidy payments to Obamacare insurers, the deal is likely the only Obamacare legislation with a chance of passing Congress this year. It could help stem a flight by major insurers out of the individual insurance market in many states, with Americans due to begin signing up for 2018 coverage in two weeks.

But even though a number of Republicans are eager to prevent a collapse of the individual health insurance market, opposition from Trump would likely doom the measure.

Trump has appeared to try to straddle the divide in his party on Obamacare, both encouraging Alexander to reach a deal with Murray and reveling in dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Alexander said Trump pushed him in phone calls last week to reach a short-term deal to stabilize the Obamacare exchanges. But the president also gloated on Oct. 14 after shares of health insurers fell following his order to end payments to help cover the cost of policies for low-income consumers.

“Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall!” he said on Twitter.

Alexander said at an Axios event that Trump called him Wednesday morning and said he’ll review the bill and see if there’s anything he wants to add. Senators plan to introduce the bill on Thursday, Alexander said.

Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he had encouraged Alexander to reach a deal with Murray, but said he wanted to ultimately see states given blocks of money and be allowed to set up their own programs.

“The solution will be for about a year or two years; it’ll get us over this intermediate hump,” Trump told reporters.

But within an hour of his remarks, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told Bloomberg TV that “the president wasn’t interested in signing the original version of Alexander-Murray.” He added, “It could be packaged with some type of larger deal.”

Marc Short, the White House legislative director, emerged from a Tuesday lunch meeting where the deal was discussed saying the White House wants bigger concessions, including doing away with the part of the law requiring everyone to have insurance, either through their own policy or their employer.

Later, speaking at the Heritage Foundation’s annual President’s Club meeting, Trump added: “While I commend the bipartisan work done by Senators Alexander and Murray — and I do commend it — I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.”

Alexander late Tuesday sought to assuage Republicans who may be wary of taking the limited action on a health program they campaigned to end altogether. On the Senate floor, he said the plan should be seen as an incremental move that can be followed later with other actions.

“Once we complete this limited first step we can take a second and a third step. I want to undersell this proposal instead of oversell it,” he said on the Senate floor. “It has significant advantages. But it is only a limited first step.”

The two-year deal would allow crucial subsidies to health insurers to start flowing again, potentially lowering insurance premiums for those in the program next year.

The package would give states new flexibility on how their Affordable Care Act markets are run. It will also encourage states to meld their markets together, and let more people buy low-cost, limited-coverage plans.

The flexibility would allow states to implement Obamacare in a way that provides customers coverage similar in affordability to plans under the current law. At the same time, states can’t degrade consumer protections Obamacare requires plans to offer, such as maternity care, mental health services and a ban on discrimination against pre-existing conditions, Murray said on the Senate floor.

The agreement also restores some of the money the Trump administration slashed for outreach regarding open enrollment in Obamacare plans.

“We compromised on the outreach funding and have agreed we will spend about twice as much or more than President Trump wanted to spend but we will do most of that in grants to the states,” Alexander said.

The administration had cut advertising spending by 90 percent down to $10 million for the sign-up period starting at the beginning of November. It also reduced payments by 39 percent to groups that help people choose among their health insurance options.

Perhaps the chief obstacle to the deal being enacted is the wariness of some key Republicans to embrace it.

Last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin praised Trump for planning to end the payments and he has never encouraged any short-term fix to stabilize the exchanges.

Resistance to the proposal is already building in the House. Rep. Mark Walker, who heads the conservative Republican Study Committee, said that GOP lawmakers should be focused on repealing Obamacare, not propping it up.

“This bailout is unacceptable,” the North Carolina lawmaker said in a tweet from the group’s account.

But other conservatives sounded more open to the deal, including House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who praised Alexander and Murray and said the deal “is a good start and a welcome expansion from earlier discussions.”

In the Senate, Republican leaders still are recovering from the July collapse of their drive to replace Obamacare. Alexander told reporters this week that the leadership team was focused now on a tax overhaul and not on his efforts to stabilize the exchanges.

