Asian Lite News Archive

Category: INDIAN NEWS

  • HC suspends Salman’s five-year jail sentence

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     The Bombay High Court suspended the five-year jail sentence to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan paving the way for him to apply for and seek regular bail. Accordingly, Salman will not be taken into custody, proving a major relief for the actor who was granted two days interim bail after his sentencing last Wednesday (May 6).

  • All eyes on Justice A. M. Thipsay

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    All attention is focused on Justice A. M. Thipsay of Bombay High Court before whom Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s bail plea will come up for hearing. The hearing is crucial for the actor since it is the final working day of the high court before it goes for annual summer vacations till June 8. Salman…

  • Modi preaching without practising: Congress

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     The Congress disagreed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in an interview that his government views all religions at par and won’t tolerate any discrimination, saying he was “simply preaching without practising it”. Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said such remarks were aimed at diverting attention from the “failures” of his government in the past one…

  • Parliament passes Bangladesh land accord bill

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    The Indian parliament passed a key constitutional amendment bill to give effect to the swapping of border land enclaves between India and Bangladesh under a 1974 agreement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina to convey his greetings on the occasion. The Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth Amendment) Bill, 2013, which…

  • 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…

  • India won’t discriminate on basis of religion: Modi

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared that his government views all religions at par and won’t tolerate any discrimination. In an extensive interview to Time magazine, the prime minister said his and the BJP’s philosophy was “Sabka saath, sabka vikas – Together with all, progress for all. “Wherever a (negative) view might have been expressed…

  • Over 50 Indian-origin candidates in UK poll

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    Over 50 candidates of Indian origin are contesting in Thursday’s British general election, the outcome of which should be known by Friday morning.   Those in the fray include Sajid Javid of the Conservative party, who is half Indian and has been a cabinet minister for culture, media and sport in the government now in…

  • US business urged to seize India’s potential

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    By Arun Kumar  With India moving quickly on its commitment to reform, the new Indian ambassador to the US, Arun K. Singh, has expressed confidence that American business and industry will seize the potential to reinforce India-US strategic ties. “We are in a very momentous phase of our relationship,” he said in an address Wednesday…

  • Indians under trial exceed Dutch population

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    By Prachi Salve For the 13 years the Salman Khan hit-and-run case was in trial, it was one of 18.5 million criminal cases pending in India’s district and lower courts – and the 50-year-old Bollywood star was one of 22.2 million people under trial. Driven by a shortage of prosecutors, judges and courts and — among other…

  • India one of world’s fastest growing economies: IMF

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    By Arun Kumar  India’s growth rate is expected to rise to 7.5 percent this year and next, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world, according to the IMF’s latest economic health check. The other Asian giant China’s economy is slowing to a more sustainable pace – 6.8 percent GDP growth in…

  • British leaders eye Indian-origin voters

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    Ironically, Britain – the oldest democracy in the world – could see this community play a major role in deciding the next government…writes Kaliph Anaz As the campaigning for the British parliamentary election enters its final phase, Prime Minister David Cameron and other leaders are eyeing undecided voters, especially among the 700,000 strong community of…

  • A Conviction@ 2 and bail @ 4

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      Who said Indian courts are slow. Read out the conviction at 2 pm and gave him bail at 4 pm. Wow! It only took 12 years to get here in the first place. Barely hours after he was sentenced to five years jail in the 2002 accident case, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was granted…

  • US envoy concerned over ‘challenges faced by NGOs in India’

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    The US envoy to India Richard Verma  voiced “concern” over reports about “challenges faced by NGOs operating in India”, as the government has put the US-based Ford Foundation under the scanner. Speaking at the Ananta Aspen Institute on the Foundations of the US-India Strategic-Plus Relationship, the ambassador said: “I read with some concern the recent…

  • How Twitter world reacted to Salman’s verdict

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    After superstar Salman Khan was found guilty in the 2002 hit-and-run case on Wednesday morning, some of the Twitter users have shown support while others are content with the verdict. Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande found Salman guilty of most of the charges in the September 2002 accident in which one person was killed and…

  • How faith dictates marriage in India

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    Khabar Lahariya & Prachi Salve If you are a girl — educated and from an economically stable family — from an urban area,  either Jain, Christian or upper-caste Hindu, the chances are you will not be married before adulthood (18 years), according to a new report. Some other highlights: * Teen pregnancy is nine times higher…

  • US has given Pakistan arms worth $5.4 bn

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     Since the September 11, 2001 terror attack, the US has given Pakistan arms worth about $5.4 billion for counter-terrorism operations, along with many “big ticket” platforms more suited to conventional warfare. Sales of F-16 combat aircraft and related equipment account for nearly half of these Foreign Military Sales agreements with Pakistan, according to a report…

  • Salman gets 5 years in jail

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    Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Wednesday sentenced to five years in jail for a 2002 hit-and-run accident that left one man dead and four others injured here. Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande announced the verdict at a packed courtroom here, stunning the actor and his family. Salman, one of the highest paid actors in…

