Asian Lite News Archive

Category: COLUMNS

  • Tourism to unite South Asian

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    Saroj Mohanty says India pitches tourism for South Asian integration  After talks with the Bhutanese leadership, Prime minister Narendra Modi proposed developing a tourism circuit combining India’s Northeast region and the Himalayan nation. This came weeks after he conferred with other South Asian leaders and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj spoke about some “new initiatives”…

  • THE NOT SO FINE ART OF MOLESTATION

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra The fact is a complaint has been made to the police and they will have to act on it. This is not some village woman they can ignore (or rape while she is waiting) this is a high profile film actress accusing a high profile boyfriend in a very public…

  • COLUMN – Saeed Naqvi on Gandhis (New)

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    Saeed Naqvi says the Gandhis must vacate for an opposition to take shape. Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper for the Asian diaspora will carry regular political columns After the vigorous opening speech in the Lok Sabha by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi’s rump of a party looked even more battered and bruised. The most reassuring news…

  • THE FUNNY SIDE- Dogs Are Smart !

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     Nury Vittachi in his column The Funny Side for Asian Lite, top newspaper for the Asian diaspora, says the difference between humans and animals: Dogs are smart I’ve always told my children that they can turn traffic lights green using only their minds. My wife scolds me, but it totally works. You just have to choose the…

  • WILL THIS GENERAL PLEASE SHUT UP

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    Bikram Vohra looks into the controversy over the appointment of new army chief in India I want to share a thought. I come from a family of four brothers, the only ones in any army in the world who made the rank of a General. No other commissioned band of brothers has four. My dad…

  • CHANGE OF PACE:Animal Farm

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra I love animal parables. That’s because animals are smarter than most of the people I know. I always recall a sign on the table at an airline executive’s office. It read: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or…

  • PEACE- An elusive dream?

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    Vishnu Makhijani says  the world is in greater conflict than at any previous period in its history   On June 6 was celebrated the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the allied landings on Normandy that marked the beginning of the end of World War-II, a war that was supposed to end all wars. July 28 will be…

  • UNAPPEALINGLY YOURS

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra What is your most unappealing feature? Most of us go through life never even asking ourselves this simple question. Just like with cosmetics we are more inclined to camouflage our negatives and pretend they do not exist. But it is a fascinating exercise in piercing the self-deception. It stands to…

  • Pranab speech with Modi touch

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    Arvind Padmanabhan says Modi govet: Path charted, its time now for action The address to parliament delivered by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday, outlining the policy priorities of the new government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is not only one of the most comprehensive in recent times but also reflects the vast task that lies…

  • Love, breakups…it’s zindagi!

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    Radhika Bhirani  in her column Curious Case writes about Splitsville in times of ‘Splitsvilla’  The ball for the seventh season of “Splitsvilla” on the idiot box is ready to roll, but in the real world of celebrities – Hollywood or Bollywood – it’s been quite a season of splitsville already! Love, breakups…it’s zindagi, I guess. Almost every…

  • Tibet & Indo-China Ties

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    Sudip Mazumdar analysing the new Indo-China ties during the Modi rule. Will Modi rewrite the rules of India-China engagement? Even before Narendra Modi became the prime minister, he did something that none of the governments before his could do in the past 50 years. And this historically path-breaking move has remained largely out of sight…

  • WHO KILLED MOHSIN SHAIKH? WHY?

