Asian Lite News Archive

Category: COLUMNS

  • Welcome to Harrow Mr Modi

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    There is no question in my mind that Britain and India should be very close partners on the international stage and should enjoy a special relationship. The premiership of Narendra Modi and the Conservatives in Government in the UK have very compatible outlooks with regard to encouraging private competition, cutting red tape for businesses and…

  • Modi promises to fulfill promises

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    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to the nation to mark his one year in office. The Indian leader said his government had rejuvenated a languishing economy, brought a corruption-free rule and restored trust. Here is the full letter:  My dear fellow citizens! Service, in our Indian ethos is the ultimate duty – Seva Parmo…

  • The Missing Factor is Compassion

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    Whatever your views on immigration, it is as old as the hills in our British Isles. I want to explode a few myths, and stereotypes around the women immigrants I have met…writes Adeeba Malik CBE, the Deputy CEO of Bradford-based QED for Asian Lite, Britain’s Best Newspaper for British Asians My parents, who moved to Britain from…

  • Modi fuels hope in India: Dr Rami Ranger

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    From day one Mr Modi’s victory brought a new sense of optimism and pride amongst Indians. Their confidence touched new heights not seen in decades. Their morale and confidence was felt across the world especially amongst the huge Indian diaspora scattered in over 150 countries of the world…Dr Rami Ranger, Chairman of London-based Sun Mark…

  • Britain Awaits Queeen’s Speech

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    Prime Minister David Cameron will set the agenda for his second term with a series of policy announcements in the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday. The prime minister, who is enjoying a thin majority and without any hassle from the strings of a coalition, will unveil a timeframe to fulfil most of his promises in the…

  • YOU ARE A KING OF THE KITCHEN

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA The gas cylinder runs out an hour before guests arrive. Your pot pie, apple strudel or whatever is in the oven either sinks like the Titanic or is overcooked on the outside and half frozen and raw on the inside. Your delicious mouthwatering that looks absolutely awesome with shining green peas, blazing…

  • A small ad sparks a big debate

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    When Mumbai-based Harish Iyer’s mother Padma placed a matrimonial advertisement in a Mumbai tabloid for her gay son, she never thought it would generate a debate across and outside the country…reports Preetha Nair for Asian Lite, Britain’s best newspaper for British Asians  When Mumbai-based Harish Iyer’s mother Padma placed a matrimonial advertisement in a Mumbai tabloid for…

  • NEPAL QUAKE: Horror is still alive

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    Pranay Bordoloi, a senior journalist and a veteran mountaineer, was a part of Asom Everest Expedition, shares his experience at Everest Base Camp -A month after quake, horror is still alive It had been snowing heavily from the wee hours. It seemed like it would never end. The whole Everest Base Camp was clad in white. The…

  • Portrait of an engineer as a novelist

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     Vikas Datta profiles Nevil Shute Norway, an aeronautical engineer would be the last person expected to be a successful and long-lasting novelist Immersed in aerodynamics, material science, structural analysis and the like, an aeronautical engineer would be the last person expected to be a successful and long-lasting novelist. But there was one who started writing…

  • Indus Valley script numerical

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    Contrary to the age-old assumption that the Indus script is a language, a veteran science historian has claimed that it is numerical, as evident from numbers and symbols in the seals and artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000-1900 BC)…reports Fakir Balaji for Asian Lite, Britain’s best newspaper for British Asians  Contrary to the age-old assumption that…

  • Congress seeks unity against Modi

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      After the NDA’s victory and the complete decimation of the UPA-II in the 2014 polls, the Opposition was stunned into inaction. However, it recovered quickly and set about initiating a process of transformation. Most major Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Janata Parivar, have re-invented themselves and modified their approach to take on…

  • Modi yet to visit a Muslim country

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    By Saeed Naqvi  Measuring a government’s achievements in its first year has to be inherently speculative. But some things can be put down to Narendra Modi’s account with a degree of certainty. He has in his first year as prime minister, never worn a Muslim cap although it is difficult to identify a cap of…

  • NDA repackaging UPA schemes?

