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Bollywood ends another lacklustre year with fewer box office hits and no solution in sight to address falling theatre footfalls. The industry’s woes were compounded by falling data costs in a booming mobile phone market, the increasing popularity of streaming services and the crumbling of the star system used for decades to ensure a film’s success.

As of last weekend, only one Bollywood film (Golmaal Returns) had crossed the 2 billion rupee ($31 million) mark at the box office in 2017. Salman Khan’s “Tiger Zinda Hai” is expected to reach that figure in the next few days given its bumper opening last week. The highest grossing film in India this year wasn’t even a Bollywood film. The Hindi dub of Telugu film “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion”, an epic fantasy about warring kingdoms, grossed more than 5 billion rupees ($78 million), an unprecedented figure even for the dominant Hindi film industry.

Bollywood’s combined revenue fell to 23 billion rupees ($360 million), from 27 billion rupees ($423 million) last year. This figure does not include the box office figure for “Tiger Zinda Hai”, which is expected to cross at least 2.5 billion rupees in ticket sales.

“For the last four years, growth has been static, and this year, considering inflation etc, it has gone down almost 10 percent,” Shailesh Kapoor, who heads media consulting and research firm Ormax Media, said.

What made matters worse for the industry was that the once safe option of casting an A-list star failed to draw audiences. Shah Rukh Khan’s two films – “Raees” and “Jab Harry Met Sejal” – had tepid collections. Salman Khan’s big Eid release, “Tubelight”, where the star played a well-meaning but dim-witted man, barely managed to collect 1.1 billion rupees when it was expected to earn double that figure. Ajay Devgan’s “Baadshaho” also failed to impress audiences, although the actor redeemed himself with the comedy “Golmaal Returns” – the festival hit of the year.

“Smaller films will keep getting made and doing well, but it is the big films not doing well where the real impact is,” Kapoor said.

Top Indian actors like the Khans, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan usually charge astronomical fees, raising overheads and making any star vehicle an expensive film. Since the success or failure is also largely dependent on these actors, it’s a tradition in Bollywood for them to compensate producers and exhibitors if their films don’t do well.

“The content economics cannot be lopsided. Whatever little I know, Salman and Shah Rukh have returned a certain percentage of money to their partners. Everyone down the line has to make some amount of money and no one has a lion’s share, no matter what the size of the revenue,” trade analyst Girish Johar said.

Filmmaker S S Rajamouli’s “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” showed that Bollywood could put its money to good use (read: technology) other than splurge it on big stars.

Rajamouli, a director from the South Indian state of Telangana, made a two-part epic mythological series, the first of which released in 2015 to bumper ticket sales. The second installment, which released in April this year, saw audiences flocked to see CGI-enhanced palaces, rampaging armies and magical kingdoms, all woven into a story around Indian mythology.

“If a genre doesn’t need a star, then it needs technology. We don’t have that genre. In Hollywood, out of the top 15 films, 10 will be superhero or franchise films. There, the dependence on the star system has reduced because they’ve made technology the hero,” Kapoor said.

Even as big star failed, others like “Lipstick Under my Burkha”, “Hindi Medium” and “Newton”, made on smaller budgets and depending entirely on their stories, received critical acclaim and enjoyed box office success.

The year also saw the return of comedy. “Golmaal Returns”, “Judwa 2” and “Fukrey Returns” were warmly received by audiences. Kapoor of Ormax Media said their success and the relative dearth of good comedy flicks in recent years showed that Bollywood wasn’t aware of what audiences really wanted.

“Seventy percent of footfalls come from the youth, between 16 and 25 (years). Comedy and slapstick were sidelined in the last few years because the industry thought if films like “Neerja” and “Queen” were doing well, people don’t want to watch mass comedies. And this used to be the staple genre four years ago,” he said.

Netflix, Amazon.com and the more than 30 OTT platforms currently active in India, coupled with falling data costs, also meant more competition for Bollywood. While both Netflix and Amazon are looking to Bollywood for content, signing deals with leading production houses and studios, it also meant that many loyal moviegoers are now spoilt for choice.

“Right now digital is a revenue source for Bollywood, but even that is tied with how a film does at the box office. If a star doesn’t do well in theatres, his film won’t have as much equity in the digital market. And if the audience loses the habit of going to theatres, then it is difficult to bring them back,” Johar said.

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NEW YORK – As a part of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign promise of the “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may soon come out with a proposal – which is currently in an internal memo stage – that would prevent H-1B visa extensions, while many Indians wait for their green cards, leading to a potential ‘mass deportation.’

According to a McClatchy Bureau report, the Trump administration is specifically looking at whether it can reinterpret the “may grant” language of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act to stop making the extensions.

Currently, the act allows the administration to extend H-1B visas for thousands of immigrants beyond the allowed two, three-year terms if a green card is pending, but The Hindustan Times reports that the DHS intends to end the provision of granting extensions to H-1B visa holders whose green card applications have already been accepted, sending an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Indians back home.

“The idea is to create a sort of ‘self- deportation’ of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States to open up those jobs for Americans,” said a U.S. source briefed by Homeland Security officials.

A visa holder is granted an H-1B visa for three years and is considered for three more years with one extension after which they must return to their country. However, in the meantime, if they are approved for a green card then they are allowed to wait in the U.S., using the extensions and for Indians, that wait could be for years given the massive backlog caused by the system of per-country annual cap on the number of permanent residencies.

An H-1B visa holder is granted a visa extension anywhere between one to three years, and the USCIS may grant some visa holders as many extensions as needed depending upon the wait for their green card.

