It was shocking news for the Indian community in Britain. The most influential British-Indian politician was ousted from the government in an unceremonious way. International Development Secretary Priti Patel was recalled from her Uganda trip and forced to submit her resignation for breaching the ministerial code of conduct.

What a fall! Just a few days back, she was sort of in the shoes of Prime Minister Theresa May to welcome guests at No 10 Downing Street to celebrate Diwali. We thought — a Prime Minister in waiting. A proud moment for the 1.5 million Indian-origin British citizens. We are getting closer and closer to the epicenter of British power. Former Prime Minister David Cameron’s prophecies will become a reality very soon. But that hope was shattered.

Patel, a former Indian diaspora champion and a Pravasi Bharatiya Puraskar awardee, became a victim of her own actions. Surprisingly nobody was there to mourn for her. Neither any party colleagues like MP Alok Sharma or the influential Conservative Friends of India.

Her departure won’t affect India’s influence in the power corridors, because the post-Brexit Britain needs India more than India needs Britain. Patel was hiding behind the Ministerial Code of Ethics when India was humiliated by pro-Pakistani Members of Parliament over the Kashmir issue.

She never supported repeated calls from Indian leaders to relax visa rules for Indian students. Patel even campaigned to tighten the visa rules for foreign chefs at curry houses. That caused the closure of hundreds of restaurants across the country.

She was silent when hundreds of immigrants were racially abused on the streets just after the EU referendum. Who cares about immigrants when they are not part of your constituency? With a majority of 27,000 plus votes, Patel was quite comfortable with her agenda.

She burned all her bridges to fulfill a personal agenda to reach No. 10. India was on the back burner whereas Israel and its powerful lobby with plenty of money at its disposal came on the agenda. Indians are top on the British rich list, but they will think twice to open their cheque book. Some of them are already in trouble over political donations for personal favours.

Without a Godfather or backing from any senior leaders, Patel’s fate was sealed when the first report exposed her unscheduled meeting with Israeli leaders. The first justification from her was that it was a private holiday and some private meetings.

Later the picture was clear. A private summer holiday accompanied by an Israeli lobbyist and 12 meetings with Israeli ministers and top officials. Then came the shocking news. A private meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Poor May. She came to know about the meeting, when the Israeli Prime Minister arrived at No. 10 with an entourage for an official reception. That forced Patel to file an apology.

In the Commons, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said that Downing Street regarded the matter “as closed” after Patel was reprimanded by the Prime Minister and reminded of her obligations under the ministerial code. But the report of her another unscheduled meeting with another Israeli minister triggered a major crisis. That put May in trouble.

Patel conducted two meetings in September without the presence of any government officials. One of the meetings was with Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan in Westminster on September 7. Israelis got what they wanted, but Britain has no clue about what they discussed.

It is thought Lord Polak, honorary President of the Conservative Friends of Israel, was present at both the meetings. That sealed Patel’s fate.

There are three lessons to learn from Patel’s fall. Ambition is good, but over ambition is fatal. Second, if you want to succeed, you have to abide by the rules, especially the ministerial code of conduct. The last one is — if you want to go fast, go alone. But, if you want to go far, go together.

Patel paid the price for not being part of the community despite her ethnic surname or upbringing. The Brexit campaign was the finest example. When most of the Indian community and its leaders were campaigning and supporting Cameron to remain in the EU, she challenged the arguments by aligning with the right-wing media and right-wing politicians.

She was the poster girl of the “Leave” campaign and that undermined the credibility of her mentor Cameron.

Patel was a creation of Cameron. He was promoting her along with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to woo the Indian and Pakistani voters. Both worked hard to promote the Cameron agenda to reach No. 10. The strategy clicked. When Sayeeda was honored with a cabinet berth, Patel was assigned to a junior treasury post.

The immigrant voters in Britain are usually loyal to the Labor Party. But Cameron doubled the ethnic vote share within five years in the government. That helped him to retain power in 2015. He was expecting support from the entire A Team, including Patel and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in his EU Referendum campaign.

Despite differences, most of the Tory leadership, except jilted leaders like Michael Gove, were pitching for “Remain” in the EU. Patel was the first one to jump ship. There was speculation about Patel at Westminster. But she rejected every allegation calling them “mere speculations”.

Just after the announcement of the Referendum date, Patel was among the first batch of Tories to reach the Leave Campaign headquarters to offer allegiance. Cameron was betrayed. He was planning to anoint Chancellor George Osborne to the prime post in 2020.

To maintain the gender balance and a move to snub Labor for not appointing Harriet Harman as Deputy Prime Minister to Gordon Brown, Patel was earmarked for a senior post — probably the deputy Prime Ministership. But she spoiled that opportunity by leaving the Cameron camp.

After losing the referendum, Cameron left No. 10 to pave the way for May. Patel was promoted to the cabinet as International Development Secretary to handle the 12 billion pound UK aid budget. There are many allegations over the spending of the UK aid. Some part of it will end up in the coffers of corrupt politicians in Asia and Africa.

People were expecting that Patel will use her budget diligently. But she was offering a slice of that to the Israeli Army.

By visiting Golan Heights, she undermined the British stance of neutrality on the Arab-Israeli conflict during the centenary of the Balfour declaration. At just 45, a bright young Indian-origin politician has spoiled her opportunity to get into one of the most powerful positions in the world. What a shame.

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NEW DELHI – The central government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it will bring a bill during the Winter Session of Parliament to amend the Representation of People Act for allowing Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to exercise their franchise from their offshore locations.

Seeking that the matter be adjourned for six months, the central government on Friday told the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that permitting the NRIs to vote from their overseas location was being done through legislation that will be brought during the Winter Session of Parliament.

However, the court adjourned the hearing for 12 weeks.

In the earlier hearing of the matter on July 21, the top court had asked the central government to tell it the time it would require for bringing a bill to amend the Representation of People Act.

A team of ministers had on July 20, 2017, decided that to “facilitate external modes of voting to the overseas electors, amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951 would be required by way of introduction of Bill in Parliament”, the bench was told during the July 21 hearing.

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“Mara Chokra Ne Jitadvo Che” roughly translated to mean “I’ve got to get my son to win” was the rallying cry from Madhuben a senior in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who walks with a cane and made it to the polls. It symbolizes the apparent mobilization of the Indian-American community in the Nov. 7 elections around the country.

From the New Jersey State Senate to the City of Hoboken, from Washington State Senate District, to the Asheville City Council in North Carolina, Indian Americans made huge gains not just for the community but for the Democratic Party that had pinned hopes on them in some tough districts. All of it despite the failed attempts by yet unidentified sources, to infuse racial and ethnic tensions possibly meant to hijack the democratic process.

“What’s encouraging about this election is that Indian-Americans are not just focusing on Congress but on every level of government,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPIdata.com, told News India Times. “Another remarkable element is  so many women running is races,” he added.

He and co-author Alton Wong, writing on their blog note, “The biggest theme coming out of the November 2017 elections was a clear repudiation of immigrant bashing and ethnic nationalism.” New Jersey, where the racial attacks were most blatant, also led the way in terms of Indian-American wins.

Vin Gopal, the charismatic rising star and former New Jersey Monmouth County Democratic Party chair, beat his Republican incumbent of 11 years, Jennifer Beck, in the most hotly contested and most expensive District 11 race in that state. He becomes the first Indian-American to be in the N.J. State Senate.

Madhuben was voting for the first time in her 35 years in this country was obviously moved by the fact that an Indian-American was running from her District 11. “One of my proudest moments of my life. Inspired by the commitment of our community to perform their civic duty!” said Ritesh Shah when he posted Madhuben’s photo on Facebook.

