Gunman fires at Billu’s Indian Eatery in Sydney August 26, 2015 13:04
On Tuesday, just before 9 p.m. local time a gunman fired a shot at a crowded Indian restaurant through the front window at Harris Park in Sydney’s west, marking the second such incident in the area in last four months. During the time of firing, 30 to 40 members of staff and customers were inside the Billu’s Indian Eatery on Wigram Street. Local police revealed that none were injured as the bullet traveled through the restaurant’s front window hitting a shelf. Soon after the incident, blue track suited gunman was seen running south on Wigram Street. Police said, “Just before 9 p.m., a single shot was fired into the Indian restaurant on Wigram Street, Harris Park.” They are now seeking assistance from someone who could have seen the man particularly a women who was knocked down onto the ground near the pedestrian crossing on the Wigram Street. The incident of firing shots by a gunman happened for the second time this year in the area that marks a hub of Indian restaurants besides Indian shops. Yadu Singh, Sydney-based cardiologist, said, the incident has generated a great concern among the Indian businesses in the area. It is scary and police is probing the incident.” -Sumana
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IT Initiative Of NRIs To Help Andhra Pradesh August 20, 2015 11:11
IT initiative by an NRI group has been unveiled by N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, to help the state in several areas using mobile apps and other technology apps. The non-profit organization, 'Code for AP', in the US supports AP in e-governance, economic and social development. A total of 100 volunteers are working with the organization that aligns with 30 government departments. Technology-based solutions will be offered to the departments to streamline work. Different state government projects including 'Central Fund Monitoring Portal', 'Mobile Device Management', 'Sentry Gate' and 'News Room' have been worked by Code for AP. First of its kind app, the 'Central Fund Monitoring Portal’ will facilitate every department to thoroughly understand each and every scheme launched by the Union government. Government officials on field work are sanctioned tablets and smart phones under the 'Mobile Device Management', facilitating data collection.The security department was empowered thorough an advanced automation system, the Sentry Gate Pass system, that allows access for a visitor into state Secretariat using a smart tab. A free Android application, News Room, allows users from anywhere in the world to access leading Indian newspapers in Telugu and English.Naidu said "During Pushkaram, our government has worked on getting crowd feedback through IVRS system. That worked well. We now want Code for AP to work on applications that will not only support the government, but also come up with innovative ideas for delivering citizen services.” -Sumana
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Proposal To Lift Minimum Wage For H-1B Visas: Donald Trump August 19, 2015 15:05
Donald Trump, Republican presidential front runner, has proposed to lift the minimum wage for H-1B visas, sounding the death knell for the most popular work visas particularly for the Indian technology professionals. This came with the releases of his policy to put American workers first.According to Trump, such move would allow companies to offer IT jobs to unemployed Americans rather than cheaper overseas workers.The real-estate tycoon who is based from the New York lashed out at Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and Marco Rubio, Florida Senator, for introducing a bill to increase H-1B visas three times more. Currently, the H-1B visas are capped every year to 65,000 each annum by the U.S. Congress.A position paper on immigration reform released by the Trump Campaign said, “Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs.” This came as an opposition to Zuckerberg’s move to increase H-1B visa number.The position paper said, “We graduate two times more Americans with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program.”“Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas,” it added.Also Read: Around 200 Indians not paid for five months in oman -Sumana
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Around 200 Indians Not Paid For Five Months In Oman August 13, 2015 17:37
Around 200 Indians working with a construction company based in Oman are not being paid for past five months, according to a recent media report.The workers were quoted by TOI as saying that, "Our salaries are pending for the past five months. We were waiting for the company to pay us, but they have failed to keep their promise. It has become quite difficult to survive.” A complaint was lodged by the workers to get their dues, with the Indian embassy.The workers said, "We have lodged a complaint with the Indian embassy on August 10. We are ready to leave but we need to be paid for our work. We cannot leave empty-handed.”According to workers, the company is not willing to clear their dues and is asking them to leave. The company has project sites in Ibri, Mabelah, Nakhal and Bausher. The company did not make a comment over the workers' claims.A Muscat-based legal advisor was quoted by TOI as saying that, "The Oman government and the labour law guarantee a salary for the workers according to the signed job contract agreed upon at the time of employment. So, if there is any violation in that the workers have the right to approach the labour department.”-Sumana
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NRIs Can Now Enroll For Aadhar August 07, 2015 18:16