The Trump administration also announced in February 2017 that it plans to also roll back on the H-4 EAD visa program which attracts and retains highly skilled foreign workers by granting work authorization to the spouses of H-1B visa holders who are awaiting their green cards.

The administration also plans to redefine high-specialty professionals for the purpose of H-1B visas.

The United States grants 85,000 non-immigrant H-1B visa every year out of which 65,000 are hired abroad and 20,000 are enrolled in advanced degree courses in U.S. schools and colleges.

An estimated 70% of these visas go to Indians who are hired mostly by American companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Google and some by American arms of Indian tech giants like Infosys, Wipro and TCS.

The Hindustan Times reports that if the proposal goes through then it will be American companies getting hit, rather than Indian ones who tend to rotate workers, as they are more likely to apply for their H-1B employees’ green cards.

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KOLKATA – The 11th edition of the annual Global Healthcare Summit organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), USA, concluded in the historic City of Joy, Kolkata in West Bengal, on December 31st at the JW Marriott.

The CEOs Forum, Women’s Forum, Launching Free Health Clinic, First Responders Training, CMEs, Research Contest, Fashion Show, Cultural extravaganza, Touring Dubai, UAE Assam, Kolkata, and Bhutan were some of the major highlights of the Summit.

India’s Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu, who attended the meet, urged physicians of Indian-origin to return to India and rededicate their lives for the wellbeing of their motherland, as all the opportunities are now available here.

“I would be happier if you people can come back to India and do something to help the society. Earlier the opportunity was very less here so people went to different parts of the globe for work. But now everything is available in India,” Naidu said. “Apart from conducting CMEs, seminars and workshops, AAPI must consider collaborating with various governments and other private organizations in establishing a state-of-the-art healthcare facility in each district of the country where affordable treatment is dispensed,” he added.

The Governor of West Bengal, Keshri Nath Tripathi, the Minister for Urban Development, West Bengal, Firhad Hakim and other dignitaries were present on the occasion. The meet  was attended by over 1000 leading experts from several countries, and focusses on sharing best practices, developing efficient and cost effective solutions for India.

In his welcome address, Dr. Gautam Samadder, President of AAPI, said, “This GHS has promised to be one with the greatest impact and significant contributions towards harnessing the power of international Indian diaspora to bring the most innovative, efficient, cost effective healthcare solutions to India. AAPI has capped the voluminous achievements of the past 34 years with a clear vision to move forward taking this noble organization to newer heights.”

According to Dr. Naresh Parikh, President-Elect of AAPI, who had proposed the vote of thanks, the scientific program of GHS 2017 was developed by leading experts with the contributions of a stellar Scientific Advisory Board and International Scientific Committee, while the event featuring plenary sessions, interactive round-tables, clinical practice workshops, and meet the expert sessions.

Dr. Ashok Jain, Chairman of AAPI’s BOD, in his address, summarized some of the achievements of AAPI including the 16 free healthcare clinics, AAPI’s legislative initiatives in the US, and the ongoing collaboration with the government of India and the state governments and several NGOs in helping healthcare efficient and cost effective.

The Vice President of India praised AAPI and its noble “mission for India is to play an important role in making quality healthcare accessible and affordable to all people of India. It is indeed a laudable objective as both accessibility and affordability are the need of the hour, especially in a vast developing country like India with a huge population of middle class and lower middle class.”

The Conference was organized in partnership with the ministry of overseas Indian affairs and ministry of health and family welfare, along with collaboration with over 15 professional associations from all over the world.

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The GHS 2017 featured some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry, especially at the 6th annual CEO leadership forum with leaders from across the globe. GHS 2017 was attended by over 100 opinion leaders and expert speakers from many countries across the globe to present cutting edge scientific findings as these relate to clinical practice, representing major centers of excellence, institutions, and professional associations are represented by the invited chairs and speakers.

Offering trainings to first responders, a CEO Forum by a galaxy of CEOs from around the world, inauguration of AAPI-sponsored clinic, CMEs, cultural events, dinner cruise on the Ganges, interactive roundtables, clinical practice workshops, scientific poster/research session and meet-the-expert sessions, Women’s Forum by internally acclaimed successful women from India, a special session on Public-Private Partnership featuring AAPI Healthcare Charitable showcase and innovation, and Town Hall sessions resulting in a White Paper on helping create policies benefitting the people of India, are only some of the major highlights of the Healthcare Summit, Dr. Samadder said.

AAPI, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Madhyamgram Metropolitan lunched a healthcare clinic offering medical care to the much need people of the region at the Prajapati Bhavan, Basunagar, Madhyamgram in the outskirts of Kolkata on December 29th.

Over 30 physicians of Indian origin, led by Dr. Gautam Samadder, President of AAPI and Dr. Madhu Aggarwal, Chairwoman of the AAPI Charitable Foundation attended the free one day healthcare clinic at the suburban center, and treated over 200 patients during the day long clinic.

“This is the first ever clinic sponsored by AAPI in the state of West Bengal and this is the 15th across the nation,” Dr. Samadder told during a welcome reception organized by the local Rotary Club in honor of the physicians who had travelled early in the morning on a bus to serve the much needed patients at the clinic. “AAPI provides financial assistance and medical care by AAPI members to the people of this historic city,” he added.

During a press conference attended by the media at the Hotel, members of the leading print and electronic media interacted with AAPI leaders, including Dr. Samadder, President of AAPI, Dr. Sampat Shivangi, chair of AAPI’s Legislative Committee, Anwar Feroz, AAPI’s Strategic Adviser, and Dr. Chandan K Sen, Chairman, AAPI Global Healthcare Summit – Kolkata.