  • Government must tell where is Dawood: Azad

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    Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad sought an explanation from Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the whereabouts of wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary in a written reply in the Lok Sabha  said: “The subject has not been located so far. Extradition process with…

  • Permanent seat for India is ‘urgent’: France

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      To bolster the legitimacy of the UN in a changed world, it is “vital” and “urgent” to expand the Security Council’s permanent membership to include India, France has declared. France’s Permanent Representative Francois Delattre said Tuesday, “France favors enlarging the Security Council’s both categories of membership, permanent and non-permanent, and supports Germany and Japan,…

  • Salman Khan guilty in hit & run case

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    Bollywood star Salman Khan convicted, court to announce sentence tomorrow. Is he joining with another star in jail – Sanjay Dutt?  Superstar Salman Khan has been found guilty in the 2002 hit-and-run case and the sessions court here is scheduled to pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday. Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande reading out his…

  • Jalebi, Imarti world record in Mumbai

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     Mumbai’s Saatvik food restaurant Sanskriti has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest imarti (a sweetmeat) in the world. It has also surpassed the Limca Book of Records. With support from celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Sanskriti broke the Guinness World Record for the largest imarti in the world on May 2 in the Indian…

  • Kerala tells Center to hold new rule on nurses jobs abroad

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    The Kerala government has written to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to put on hold the new order that requires all Indian nurses going to 18 countries for employment to take emigration clearance from the Protector of Emigrants (POE). “All those nurses who got a job after reaching various airports were not allowed to go…

  • India against role of religion-based organisations at UN

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    By Arul Louis  India has cautioned against the UN giving religion-based organisations a role in international security matters and warned that it could be “counterproductive”. Prakash Gupta, a counsellor at India’s UN mission, said the UN Charter’s provisions on the role of regional organisations in international peace and security issues clearly refers to “organisations formed…

  • Cameron visits Neasden Temple

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    Prime Minister David Cameron visits the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in North West London. The following is the transcript of his speech at the temple: “Jai Swaminarayan. This is the third time I’ve been to Neasden Mandir and I want to thank you for the warmth and kindness you have always shown Samantha and me…

  • Asian voters crucial to win British polls

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    Some 30 million votes will be cast in Thursday’s general election, but the opinion of just a small group of people could decide who walks through Number 10…writes Kaliph Anaz As the election enters the crucial 48-hrs phase, Prime Minister David Cameron and other British leaders are own prowl to bag the undecided voters. Asians…

  • Dawood hasn’t been located

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    The location of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was not known to the government and extradition proceedings against him will start once he is traced, parliament was informed. Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that Dawood was an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial…

  • Britain denies visas to radical Hindu activists

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    By Anasudhin Azeez  The British government has revoked visas issued to two prominent members of right-wing Hindu organisations in the south Indian state of Kerala after the Indian community here filed complaints against their visit. Sasikala Teacher, chairperson of Kerala-based Hindu Aikya Vedi (United Hindu Front), and N. Gopalakrishnan, director of Indian Institute of Scientific…

  • Uproar in Lok Sabha over Telangana

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    The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice during question hour after members from Telangana raised the demand for a separate high court in the state. Soon after the house assembled, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the motion for adjournment moved by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on the issue of the court and by the Congress and…

  • BJP to counter opposition onslaught

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    Brajendra Nath Singh In a move to counter opposition parties’ attack against the Modi government, the Bharatiya Janata Party is planning a major outreach programme involving its ministers and members of parliament. According to party insiders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed all his ministers and BJP parliamentarians to visit their Lok Sabha constituencies and…

  • Modi’s rope trick to befriend Chinese

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    Chaitanya Mallapur  Ahead of his visit to China — from May 14 to 16 —India’s social-media friendly Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the Chinese social media platform Weibo to connect with Chinese citizens. Sina Weibo is the largest Chinese micro-blogging site with over 140 million monthly active users, and China, with 1.29 billion subscribers, has…

  • Kerala policeman caught cheating told to go on leave

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    A Kerala police official was caught cheating in an examination for Master of Laws (LL.M) and ordered to leave the exam hall. The official was later asked to go on leave by state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala. The police official, identified as T.J. Jose, inspector general of police of Thrissur range, has denied the cheating…

  • Modi to visit China

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a three-nation official visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea from May 14-19. In China, Modi will visit Xian, Beijing and Shanghai from May 14-16. He will hold bilateral meetings with the country’s leadership and participate in cultural and business events. The prime minister will also attend an event…

  • Modi joins social media site Weibo

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    Ahead of his visit to China later this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi  tweeted that he has joined Chinese micro blogging website Weibo. Often called the Twitter of China, Sina Weibo is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30 percent of Internet users. The prime minister uploaded an…

  •   Langar at Leicester

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    Sikh community provides lunch for students in Leicester Staff and students from many backgrounds came together for a special meal at Leicester College. An estimated 300 people were treated to a free meal courtesy of the ‘Langar on Campus’ event. ‘Langar’ is a Punjabi word meaning community kitchen and was originally instigated by the founder of the…