McConnell didn’t commit to putting the compromise plan on the Senate floor after a closed-door meeting Tuesday of all Republicans in the chamber, where Alexander summarized the accord.

“We haven’t had a chance to think about the way forward yet,” McConnell told reporters.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Alexander-Murray package got “broad support” during Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch at the Capitol.

“We think it’s a good solution,” he said. “I think there’s a consensus that we need short-term stability.”

The health-insurance subsidies, called cost-sharing reduction payments or CSRs, have been a major factor in the increased premiums plans say they’ll charge next year. The subsidies help lower-income people with co-pays and other costs they face when they see a doctor or pick up a prescription.

A federal court ruled the CSR payments improper because of how the 2010 law was written, and the matter is currently before an appeals court. The Trump administration announced last week that it was cutting them off, leaving health insurers and hospitals wondering what would happen for the rest of this year and for 2018.

Funding the cost-sharing subsidies would spare insurers more than $1 billion in financial losses this year, and could let them lower premiums for 2018. But with rates already set for 2018, it’s not clear whether insurers and state regulators would be able to bring premiums down immediately.

Trump’s tweet on Wednesday left lawmakers uncertain.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican leader, said Wednesday he isn’t certain whether Trump opposes the bipartisan deal. “Most of us are still looking at the details,” Thune told Bloomberg Television.

Before the tweet, the senator had said he saw potential for a “short-term bridge” similar to what Alexander and Murray are proposing. Republicans could do that and then later seek deeper changes to Obamacare, he said.

Thune said if a final stabilization measure gets broad support, it could be attached to another piece of legislation this fall or be considered on its own. The most likely candidate is the year-end spending bill needed to keep the government open after Dec. 8.

GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose thumbs-down vote doomed an Obamacare replacement in July, praised Alexander and Murray’s “good faith, bipartisan negotiations” in a statement and said he looks forward to voting for the bill.

– Bloomberg

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Two Indian American teens were honored by Girl Scouts USA and received the 2017 National Young Women of Distinction award for helping out the community.

Rajvi Ranka and Devika Kumar, both 18, are among ten girl scouts selected from the Gold Award Girl Scouts across the United States.

Ranka was selected for her project on creating water conservation technology to help farmers in California and Kumar supports the issue of menstrual hygiene for girls in rural India.

Ranka is a Girl Scout from California and she has developed cost-effective soil moisture sensors and reeds which will help farmers in rural and under-served communities, conserve water.

Based on this technology, farmers on average have saved 25 percent of their water use and Ranka has since received a provisional patent on the product.

She plans to make it accessible for everyone using social media.

“I think my biggest challenge was getting farmers to adapt to my technology or come and use my technology, because they have many old methods of irrigating and farming, and they’re not too open to trying something new,” Girl Scouts quoted Ranka.

Kumar is a Girl Scout from Texas and during her recent visit to Rajasthan, she discovered that 23 percent of girls in rural areas stop attending school because of limited information and resources to support menstruation.

She then decided to put a stop to this by providing a remote village in Rajasthan, a sanitary-pad machine and taught local women how to operate the machine; which basically grinds cotton, presses it into the pads, disinfecting them.

“I want to sensitize the rural women in my father’s homeland, where menstruation is still believed to be taboo. The use of sanitary pads is not widespread either, mostly due to their unavailability and unaffordability,” she said adding that she also wants to try “to tackle the taboo and the stigma, while staying within the conservative culture, you have to have a very good sense of what you want to achieve and who you want to send this message to. You have to reach them in a way that they’ll receive well.”

Kumar noted that the cost of a regular sanitary napkin is Rs. 5 whereas this machine would bring it down to Rs. 2, “the sanitary pad manufacturing machine has five units, which manufactures six sanitary pads in 15 minutes and up to 20,000 in a year,” Kumar said.

Kumar has discussed her project, the Mahi Project, in a TED Talk and has took to social media, creating a GoFundMe page and eventually accumulated the necessary $4,500 with the help of her family in India, allowing her to provide educational resources to the women who needed the most.