Dr. Chandan K. Sen, Chairman, AAPI Global Healthcare Summit – Kolkata, said, “It has been a privilege to serve you as the Chairman of this XI AAPI Global Healthcare Summit. Americans with Indian heritage are uniquely positioned to enrich the United States as well as India through collaborative efforts utilizing the strengths unique to each of the two countries. I welcome you to Kolkata, where intellectual curiosity is woven deep into the fabric of its society.”

The Women’s Leadership Forum was coordinated by Dr. Udaya Shivangi, and had featured Bollywood star Sharmila Tagore. The Forum addressed as to how empowering women and educating them will help reduce infant mortality.

The Healthcare Forum, addressed by leading industry leaders, including Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Indian Government; Dr. Gautam Samadder; Jayshree Mehta, Medical Council of India; Dr. Sanku Rao, GAPIO;  Dr. Girdhar Gyani, Hospital Association of India; Dr. B R Shetty; Dr. Sangita Reddy; Dr. D C Shah of IPA: Dr. Naresh Parikh; Preetha Rajaraman; Dr. Pradeep Majhajan; Dr. Rajeev Mehta of BAPIO;  Dr. Kali Pradip Chaudhury; Dr. Shubnum Singh; Dr. Anupam Sibal; and Jonathan Ward of the US Consulate in Kolkata.

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NEW YORK – Indian American Ranjeet Reddy Paladugu, the vice president of finance for Urban Decay, was charged for grand theft and money laundering for transferring more than $1 million from the business account to his personal accounts.

The charges carry special enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $500,000 and property loss over $200,000.

According to the Orange County Register, Paladugu, 40, set up fictitious business accounts at various banks, using names similar to those of Urban Decay’s business partners and authorized a $598,500 transfer from the company account to one of the fictitious business accounts and then to his own personal bank account, which was followed by a second transfer of $598,500 from Urban Decay to a different fictitious company.

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Paladugu was suspected of wiring the money back from the second transaction into an Urban Decay account, weeks later.

A bank then noticed the suspicious activity and alerted Urban Decay’s corporate security after which the Newport Beach Police Department was notified and investigators arrested Paladugu on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

He appeared in court that Thursday and then again on Dec. 12. If convicted, Paladugu could face up to 13 years and four months in prison.

He was being held on $1.2 million bail.

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MUMBAI – Protests disrupted business in India’s financial hub of Mumbai for a second day on Wednesday as lower-caste Dalits pelted buses, blocked rail lines and shut malls after a clash with right-wing Hindus.

Mumbai police advised people to avoid a number of key roads and intersections. Train services, the life line of the city, stalled throughout the day.

The Dalit call for a general strike across Maharashtra led to largely peaceful demonstrations. Police said protesters burned a few buses round the state, while dozens of buses and cars were damaged in Mumbai.

The Dalits, who rank at the bottom in India’s ancient caste hierarchy, called the strike in protest against an attack by right-wing groups in the city of Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, on Monday.

The attack came as the community was celebrating the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper-caste ruler. A 28-year-old man was killed in the clashes, according to the state government.

“The government didn’t arrest the perpetrators of violence in Pune. Hindu group members were beating Dalits and the police were just watching from afar,” said protester Sandeep Kamble. “We are demanding the arrest of the culprits.”

Thousands of Dalits hurled stones and caused traffic disruption across Mumbai on Tuesday. Dalits have been ostracized by upper-caste Hindus for centuries for doing jobs they deemed as impure, such as working in tanneries and as picking garbage.

“We’ve called for a bandh (shutdown), but we’re not forcing people. They can join us or stay away,” said Prakash Ambedkar, a leader of the Dalit community.

In parts of the Mumbai suburb of Thane, officials banned the assembly of crowds, small or large. Schools were closed in some cities, while internet access was also limited.

Fleet taxis, along with cab hailing services like Uber and Ola, were also largely off the roads in Mumbai on Wednesday, while several offices asked employees to work from home.

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UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL – The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned North Korea on Tuesday against staging another missile test and said Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if they did not do something to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

Haley told reporters the United States was hearing reports that North Korea might be preparing to fire another missile.

“I hope that doesn’t happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime,” Haley said.

South Korea on Tuesday offered talks with North Korea next week, amid a tense standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a New Year’s Day speech that he was “open to dialogue” with Seoul.

Kim also said he was open to the possibility of North Korean athletes taking part in Winter Olympics South Korea hosts next month.

At the same time, he stressed that his country would push ahead with “mass producing” nuclear warheads in defiance of U.N. sanctions and that he had a nuclear button on his desk capable of launching missiles at the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump responded to Kim in a Twitter post on Tuesday: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

Haley said the United States would not take talks seriously if they did not take steps toward banning North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

“North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the U.S. is not going to recognise it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have,” she said.

Haley gave no details of the missile test preparations.

Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were indications that could point toward a potential missile launch “sooner rather than later,” but cautioned that such signs had been seen in the past and no test had resulted.

‘DRIVE A WEDGE’

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said North Korea might be “trying to drive a wedge of some sort” between the United States and South Korea and added that while it was up to Seoul to decide who it talked to: “We are very skeptical of Kim Jong Un’s sincerity in sitting down and having talks.”

Trump, who has led a global drive to pressure North Korea through sanctions to give up development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States, earlier held back judgment on Pyongyang’s offer to talk, saying on Twitter:

“Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. “Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!”

Trump has frequently derided Kim as “rocket man.” The U.S. president said sanctions and other pressures were starting to have a big impact on North Korea.