New Mayor of Hoboken, N.J. Ravinder Bhalla, the first Indian-American and first Sikh to occupy that post after the Nov. 7 elections. (Photo: Facebook)

In winning, Gopal turned a long time red seat into blue. And despite the district having few Indian-Americans, members of the community rallied till the last day to bring their own to the polling booth. Gopal won by a several thousand votes (53 percent to Beck’s 47 percent) according to unofficial results.

“My dream came true. We brought each and every Indian American to the polls,” Ritesh Shah,co-founder of the South Asian Registration Initiative, told News India Times.

New Jersey Assemblyman Raj Mukherji told News India Times, “Nobody on earth works harder for their community than Vin Gopal. His historic election to the Senate – the first South Asian in state history – will double our presence in the State Legislature, but what’s remarkable is the margin and how he knocked off a popular incumbent in a Republican district.”

Mukherji went on to praise Gopal for his zealousness and for being a tireless advocate and ‘honest to a fault. “We are going to do great things together. It’s a proud day to be brown. Big difference from a year ago when I woke up hoping it was all a bad dream,” Mukherji added. But “appropriate” representation is still wanting. With New Jersey’s 8.9 million people, four percent of whom are Indian-American, “If you round that up with the number of legislators (40 Senators and 80 Assembly members) we should have at least 5 Indian-American legislators in New Jersey,” said Assemblyman Mukherji, who won back his seat from Jersey City Nov. 7.

Nevertheless, Indian-Americans are quite ecstatic with what they achieved in New Jersey, where in the city of Hoboken, the town across the Hudson crowded with professionals who work in New York, Councilman Ravinder Bhalla, a turbaned Sikh became the new Mayor.

“This year marks the 30th anniversary of the reprehensible Dotbuster attacks that struck fear into the hearts of innocent, hard working Indian Americans in my hometown of Jersey City,” Mukherji told News India Times via text. “I am privileged that 30 years later, despite the injection of racism to political campaigns all over the country, that legislative district – which is home to Ellis Island – will again be represented by the only Indian American in the State Assembly.”

New Jersey has one of the largest concentrations of Indian-Americans in the country, and it has been a long held angst that they are not proportionately represented in public office. Hence, for Indian-Americans nationwide, New Jersey where they contested up and down the ballot, was a yardstick for measuring whether they can make a breakthrough the ethnic ceiling as a formidable force future politicians would have to contend with.

According to rough estimates by Shah, there are some 370,000 Indian-Americans living in New Jersey. This is the highest of any state, up from the nearly 300,000 (292,000) in the 2010 Census. He spoke to News India Times about how Indian Americans came to the polls all around the state especially after offensive racially tinged flyers were circulated that called for deporting an Indian American and a Chinese American from the country, as well as against Ravinder Bhalla.

Another significant win for Indian-Americans is that of Democrat Phil Murphy for Governor of the state, ousting Republican contender Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. Amit  Jani, director of Asian outreach for Murphy, told News India Times, “historic” numbers of Indian-Americans held formal positions in Murphy’s campaign. Murphy courted this community throughout his campaign attending numerous events and fundraisers of Indian-Americans. “There are a lot of folks in their 20s and 30s who are drawn to politics this campaign season, So are older Indian-Americans, ” Jani said, not least because of candidates fielded up and down the ballot. “We had a good night (last night),” he said.

Candidate for Congress from New Jersey, Peter Jacob, who ran and lost against Republican Leonard Lance last year but secured more than 40 percent of the vote, told News India Times “The victories around the nation are inspiring,” adding, “We need people who think about not just the next election but also the next generation.” He hopes someone from the East Coast will also get to Capitol Hill by next year, as the Indian-Americans currently in Congress are from the West Coast and Midwest. “These Nov. 7 elections pave the way for 2018,” Jacob said.

High Hopes

On the West Coast, the highlight for Indian-Americans was Manka Dhingra, an attorney and specialist in mental health and domestic violence issues, who defeated her Republican opponent handily to make it into the state Senate. She is the first Indian-American to win a seat on that body, and her race turned the upper house into Democratic hands. Another young Indian-American, Satwinder Kaur, won her race for the Kent City Council in Washington state.

Before election day, some Indian-Americans were concerned about turning out the vote of what is considered the most educated and highest income-earning group in the country, often touted as the ‘model minority’. But they delivered, according to Shah, who crunched the numbers for his District 11, claiming 80 to 90 percent of Indian American voters went to the polls, a historic high, and one that will not go unnoticed by party bigwigs whose victorious gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, also belonged to Monmouth County, Gopal’s constituency.

“Yesterday was a very good day, not just for Democrats, but also for Indian Americans.  We had candidates win elections in every part of the country, and in some significant races,” said Sekhar Narasimhan, a Virginia businessman, and founder of AAPI Victory Fund, an organization with a mission to raise voter participation of Asian Americans. He reeled off names like Dhingra, Gopal, Bhalla, and also Dimple Ajmera, elected to the Charlotte City Council in North Carolina. “Numerous other Indian Americans ran in 2017 in primaries and in other states, including Virginia, New York, Georgia and Florida,” Narasimhan said, adding, “This outburst of energy from the next generation of Indian Americans is a reaction to the xenophobic attacks on all people of color.  The positive side is that there is a political infrastructure for them to tap into, and then the numbers that are successful will therefore increase.  We expect this to continue into the halls of Congress and ultimately the Oval Office.”

For Indian-Americans nationwide, an overwhelming 70 percent of whom claim to be Democrats, the victory of Ralph Northam as Governor of Virginia, defeating Republican Ed Gillespie, was another feather in the cap. The community has mobilized over the last few years as its population grows in Virginia and areas surrounding Washington, D.C. In Virginia, the Asian American electorate has grown 176% since 2000, while in New Jersey, it rose 172% in the same time, Ramakrishnan et al note, adding that every state in the U.S. has doubled the size of the Asian American (and Pacific Islander) population since 2000 (except Hawaii which has been AAPI majority all along). “If the 2017 election is any indication, the AAPI electorate will continue to have an increasing impact on elections to come—including the 2018 midterms next year,” Ramakrishnan and Wong predict.

Precedent

Gopal’s win in a largely white district is not without precedent. Historically, Indian-American candidates have done well in districts around the country where the population is majority white – the earliest of them all, Kumar Barve in Maryland who continues to represent Montgomery County in the House of Delegates since 1990; Satveer Chaudhary who first won his seat to the Minnesota House of Representatives (2001-2003) and then to the state Senate (2003-2011); Swati Dandekar in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2003-2009 and the state Senate from 2009-2011; The same goes for state races like former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, and former Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal. Not least of all, the significant victories at the national level in 2016, that catapulted one Indian-American, Kamala Harris, to the U.S. Senate, and four to the U.S. House – Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois; Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington; Ro Khanna, D-California; and Ami Bera, D-California.

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NEW YORK – The AIA New York Chapter celebrated the Seventh Children’s Diwali last month, at Bellerose Library.

Many children and their parents attended the event as well as Shashi Shah, the AIA National President; Gobind Munjal, the AIA NY Chapter President; Vice Presidents Harish Thakkar and Dr. Bal Gilja; Anita Thakkar, the Children’s Diwali in Library Chair; Jyoti Gupta, the cultural co-chair and members Hargovind Gupta and Gunjan Rastogi.

The program started with the singing of the American and Indian National anthems followed by a Ganesh Vandana dance performance by the daughter of Smita Guha, a professor and singer.

Children then enjoyed refreshments along with many activities, including a cultural program, learning about the Indian culture and Diwali festival, applying mehndi, painting diyas and participating in the best-dressed children competition.