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Indian American Bankers Nandita Bakhshi and Ranjana Clark are among the most powerful women in banking in the country.

On Sept. 25, American Banker announced its 15th annual ranking of the Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance, putting Bakhshi at the number four position and Clark at the 19th position in a 25-person list.

According to her profile on American Banker, Bakhshi is the president and chief executive officer of Bank of the West as well as the co-CEO at BNP Paribas USA.

She left TD Bank last year and when she arrived at Bank of the West, she went on a listening tour across the San Francisco-based lender’s 23-state footprint.

Bakhshi is a 30-year veteran in the banking industry with extensive experience in retail banking and payments and has also launched a virtual office, known as Nandita’s Corner, managing 10,000 employees.

She has helped Bank of the West to launch a new logo and has reduced the number of days it takes for the bank to close a mortgage by 10 percent.

“When you get to the position where you are hiring and training people don’t settle. Make sure you recruit first-rate talent and it will improve your whole organization,” said Bakhshi, who began her career as a part-time teller in India.

According to her profile on American Banker, Clark is the head of transaction banking for the Americas and San Francisco Bay Area and president of MUFG Union Bank.

She is a 34-year veteran of the financial industry who had done stints at PayPal, Western Union, Wachovia and Deutsche Bank in Mumbai, India before joining MUFG Union in 2013.

After her arrival, MUFG Americas participated in a $10.5 million investment in Coinbase, the electronic wallet and trading platform for digital currencies and recently Coinbase was valued at $1.6 billion.

Before she arrived at MUFG Americas, she spent 20 years with Wells Fargo and its predecessor companies, where she held a number of senior management positions including Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.

Today, Clark is particularly excited about the new possibilities that artificial intelligence is presenting to the financial services industry.

“Clients are seeking more of a self-service model to access information and perform operations,” she said.

The American Banker mentions that last year, Clark became one of the first two women globally to become an executive officer at the Tokyo-based parent company.

Clark earned an MBA in Finance from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, an MBA in Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delhi.

She has held Certified Treasury Professional and Series 7, 8, 24 and 63 securities licenses.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said India is a “partner for peace” and a rising power for the next hundred years. While Pakistan was also a partner, he said, Washington expects Islamabad to “take decisive action” against terrorist groups within its borders to improve not just security in South Asia, but to improve its international standing.

Tillerson delivered a major foreign policy speech relating to India at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. today, a week before his scheduled trip to India. A frequent traveler to India during his years in the private sector as head of the global oil giant Exxon, Tillerson recalled his relationship as dating back to 1998. “It was a real privilege” to work with Indian counterparts” he said and he looked forward to his upcoming visit.

In a wide-ranging speech followed by a Q and A session, Tillerson dwelt on the growing economic, defense and counter-terrorism cooperation with India, but highlighted the “scourge” of terrorism that must be contained by a greater effort from Pakistan.

“India is a partner for peace in Afghanistan,” Tillerson said. And while “Pakistan too is an important partner in South Asia,” he added, “We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terror groups within its borders.”

Tillerson said Washington wished to be helpful in reducing tensions on the India-Pakistan border and pointed to the recent declaration of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen which operates in Indian Kashmir, as a terror group by the State Department. The U.S. and India, he said, are “leading the effort against terrorism” in the region.

The United States sees Afghanistan as a regional issue, Tillerson stressed. If the threat of terror groups is removed in Afghanistan, “the greatest beneficiary would be Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said answering a question on future U.S. policy toward Afghanistan. “So our message to the Taliban is ‘we’re not going anywhere. We’re going to be here as long as it takes’.”

Pakistan recently helped rescue an American woman, her Canadian husband, and their three children from the Taliban, acting on U.S. intelligence information. That came short on the heels of Washington’s warning about cutting off aid if Islamabad did not act against internal terror groups in Pakistan, and the Hizb-ul decision.

Just as Tillerson was speaking at the CSIS, Vice President Mike Pence engaged in a call with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and conveyed a qualified message of thanks to Islamabad.