Kim and Trump have exchanged fiery barbs in the last year and the U.S. president has warned that the United States would have no choice but to “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States, South Korea and Japan and tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile in November, which it said was capable of delivering a warhead anywhere in the United States.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon said the offer for high-level talks next Tuesday had been discussed with the United States. Nauert said she was not aware if the matter had been discussed in advance of the South Korean response.

Cho suggested the talks be held at the border village of Panmunjom and said they should be focused on North Korea’s participation at the Olympics, but other issues would likely arise, including the denuclearisation of North Korea.

“I repeat: The government is open to talking with North Korea, regardless of time, location and form,” Cho said.

Should the talks be held, it would be the first such dialogue since a vice-ministerial meeting in December 2015.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed Kim’s New Year address and asked his government to move as quickly as possible to bring North Korea to the Olympics, but he stressed that an improvement in inter-Korean relations “cannot go separately with resolving North Korea’s nuclear programme”.

China, which has persistently urged a return to talks to ease tensions, said recent positive comments from North and South Korea were a good thing.

“China welcomes and supports North Korea and South Korea taking earnest efforts to treat this as an opportunity to improve mutual relations, promote the alleviation of the situation on the Korean peninsula and realize denuclearisation on the peninsula,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

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WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD – The United States accused Pakistan on Tuesday of playing a “double game” on fighting terrorism and warned Islamabad it would have to do more if it wanted to maintain U.S. aid.

“They can do more to stop terrorism and we want them to do that,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

The White House said it would likely announce actions to pressure Pakistan within days, shortly after U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said at the United Nations that Washington would withhold $255 million in assistance to Pakistan.

“There are clear reasons for this. Pakistan has played a double game for years,” Haley told reporters. “They work with us at times, and they also harbor the terrorists that attack our troops in Afghanistan.

“That game is not acceptable to this administration. We expect far more cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.”

The comments followed an angry tweet from President Donald Trump on Monday that the United States had been rewarded with “nothing but lies and deceit” for “foolishly” giving Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the past 15 years.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he tweeted.

Pakistan civilian and military chiefs on Tuesday rejected “incomprehensible” U.S. comments and summoned American Ambassador David Hale to explain Trump’s tweet.

Pakistani U.N. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said in a statement that her country’s fight against terrorism was not based on any consideration of aid but on national interests and principles.

“We have contributed and sacrificed the most in fighting international terrorism and carried out the largest counter terrorism operation anywhere in the world,” Lodhi said. “We can review our cooperation if it is not appreciated.”

Relations with Washington have been strained for years over Islamabad’s alleged support for Haqqani network militants, who are allied with the Afghan Taliban.

The United States also alleges that senior Afghan Taliban commanders live on Pakistani soil, and has signaled it will cut aid and take other steps if Islamabad does not stop helping or turning a blind eye to Haqqani militants crossing the border to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

In 2016, Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike inside Pakistan and in 2011, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. troops in the garrison town of Abbottabad.

STATE DEPT: PAKISTAN NEEDS TO EARN AID

At the State Department on Tuesday, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pakistan knew what it needed to do, including taking action against the Haqqani network and other militants.

Pakistan needs to “earn, essentially, the money that we have provided in the past in foreign military assistance,” she said.

Islamabad bristles at the suggestion it is not doing enough to fight militants, noting that its casualties at the hands of Islamists since 2001 number in the tens of thousands.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday chaired a National Security Committee meeting of civilian and military chiefs, focusing on Trump’s tweet. The meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, was brought forward by a day and followed an earlier meeting of army generals.

The committee, in a statement issued by the prime minister’s office, did not name Trump but spoke of “deep disappointment” at a slew of critical comments from U.S. officials over the past few months.

“Recent statements and articulation by the American leadership were completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation,” it said.

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NEW DELHI – While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the most talked about Lok Sabha member and Sachin Tendulkar was the most popular Rajya Sabha member on Facebook in 2017.

The results appeared on Wednesday when Facebook released information on its top-ranked pages of government bodies, ministries and political parties in India for the January 1 to December 31, 2017 period.

Facebook categorised the information on its its top-ranked pages of government bodies under Parliament of India, Union Government, State Governments and Union Territories, and political parties.

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Among State Governments and Union Territories, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was the most popular followed by his Rajasthan counterpart, Vasundhara Raje.

Among political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the most popular. But surprisingly, the Indian National Congress came third as the the Aam Aadmi Party took the second spot in terms of Facebook popularity.

Among apex bodies, PMO India was the most popular on Facebook followed by President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. Ministry of External Affairs topped among ministries.

MyGov India was the most popular government initiative on Facebook while among the armed forces, the Indian Army was the most popular.

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Indian American Arun Aggarwal, a former doctor at Dayton Children’s Hospital, pleaded guilty to four counts of gross sexual imposition, to which the pediatric gastroenterologist, had previously pleaded not guilty to the allegations of improperly touching the breasts of two teenage female patients.

“Between Dec. 23, 2013, and Nov. 10, 2014, the defendant, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Dayton Children’s Hospital, inappropriately touched teens during medical examinations. The inappropriate touching was not a medically necessary part of the examination,” said Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck in a statement.

According to the Dayton Daily News, Aggarwal is here on a work visa and will voluntarily return to India if he is not deported, after his 10-month sentence, four of which he has already served while awaiting his trial.

“This gives him certainty and ends a very difficult saga in his life and he’s eager to get back to India and move ahead,” said Samuel Shamansky, Aggarwal’s attorney.