  • Tabloidization of Indian News

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    Tabloidization is the death of good journalism. But I don’t blame our anchors or journalists for this tsunami of tabloid news. I also strongly disagree with the widely held hypothesis that blames the Indian viewer – Indians love tabloid sensationalism … Indians have base, tabloid tastes. So if our anchors are not to blame, and…

  • Rafale deal will be quick one: Parrikar

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    The multi-billion dollar Rafale fighter jet deal is expected to be a “quick one” because trading parties involved are two governments, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here. He also confirmed that he and Jean-Yves Le Drian will set the ground for negotiations when the French Defence Minister arrives in India this week. “We have already…

  • India tops list of drone-importing nations

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    By Chaitanya Mallapur  The decision by India’s National Disaster Response Force to use drones to help Nepal map the scale of devastation caused by last month’s earthquake indicates how India has enthusiastically taken to these pilot-less aircraft — the so-called eyes in the sky. With 22.5 percent the world’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imports, between…

  • Islam snubs Tobacco campaigns

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      London researchers say tobacco companies have perceived that Islam as a threat to its attempts to sell more tobacco products in emerging markets in Asia …writes Kaliph Anaz for Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for British Asians Researchers have found evidence of attempts by the tobacco industry to reinterpret Islamic teaching to make smoking…

  • Argentina plays Gandhi card on Falklands

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    Argentina invokes Gandhi over disputed islands with Britain…writes Hadra Ahmed for Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for Brtiish Asians   With Argentina still going through sovereignty disputes to reclaim the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas with Britain, the South American country is applying the way of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘ahimsa’ –…

  • India goofed up on Rafale deal

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    India’s military procurement process blamed for Rafale bungle… writes Anjali Ojha A cumbersome process for military procurements has been blamed by a parliamentary panel for India missing out on “the mother of all deals” for purchasing 126 combat jets, instead of which only 36 will be bought from the same French manufacturer. “It is observed that…

  • How US transform image of yoga

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    With over 20 million people in the US practising yoga and spending $10.3 billion a year on yoga classes and products, it has become associated less with spirituality and more with medicine and fitness, says a study. The study by a California-based university argues that the shift in the meanings is due to the changes…

  • London NRIs to build 1200 houses in Nepal

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    Mukesh Kumar Sehgal, managing director of Britain-based SISMO Company and  Prakash Lohia offer to build 1,200 houses in Nepal Two billionaire NRIs have offered to build 1,200 earthquake-resistant houses in quake-affected villages of Nepal immediately, Nepal’s embassy in London has said. Mukesh Kumar Sehgal, managing director of Britain-based SISMO Company that is well known for its…

  • INTERVIEW: Irrfan Khan

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    ‘My graduate degree didn’t pay in acting career,’ Irrfan Khan tells Nivedita Irrfan Khan, who has always chosen to tread the unbeaten path in Hindi filmdom, believes in “wholesome” education, but says his own graduation degree turned out to be “useless” for his career as an actor. Some of Bollywood’s leading actors have made it big…

  • Modi govt Pakistan policy lacks clarity: Shourie

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    Former union minister Arun Shourie said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy on Pakistan lacked clarity and he is under the illusion of an out-of-box solution to the vexed issue. In an interview with Karan Thapar for Headlines Today, Shourie, who was a minister in the first National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee,…

  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar brings meditation to US lawmakers

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    Indian spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led a meditation session with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill that House member Jan Schakowsky termed as a “beautiful and self-empowering experience.” The event highlighted how meditation can help resolve several concerns particularly Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among America’s veterans and youth issues. “The secret of meditation…

  • India rejects US panel report on religious freedom

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    India has rejected a US government panel report that claims direct link between the 2014 general elections and the spike in attacks on religious minorities in the country. The report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) says that since the 2014 elections, religious minority communities in India have been “subject to derogatory…

  • India ‘a life saver’:quake survivors

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    Narayan Ghat Nepal’s quake survivors are grateful to India for its prompt response and have described it as “a life saver”. India was quick to respond to the disaster by launching a massive relief and rescue operation within hours of the temblor that has left over 6,000 people dead. “It is the Indian government that…

  • Rahul banking on poverty to revive Congress?

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    By Amulya Ganguli From being caught snoozing in parliament to spending time in a mysterious hideout to the current photo-ops with tillers of the soil, Rahul Gandhi has been acquiring a whole range of political experience. The problem with his present frenetic pace, however, is that the question is bound to be asked as to…

  • India slams US report on religious freedom

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    India  said a report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) “appears to be based on limited understanding of India, its constitution and its society” and it would take “no cognizance of the report”. External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: “Our attention has been drawn to a report of the USCIRF which…

  • BJP is world’s largest party

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    Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said  that the BJP was now the world’s largest political party with 10 crore new members. “I take both pride and pleasure in informing that the BJP has become the world’s largest political party. We had kept a target of crossing the 10-crore mark and we achieved it,”…