According to a readout of the call provided by the White House, Pence thanked Abbasi for his government’s assistance in recovering U.S. and Canadian hostages that were being held captive by the Haqqani Taliban Network in the tribal areas of Pakistan. “Vice President Pence noted this effort as an important development in Pakistan’s support to the U.S. strategy against terrorism in the region, but highlighted that cooperation against militant groups must be continued and sustained.”

Just as he did during the meeting the two had in New York last month, the Vice President again discussed ways that Pakistan could work with the United States and others to bolster stability and security for all in South Asia, the White House readout said.

In his speech and during the Q and A session that followed, Tillerson discussed the security threats in the Indo-Pacific region and praised the trilateral arrangement between Tokyo, Washington and New Delhi. He accused China of breaking international norms of behavior in the South China Sea, which he said threaten the goals of India and the U.S. The U.S.-India maritime cooperation complimented India’s “Act East” policy, he contended. He addressed “predatory economics” (possibly implying China’s economic relations in the region) that was a danger in the Indo-Pacific region, where emerging economies needed access to alternative ways to get resources. The goal was to build a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, he said answering a question about the U.S. policy.

India and the United States formed the “book-ends of stability” at two ends of the world, the Secretary said and, “The security concerns of India are of concern to the United States.”

In a period of uncertainty in the world, “India needs a reliable partner on the world stage, and the United States is that partner,” Tillerson said, adding, “It is time to double-down on the democratic partner,” who he said, “is rising steadily and will rise for the next 100 years.”

President Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, are committed to building an “ambitious partnership” and Washington wants to “dramatically deepen” the relationship.

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Indian American Democrat Juli Mathew, 41, of Texas has announced her candidacy for county judge in Fort Bend, Texas including the districts of Sugarland, Missouri City and Stafford, Texas.

Mathew believes that she can do better than many in the judiciary in Fort Bend because she has an unbiased outlook with no judicial legacy and added that it seemed odd that although minorities account for about half of the population in the county, no one has never been an elected minority judge.

“I believe in being fair while upholding our Constitution, state, and local rules also, the current judges in office are relatives or sons of previous judges or relatives of other office holders in the county and this didn’t sit well with me,” she said.

She also acknowledged the fact that there have been a few judges of Indian-American descent like Ravi Sandill of the 127th District Court in Harris County, Texas, who has announced his candidacy for the Supreme Court of Texas, Place 4.

“I believe more and more people from the community should come forward to join the judiciary. Apart from the fact, that it gives better visibility to the community, it will also serve as an example to the young generation that someday they can also aspire to become elected to public offices. They would realize that with hard work and a dream, almost everything is possible in this country,” she added.

Although a Chinese-American candidate and an African-American are running against her on the Republican side, Mathew hopes that the county turns blue just like they did in the last presidential election for Hillary Clinton.

“I think if the Indian-Americans and the minority voters come forward to vote for me, I may become the first elected Indian-American judge from Fort Bend,” she stated.

Mathew is from Kerala and has received her juris doctorate from Widener Law School in Delaware, has been practicing law in Fort Bend, Texas since 2002 and will be participating in the primary on March 6, 2018.

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Nikki Haley urged the U.N. Security Council to consider a wide range of Iran’s “destabilizing” actions in the Middle East in an early test of whether President Donald Trump’s toughening position on the Islamic Republic is alienating allies and leaving the U.S. isolated internationally.

Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, used a Security Council meeting Wednesday on “the situation in the Middle East” to once again take on Tehran’s ballistic-missile program and its support for Hezbollah and Syrian ruler Bashar Assad. But most of the other participants sought to focus on Israeli-Palestinian issues, especially Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.

The meeting was the first public effort to gauge support for the U.S. position on Iran after Trump declined to certify the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on Oct. 13. Trump, making a determination required under U.S. law every 90 days, said the agreement with Iran and five other nations wasn’t serving U.S. national security interests, though he stopped short of quitting the accord entirely.