According to the court filing, along with the sentence, Aggarwal may also face financial sanctions of up to $5,000 on each count as well as a prison term of 18 months on each count.

The agreement says that he will be a Tier 1 offender, which means that he will be unable to reside within 1,000 feet of a school, preschool or daycare and must register his address every year for the next 15 years.

Aggarwal, 40, was arrested at Dulles International Airport in August when he was allegedly attempting to flee the country after he was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury; he is currently in the Montgomery County jail and is being held on a $500,000 bond.

The Dayton Daily News reports that though Aggarwal practiced at Dayton Children’s Hospital where he was hired in December 2013, he was employed by Wright State University who terminated him in September 2015 after his hospital admitting privileges lapsed during the police investigation.

However, Wright State University was told to pay Aggarwal $91,799 after he sued them for not taking the proper steps when firing him, though the university can appeal the court’s decision.

Aggarwal was also stripped of his medical license last summer by the State Medical Board of Ohio.

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An Indian-American woman has declared her run for the Michigan House of Representatives from District 41 which is currently represented by a Republican.

Democrat Padma Kuppa, an engineer by training, who was born in India and raised in New York, says she is “one of the biggest fans of Michigan you’ll ever meet.” She came to Detroit twenty years ago attracted by the manufacturing industry, and worked for some of the biggest automotive firms. While her kids were in elementary school, Kuppa rejoined the work force at a Troy, Michigan-based small business, according to her biography on Facebook.

“I’ve been involved with the community for decades,” Kuppa told Desi Talk. She spent considerable time volunteering in community groups such as Troy’s Ethnic Issues Advisory Board, the Troy Community Coalition, and the Troy Futures process, and helped create a more inclusive National Day of Prayer celebration. She also founded the Detroit Area Interfaith Group, Kuppa told Desi Talk. She volunteered in the effort to make the Troy Historic Society a destination for its Civil War Day immersion program, and for its Many Stories, One Heritage initiative, recognizing the multicultural character of the city. This was apart from her engagement with the elementary school her children attended, and starting the International Academy East’s Music Parent Association.

As a Troy Planning Commissioner for more than two years, Kuppa says she worked hard to encourage economic development in an environmentally responsible manner. Last year, in a bid to protect the Triple A Bond rating of the city, she worked in building a coalition across the political spectrum to successfully defeat the extreme Charter Amendment.

“People know me and how I can bring different people together,” Kuppa said. At this “historic moment” in the nation and in Michigan, she said, she wants to make sure Michigan remains more inclusive and welcoming.

On Jan. 1, she held her first campaign event, which was attended by more than 100 people, including four Democratic State Representatives, she said. “I’m fairly confident that my potential colleagues in the State House are looking forward to having me there because of our shared values,” Kuppa said, implying her chances for the April primary may be good.

It’s still early days however, and Kuppa is putting her campaign team together and assessing her funding needs for the fight ahead.

The open primary for the election is scheduled for Aug. 7, and so far Kuppa is not being challenged by any other Democrat for the party’s endorsement. But someone else from her own party could throw their hat in the ring by the April filing deadline for the primaries.

If Kuppa secures one of the top two positions in the primary, she will go on to confront incumbent Republican Martin Howrylak, in what will certainly be a challenging race to Nov. 6. Michigan State Representatives are limited to three terms of two years each and Howrylak, if re-elected, would be serving his last two-year term. Twice in the past, he has handily defeated his Republican and Democratic opponents in primaries and the general elections respectively. In the 2016 elections, Howrylak defeated Democrat Cindy Peltonen 56.45 percent to 43.55 percent, according to Ballotpedia.

Since 2011, Republicans have controlled the State House by a 63-47 margin since 2016, and today control the State Senate as well as the gubernatorial office.

As a Democrat, Kuppa hopes to flip one of the 17 seats her party needs to get to a majority in the House.

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Indian American Dr. Shelby Kutty has been named as the assistant dean of research and development at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Medicine.

According to the university’s website, the appointment was announced by Bradley Britigan, the dean of the College of Medicine, and Howard Fox, the senior associate dean of research and development for the College of Medicine.

The professor of pediatrics and internal medicine (cardiology) and vice chair of pediatrics will be working with Fox as they hope to: leverage new funds in the research budget set aside for pilot funds to support innovative projects, utilize research design and statistical support from the College of Public Health to further build rigor and reproducibility in research, hold a research retreat at the Truhlsen Events Center to help build research contacts and collaborations in the College of Medicine and develop research and mentoring opportunities for medical students, residents and fellows.

“This is all about growing our clinical research enterprise. Dr. Kutty is an outstanding investigator and is very committed to building our research program. He will primarily be responsible for helping foster research in those clinical departments and divisions with emerging research programs, and those programs moving into new scholarly directions.” said Fox.

Both Kutty and Fox will be working together to build clinical research and strengthen the collaborations between departments for interdisciplinary and translational work.

“We are confident that we can make an impact on our research and academic enterprise. We just need to make a commitment to get the job done. I want to encourage all our researchers to get behind this initiative and turn out for the retreat. It will be well worth their time,” said Kutty.

Kutty attended Calicut University School of Medicine in India and has a PhD from the University of Nebraska and the University of Amsterdam as well as and Master’s in Healthcare Management from Harvard.

He has also completed a fellowship in pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, in pediatric cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Prior to working at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, Kutty was trained in pediatric cardiology at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia and Cardiac MRI at the Children’s Hospital Boston.

His research interests include Cardiac MRI, 3-Dimensional echocardiography, Ultrasonic contrast imaging and Outcomes.

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President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid [sic], Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others.”