Munjal expressed the need to expand the Children’s Diwali program in various other libraries and invited suggestions from the audience as to what kind of improvements they would like to see in these programs.

The AIA NY Chapter also held their annual Diwali festival on Sunday, Oct. 1, at South Street Seaport.

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Vijaykumar Krishnappa, 29, an Indian national, pleaded guilty Nov. 8, to assaulting a girl on a flight from Seattle, Washington to Newark Liberty International Airport this July.

Documents filed in the case and statements made in court show Krishnappa intentionally assaulted a girl, who he did not know, seated next to him on the flight July 23, according to a press release from New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick.

Krishnappa admitted to U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark in Newark federal court, that he intentionally touched the victim near her groin over her leggings without her consent, while she was asleep. He will be sentenced on Jan. 17, 2018, to anywhere between 30 and 90 days in prison.

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The Surati Lights of Diwali Festival held on Sunday, Nov. 5 at the Exchange Place in Jersey City and was sponsored by Carepoint Health, NJCU (New Jersey City University), BCB Community Bank, The Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, Jersey City Cultural Affairs, Sangita Dutta from New York Life, Buyrite Liquors and I2IFusion.

The highlight of the evening was Surati’s original version of the Ramayana Musical – Excerpts from “Ramaavan” – The Story of Ram and Ravan, inspired by the epic tale from India “Valmiki Ramayana” – an ancient literary work written by the sage Valmiki, consisted of over 26 cast and crew members and was conceptualized and directed by Rimli Roy, the founder and artistic director of Surati.

The Ramayana Musical was performed in English with both live and recorded music along with elements of Indian classical dance, song, musical theater, opera, jazz, Indian dance theater and fusion genres from around the world.

The script is written by Arati Roy and original music was given by Sumit Roy and Rajesh Roy along with Foluso Mimy and Tripp Dudley, the costumes and set was design by Rimli Roy and Arati Roy, the sound design was given by Bushwick Sounds and the lighting design was given by Matt Catron.

The cast included Kabir Bery as Ram; Kristin Guerin as Sita; James Hamrick as Laxman; Keith Ocampo as Ravan; Rebecca Rapoport-Cole as Surpanakha; Manikantha Yaganamurthy as Hanuman; Paloma De Vega as a Jatayu and a dancer; Vidhya Dinesh as the Golden Deer; Reba Browne as a voice narrator and a dancer; Paulina Natasha Yeung as the Soul of Sita, an Opera Singer; Cinna Chandran as a danced narrator and a dancer; and Danish Farooqi, Abhishek Singhania, Shiva Prasad and Taral Almoula as Ravan’s warriors and dancers.

Other members who organized the event were Reba Browne, the creative director; Cinna Chandran, the assistant artistic director; Vidhya Dinesh, the assistant program director; Megha Sanghavi, the costume manager; Ankita Deshmukh, the administrative assistant and Karan Pande, the production assistant.

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New Jersey Winners:

• Vin Gopal, State Senate
• Raj Mukherji, State Assembly
• Ravi Bhalla, Mayor of Hoboken
• Hemant Marathe, Mayor of West Windsor
• Shanti Narra, Freeholder for Middlesex County
• Balvir Singh, Freeholder for Burlington County
• Viru Patel, Councilman, Woodbridge
• Samip (Sam) Joshi, Councilman, Edison
• Sangeeta Doshi, Councilwoman, Cherry Hill
• Ayesha Krishnan Hamilton, Township Council, West Windsor
• Devanshu Modi, Township Committee, Harding
• Sadaf F. Jaffer, Township Committee, Montgomery
• Falguni Patel, Board of Education, Edison
• Nishtha Desai, Board of Education, Franklin Park
• Chetali Khanna, Board of Education, Hoboken
• Srinivas Dhulipala, Board of Education, Alpine
• Sheetal M. Patel, Board of Education, Upper Deerfield
• Deven Patel, Board of Education, South Brunswick
• Anjali Desai, School Board, Merchantville Borough
• J. Joyce Methta, School Board, South Brunswick
• Ranjana R. Rao, Montgomery-Rocky Hill School District

New Jersey Also-Ran:

• Kamal Khanna, Mayor of West Windsor
• Priti Pandya Patel, Freeholder for Middlesex County
• Jaswinder Singh, Councilman, Carteret
• Jessica Patel, Councilwoman, Fair Haven Borough
• Laxman Kanduri, Ward 1 Council, Franklin
• Rupande Mehta, Ward 4 Council, Denville
• Rekha Nandwani, Ward C Council, Jersey City
• Rakesh Kak, Board of Education, West Windsor
• Ruchika Juneja, Board of Education, Edison
• Sunil Vuppula, Board of Education, Edison
• Deep Shukla, Board of Education, Edison
• Mahendra Patel, Board of Education, South Brunswick
• Sanjay Desai, Board of Education, Woodland Park
• Amilkumar Patel, School Board, of South Brunswick
• Kiru Thangavelu, Hillsborough- Millstone School District

Other Winners Around The US:

• Vijay Kapoor, City Council, Asheville, North Carolina
• Seema Singh Perez, City Council, 3rd District in Knoxville, Tennessee
• Dimple Ajmera, City Council, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Neil Verma, Council Position 1, in Bellaire, Texas
• Manka Dhingra, State Senate, Washington State
• Vandana Slatter, State Representative, Legislative District 48 in Washington State
• Satwinder Kaur, City Council Position No. 2, Kent, Washington State
• Tanika Padhye, City Council Position No. 4, Redmond, Washington State
• Maya Vengadasalam, Director, District No. 5, Kent School District No. 415, Washington State

Other Also-Ran around the US:

• Preeti Shridhar, Port of Seattle Commission, Seattle, Washington
• Krisha Chachra, Mayor of Blackburg, Virginia
• Hari Pillai, City Council, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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The best thing about “Ittefaq” is its runtime of 107 minutes. Director Abhay Chopra seems to have realised what many in Bollywood haven’t – when it comes to thrillers and mysteries, it is best to keep it short. Bereft of item songs and irrelevant sub-plots, the film sticks to its main theme and comes out looking good.

Unlike the original 1969 film with the same title, Chopra adopts a Rashomon-like approach in his remake. Vikram Sethi (Siddharth Malhotra) is a renowned author whose wife is found dead in her hotel room. Under suspicion for murder, he goes on the run and lands up at Maya’s (Sonakshi Sinha) doorstep. Next, we find Maya’s husband lying dead in their tastefully done-up living room with a fatal wound on the head. She claims Vikram killed her husband, but Vikram tells police that the man was likely dead before he arrived.

Caught in the middle of these two versions is detective Dev (Akshaye Khanna). The wry and straight-talking policeman has to sift through the many clues and red herrings in his path, and he does so in style.

Khanna is undoubtedly the star of this film. He gets the best lines and delivers them with panache – trademark half-scowl and deadpan wit in place. Both Vikram and Maya are merely supporting characters who hinder Dev’s pursuit of the truth, and that is a good thing.

Malhotra and Sinha don’t have the acting chops to match Khanna, and seem happy to let him take center stage. Michal Luka’s cinematography is on point, painting Mumbai in apocalyptic, gloomy monsoon colours that go well with the tone of the film.

In his debut film, Chopra seems to have enough control of his craft to never drift too far away from the core; and even though the twist in the tale doesn’t entirely come as a surprise, “Ittefaq” still manages to keep you hooked enough to want to know what happens in the end.