“Judging Iran by the narrow confines of the nuclear deal misses the true nature of the threat,” Haley told the Security Council. “Iran must be judged in totality of its destructive and unlawful behavior. To do otherwise is foolish.”

Despite Trump’s criticisms, U.S. allies have said they continue to back the agreement, pointing to International Atomic Energy Agency assessments that Iran has met its requirements under the accord. The agreement, negotiated during the Obama administration, was intended to ease economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

Europe’s position hasn’t changed since Trump’s speech, said Olof Skoog, Sweden’s ambassador to the U.N. Skoog said the Middle East debate should focus on the peace process and not the nuclear deal.

“The nuclear agreement is underpinned by UN Security Council resolutions. It’s clear where we stand,” Skoog said. “The EU is determined to preserve the JCPOA as a key pillar of the international nonproliferation architecture.”

Representatives of Japan and the U.K. said Wednesday that they continued to support the Iran accord and that all of the participating nations should continue to abide by its provisions.

In a swipe at Haley, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he wondered if “some delegates” were confused about the agenda item. “The fact that some delegations did not mention the word ‘Palestine’ saddens us,” he said.

The Security Council has maintained a critical stance toward Israel for years, and Arab nations, including U.S. allies, have resisted shifting that emphasis. Israel’s settlement policies are routinely criticized at the Security Council.

During her confirmation hearings in January, Haley said one of her main goals was to change the “anti-Israel bias” at the U.N.

“Nowhere has the U.N.’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel,” she said at the hearing. The U.S. envoy frequently criticizes Iran’s regional role, its testing of ballistic missiles and human rights violations. In July, she helped persuade France, Germany and the U.K. to sign a letter of protest to the Security Council about Iran’s “threatening and provocative” launch of a rocket that can carry a satellite into space.

But this time, France and the U.K. have signaled they will focus less on Iran and more on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

“For some countries this is an opportunity to go beyond the peace process itself to describe the situation in region — some countries might do that,” François Delattre, France’s ambassador to the UN, said before Wednesday’s hearing. “For others it’s also a great opportunity to focus precisely on the peace process, what needs to be done, and settlement activity. As for France, we will focus on the Middle East peace process, but I cannot say I will not mention other issues as well.”

– Bloomberg

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Tomorrow, many Indian Americans will be celebrating Diwali and on this auspicious day, we all love to use fireworks.

However, New Jersey law is prohibiting the use of fireworks which will leave the ground or make loud noise, during this holiday as several calls have been made to the South Brunswick Fire Marshal’s Office and South Brunswick Police about the use of fireworks this year.

Governor Chris Christie legalized the sale of non-explosive, non- aerial fireworks in June, thus the law allows only non-aerial fireworks such as hand-held sparklers, ground-based sparklers and novelty fireworks such as poppers and snappers.

All other fireworks remain illegal to sell and use in New Jersey, including firecrackers, aerials, sky rockets/bottle rockets, single-tube device with report, reloadable shell device/Roman candles.

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Nearly 10 days after Indian-American toddler Sherin Mathews disappeared at around 3 a.m. on Oct. 7, when she was punished by her foster father for not finishing her milk, police in Richardson, Texas are now using drones and cadaver dogs to find her.

“We’re always hopeful that we can find her alive, but time is our enemy. So, we’re trying to progress as quickly as we possibly can in this case,” Sergeant Kevin Perlich told PTI.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Officer and the Mansfield Police Department are aiding the Richardson Police Department in the search in a field near Richland College, which is less than three miles away from the Mathews home, where she went missing.

Police told PTI that they have conducted multiple searches in the “areas of interest” including fields, creeks and wooded areas and told local media that earlier in the day they found “objects of interest,” but did not specify what those objects were or how they are related to the case.

“Detectives will evaluate the results of today’s efforts while the investigation continues,” Richardson police said on Facebook and added that they will continue to perform “specific searches” like this as more tips come in.

Authorities did search the same area on Oct. 13, but wanted to make sure that they didn’t miss anything.