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    By Anjali Ojha   The year-old Narendra Modi-led government says its schemes won’t leave any sector untouched as it flicks aside a Congress charge that it was repackaging the UPA dispensation’s programmes. With banking schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana, mass movement programmes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, and social movements like Beti Bachao, the government says no…

  • Greens rap Cameron policy

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    Green Party leader Natalie Bennett condemned the British government’s new immigration policy and said this will demonise the migrants. Prime Minister David Cameron said the government will stem the illegal migration by several measures including confiscating the wages of those who work in the UK without a visa. he also said the new policy of…

  • JAYA: The Iron Lady of Tamil Nadu

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    Jayalalithaa is also likely to contest from the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency and get re-elected to the assembly…writes Venkatachari Jagannathan   J. Jayalalithaa, often described as the ‘Iron Lady of Tamil Nadu’, returned to power on Saturday – after a seven month break that ended when she was acquitted in a corruption case, bringing joy to…

  • People retain hope in Modi

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    People retain hope in Modi, but time’s running out. One year is not a long enough to give a definitive judgment on the performance of a government, especially when it is emerging from the black hole of the failures of its predecessor… says eminent columnist Amulya Ganguli while reviewing the one year of Modi government for Asian Lite, best newspaper…

  • Modi yet to visit a Muslim country!

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    The itinerant prime minister yet to visit a Muslim country…writes Saeed Naqvi for Asian Lite, Britain’s best newspaper for British Asians  Measuring a government’s achievements in its first year has to be inherently speculative. But some things can be put down to Narendra Modi’s account with a degree of certainty. He has in his first…

  • Why moms say coo while dads stay cool

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    Fathers speak to their children more like adults and by doing so they might act as a link to the outside world by helping them deal with unfamiliar speech In a study looking at fathers’ verbal interactions with their children, a team of researchers suggests that by tending to avoid baby talk, men may provide…

  • REVIEW: Poltergeist

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    Poltergeist 2015 is not petrifying enough …writes Troy Ribiero   Film: “Poltergeist”; Cast: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Jared Harris, Jane Adams, Nicholas Braun, Susan Heyward and Soma Bhatia; Director: Gil Kenan; Rating: *1/2 A reboot of the iconic 1982 released Tobe Hooper’s “Poltergeist”, this film with the same name is a…

  • Modi’s Mongolia visit all about leverage over China

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    By Priyanka Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Mongolia was aimed more at gaining some psychological leverage over China than about building trade and economic ties, according to experts. India’s former ambassador Phunchok Stobdan said that the visit was “more of a strategic step”. S. Kalyanaraman, also an expert on the region, said it was about…

  • Modi one year on

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    Amit Kapoor assesses Modi’s one year as prime minister of India for Britain’s leading Asian newspaper Asian |Lite. The Narendra Modi government, which completes a year in office on May 26, had won last year’s general elections on the plank of development and its promise to bring in ‘Acche Din’. Here is a performance snapshot of…

  • NEWS N PICS – World Events

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    Latest news pictures from across the world compiled by Newsdesk, Asian Lite, Britain’s best newspaper for British Asians

  • CRICKET BORING CRICKET

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Is there such a state as having too much of a good thing? I think so. The IPL’s 45 day stretch is a perfect case in point. It is like metal fatigue. After a while it develops cracks in the attention span and just becomes a blur. Unless you are a diehard…

  • Gentle Keith Kept His Promise

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    London, No 10 Downing Street Time 12.30 noon. There was a knock at the door. Who is that? It’s Keith …Keith Vaz? What’s in the box?  Mangoes….! Keith Vaz MP, Britain’s  longest serving MP of Asian origin, has fulfilled his promise to deliver a shipment of fine quality Indian Alphonso Mangoes to No. 10 Downing…

  • ARUNA SHANBAUG: AND WILL TOMORROW COME

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Have you heard of Aruna Shanbaug? Probably not. But you should… for she epitomizes the visceral fear that the devil wins some battles. To even begin to understand her plight you have to first get over your own sense of helplessness and sheer horror. In 1973 she was a nurse in Mumbai’s…

  • NEWS N PICS – World

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    latest news pictures from world event. Asian Lite, UK’s best newspaper for British Asians, compiles news pictures every day  

  • Splashing colours in Kashmir

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    Splash of colour, culture brightens Srinagar’s walls…writes Sheikh Qayoom & Waseem Shah   Inspired by internationally-known Kashmiri artist Masood Hussain, a group of students is painting murals on the walls of Srinagar to bring alive the region’s culture and splash colours on the local environment. “Hussain is our friend, philosopher and guide in this small effort,” Sofi…

  • How to conquer the sugar cravings?