Government has decided that Aadhaar enrolment can be made by Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin and Overseas Citizen of India which should eventually help them to authenticate their identity digitally, Parliament was informed.“The government has decided that a longer term goal should be to expand Aadhaar enrolment activities in order to ensure that all persons on the Indian soil (Resident Indian, NRIs, OCI/PIO and visa holding visitors) shall be empowered with a unique identity / identifier that can be authenticated on a digital platform any time anywhere,” Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said in written reply to Lok Sabha.All residents including Indian national and foreigners with valid visas can be enrolled and provided Aadhaar number by the UIDAI. UIDAI is working on the policy for Aadhaar enrolment of the NRIs, PIOs and OICs after receiving the direction from the government on the issue. The minister has said in its reply that no timeframe has been formulated at this stage for achieving the goal.Aadhaar is a valid know your customer (KYC) document for various services including banking, telecom, cooking gas subsidy, vehicle registration driving licence, government scholarships, pension and public distribution system..By Premji
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Infosys to rely less on US H-1B visa for US facilities July 09, 2015 11:55
Infosys, an Indian IT company, has announced that it will be less reliant on US H-1B visa for its US facilities. Infosys CEO, Vishal Sikka, hopes that the less dependence on the H-1B visa and employment of more local workers will help the company to attain its goal to reach $20 billion revenue by 2020.In response to reports that Infosys was under investigation for misuse of H-1B visas by the US Department of Labor, Sikka was quoted by workpermit as saying that, "We should not be concerned about the H-1B visa issue, I'm an American citizen. Our compliance to H-1B regulations is impregnable and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously along with the countless other companies across our industry sector that do so. However, as the power of innovation increases, we're at a point where we have to become far less dependent on visas and increasingly dependent on innovation."Earlier, US senators Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, made claims of H-1B visa misuse. According to the senators, Infosys has violated H-1B visa rules. Yet there has been no confirmation from the Department of Labor that there is an investigation into H-1B visa misuse by the company.-Sumana
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U.S. back in Visa Business after Major Outage June 24, 2015 12:27
U.S. Department of State is back in the business of issuing visas after the online system abruptly stopped working at consulates worldwide earlier this month. About two thirds of visa issuance facilities are back online and have been issued visas although only 45,000 were handed out on Monday. Of those, 15,000 were issued in Beijing, which is the busiest U.S. consulate in the world. "Significant additional numbers will be issued as the backlog clears," State Department Spokesman John Kirby said. "Many posts have now rescheduled interviews, in many cases as early as the 24th", he added. "Significant additional numbers will be issued as the backlog clears," he said. "Many posts have now rescheduled interviews, in many cases as early as the 24th", he quipped. "So far, it's going well," Kirby ended. The State Department hasn't provided details on what went wrong and why it took so long to fix, beyond saying the database needed to be rebuilt. The department said the failure was related to a hardware device and was not the result of a cyber attack. The same database failed at about the same time last year, throwing summer travel plans in chaos for around 200,000 people. On that occasion, a bug-ridden software patch from Oracle and Microsoft caused the problem. Kirby cautioned that the system was still being tested and as such could still be taken offline again. Throughout the outage, which also affected issuance of U.S. passports at missions overseas, the U.S. has been handled a small number of visa cases. It has issued around 1,250 visas to temporary or seasonal workers from Mexico whose biometric details were already in the system and it has handed out around 3,000 visas related to urgent or humanitarian purposes. The system failure was second of its kind in the recent times. It throws the summer plans of almost 2, 00,000 passengers in chaos, when it failed last summer. - Manohar. M
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Hard Ware Problem Stops Visa Processing in US? June 18, 2015 11:03
A never expected problem has been wondering most of the US Visa applicants across the globe. The suspected hardware snag at the state department's computer system has been not allowing the officials to process the bio-metric and other crucial data collected at the embassies and consulates. According to the statement issued by the spokesman of the state department, John Kirby, the technical experts have been trying to fix the issue. Over 100 experts from both private and public sectors across the US are working to get a solution. By next week, the problem could be solved and the visa processing work can be resumed, as per the media reports. "Certainly we regret this inconvenience to travelers, recognize that this is causing hardship for those that are waiting for visas, and in some cases their family members or employers in the United States," Kirby said. He also said, "That's why we're taking it so seriously. So we're going to get it done, we're going to get it done right, and we're not going to rush as well," while noting the importance of the issue. "We're working on this as fast as we can, but it's important to get it done right. Of course, we're going to continue to post regular updates on our website," Kirby added. Lakhs of travelers and students, including the job seekers and employees from various nations are awaiting the US visa to fly. This is really one of the severe technical problems faced by the government department. -Kannamsai
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For this Hyderabad student, iPhone is literally more precious than his life June 15, 2015 13:12