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    Bikram Vohra questions the killing of an innocent youth in Pune over a social media prank Who gave these people the permission to be the conscience of the nation? Just because some idiot morphed pictures of Hindu right group RSS leader Bal Thackeray on the Net you cannot turn into cold blooded killers and justify your…

  • Nury’s The Funny Side

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    Nury Vittachi in his column The Funny Side narrates the common errors in English usage The managers of my office put up a sign saying: “Keep the door close.” Do they mean “closed”, or do they want me to take the door off its hinges and keep it close to me everywhere I go? Given…

  • CAN YOU PLEASE STOP TALKING

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra You know they have these psycho tests where they give you word association and you respond and then the analyst works out where the worms in your mind are and how they are wriggling. Like are you bananas or psycho yourself or a potential serial killer, misanthrope, whatever. I was…

  • SILENCE THIS IS THE AIRPORT 

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra So some bright spark woke up in the corridors of power and had a sparkling idea. He decided in his bureaucratic wisdom to make New Delhi a silent airport. When you enter the terminal there all these signs saying sssshh, this is a silent airport. You would think you are…

  • Poor Shane Warne!

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    Vishnu Makhijani in his column Soliloquy says Chill Shanie, we’re here for you Poor Shane Warne! The Australian cricketer has suffered his share of angst. There was this time he walked out of a press where he was to unveil a likeness of himself in soap that was to be auctioned for a children’s charity when a reporter…

  • TEED OFF IN TELUGU

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra This could happen to you. These days it happens far more often than you think. Sri was studying at a US University in a small town in California when his father came to visit him. Now, his dad is a golf nut and any chance he gets he plays anywhere…

  • Progress Report – Modi’s First Week

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    Prashant Sood says Modi drives the agenda as some ministers court controversies . While there have been some questions of Modi’s choice of ministers and portfolios – Smriti Irani getting human resource development and Jitendra Singh being appointed minister of state in prime minister’s office – the government has been dogged by controversies in its first…

  • Amulya Ganguli column- Rahul’s failures

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    Amulya Ganguli says Congress cannot paper over Rahul’s failures  Despite Sonia Gandhi’s advice to Congressmen to avoid “public acrimony”, rumbling of discontent about the party’s miserable performance in the recent elections have continued. It will be a mistake, however, if the party tries to brush aside the prevailing sense of helpless anger within the organization as an…

  • WHY DO WIVES….

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    DAILY DOSE by Bikram Vohra What is it about wives that they never find their husband’s jokes funny? Some other guy will tell a wishy washy frightful story and your wife will roar with unbridled laughter. You begin to relate a really good, tried and tested joke and she’ll say, oh no, not that boring…

  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Column- Modi victory

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    Congress ‘communalism’ derailed UPA, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in his column in Asian Lite, the top newspaper for NRIs and Indian diaspora Sri Sri Ravi Shankar “What appears is not and what does not, is.” This ancient saying aptly describes the Indian political scenario. The Congress-led UPA claims to be secular; peel a few layers and you…

  • TROUBLE WITH TRIVIA 

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram VohraHave you ever had trivia wreck your sleep? Like what was the name of the author of Peyton Place or who acted in ‘To hell and back’ or what were the names of the Von Trapp family kids? You are up at 2 in the morning wracking your brains for that…

  • My life is a bad comedy!

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     Nury Vittachi in his column The Funny Side says the Life’s a movie, and mine’s a bad comedy  Madness. In the next few months, government regulators in many cities are planning to legalize self-driving cars. Have these people never seen any of the “Transformers” movies? The Decepticons must be ecstatic. I was worrying out loud about this when a…

  • NRIs appeal to Modi

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    K V Shamsudheen, Chairman of the Dubai-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust writes a letter to newly elected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi explaining the problems of Indian expats face during their struggle to live in a foreign country   Dear Prime Minister, On behalf of  non resident Indians (NRIs)I congratulate you for winning the Indian Lok Sabha…

  • Indian Health Sector: GOOD TIMES ARE COMING?