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    Excessive sugar cravings are a sign that your body is deficient in trace minerals like zinc, magnesium, chromium and vanadium that are involved in glucose metabolism. Increase the intake of yoghurt, chickpeas, almonds, oatmeal, asparagus, cheese, brewer’s yeast, whole grains, mushrooms, soy beans, spinach, oat bran and brown rice to address the root cause of…

  • Moo-ving series of cow-on-the-run tales

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     Everyone is health-aware these days. Last weekend, a colleague lifted his T-shirt to show off his six-pack abs, or abdomen muscles. I told him that I only had one ab but it was a biggie…writes Nury Vittachi in his The Funny Side column for Asian Lite, UK’s  best newspaper for British Asians A rural friend was worried…

  • Modi vs Manmohan

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    Modi’s foreign trips (53 days) are not very different from his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh, who spent 47 of 365 days in 12 countries during the first year of the second term of the United Progressive Alliance, or UPA-II (and 30 days during UPA-I) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is executing his “fast-track diplomacy” -as his…

  • Inspector Chen and his cases

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    Vikas Datta follow up the Chinese Puzzles -Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen and his cases “When I am satisfied questions of state security are not involved, then you begin,” a secret police operative tells homicide investigator Arkady Renko in Martin Cruz Smith’s “Gorky Park”, stressing order, not justice – the basic objective of policing not only in authoritarian…

  • SPECIAL: Shia community in India

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    Centrality of Lucknow in world’s Shia culture…writes Saeed Naqvi  Last year, addressing a group of foreign policy analysts in New Delhi, the ambassador of Iran to India, Gholamreza Ansari, made an important admission. He admitted that Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, came from an important family of divines from Kuntoor, in the…

  • Can women take smart decisions?

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    Can women take smart decisions? Asks Amit Dasgupta  If you were asked to respond “Yes/No” to the above question, there is every likelihood that, apart from some good humoured jokes about women and decision making, your response would emphatically be in the affirmative. The uncomfortable fact is that you probably believe that women are incapable of…

  • Why the Communists still remain a force in India

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    By Amulya Ganguli  Seven years after the deed was done, the new Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, has confessed that his party made a mistake by withdrawing support from the Manmohan Singh government on the India-US nuclear deal in 2008. It was in that very year, however, that the prescient Nobel laureate,…

  • Centrality of Lucknow in world’s Shia culture

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    By Saeed Naqvi  Last year, addressing a group of foreign policy analysts in New Delhi, the ambassador of Iran to India, Gholamreza Ansari, made an important admission. He admitted that Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, came from an important family of divines from Kuntoor, in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh, not…

  • SHAKEN WITH IGNORANCE

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Has anyone read anything scientific about how far seismographic knowledge has progressed and why it is given so low a priority seeing as how earthquakes could destroy the planet before the drones take off. Look. I am ready to admit it. My house is in Delhi and my sister lives on the…

  • ISRAEL – Identity Crisis

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    By Alon Ben-Meir  Natanyahu’s new government is neither by nor for the people The political horse-trading in Israel seen over the past eight weeks, which went down to the wire to form a new government, was, in the main, a struggle over who would get what position, regardless of their qualifications and irrespective of what…

  • Tribal politics dogs Guyana

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    By Dr Gitanjali Persaud I do not live in Guyana anymore. Whatever happens in Guyana is irrelevant to the life I am currently leading. Yet, my heart fears for the people of Guyana and the choices they are faced with. Especially the people of Indian descent who are more vulnerable to being mislead. I was…

  • LOOKING FOR A JOB?