It seems even USA, the so-called poster child of development, is unable to deal with its crime rate and the expats are getting victimized more than often times. In the Sunday attack, a 23-year old Hyderabad student was shot dead by unidentified muggers after a Tiff over “just” an iPhone (well, it’s not just in this case). Sai was hailed from Kushaiguda in Kapra, Hyderabad. Upon his graduation in engineering at Geetanjali College in Keesara, Hyderabad, Kiran applied for Masters in Management Studies at Atlantis Masters at Atlantis University in Miami, Florida. Sai Kiran got a green signal for his course from University officials and he landed in Florida on May 2. Kiran was on the phone with one of his friends on Sunday morning (as per Indian Standard Timings) and had just walked out of his residence. All of a sudden he was accosted by a group of Black Americans. Kiran was reportedly shot four times after he refused to hand over his iPhone. He had last spoken to his parents around 12.15 a.m. (IST) on Sunday. Neither the family members nor his friends expected his death call so sooner. The family of Sai Kiran was in deep shock and the calmness clouded over the vicinity. Kumar's family is seeking the help of the Telangana government and the centre to bring his body back to India. - Manohar. M
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Indian-American Children Win Spelling Bee Contest May 29, 2015 17:53
Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam, both Indian-Americans, came to a tie and are named as co-winners of the annual spelling Bee contest. It is the second year in a row that co-champions were named and the fifth time in the history of the bee. Vanya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old is from Olathe, Kan., has joined her sister Kavya as the only siblings to have won the bee. Kavya won the title in 2009. Shivashankar and Venkatachalam, 14, of Chesterfield, Mo., intensively competed for 30 minutes, before both were crowned champs. Back and forth they went, correctly spelling words such as scherenschnitte, pyrrhuloxia, thamakau, caudillismo and a slew of other words which would never be able to decode. The crowd roared as Venkatachalam correctly spelled nunatak to ensure that the victory would be shared. “This is a dream come true,” said Shivashankar. “I’ve wanted this for such a long time.” She dedicated her win to her late grandmother. “I hope I make her happy with this,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous at all,” said Venkatachalam. “It was the culmination of all the hard work of the past six years. I’m finally happy to have success.” His one word to describe his win? “Ridiculous.” By Premji
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Indian-American Prof. Akhil Amar named for key post in US May 21, 2015 10:47
An Indian-American professor from Yale University was named by the US President Barack Obama as a member of the prestigious National Council on Humanities to honour his service and to utilize his abundant knowledge in the field of Law and Political Science. Mr. Akhil Amar has been serving as a Professor of Law and Political Science at the university since 2008. He also served as a professor at both Yale Law School and Yale College since 1985 and has held various professorships, including Southmayd Professor from 1993 to 2008, Professor from 1990 to 1993, Associate Professor from 1988 to 1990, and Assistant Professor from 1985 to 1988. He also worked as a law clerk to judge Stephen Breyer, then of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, from 1984 to 1985. He is co-editor of a constitutional law Casebook, 'Processes of Constitutional Decision-making', and has written several other books on constitutional law. "I am confident that these outstanding individuals will serve the American people well, and I look forward to working with them," the President said in a statement. The Sterling professor is a member of the Board of Directors of the Constitutional Accountability Center and the Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board of the National Constitution Center and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. Professor Amar has received his BA from Yale College and a JD from Yale Law School. He was named a Senior Scholar by the National Constitution Center in 2000. -Kannamsai
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US Lawmaker Apologises May 19, 2015 15:58
A veteran US house member stirred a major controversy by making a gesture mocking native Americans or American Indians. California Democrat Loretta Sanchez, who is opposing the state's Indian-American attorney general Kamala Harris for the party's nomination for a 2016 Senate run said that the candidates who don't hide behind the handlers sometimes misstep. While speaking to an American Indian group in Anaheim, she was caught on mobile phone video, raising her hand in front of her mouth and making a whooping sound like a typical native Indian 'war cry'. She said: "I'm going to his office, thinkin' that I'm gonna go meet with woo-woo-woo-woo, right? 'Cause he said 'Indian American.'" Sanchez apologised at the state convention, saying "in this crazy and exciting rush of meetings yesterday, I said something offensive and for that, I sincerely apologise." "Those of you who put yourselves out there like I do, who open your heart and who don't hide behind handlers you know how hard it can be," she said. "It's hard to put yourself out there and do what leaders need to do day in and day out. Sooner or later, we all make mistakes. We're all human. But that is the only way to truly connect with people. You can't change the world from behind a desk." It is outrageous that native Americans do not accept people whose ancestors have migrated to US even centuries back and the present generation is born and brought-up in America, as Americans, instead they term the migrants as Indian American or so.This is a kind of racist attitude. By Premji
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