According to ABC News, the tweet came after the State Department released a cache of Abedin’s emails which became a part of the 2016 presidential campaign when the FBI announced that investigators would have to re-examine Clinton’s use of a private email server, just days before the election.

It was later determined that Abedin had forwarded some emails to personal devices which she used along with her then-husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner.

On Dec. 29, the State Department released 139 emails and documents of Abedin’s, including five that were marked classified, but only after they were initially sent or received however, before releasing the emails, the State Department reviewed them and labeled them as “confidential.”

In his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in May last year, former FBI Director James Comey said that Abedin appeared to have a “regular practice” of forwarding classified emails to Weiner and that she would send them to him so he could print them out as “a matter of convenience,” though the FBI was not able to prove that Abedin had any criminal intent by doing so.

“We didn’t have any indication she had a sense what she was doing was in violation of the law,” Comey said.

Trump has now taken full control of the Justice Department and told the New York Times “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” while he was in Mar-a-Lago over the holidays.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders addressed the tweet in a briefing on Tuesday afternoon saying “obviously the facts of that case are very disturbing and I think the president wants to make clear that he doesn’t feel that anyone should be above the law. In terms of any investigation, that would be something the Department of Justice would need to decide and I would refer you to them on whether or not they move forward.”

Nick Merrill, Clinton’s former campaign communications director issued a statement to ABC News slamming the tweet.

“Whenever Donald Trump needs a distraction, he runs the same, reliable play – tweet something about the Clintons or their associates. As Americans know all too well, there already was an investigation into all things email with no wrongdoing found by anyone. A year into his presidency, you would think Donald Trump would be focused on being president — or at least on his own legal problems.”

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LONDON – Drinking alcohol produces a harmful chemical in the body which can lead to permanent genetic damage in the DNA of stem cells, increasing the risk of cancer developing, according to research published on Wednesday.

Working with mice in a laboratory, British scientists used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol.

Their findings offered more detail about how alcohol increases the risk of developing 7 types of cancer, including common forms such as breast and bowel cancer. It also showed how the body seeks to defend against the damage alcohol can do.

“Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells. While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage,” said Ketan Patel, a professor at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, who co-led the study.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, citing “convincing evidence” it causes cancer in humans.

A study published in 2011 found that alcohol is responsible for around 4 percent of all cancer in Britain – equating to around 12,800 cases a year.

In Wednesday’s study, published in the journal Nature, Patel’s team gave diluted alcohol to mice and then analyzed the effect on the animals’ DNA. They found that acetaldehyde can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells, permanently altering the DNA sequences within these cells.

This is important, Patel said, because when healthy stem cells become faulty, they can give rise to cancerous cells.

The researchers also looked at how the body tries to protect itself against damage caused by alcohol. The first line of defense is a group of enzymes called aldehyde dehydrogenases or ALDHs, Patel explained. These break down the acetaldehyde into acetate, which cells can then use as a source of energy.

In the study, when mice lacking a critical ALDH enzyme were given alcohol, their DNA suffered four times as damage compared with mice with a properly functioning version of the enzyme.

Patel said cells also have a second line of defense in the form of a range of DNA repair systems which, most of the time, allow them to fix and reverse different types of DNA damage.

But in some instances and in some people – particularly people from South East Asia – the repair systems fail to work, meaning their cells are unable to repair effectively.

“It’s important to remember that alcohol clearance and DNA repair systems are not perfect, and alcohol can still cause cancer in different ways – even in people whose defense mechanisms are intact,” Patel said.

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Telugu singer Ghazal Srinivas was suspended as the brand ambassador for the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation and Save Temples Organization, after he was arrested for sexually harassing one of the female employees at the organization’s office in Hyderabad, India.

Velagapudi Prakasa Rao, the founder and president of the foundation, said in a video message from the U.S. that he was surprised and shocked to hear the allegations of sexual abuse in the India office.

“We don’t not tolerate any abuse of power or any infraction of moral conduct,” he told The News Minute.

Rao added that both organizations were started in 2006 by a group of NRIs to protect Hinduism and their main goal is to free temples from government control and uphold while preserving high morals and ethical principles.

Srinivas, whose real name is Kesiraju Srinivas, was arrested by Hyderabad police on Tuesday for sexually harassing a woman, who was working as a radio jockey for a web radio ‘Alayavani’ (voice of temples) which was run by the Save Temples Organization.

According to The News Minute, the woman complained that Srinivas had been harassing her for the last few months and she even submitted videos of Srinivas sexually harassing women employees to the police.

In the video which was leaked to media, Srinivas is seen being massaged by one of the female employees.

A court has sent the singer to 14-day judicial custody until Jan. 12 after police filed a case on Dec. 29 and arrested him on Jan. 2.

Police told The News Minute that Srinivas had threatened several employees in the office to sleep with him or else they would face consequences like losing their job or not getting paid.

Despite his arrest, Srinivas had denied the allegations and claimed that he always treated the victim like his daughter.

He also holds the Guinness World Record for singing in most languages in one concert.

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Mohammed Ali, 22, an Indian American from Hayward, California was charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday killing a California Highway Patrol officer on Christmas Eve while driving under the influence.

According to an NBC Bay Area report, Ali was driving at the speed of 120 miles per hour when he rear-ended a parked patrol car on southbound Interstate Highway 880 in Hayward around midnight on Dec. 24, which killed Officer Andrew Camilleri and injured Officer Jonathan Velasquez.

Along with the murder charge, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, has charged Ali with driving under the influence of a combination of marijuana and alcohol.