Authorities also say that the family’s SUV disappeared for an hour the morning Sherin disappeared and they are asking any neighbors with surveillance video of the vehicle to come forward.

Meanwhile, a priest placed a sign outside the Mathews’ family home calling on Sherin’s parents to “tell the truth.”

“We the community are never going to stop until we find Sherin,” Thomas Ambalevelil told PTI as police say Sherin’s parents both remain “uncooperative,” regarding the case.

Child Protective Services already took custody of their other biological daughter, age 4, shortly after their father Wesley Mathews was arrested and although he has been bonded out, he has been charged with child endangerment and ordered to wear an ankle monitor as the investigation continues.

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Gurez (Jammu and Kashmir) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday celebrated Diwali with soldiers in this idyllic valley of Jammu and Kashmir, telling them how he gets engergized by spending time with the Armed Forces which he called “my family”.

Dressed like soldiers in military camouflage, Modi sported a black aviator on his eyes and spent nearly two hours with the troops in the Gurez valley near the Line of Control (LoC) — the de facto border that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

He offered sweets and gifts and exchanged greetings with them, appreciating the sacrifices of armed forces in protecting the country.

He said like everyone else he too wished to spend Diwali with his family.

“Therefore, I came here to be with you because you are my family. When I shake hands with you, you may think it is a formality. But it is not a formality for me. I get new energy,” he said in his address to the gathering of the men in uniform.

The Prime Minister said he had been told that the soldiers on the borders regularly practice yoga which would “definitely enhance their abilities, and give them a sense of calm”.

He said soldiers who leave the armed forces after completing their duty tenure “can become excellent yoga trainers”.

In the visitors’ book, Modi wrote: “Protecting the Motherland, far from your loved ones, displaying the highest traditions of sacrifice, all soldiers at the nation’s borders, are symbols of bravery and dedication.

“I have an opportunity to spend the festival of Diwali with you. The presence of brave soldiers at the border, on this festive occasion, lights the lamp of hope, and generates new energy among crores of Indians.”

The Prime Minister, according to an official statement, spoke of the new resolve that each Indian citizen must make for 2022 — the 75th anniversary of Independence.

“To accomplish the dream of ‘New India’, this is a golden opportunity for all of us to work together. The Army too is a part of it.”

He also said that the central government was committed to the “welfare and the betterment” of the military personnel, in every way possible.

He mentioned about the implementation of One Rank, One Pension, which had been pending for decades.

The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. B.S. Rawat, and other senior Army Officers were present on the occasion.

The Prime Minister arrived at the Dawar Brigade headquarters of the Army in the border town of Gurez, some 130 km from Srinagar, in north Kashmir’s Bandipore district.

Gurez is the gateway to Gilgit-Baltistan, part of the Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistani control.

This is the fourth successive Diwali Modi celebrated with soldiers. In 2014, months after he took the power, Modi spent the festival at Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield.

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An Indian-American from New York who was part of Hillary Clinton’s transition team, is President Trump’s candidate for the Federal Trade Commission.

Rohit Chopra of New York, will serve as a Commissioner of FTC to serve for the remainder of a seven-year term expiring September 25, 2019, if his nomination is cleared by the U.S. Senate.

According to a report in Politico, Chopra was hired at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau early in Elizabeth Warren’s tenure when she headed that agency during the Obama administration. In an Aug. 30, 2016 report, the news outlet said, “Politico has learned that Hillary Clinton has named a progressive with close ties to Elizabeth Warren to her transition team in a move that seems aimed at mollifying liberals unhappy with earlier choices.”

Chopra it said, “battled for-profit colleges and loan servicers as the student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…”

In 2015, Chopra was also considered as a possible candidate to become New York’s top financial regulator, the Politico report said, getting a “ringing” endorsement from Warren.

Chopra is currently a Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, where he focuses on consumer protection issues facing young people and military families, the White House said in a press release.

From 2010-2015, he served at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Assistant Director, where he oversaw the agency’s work on student financial services issues.  The Secretary of the Treasury also appointed him as the agency’s student loan ombudsman, the White House said.