REUTERS

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NEW YORK – Blame it on the relentless blitz of news and social media that overload, numb senses, akin to those caught in the grip of opioid addiction. Graphic photos, videos spew, churn mercilessly; give withering insight to 24×7 cycles of horrors. Or the new normal that is life in America: to deal with almost calm nonchalance flurry of deadly human catastrophe on a routine basis. The country is seemingly caught in a helpless vortex of natural and unnatural disasters and ensuing deaths, from a vicious cycle of storms, wildfires, mass shootings, terrorist attacks through motor vehicles.

There was a decade in America when it seemed the threat of another 9/11 terrorist attack was kept in abeyance for perpetuity, as security tightened at airports, strict law enforcement and tight surveillance kept citizens safe.

No more.

Like termites that eat away foundations of houses, an era of mass shootings has been unleashed to destabilize, erode the quality of life of Americans and residents, sow perpetual wariness and fear on a daily basis as to from where and when will the next calamity surface; which deranged person will unleash his unrequited anger at innocent men, women and children. Shoot them in the head from point blank range.

The question is no more if this terror will be quelled or not. This much has sunk in: it won’t be quelled. Mother Nature’s fury, too, has squarely targeted the shores of the US, to ravage and debilitate at will, create mayhem.

The Charlotte Observer Editorial Board noted that three of the top five mass shootings in modern America have occurred over the past 18 months.

“Such shootings have become so common that the Columbine massacre, which shocked the nation in 1999 and led to massive changes in schools, is no longer ranked in the top 10. We were momentarily moved by a Las Vegas shooting that killed 59 people and injured several hundred and spoke, briefly, about limiting access, not to high-powered guns, but kits that could modify them into automatic weapons. We couldn’t even get that done, just as we couldn’t when scores of elementary kids were killed in Sandy Hook and polls showed that 90 percent of the public was in favor of tighter background checks,” it said.

Vox made the point that “it has only been five days since a gunman walked into a place of worship in Texas and opened fire, killing 26 people. But America is already moving on. If you look at the online pages of major national newspapers, the mass shooting at the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church is no longer anywhere close to the top news. On Google Trends, it’s no longer among the top 50 topics that people are searching for.”

Other countries, however, have been outraged and done something to stamp out evil.

When a man walked into a cafe in Port Arthur, Australia, and shot and killed 35 people in 1996, the tragedy engulfed that country — leading it to pass a comprehensive set of gun restrictions that led to the confiscation of 650,000 firearms. After a gunman killed 16 children and their teacher in Scotland in 1996, the UK banned most types of handguns. Mass shootings have led other countries, including Canada, Germany, and New Zealand, to take similar action, reported Vox.

America has nearly six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, more than seven times that of Sweden, and nearly 16 times that of Germany, according to United Nations data compiled by the Guardian.

At the same time, the US has by far the highest number of guns in the world. According to a 2007 estimate, the number of civilian-owned firearms in the US was 88.8 guns per 100 people, meaning there was almost one privately owned gun per American and more than one per American adult, translating to more than 300 million guns. The world’s second-ranked country was Yemen, where there were 54.8 guns per 100 people, noted Vox.

Politifact reported that according to researchers at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which defined “mass shooting” as “a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms, within one event, and in one or more locations in close proximity”, there have been counted 317 mass shootings from 1999-2013.

And no point in blaming people with ‘mental’ issues, as some reports have dwelt upon.

A study in the American Journal of Public Health found that databases that track gun homicides show that less than 5 percent of 120,000 gun-related killings in America between 2001 and 2010 were committed by people with a diagnosed mental illness.

Music festivals, churches, roads, night clubs, school classrooms, university campuses, movie theaters are all dangerous, deadly places in today’s America.

So, where does one hide when the next attack happens? Where does one go? Will you get killed by your neighbor, or by a stranger?

(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)

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It’s probably no coincidence that the makers of Bollywood film “Ittefaq” (Coincidence) are taking the path less trodden for the movie’s promotions.

At a time when the Indian movie industry is struggling to make money, the producers of “Ittefaq” say they hope a minimalistic approach focusing more on digital platforms would provide a template for future projects and significantly reduce publicity budgets.

In the weeks leading up to its Nov. 3 release, the film’s cast has barely given media interviews, not starred in road shows or appeared in reality TV shows – staples of the Bollywood film promotion calendar.

Instead, “Ittefaq” producers Karan Johar (Dharma Films) and Shah Rukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment) have focused on social media and digital promotions to build a buzz about the film, a remake of a 1969 Bollywood thriller of the same name.

“Will this work for every film? Not necessarily. But we are hoping to use some of this stuff in the marketing of other films,” Dharma Films CEO Apoorva Mehta told Reuters over the phone.

“We cannot eliminate all aspects of promotions, because some films do require it, but we can definitely look at doing some things on a lesser scale.”

Mehta said their focus was on digital promotions and outdoor signage, and that eschewing city tours and press events had brought down the film’s publicity budget by up to 30 percent.

“Ittefaq” stars Sidharth Malhotra and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead, playing two people who accuse each other of murder. The film is 100 minutes long, shorter than most Bollywood movies, and has no songs.

“The audience is fragmented across so many platforms that you have no choice but to cater to all of them. That becomes extremely exhausting for the actors,” Mehta said.

Most actors spend the weeks leading up to the release of their film appearing on television shows, touring at least five cities apart from print, TV, and radio interviews, all of which comes at a cost for the producer.

“If this works, it would be a huge game-changer for Bollywood. Going on [reality TV host] Kapil Sharma’s show does nothing for your film. What does work is content and what your film is about,” said Akshaye Rathi, a film distributor and theatre owner.

Rathi cited the examples of films such as Saket Chaudhary’s “Hindi Medium”, which started slow but ran in cinemas for several weeks, making it one of the hits of the year.

Shailesh Kapoor runs Ormax, an agency that tracks Bollywood releases before and after release. He says there is no evidence to prove that publicity tours and reality TV show appearances boost audience interest.

“If a star has visited, say, Ahmedabad on a day, and there has been press coverage the next day, our research shows that it makes no difference to the way an audience feels about the film,” said Kapoor.

Kapoor says the real change will come when a film with a big-ticket star and budget takes the risk of going low-key with promotions.

“If they can resist the temptation to go all out to promote their film, maybe everyone else will catch on and take things down a notch,” he said.

REUTERS

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For jewelers in the world’s second-largest gold market, business is yet to recover from the slump that followed India’s decision to ban high-value currency notes a year ago. Ask Bachhraj Bamalwa, who has spent four decades in the industry.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepared to address the nation last November to announce demonetization, Bamalwa was busy wrapping up a quiet and uneventful day. Recovering from heart surgery, the 57-year-old father of two was home by the time the premier finished his speech.

What followed was a barrage of calls from his wealthiest customers, requesting Bamalwa to open his shop and sell his stock in exchange for their old notes, a risk he wasn’t willing to take.

“It was a night we can never forget,” Bamalwa said by phone from Kolkata.

A year back on Nov. 8, Modi decided to turn 86 percent of currency into worthless paper to curb corruption, crack down on unaccounted wealth and catch tax evaders. While liquidity has improved since, as Indians deposited 99 percent of the void bills, jewelers are still not happy as continuing efforts to curb the vast cash economy have hurt their business the most, they say.

Add to it the drop in disposable incomes thanks to slowing economic growth, which is now at a three year-low, and a disruptive roll out of the goods and services tax, also known as GST, in July this year.

“The 8th of November was the last day a jeweler may have smiled, after that he has been crying,” Ketan Shroff, joint secretary at the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd., said by phone from Mumbai. “It was a double hit for the industry with the demonetization and then the GST, so things will take more time, maybe a quarter or two to get streamlined.”