According to KTVU San Francisco, witnesses saw Ali driving his Cadillac at a high speed in an aggressive way while weaving through traffic.

According to authorities, as Ali was speaking with paramedics at the scene, he admitted to ingesting marijuana and when he arrived at the hospital, his blood sample showed a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent.

When Ali was interviewed by KTVU San Francisco following the crash, he admitted that he was driving after ingesting both alcohol and drugs.

He then told investigators that he had threatened his wife on the same night of the crash before he drove from Manteca to Hayward where he said he collided with an “unknown object.”

KTVU San Francisco reported that “Ali further related that he knew while driving on the night in question not only was he impaired but that he should have pulled over at least three times but did not and made the decision to keep driving.”

The California Highway Patrol said that Officer Camilleri and Officer Velasquez were parked on the shoulder of Interstate 880 in Hayward on Christmas Eve looking out for reckless or impaired drivers when just before midnight, a red Cadillac struck the officers’ patrol car from behind, killing Officer Camilleri and injuring Officer Velasquez though he was released from the hospital, the next morning.

Officer Camilleri, 33, is survived by his wife and three children.

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Indian American Ami Patel has been appointed as the chief legal and compliance officer for Sharecare, the digital health company which helps people manage all their health in one place.

“We are excited to have Ami join our management team, as she brings a valuable set of legal experience and leadership skills that will be an asset to us as we expand and advance our offerings with health plans, employers, providers and most importantly, our users,” said Justin Ferrero, president of Sharecare, in a press release.

Prior to joining Sharecare, Patel worked at McKesson Corporation for more than 16 years, where she served as the assistant general counsel for the organization’s Corporate IT and Technology interests.

She was also an adviser to the CIO/CTO and chief information security officer, and worked cross-functionally with client stakeholders globally to provide legal counsel and transactional support to various organizations.

Patel also played a major role in McKesson’s largest acquisition, Celesio AG, where she served as a special legal advisor to that division’s CIO and European IT leadership team.

Before working at McKesson Corporation, Patel was the general counsel and vice president of the Sterling Hotel Management Group, LLC, in St. Augustine, Florida as well as an attorney with King and Spalding in Atlanta and served as a law clerk for Judge Stacey W. Cotton in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia.

At Sharecare, Patel will be responsible for the legal affairs of the entire company, globally.

In addition, Sharecare will be relocating its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to San Francisco, California.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump pushed for stricter voter identification rules on Thursday and accused Democratic-led states of failing to cooperate with a presidential election fraud commission that he disbanded this week.

In a pair of posts on Twitter, the Republican president reiterated his allegations, without offering any evidence, that there was voter fraud in the November 2016 presidential election.

Trump won the White House through the state-by-state Electoral College system but lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Most state officials who oversee elections, including Republicans and Democrats, as well as election law experts say voter fraud is rare in the United States.

On Wednesday, the White House said in a statement it was shutting down the bipartisan panel that Trump established in May to look into allegations of fraud in the 2016 contest, saying many states had refused to provide data.

Trump had now asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate and decide what action was needed, the White House said.

The panel was headed by Vice President Mike Pence, along with Kris Kobach, who as Kansas Secretary of State runs elections in that state and who has long urged new voting restrictions.

Their effort, however, quickly met resistance from a number of U.S. states as well as civil rights groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, which had both filed lawsuits opposing it.

States and the groups balked at the information requested by the commission such as names, birth dates, political affiliation and voting histories. More than 20 states refused outright to provide the data and others said they needed to study the issue.

On Thursday, Trump said uncooperative “mostly Democratic states … fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.”

A number of states such as Texas have already passed laws requiring voter identification. Critics say that can make it harder for some people, including minorities, to vote because they are less likely to have certain IDs. Proponents say such steps are necessary and are not onerous.

In July, a federal judge in Washington noted the advisory panel lacked legal authority to compel states to provide data, even as it allowed the commission’s work to move forward. A U.S. appeals court later also allowed the panel to continue.

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AT&T Inc. will launch a fifth-generation mobile service in a dozen cities in the United States by late 2018, it said on Thursday, after international wireless standards for the network were finalized last month.

5G is expected to provide higher speeds, more capacity and lower response times than 4G LTE, as well as support uses such as autonomous cars.

AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier, did not disclose the 12 locations or how large the 5G coverage area would be in each market. The service will work only on 5G capable mobile devices.

“Any implementation we do here will start off very controlled,” Andre Fuetsch, president of AT&T Labs and chief technology officer, said in an interview.

He said that AT&T will launch the mobile service using information it is already collecting in trials for a new 5G broadband service, where the last leg of Internet connection is delivered via a radio signal to a home or business using wireless spectrum known as millimeter wave.

The company has said it expects deployment of that service as early as late 2018. Verizon Communications Inc is launching a similar service in three to five markets in 2018.

Industry analysts consider 5G mobile service to be a bigger revenue opportunity for wireless carriers than broadband. T-Mobile US Inc has also said it is targeting nationwide 5G coverage by 2020.

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AHMEDABAD – Ahmedabad-based, internationally-reputed cardiologist Tejas Patel on Thursday said he has introduced here vascular robotic technology for the first time anywhere outside the U.S. to perform coronary angioplasty and stenting.

Patel told reporters here that the new technology, which he had implemented on 57 patients in a month, would make India a frontrunner in the modern healthcare system with almost zero failure rate in angioplasty and stenting.

He introduced the technology at the Apex Heart Institute here, making the state of the art cardiology centre a “global centre of excellence” outside the U.S. Patel said the first robot was installed at the institute on December 7 and in less than a month he and his team had carried out 57 surgeries with the robotics technology.