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    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Sometimes I get the feeling that job ads are more soaked with human emotions than the news columns. There is prejudice for one, heaps of it. If you are over 35 you need not apply. What is this fascination with the figure 35? As if at 36 a person crumples like soggy…

  • Turning Chinese conflict into compromise

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    By Tarun Vijay Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China visit has come at a time when his government is completing his first year in power and global strategic equations are fast rearranging. At a time when India’s economy is gaining strength and global economists are hailing Modi’s one year in power as the best India has…

  • From boardroom to a farmland

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    Salim David hung up his corporate boots to be a farmer near Hyderabad in South India. He grows organic vegetables, roses, and livestock. He is sharing his experiments with Asian Lite readers Spending nights at a farm, one can hear the stillness, smell the freshness in the air and marvel at the clear skies. City…

  • What Ails Indian Healthcare?

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    Amit Kapoor exploring the strength and challenges of India’s healthcare system One of the biggest challenges India faces and will continue to face in the forthcoming decades is in the context of healthcare. It would include issues like health accessibility, infant mortality rates, the stunted growth of children because of ill health, maternal health, disease…

  • Journalism as literature

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    Vikas Datta looks into the writings of Ryszard Kapuscinski Journalism, or especially news reporting, is a rather ephemeral form of literary expression, concerned as it is with bare facts of a developing situation in a terse and concise style. But there are practitioners of the craft whose reportage is no less a work of literature…

  • Search for Rani Jhansi’s stolen insignia

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    By Saeed Naqvi  On March 10, 2014, President Pranab Mukherjee had promised a Citizens Group for 1857 that he would obtain from the government details on how India’s First War of Independence will be commemorated. A change of government may have delayed the inquiries Rashtrapati Bhavan intended to make. Meanwhile, another anniversary will have gone…

  • RSS, Sage Narad & Positive journalism

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    India’s right-wing RSS is using the image of Sage Narad, India’s first journo, to promote ‘positive journalism’…writes  Mayabhushan Nagvenkar  Narad, an ancient Indian sage who appears prominently in the Ramayana and was known for disseminating relevant information, spreading gossip and carrying tales that often led to fights, has been projected wrongly and should be held…

  • India Inc. lax against sexual harassment: Survey

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    Nearly a third of the companies operating in India are yet to constitute the mandatory panel against sexual harassment at workplace, with the incidence of non-compliance higher among domestic entities, reveals a survey. The Ernst and Young survey reveals that 40 percent of the respondents were yet to train the members of their internal complaints…

  • Cameron vows to pursue ‘One Nation’ agenda

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    Britain woke up to the news of a political earthquake in Scotland and the Tories retaining power at No 10. The swing and the early results are reflecting the predictions off the Exit Poll which puts Conservative bagging 316 seats, followed by labour at 239 and Lib Dems 10. David Cameron said: “This is clearly a…

  • INTERVIEW: Ranbir Kapoor

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    Filmmakers changing hero of Indian cinema….Ranbir Kapoor tells Radhika Bhirani A coming-of-age role in “Wake Up Sid”, a troubled musician in “Rockstar”, a deaf and mute prankster in “Barfi!” and an aggressive man of great ambitions in “Bombay Velvet” — clearly, Bollywood’s quintessential ‘heroism’ does not match actor Ranbir Kapoor’s sensibilities. He says it’s possible thanks…

  • Antisemitism And Israel’s Moral Imperative

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    By Dr Alon Ben-Meir  Horrific outbursts against the Jews are on the rise all over Europe – exclamations like “gas the Jews” and “Jews burn best” are being heard at soccer games and similar social gatherings. While there is nothing to excuse or justify such hateful speech, some effort still needs to be made to…

  • Britain braces for a messy affair at Westminster

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    Britain is going to face an uncertain future on Friday. It will witness an array  of messy affairs unfolding at the Westminster village. The fractured verdict will open doors for horse trading and endless parleys in between politicians. It will also trigger the call for political reforms like proportional representation…writes Kaliph Anaz The first result…