Gold demand in India, which is next only to China, tumbled to the lowest in seven years in 2016 to 666.1 metric tons. It is unlikely to change this year too, according to the World Gold Council, which sees local purchases between 650 to 750 tons this year. Metals Focus Ltd., a London-based precious metals consultancy, pegs consumption at 700 tons in 2017.

In the past year, the sector has also been hurt by tougher requirements for buyers to prove their identity before a purchase, and the capping of the amount of cash used in these transactions. Then, just when demand started to stabilize, the government introduced a new national sales tax in July and for a brief period brought jewelers under an anti money-laundering act in August, throwing the industry into turmoil.

In the next two years, demand is unlikely to return to 846 tons, the average consumption in the five years through 2016. While sales are likely to pick up pace, “there will still be that hesitancy about buying gold under the transparent system that is now playing out,” the council said in August.

Further measures such as mandatory hallmarking to ensure purity standards and a new purchase limit under the anti-money laundering act could bring short term hiccups next year, it said Thursday. In the short term, an uneven monsoon distribution could also damp demand in the rural areas.

Rural residents were hurt the most by demonetization because they use cash almost exclusively, from buying clothes or food to paying for weddings. Those communities, dependent mostly on agriculture, account for about 60 percent of India’s jewelry purchases.

The small and unorganized trade has borne the brunt of the changes as sales have dropped while costs have risen. They are now trying hard to woo consumers while complying with the new regulations that the government introduced in the last year, said Shroff. “I don’t think anybody will take a risk at this level. The way the government is moving, no jeweler would like to be blacklisted now.”

Modi’s administration is trying to discourage the physical purchase of gold and that is affecting the industry as well, he said. During the Hindu festival of Diwali this year, the peak season for demand, the government introduced a new series of sovereign gold bonds that would attract more savvy investors as they would get exemptions like income tax benefits, he said.

The one silver lining of the ban has been greater transparency with the shift to digital payments and the move to more organized jewelry retailers. In urban areas, cash payments have come down by about 40 percent in the past year, said Bamalwa, who was a former chairman of the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation.

“The government must understand the very culture of this country and the people of this country. These habits cannot change overnight,” he said.

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In the Nov. 10 round of Jeopardy! the popular quiz show, Indian-Americans featured in a big way. The Double Jeopardy round had five questions in the “Indian Americans” category with rewards ranging from $400 to $2,000, and one of them was a Daily Double, for which the contestant could wager the reward amount.

Jeopardy, which is hosted by Alex Trebek, gets 25 million viewers, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Pranjal Vachaspati, a PhD student of computational phylogenetics that uses software for studies in biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is one of the Jeopardy champions, but he was not on the quarter-final with Indian-American category.

In the first quarter-final round on Nov. 6, he came in second but because of his overall winning of $16,401 in the game, he became eligible to participate in the semi-final rounds starting Nov. 13.

Originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, 24-year-old Vachaspati had walked away with $137,088 during a six-day winning streak last year.

Earlier in November, there were two Indian-Americans in the same show. But Anand Kandaswamy, a three-day winner with $57,001, and Rahul Jain lost on the Nov. 1 show.

Sharath Narayan won the Teen Jeopardy with a prize of $100,000 last year. He was a high school sophomore last year.

In the College Jeopardy competition in February, Viraj Mehta came in third, winning the $25,000 prize.

Here are the Jeopardy clues in the Indian-Americans category. How many can you get right?

1. Here’s a “Project”: name this sitcom star, with over 8 million Twitter followers, who wrote “Why Not Me?” in 2015
2. A Forbes headline: “One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How” his academy “Is Reinventing Education”
3. Double Jeopardy: This Sunday morning CNN host was only 28 when he was appointed as the managing editor of foreign affairs
4. The daughter of Indian & Jamaican immigrants, she was elected to replace Barbara Boxer in the Senate in 2016
5. In addition to live news coverage of the first operation of the Iraq War, he performed five brain surgeries in the desert
6. Bonus question on the Jeopardy site for fans, but not on the show: “Dangerously Delicious” & “Buried Alive” are comedy specials from this “Master of None” actor

Contestants reply to the clues in the form of a question on the game. Here were the answers and questions on the show:

1. Who is Mindy Kaling? (She is an actor, writer, producer, and director. She stars as Dr. Mindy Kuhel Lahiri in “The Mindy Project,” a comedy series that aired Fox from 2012 to 201t when it moved to Hulu.)

2.Who is Salman Khan? (Founder of the online institution Khan Academy. His father, Fakhrul Amin Khan, is from Bangladesh and his mother, Masuda Khan, is from India.)

3. Who is Fareed Zakaria? (He is the host of CNN’s flagship foreign affairs show, “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” a Washington Post columnist, a contributing editor for The Atlantic.)
4. Who is Kamala Harris? (Last year the Democrat became the first person of Indian descent to be elected to the Senate. Earlier, she was California’s attorney general.)
5. Who is Sanjay Gupta? (A neurosurgeon by training, he is CNN’s chief medical correspondent who has won several Emmy awards. While reporting on Iraq War, he performed life-saving brain surgeries in field hospitals.)
6. Who is Aziz Ansari? (A stand-up comedian who has acted in several movies and TV show, he co-created, wrote and directed Master of None, where he also plays the role of an actor, Dev Shah. The comedy is on Netflix).

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Manila/New Delhi – India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. on Sunday agreed that “a free, open, prosperous and inclusive” Indo-Pacific served long-term global interests, giving impetus to an emerging quad of democracies amid China’s rising military and economic power.

It was the first dialogue of the quadrilateral formation of the democracies in which anti-terrorism cooperation was also discussed.

An External Affairs Ministry statement in New Delhi said foreign officials from India, Australia, Japan and the US met in the Philippines capital and held consultations “on issues of common interest in the Indo-Pacific region”.

“The discussions focused on cooperation based on their converging vision and values for promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in an increasingly inter-connected region that they share with each other and with other partners,” the statement said.

“They agreed that a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves the long-term interests of all countries in the region and of the world at large.”

The officials also exchanged views on addressing common challenges of terrorism and proliferation linkages impacting the region as well as on enhancing connectivity.

Indian officials highlighted India’s Act East Policy as the cornerstone of its engagement in the region.

The four countries are working to revive their quadrilateral dialogue.

The meeting was held as Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Manila on Sunday on a three-day visit to the Philippines for the 15th India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meet and the 12th East Asia Summit on Tuesday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has emerged as a key cornerstone of New Delhi’s foreign policy, with its Look East Policy, launched by then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1992.

The Modi government has turned it into the Act East Policy to focus on increased engagements with the regional bloc.

The annual East Asia Summit is held by leaders of the Asean countries and those of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US.

Even as India, the US and Japan have a trilateral dialogue mechanism in place for issues relating to the Indo-Pacific region, Japanese Foreign Minister Tara Kono said in October that Tokyo was for a top-level quadrilateral dialogue that would also include Australia.

Kono said the idea was for the leaders of the four countries to promote free trade and defence cooperation across a stretch of ocean from the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and all the way to Africa.

The emerging quadrilateral is seen to counter China’s aggressive maritime expansion under its Belt and Road initiative. China’s plans would cement a sphere of influence for Beijing well beyond Asia.

India responded to Kono’s comments by saying that New Delhi was open to work with like-minded countries that advance India’s interests.

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WASHINGTON – Two top former U.S. intelligence officials said Sunday that President Donald Trump is being “played” by President Vladimir Putin on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and accused him of being susceptible to foreign leaders who stroke his ego.

“By not confronting the issue directly and not acknowledging to Putin that we know you’re responsible for this, I think he’s giving Putin a pass,” former CIA director John Brennan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think it demonstrates to Mr. Putin that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and try to play upon his insecurities, which is very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint.”