In 2016, he was Special Adviser to the Secretary of Education.

Before he joined government service, Chopra was an associate at McKinsey & Company, where he served clients in the financial services and consumer technology sectors.

Chopra holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  He was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship.

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NEW DELHI – The sweets usually fly off the shelves during the Hindu festival of Diwali, but this year, only a handful of passersby stopped by. Idle employees waited around to take down orders while the neatly piled towers of shimmering confections waited for a customer.

Famed in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk market, Kanwarji Bhagirathmal is one of many small businesses in Delhi where sales have slowed. “This time last year, there was a rush of people standing in front of the shop,” said Rachit Gupta, who runs the sweet shop. “People who were spending 1,000 rupees ($15) last year are spending 600-700 now ($9-$11).”

In the past year, India’s economic performance has fallen short of expectations. The shock of major economic changes has caused panic and confusion, leaving some small businesses like Gupta’s with slower sales than in past years.

“If food is something people are willing to forgo, then I’m not sure what’s happening to others,” he said.

The downturn is especially bitter because of the promises Prime Minister Narendra Modi made when he came to power in 2014. Chiding his predecessor Manmohan Singh, an Oxford-educated economist who oversaw the economic liberalization of India in the 1990s, Modi presented himself as a financial genius who presided over the state of Gujarat throughout years of boom. He spoke of his own rise from a streetside tea seller as a personal economic miracle, promising jobs for the young and a new focus on manufacturing to take on neighboring China.

But Modi’s promises have gone unfulfilled. Growth slumped to a three-year low from April to June, just 5.7 percent. Job creation has stagnated, leaving millions without work.

In November 2016, Modi made a surprise announcement declaring 86 percent of India’s cash defunct, saying the process of replacing the country’s paper money, also known as demonetization, would do away with untaxed stacks of “black money.” Just afterward, the queues outside Gupta’s shop vanished entirely. “I didn’t see people coming for days,” he said.

In July, a new goods and services tax was introduced, but there has been confusion over its implementation. The tax replaced varied state taxes and consolidates India’s economy into a single market for the first time, and it resulted in a price hike for items and services. Gupta, like many traders in Chandni Chowk, still doesn’t know how much tax to charge. He said even his accountant didn’t know. “If the people at the top don’t know what’s happening,” he said, “then how will people lower down the ladder know what to do?”

“Everything was fine” until Modi’s economic changes kicked in, said Jayshree Sengupta, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. She said demonetization hurt India’s vast informal sector, which dealt primarily in cash, and was unmonitored and untaxed by the government. “Suddenly they lost cash flow, they had to wind up micro businesses and go back to their villages,” she said. “They haven’t come back.”

For small and medium firms, Sengupta said, the tax overhaul created a huge amount of paperwork. “Many people are not computer literate, they don’t know how to do online filing,” she said. “People are not selling in fear of having to do all this work.”

Sengupta said that Modi’s weakness was an unwillingness to take advice from trained economists. “He doesn’t consult,” she said.

Modi’s government has made efforts to lessen the negative effects of his overhaul on small businesses: A defunct economic advisory council was reconstituted, and the goods and services tax was lowered on some items including dried mango and yarn. In a speech in early October, Modi dismissed his critics.

“Do you think this is the first time that GDP growth rate has hit 5.7 percent?” he asked, addressing an audience from the Institute of Company Secretaries. “There are some people who enjoy spreading pessimism. It helps them sleep better.”

Surjit Bhalla, a part-time member of Modi’s economic advisory council, said it is too early to draw conclusions about how small businesses have weathered Modi’s changes. He said Modi has commissioned a survey that will contain strong indicators about how companies have fared, and he said it’s likely that the effects on employment and wages in the sector will be evident next year.

From Gupta’s perspective, people are not spending because the economic slump has disturbed them at a spiritual level. “There has been no mental peace this past year,” he said. “People are not calm in their minds.”