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    Prof. Rajan Madhok, Chairman, British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), UK, looks into the future of India’s health sector for Asian Lite, the best newspaper for NRIs and Indian diaspora   India is now at a critical point- Shri Narendra Modi really has the ability and potential to transform the country and restore…

  • Nehru story is not just history

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      By Shashi Tharoor     In January 1889, or so the story goes, Motilal Nehru, a 27-year-old lawyer from Allahabad, travelled to the Hindu holy town of Rishikesh, weighed down by personal tragedy. Married as a teenager, in keeping with custom, he had soon been widowed, losing both his wife and his first-born son in…

  • ‘Dynasty’ crumbles in young India

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    By Anando Bhakto   Fifty years after the death of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which had been instrumental in shaping most of modern India’s socio-economic and political fortunes and had commanded unswerving loyalty from the electorate in the past, is seemingly no longer the “natural choice” for the country’s young population.…

  • Service sector needs overhauling

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    Amit Chaudhery looks into India’s service industry and says it must strive for excellence Emerging amid liberalisation and increasing integration with the global economy, India’s service industry offers tremendous potential but also poses daunting challenges. Underdeveloped infrastructure, archaic policies, historical baggage of complex cultural mores and inadequate exposure to services standards are challenges that remain…

  • Belgium’s best export – Tintin

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    Vikas Datta looks into Belgium’s most enduring export: Tintin’s adventures and politics. Asian Lite, the best newspaper for NRIs and Indian diaspora will carry regular features Comic books, like many products we know, are an American invention. The US and Japan (manga) account for most since the form appeared in the 1930s, but neither can…

  • Can probe cleanse cricket?

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    Delhi-based Veturi Srivatsa looks into the recent scams and controversies erupted in Indian cricket for Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper for the Indian diaspora Probing betting, match and spot-fixing in cricket is turning out to be a mirage like bringing back black money stashed abroad. The Supreme Court has asked the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to…

  • Media trials hinder Muslim confidence

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      By Saeed Naqvi  Just when the nation was preparing itself for Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony Monday, all Indian newspapers have published a story the prime minister must find time to read. It is a story of Mohammad Saleem and five others set free, after 11 years in jail, by the Supreme Court for…

  • Modi’s willingness for a new beginning

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    By Amulya Ganguli  If the expectations about Narendra Modi are tinged by a sense of mystery and excitement, the reason is not only that he is an outsider to the power hub of Edwin Lutyens’ Delhi with its colonial era architecture – a first-time MP who becomes the prime minister – but also that his…

  • CUPIDITY – By Bikram Vohra

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    “What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?” Remember those famous lines from Oliver Barret IV. Words that made Love Story such a big hit. Love means never having to say you are sorry. It does not…

  • Cleanliness Next to Godliness

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    Robinder Sachdev, president of Imagindia Institute, and chairman of the Come, Clean India campaign , says  Modi’s vision bodes well for a clean India. Asian Lite, the best NRI newspaper, will carry more from Clean India campaign regularly. Keep reading..   I run a think tank where we focus on the image and imagination of India and,…

  • New Era in India – By Amulya Ganguli

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    Amulya Ganguli looks on Modi’s gestures. His willingness to make a new beginning. Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper for NRIs, will publish comments from Amulya regularly. Please keep watch If the expectations about Narendra Modi are tinged by a sense of mystery and excitement, the reason is not only that he is an outsider to the…

  • BJP Strategy for Gen Next

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    Gyanendra Kumar Keshri says the winning coalition in India – the  BJP-led NDA  pinged 144 million Net users in latest election The IT cell of “Elect Modi Campaign” reached out to as many as 144 million people across India in the latest elections — a formidable bank to tap into to garner vote for the Bharatiya…

  • GOTTAGO GOTTAGO

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    Bikram Vohra’s DAILY DOSE for Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper in the UK My flight into Delhi did not disappear. It whispered onto the runway and did a three point touchdown. As the aircraft slowed and trundled to its gate there was a sudden of shouting that seemed to increase in intensity and became confrontational.…

  • Proactive Modi doctrine?