Appearing on the same program, former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said he agrees with that assessment.

“He seems very susceptible to rolling out the red carpet and honor guards and all the trappings and pomp and circumstance that come with the office, and I think that appeals to him, and I think it plays to his insecurities,” Clapper said.

Trump told reporters traveling with him in Asia that Putin had assured him at a conference in Danang, Vietnam, on Saturday that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, and he indicated that he believed Putin was sincere.

Later, in a news conference Sunday in Hanoi with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Trump appeared to be trying to parse his earlier remarks, saying, “What I said is that I believe (Putin) believes that.”

In his earlier remarks to reporters, Trump also referred to Brennan and Clapper as “political hacks.” Brennan said Sunday that he considers Trump’s characterization “a badge of honor.”

Both men were highly critical of Trump for not saying more definitively that Putin was behind the Russian interference in the U.S. election, a conclusion strongly endorsed by the U.S. intelligence community.

“I don’t know why the ambiguity about this,” Brennan said. “Putin is committed to undermining our system, our democracy and our whole process. And to try paint it in any other way is, I think, astounding, and, in fact, poses a peril to this country.”

Clapper said, “It’s very clear that the Russians interfered in the election, and it’s still puzzling as to why Mr. Trump does not acknowledge that and embrace it and also push hard against Mr. Putin.”

Appearing later on CNN, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came to Trump’s defense, brushing aside the comments of Brennan and Clapper.

“Those were the most ridiculous statements,” Mnuchin said. “President Trump is not getting played by anybody.”

Mnuchin said Trump wants to focus on thorny issues posed by North Korea and Syria and is trying to get Russia on board with the U.S. strategy.

“I think the country is ready to move on off of this and focus on important issues,” he said.

Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, said Sunday that the president does concur with a January 2017 assessment by the intelligence community about Russian meddling.

“But let’s be careful and be straight about what it is the president believes right now,” Short said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“He believes that after a year of investigations of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, there is zero evidence of any ballot being impacted by Russian interference,” Short said. “What the president is trying to do right now is recognize the gravest threat that America faces is North Korea developing nuclear weapons. And nuclear weapons in North Korea is a greater threat than Russia buying Facebook ads in America.”

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NEW DELHI – Citing toxic smog that one official said has turned India’s capital city into a “gas chamber,” United Airlines has canceled flights to New Delhi until the air gets better.

At least in United’s eyes, the Indian capital’s smog concerns are on par with environmental disasters like hurricanes and volcanoes – a risk to be avoided. The company said it was letting passengers switch flights without charge or helping them find seats on other carriers.

It was unclear if other airlines would follow suit. Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Etihad Airlines all compete for business to New Delhi, according to CNN Money.

An advisory on United’s website said travel to New Delhi was suspended through at least Tuesday.

“United has temporarily suspended our Newark-Delhi flights due to poor air quality concerns in Delhi and currently has waiver policies in place for customers who are traveling to, from or through Delhi,” the company said in an email.

“We are monitoring advisories as the region remains under a public health emergency, and are coordinating with respective government agencies.”

New Delhi’s air quality is consistently ranked among the world’s worst. But a perfect storm of problems is exacerbating the problem to potentially deadly levels. Farmers who’ve recently harvested crops in neighboring states are illegally burning their fields, sending smoke into the air. Construction projects and pollution from vehicles in a city that lacks adequate public transportation are making things worse.

This week, the smog was 10 times worse than reigning pollution champion Beijing, whose air-quality problems reached Olympic proportions. Some parts of New Delhi have pollution 40 times the World Health Organization-recommended safe level.

More than 6,000 schools have been ordered closed, and only trucks carrying essential supplies are allowed into the city. Construction projects have been halted. And the nation was mulling a plan to spray water over its capital to combat the toxic smog.

Still, photos show the city enveloped in a gray haze. Residents braving the streets looked like surgeons or carpenters, depending on which type of mask they were able to acquire.

People huddled indoors with expensive air purifiers, indoor plants and closed windows.

But doctors say it won’t be enough to prevent some deaths in the city of 20 million people. Children are the most vulnerable.

In a less-affluent quarter of the city, Baburam Durbedy’s grandson hasn’t been eating. “His temperature is up and he keeps getting out of breath,” Durbedy said. He wiped his own irritated eyes as he spoke.

Durbedy earns just enough to survive, working as a security guard in the city. Buying high-end air purifiers is not an option, nor is expensive medical care. The family of five has two thin gas masks to share. “We just rub Vicks on his chest,” he said, referring to the medicated vapor rub.

A recent study linked 2.5 million deaths in India in 2015 to pollution. This week, worried parents carried coughing children into hospitals around the city.

“We’ve seen around a 30-35 percent increase of patients in the past couple of days,” said Anupam Sibal, group medical director and senior pediatrician at Apollo Hospitals. “It wasn’t like this five years ago. Children with respiratory problems are finding their issues are exacerbated. It affects everyone.”

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All 24 Defendants in the United States, most of them of Indian origin, have pleaded guilty in an international call-center scam that operated from India and involved some 61 people, all of whom were charged in the crime.

The last U.S.-based defendant, Indian-American Illinois resident, Miteshkumar Patel, 42, pleaded guilty Nov. 13, to money laundering conspiracy, joining six other defendants who recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for their roles in liquidating and laundering victim payments generated through a massive telephone impersonation fraud and money laundering scheme perpetrated by a network of India-based call centers responsible for defrauding U.S. residents of hundreds of millions of dollars. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2018, according to a U.S. Justice Department press release.

Miteshkumar Patel, most recently residing in Willowbrook, Illinois; Sunny Joshi, 47, of Sugar Land, Texas; Jagdishkumar Chaudhari, 39, of Montgomery, Alabama; and Rajesh Bhatt, 53, of Sugar Land, TX, each pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy.  Raman Patel, 82, of Gilbert, Arizona; Praful Patel, 50, of Fort Myers, Florida; and Jerry Norris, 47, of Oakland, California, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering offenses.

The pleas were entered before U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas between Sept. 22 and Nov. 13, except for Raman Patel’s plea, which was entered before U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Burns in the District of Arizona on Nov. 6.

Six of the men have been in federal custody since their arrests in October 2016 and will remain detained until their pending sentencing dates.

According to admissions made in connection with their pleas, Miteshkumar Patel, Raman Patel, Joshi, Jagdishkumar Chaudhari, Bhatt, Praful Patel, Norris and their co-conspirators carried out  a complex scheme in which individuals from call centers located in Ahmedabad, impersonated officials from the IRS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and engaged in other telephone call scams, in a ruse designed to defraud victims located throughout the United States.

Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call center operators targeted U.S. victims and threatened them with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the government.  Victims who agreed to pay the scammers were instructed how to provide payment, including by purchasing general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards or wiring money.  Upon payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of “runners” based in the United States to liquidate and launder the fraudulently obtained funds.

Based on admissions in Miteshkumar Patel’s plea —  beginning in or around 2013, Miteshkumar Patel managed a crew of a half dozen domestic runners involved in the criminal scheme, liquidating as much as approximately $25 million in victim funds for conspirators from India-based call center and organizational co-defendant HGLOBAL.

His emails, text messages and WhatsApp messaging revealed his connections to co-conspirators. In an intricate scheme, he and his runners purchased reloadable GPR cards that were registered using the misappropriated personal identifying information (PII) of unsuspecting victims that were later used to receive victims’ funds, and used those reloadable cards containing victims’ funds to purchase money orders and then deposit those money orders into bank accounts, as directed, while keeping a portion of the scam proceeds as profit.