Kanwarji’s, named after Gupta’s great-great-great grandfather, Lala Kanwar Sain, has stood in the same spot since the mid 19th century. To the residents of Chandni Chowk, the establishment is a landmark in one of the busiest markets in Delhi. Sweets of all shapes and sizes, some covered with a thin silver foil, some studded with almonds and pistachios, surround Gupta’s staff. Passersby eye the stacks of sausage-shaped gulab jamuns soaked in sugar, Gupta’s specialty, as suppliers push past them, carrying boxes of ingredients on their heads.

But as the festive season of Diwali approaches, Kanwarji’s is struggling to cope with the drop in sales. “In the seven years since I’ve started running this place, I’ve never had a year so bad,” Gupta said.

A few doors down, a man who sells Indian wedding suits says sales have dropped to below half of last year’s. Across the street, an electric lights market is set up for Diwali, with blinking multicolored wires strung up for show. But no one is buying.

“It’s a very confused market,” said Vatsal Narula, 23, who was watching over his father’s lights shop. The new tax regime has hiked up the cost of their products. “They’re introducing everything too fast. They hadn’t even completed one thing properly, and they already started moving on to the next.”

Sengupta said India’s economy will likely survive the shocks of the overhaul but that Modi’s once-shining career is starting to tarnish. “India never collapses. Things will move on and come back to normal in some time,” he said.

But for the people of Chandni Chowk this year, the economic slump will have a marked impact on a festival that is India’s equivalent of Christmas. “People are saying it doesn’t feel like Diwali this year,” Narula said. “Very few are putting up lights. They’re spending the bare minimum.”

– Washington Post

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An annual candidate forum was held recently by the Indian American Forum for Political Education at the Reston Association Center in Reston, Virginia and was largely attended by candidates running for office in the state of Virginia this November.

Attendees included Ralph Northam, the candidate for governor and the current lieutenant governor; Mark Herring, attorney general and candidate for A.G.; Justin Fairfax, candidate for L.G. and John Jagger who represented Jill Vogel, the candidate for lieutenant governor.

All candidates and surrogates shared their visions for the issues important to Virginia and their speeches were followed by a Q and A session where IAFPE board members and other attendees asked questions. Many were concerned about racial hate crimes and the lack of harmony in the community along with student loan debt, and taxes.

Questions were also raised about what some attendees saw as crumbling infrastructure of the state, the heavy toll cost on toll roads, Medicaid expansion and gun control, to which Del. Ken Plum said that he supports the practice of conducting universal background checks and conveys that specific message to the NRA on a regular basis as its headquarters are located in his district.

Apart from Plum, other members of the Virginia House of Delegates and candidates running for those offices at the forum, included Dels. Jennifer Boysco, John Bell, Richard Anderson, Vivian Watts; and candidates for delegate Lolita Macheno-Smoak, Kathy Tran and Kerrie Delaney. The forum’s sponsors at the event included former president of IAFPE Sampath Krishnan, Sant Gupta, Shekar Narasimhan, Ram Singh, Poonam Bansal, Regina Gahunia, Satish Korpe, Vijay Agarwal and Manisha Singh, the current president of IAFPE.

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Indian American Amar D. Patel, 36, of Delran, New Jersey has pleaded guilty to stealing $15,700 from deposit bags in three Burlington County post offices over the course of nearly a year while he was a U.S. Postal Service supervisor.

According to NJ.com, after agents for the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General in the Riverside post office came to know of the cash shortages in deposits, they installed surveillance cameras which revealed that Patel was tearing a sealed tamper-evident bag, removing cash, and sticking the money into his pocket, the revealed.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Patel stole 12 times from post offices in Delran, Delanco and Riverside between Feb. 20, 2016 and Jan. 14, 2017 and was caught red-handed on the afternoon of Jan. 14.

Patel pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly embezzling, stealing, purloining, and converting to his use U.S. Postal Service funds exceeding $1,000 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison with a $250,000 fine on the embezzlement charge, he will be sentenced on Jan. 26, 2018.

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