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    By Saroj Mohanty  In an unprecedented move, Narendra Modi has invited leaders of all of India’s South Asian neighbours to his swearing-in ceremony as prime minister on May 26. To an extent, this is in line with his own loud thinking and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll manifesto to “reorient and reboot” India’s diplomacy to…

  • Challenges facing Narendra Modi

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    By Parthasarathy Chaganty “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come” is a favourite quote of the outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. If ideas can come in the form of men, Narendra Modi, set to be sworn in as India’s new prime minister, is one such manifestation. Thirty years after 1984,…

  • AAP- too naive to succeed?

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    Delhi-based journalist Ahmad Shariq Khan looks in to the performance of Aam Aadmi Party in the recent elections – Its high time Kejriwal should sit up and take notice of these changing paradigms in Indian polity So the much awaited verdict is out – Mr. Narendra Modi is all set to become India’s 14th prime minister.…

  • MR MODI’S DRUMBEAT

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra What if they were not crocodile tears that Modi cried for Advani, even as he sought a handkerchief and sipped water and cracked his voice with emotion in a scene so bizarre and yet so effective. What if the kneeling down and kissing the step of the house was not…

  • Advani & Sushma should mend their ways

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    Dubai-based journalist Jawahar Chhoda comments on the developments in the ruling party BJP leader LK Advani might have tried to be sarcastic by mentioning that Modi did a great favour to BJP by choosing to lead it but by retorting to him and then breaking down in an emotional outburst, Modi made it clear that…

  • THE PERILS OF PAGE 3 PEOPLE 

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram Vohra Many years ago I wrote about this couple who were not A list. More like a B or B plus. Not rich enough, not famous enough, not pow­erful enough. So, while they were pretty active on the city circuit they were never at the best places. Just second best. Sort…

  • IN THE BAG

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    DAILY DOSE By Bikram VohraSome things fascinate me. Like people who buy watches for $100,000. I am sure it must be a lovely feeling to have that kind of money on your wrist but does it improve the quality of time. I don’t suggest you wear a Mickey Mouse plastic watch but such an exorbitant…

  • To hell with subtlety

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    By Vishnu Makhijani  There’s this story told about a US presidential election in the early days of the republic. Planks had been laid across the main street of a town in Texas that had turned into slush after a sharp shower. As it happened, two candidates approached each other on the same plank. “I’ll have…

  • Gujarat CM to Delhi Darbar

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      Saroj Mohanty analyses Modi’s rise from a provincial leader to the most powerful post in India  “I believe God has chosen me,” Narendra Modi had once said in the course of the election campaign that has catapulted the Gujarat chief minister to the very pinnacle of power as the next prime minister of India.…

  • Russi Mody – Man of Steel

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    Sirshendu Panth pays tribue to Mody, India,s Man of Steel  Russi Modi was a flamboyant, visionary corporate leader who laid the foundation for the growth of one of India’s pioneering private sector company into a global steel behemoth by combining excellence in business with an enduring commitment to society. Having steered the erstwhile TISCO – now…

  • Economic revival top on agenda

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    Gyanendra Kumar Keshri writes on the priorities of the Modi government   With growth at its lowest in over a decade and inflation, job creation and investments remaining major challenges, India’s new government under Narendra Modi has its task cut out to reverse months of perceived policy inaction and revive the stagnant economy. Opinion-makers and stakeholders…

  • FRIENDS, INDIANS AND COUNTRYMEN 

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    DAILY DOSE BY Bikram Vohra After 10 years of silence at the top Mr Modi’s speeches in Vadodra and Ahmedabad were a rich repast of rhetoric, slick oratory, some common and earthy similes and a fair amount of theatrics. He could have been a professional actor going through the motions or so naturally honest and up…

  • Amit Shah- The King Maker

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    Mohit Dubey profiles Amit Shah; the brain behind Modi’s victory in Uttar Pradesh Less than a year ago, when Amit Shah, BJP general secretary and possibly the closest political associate of Narendra Modi, came to Lucknow, the first thing he did was to head for a doctor. An upset stomach and high fever meant the…