Miteshkumar Patel also trained the runners he managed on how to conduct the liquidation scheme, provided them with vehicles to conduct their activities in Illinois and throughout the country, and directed a co-defendant to open bank accounts and limited liability companies for use in the conspiracy.  He further admitted to using a gas station he owned in Racine, Wisconsin to liquidate victim funds, and possessing and using equipment at his Illinois apartment to make fraudulent identification documents used by co-defendant runners in his crew to receive wire transfers directly from scam victims and make bank deposits in furtherance of the conspiracy.

According to admissions in Raman Patel’s guilty plea, from in or around 2014, Raman Patel served as a domestic runner in and around south-central Arizona, liquidating victim scam funds per the instructions of a co-defendant.  Patel also served as a driver for two co-defendants in furtherance of their GPR liquidation and related activities and sent bank deposit receipts related to the processing of victim payments and fraud proceeds to an India-based co-defendant via email and document scan services offered at various retail stores.

Based on admissions in Joshi and Bhatt’s guilty pleas, beginning in or around 2012, Joshi and Bhatt worked together as runners in the Houston, Texas area along with a co-defendant.  They admitted to extensively communicating via email and text with, and operating at the direction of, India-based conspirators from organizational co-defendant CALL MANTRA call center to liquidate up to approximately $9.5 million in victim funds, including by purchasing GPR cards and using those cards, funded by co-conspirators with scam victim funds, to purchase money orders and deposit them in third party bank accounts, while keeping a percentage of the scam proceeds for themselves as profit.  Joshi has also agreed to plead guilty to one count of naturalization fraud pursuant to a federal indictment obtained against him in the Eastern District of Louisiana, based on fraudulently obtaining his U.S. citizenship.

Jagdishkumar Chaudhari admitted in his plea that between April 2014 and June 2015, he worked as a member of a crew of runners operating in the Chicago area and elsewhere throughout the country, at the direction of Miteshkumar Patel and others.  In exchange for monthly cash payments, Jagdishkumar Chaudhari admitted to driving to hundreds of retail stores to purchase GPR cards to be loaded with victim funds by co-conspirators in India, purchasing money orders with GPR cards that had been funded with victim proceeds, depositing money orders purchased using victim scam proceeds at various banks, and retrieving wire transfers sent by victims of the scheme.

Jagdishkumar Chaudhari is an Indian national with no legal status in the United States, and has agreed to deportation after he serves his sentence as a condition of his guilty plea.

In his plea, Praful Patel admitted that between in or around June 2013 and December 2015, he was a domestic runner who liquidated funds in and around Fort Myers, Florida for conspirators from India-based call center and organizational co-defendant HGLOBAL.  Praful Patel communicated extensively via WhatsApp texts with his conspirators.  For a percentage commission on transactions he conducted, Praful Patel admitted to purchasing reloadable GPR cards that were registered using the misappropriated PII of unsuspecting victims that were later used to receive victims’ funds, using those reloadable GPR cards containing victims’ funds to purchase money orders and depositing those money orders into bank accounts as directed, and using fake identity documents to receive wire transfers from victims.

According to Norris’ guilty plea, beginning in or around January 2013 continuing through December 2014, he was a runner who worked with conspirators associated with India-based call center and organizational co-defendant HGLOBAL, and was responsible for the liquidation of victim scam funds in and around California.

To date, Miteshkumar Patel, Raman Patel, Joshi, Jagdishkumar Chaudhari, Bhatt, Praful Patel, Norris, 49 other individuals and five India-based call centers have been charged for their roles in the fraud and money laundering scheme in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas on Oct. 19, 2016.  Including the pleas announced Nov. 13, a total of 24 defendants have pleaded guilty thus far in relation to this investigation.  Defendants Bharatkumar Patel, Ashvinbhai Chaudhari, Harsh Patel, Nilam Parikh, Hardik Patel, Rajubhai Patel, Viraj Patel, Dilipkumar A. Patel, Fahad Ali, Bhavesh Patel, Asmitaben Patel, Montu Barot, Nilesh Pandya, Dipakkumar Patel, Nisarg Patel, Rajesh Kumar, and Dilipkumar Ramanlal Patel previously pleaded guilty on various dates between April and September 2017.

The remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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New Jersey’s Governor-elect Phil Murphy, is already displaying his close connections to the Indian-American community which he courted during his election campaign.

Barely a week after winning his seat to lead the state Nov. 7, Murphy has selected an Indian-American veteran, Lt. Col. Kamal S. Kalsi to his Transition 2018 leadership team, in the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, Nov. 13. Kalsi told News India Times he was “truly humbled by the brain power on the committee” which included four other members.

Apart from Kalsi, Murphy’s Transition 2018 team, which was carried by numerous New Jersey media outlets, includes several other Indian-Americans and South Asian-Americans, including Jay Bhatti, co-founder of BrandProject, to his Government Technology and Innovation Committee; Balpreet Grewal-Virk, Ph.D, director of Community Engagement, Department of Population Health at Hackensack Meridian Health, to his Healthcare Committee; Ehsan F. Chowdhry, president, New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, to the Law and Justice Committee; Imam Wahy-ud Deen Shareef, former senior advisor and director of logistics and industrial opportunities for former Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, to his Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Kalsi is the president and founder of the Sikh-American Veterans Alliance, a recently-formed group.

“The team I am in has a General Officer and other prominent people. I am a nobody. I am truly humbled,” Kalsi, an Army emergency medicine doctor, who served on the frontlines in Afghanistan, told News India Times. “We will be helping set the policy and agenda for military and veterans affairs based on Governor-elect Murphy’s broad recommendations,” Kalsi added. Kalsi has been outspoken about the need to make the U.S. armed forces more inclusive.

“I pledged to build my administration to mirror the diversity, talent, and potential of New Jersey, and my transition will be no different,” Governor-elect Murphy is quoted saying in a press release. Murphy won by a 13-percentage point lead over his Republican opponent Kim Guadagno. “To a person, this transition is full of incredible talent and experience, and I’m thrilled to see them serve. Together, we’ll start the difficult job of building a stronger, fairer economy that works for all nine million New Jerseyans,” Murphy added.

“We need to make sure veterans from all generations – from those who served in the Vietnam War era to those who are returning from the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan – have the care and support they deserve,” Kalsi said in a statement. “Knowing we are still a country at war, we will also work to make sure all New Jerseyans have the opportunity to serve our country.” Kalsi, the first Sikh soldier to receive a religious accommodation to wear a turban and maintain a beard in uniform in over a generation, added in a statement he sent out about his new appointment. He will continue in the U.S. Army Reserve at Fort Dix, N.J., and will work with Murphy’s team on his own time, Kalsi clarified.

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NEW YORK

The Indian Consulate in New York, in collaboration with Federation of Indian Associations (FIA), Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP), Association of Indian Americans in North America (AIANA) and Gujarat Foundation Inc., organized a program to commemorate the 142nd birth anniversary of the “Ironman of India” Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The program at the Consulate began with a floral tribute by all present to the respected leader. Eminent members of the community attended and shared their views on this occasion.

The Consul General Sandip Chakravarty in his welcome remarks shared the contribution of Sardar Patel in unifying India at the most crucial moment after achieving independence in 1947. He also highlighted Patel’s simplicity and his vision of a united India. Rashtriya Ekta Diwas – National Unity Day pledge was taken by all present.

H.R.Shah, Srujal Parikh of the FIA, Kaushik Amin of the Gujarat Foundation, Suresh Jani and Jagdish Sehwani of OFBJP, Sunil Nayak of the AIANA, Deepti Jani of OFBJP, Mala Shah of the Gujarati Samaj and Dhiren Parikh also contributed their views on the occasion.