“The Apex Heart Institute, Ahmedabad, is the first institute in the world outside the US to have the robotics technology for angioplasty and stenting,” he claimed.

In the USA too, the technology was available only at eight centres and was introduced just about a year ago. “India is much ahead of any other country, including the European countries to introduce this,” he said.

He said though robotics technology for other parts of the body arrived many years ago, it took longer for the scientists to perfect the technique for heart as it was the only “moving” part in the body.

According to Patel, the new technology could achieve “near cent per cent success rate and almost zero per cent failure rate” which was the ultimate objective of the healthcare system besides keeping both the doctors, nurses and other hospital staff outside the radiation impact.

He said the robotics system could secure nearly five to 10 times more accuracy than the manual system and would help the country achieve the ultimate goal of super speciality healthcare facilities to remote villages as robotics system would soon be able to perform such surgeries from distance.

Patel stated that cost-wise the new technology would be about Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh more expensive than the traditional manual system, but added that the higher expenses would be acceptable given its success rate.

He said his hospital would decide the additional charge under the new technology depending on the financial status of the patients. “Being new, the technology was yet to be approved by health insurance companies but over a period of time it would be approved since it had been accepted by the US companies,” the cardiologist said.

Patel, who was also the first cardiologist in the country to introduce the “Transradial Access Technique” (through the wrist artery) for angioplasty some 25 years ago and had so far trained over 5,000 cardiologists in the country, said he and his team would similarly provide training to young interventionl cardiologists from India and abroad in the Robotic-assisted technique.

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BENGALURU – Possibly in a bid to avoid criticism of high pay to its top official, global software major Infosys has said it will pay its new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (CEO & MD) Salil S. Parekh Rs 16.25 crore salary per annum.

In a regulatory filing on the BSE, the company said in addition to Rs 6.5 crore fixed pay and Rs 9.75 crore variable pay, Parekh would get its restricted stock units (RSUs) or shares (Rs 5 face value) equivalent to Rs 3.25 crore as annual equity grant and annual performance equity grant worth Rs 13 crore, taking the total package to Rs 32.5 crore ($5 million) per annum for five years.

Parekh’s overall annual compensation ($5 million) is 45 per cent less than the $11.26 million (Rs 73 crore) the company paid to Vishal Sikka per annum during his three-year tenure from August 1, 2014 to August 24, 2017.

Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy had severely criticised the company for paying such high compensation to Sikka, saying pay for top executives should be moderate.

Sikka’s compensation included a fixed annual salary of $5.08 million, variable pay of $4.18 million and stock options worth $2 million.

“The compensation for Parekh is subject to approval of the Board’s special resolution by the company’s shareholders through postal ballot and electronic voting (e-voting) by February 20,” said the filing.

The resolution also sought the investors’ approval for Parekh’s appointment as the CEO and MD and Additional Director on the Board from January 2, 2018 to January 1, 2023.

In addition to salary and stock options, Parekh will get health and life insurance as applicable to his executive post.

“Compensation benefits will include paid vacation, travel and entertainment expenses as applicable to the company’s executive,” added the filing.

As the variable pay (Rs 9.75 crore) will be applicable from April 1, the company will pay Parekh Rs 2.4 crore from January 2 to March 31 of this fiscal (2017-18) as initial variable pay.

“The variable pay (Rs 9.75 crore) will be payable to Parekh subject to the company’s achievement of certain milestones determined by the Board or its committee from time to time,” noted the filing.

Parekh will also be given a one-time equity grant of RSUs having a value equal to Rs 9.75 crore in two instalments of 50 per cent each on the first anniversary of the grant date and its second anniversary.

According to other terms of the appointment resolution, Parekh’s five-year term has an option of renewing it for three more years subject to the shareholders’ approval.

“Parekh, 53, will retire upon attaining the age of 60 years,” added the filing.

In the event of leaving the company during the tenure, Parekh or Infosys has to give a three-month notice.

Parekh joined the city-based outsourcing firm on Tuesday after the Board appointed him on December 2.

A veteran in the software industry, Parekh is the second non-founder executive of the $10-billion firm after the exit of the first non-promoter CEO Sikka in August following a spat with its co-founders over governance issues last year.

Prior to joining Infosys, Parekh was an executive board member of the Paris-headquartered global consulting, technology and IT firm Capgemini for 25 years since 1992.

Parekh has Masters degrees in computer science and mechanical engineering from Cornell University in the US and a B.Tech degree in aeronautical engineering from IIT-Bombay.

The Board’s second resolution pertains to the re-designation of U.B. Pravin Rao as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and whole-time Director from January 2 to August 17, 2022 on the terms and conditions of his appointment.

Rao’s annual compensation of Rs 12.5 crore includes Rs 4.63 crore fixed salary, Rs 3.87 crore variable pay and Rs 4 crore worth stock options.

Rao, 56, was the company’s interim CEO and MD from August 18 to January 1 after Sikka resigned from the top execute post.

The company’s Board has appointed Parameshwar G. Hegde, a practising company secretary, as scrutiniser to conduct the postal ballot and electronic-voting from January 22 to February 20 and submit his report to the Chairman (co-founder Nandan Nilekani) with its results on or before February 24.

The resolutions will be sent to the shareholders for approval on January 15.

The company’s blue-chip scrip of Rs 5 face value was quoting Rs 1,014.70 per share on the BSE in the post-noon trading on Thursday after opening at Rs 1,022 and as against Wednesday’s closing price of Rs 1,019.10.

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