A short documentary on the life, achievement and the sacrifice made by Patel was also shown.

It was decided unanimously by all to remember and pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel every year in such a way where in not only seniors but the youth and school going children who are not aware of the sacrifice, struggle and the contribution of leaders in shaping independent India, be actively involved.

Some other community members present at the event among included Hirubhai Patel of Gujarati Samaj, Bhadra Butala of Gandhian Society, Gautam Patel of Paramus Gujarati Samaj, Yogesh Shah, Gunjesh Desai and others.

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In the wake of last year’s bitterly contested presidential election, “politically divided” families cut their Thanksgiving celebrations short by an average of 20 to 30 minutes. Republican voters were more likely to bail on Democratic families than vice-versa. And reductions in family time were steeper in areas that saw more political ads.

Those are among the conclusions of a new working paper by M. Keith Chen of UCLA and Ryne Rohla of Washington State University. The paper matches location data from 10 million smartphones to precinct-level voting data for the 2016 election, painting a detailed portrait of how people from predominantly Democratic and Republican areas spent their 2016 Thanksgiving holiday.

In recent years, Thanksgiving has become a politically fraught time, often pitting family members with diametrically opposed political beliefs against each other over plates of turkey and mashed potatoes. Last year, for instance, news outlets across the country published stories on how to navigate political discussion with Trump-supporting uncles and socialist nephews. A majority of Americans said they hoped to avoid Thanksgiving politics completely.

Surveys and anecdotes are great, but Chen and Rohla wanted to know if people actually altered their behavior on Thanksgiving as a result of the divisive election. Specifically, they wanted to know whether Thanksgiving dinners in politically divided households were cut short relative to Thanksgiving dinners among politically homogeneous families.

Smartphone data could answer part of the question: “A unique collection of smartphone location-tracking data from more than ten million Americans allows observation of actual (not self-reported) movement behavior, at extremely precise spatial and temporal levels,” they write.

That data came from a service called Safegraph, which collected over 17 trillion location markers from 10 million smartphones in November 2016. Chen and Rohla used this data to identify individuals’ home locations, which they defined as the places people were most often located between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m.

They also looked at where these people were located between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. If that location differed from the “home” location, you’d reasonably infer that a person traveled to spend Thanksgiving with friends or family. Even better, the cellphone data shows you exactly when those travelers arrived at a Thanksgiving location and when they left.

To capture political leanings, Chen and Rohla collected 2016 presidential voting data at the level of voting precinct, the most finely grained level of spatial detail attainable. For the purposes of their paper, they assume that people from precincts voting for Clinton are Democrats, while those from Trump precincts are Republican.

It’s important to note that this represents an approximation of political beliefs – there are, after all, Democrats living in places that tend to vote Republican, and vice-versa. So for a sanity check, they tested the party preferences they assigned to their cellphone users against the aggregate two-party vote shares at both the state and national level.

“At a national level the data add up to a Democratic vote share of 50.3 percent, compared to the actual share of 51.1 percent,” they found. Not perfect, of course, but good enough for social science research.

From there, the analysis is pretty straightforward: Do Democrats spend less time at Thanksgiving dinners in Republican households than in Democratic ones, and vice-versa? The top-line answer is “yes”: even when controlling for things like travel distance and various demographic characteristics “families that were likely to have voted differently spent between 20 and 30 fewer minutes with each other,” Chen and Rohla found.

But these differences were asymmetric. Relative to 2015, Democratic voters were about 5 percent less likely than Republicans to travel for Thanksgiving in 2016. However, while Republicans were more likely to show up to a distant Thanksgiving dinner, they were also more likely to bail early: “travelers from Democratic precincts do not significantly shorten their visits to Republican hosts, while Republican-precinct travelers shortened their visits by over 40 minutes,” the paper found.

Chen and Rohla also found the volume of political advertising in a precinct affected these numbers. “Thanksgiving dinners are further shortened by around 1.5 minutes for every thousand political advertisements aired in the traveler’s home media market,” they found. In a heavily saturated state like Florida, that resulted in a 1.2 hour reduction in Thanksgiving time for politically divided families.

Overall, Chen and Rohla write, “our results suggest partisan differences cost American families 62 million person-hours of Thanksgiving time, 56.8% from individuals living in Democratic precincts and 43.2% from Republican precincts.”

That’s a pretty staggering number, indicative of the extent to which fierce partisan divisions are undermining family and social ties in the United States. And that’s just on one day in the year – imagine how many people avoid phone calls or interactions with individuals of different political beliefs on the other 364 days.

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Lupin Ltd., which makes generic antibiotics, antidepressants and heart medications for sale in the U.S., was warned by the Food and Drug Administration for repeatedly ignoring tests showing that pills made at two of its facilities didn’t meet quality standards.

In 2015 and 2016, the FDA found 134 instances when drugs or active ingredients failed initial testing but the company chose to override the results. Lupin called the failed tests at the plant “laboratory error” even when evidence suggested that wasn’t the case.

At another Lupin plant, the company deemed failed quality tests outliers, and retested the samples to get a passing result. In a warning letter to Lupin, the FDA called the issues “significant violations.”

Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Lupin shares dropped as much as 2 percent Wednesday, touching a four-year low.

“These repeated failures at multiple sites demonstrate that your company’s oversight and control over the manufacture of drugs is inadequate,” FDA staff wrote in the letter sent Nov. 6 and released Tuesday in a redacted version. “You should immediately and comprehensively assess your company’s global manufacturing operations to ensure that systems and processes, and ultimately, the products manufactured, conform to FDA requirements at all your sites.”

India and China make a large share of the drugs and drug ingredients used by U.S. patients. The FDA has repeatedly cited manufacturers in both countries for quality problems, such as deleting failing sample results and then retesting and shipping those products to the U.S.

Lupin has 11 facilities that manufacture generics globally, according to its website. Its products belong to categories in wide use by patients, including cephalosporin antibiotics, oral contraceptives and cardiovascular and depression drugs, including generic versions of the depression treatment Cymbalta.

The company disclosed Nov. 7 that it received an FDA warning on the company’s facilities at Goa and Indore. It said then it was deeply disappointed at the FDA outcome and warned there will likely be a delay in new product approvals from the two facilities. The company did not make the letter public or provide many details.

According to a review of generic Cymbalta by Bloomberg News this year that included several other drugmakers, Lupin’s generic version was the subject of the most complaints to the FDA about the drug not working properly.

The FDA inspected Lupin’s Indian facilities in Goa and Indore between the end of March and middle of May this year, according to the warning letter. The two facilities are “big meaningful plants for us,” Nilesh Gupta, Lupin managing director, said Nov. 7 during a call with analysts.

In Goa, FDA inspectors found failed tests to check if one drug’s ingredients were mixed well enough. According to the FDA report, the company didn’t find a reason for the issue, but “surmised” that the probable cause was inadequate cleaning. It retested the pills and reported a passing result.

Lupin also held products at each phase of production for too long, which can cause quality problems, the agency said.

On the conference call with analysts this month, Gupta said it would take about six months to address the FDA’s concerns. Meanwhile, FDA-approved drugs already made at the plant will continue to be made there, Gupta said.

Alok Ghosh, president of technical operations at Lupin, said on the earnings call that the problems aren’t with data integrity but with FDA’s decision to change its procedures and to require more broad testing and follow up.

Lupin has about as many as 50 products awaiting FDA approval that could be affected by the issues. It plans to transfer about a dozen that it deems the most important while it addresses the concerns, Gupta said on the call.

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