Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Lite Blogs

  • Who’s afraid of Rahul Gandhi?

    —

    in , , , ,

    By Amulya Ganguli Nothing shows the weakness of the Narendra Modi government more than the fact that it gives the impression of having been spooked by Rahul Gandhi to strive for a pro-poor image. Hence, the directive to ministers to go around the country after the budget session to counter the perception that the government…

  • India Inc. lax against sexual harassment: Survey

    —

    in , , ,

    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…

  • Motivational speakers have wrong message for business listeners

    —

    in ,

    By Nury Vittachi  I once sat in a seminar where the motivational speaker kept saying: “Accept yourself as you are.” Fine with me, but the colleagues at my side all had serial killer personalities. I tried to warn the speaker but she didn’t pick up my discreet pointing and head-shaking gestures. People in certain professions,…

  • Ram’s birthplace Ayodhya in Pakistan?

    —

    in , ,

    By Mohammed Shafeeq  Ayodhya, the birthplace of Hindu warrior-god Ram, is in Pakistan, claims a book by a top Muslim leader. Ayodhya in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh is not the original city by the same name as it was inhabited by human beings only in 7th century BC while Rama is believed to have…

  • Cameron vows to pursue ‘One Nation’ agenda

    —

    in , , ,

    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…

  • Antisemitism And Israel’s Moral Imperative

    —

    in , ,

    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

    —

    in , , , , ,

    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…

  • British leaders eye Indian-origin voters

    —

    in , , , , , ,

    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…

  • How faith dictates marriage in India

    —

    in , ,

    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…

  • Why some companies fail at Twitter

    —

    in

    You may find shopping at a Nike showroom or visiting Starbucks for your favorite coffee a reason to cheer you up but according to a latest study, these two brands are among those who are failing at corporate tweeting. A data analysis by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) has revealed that among top 50 companies…

  • Cameron visits Neasden Temple

    —

    in , , , ,

    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

    —

    in , , , , ,

    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…

  • WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

    —

    in , , ,

    By BIKRAM VOHRA Indian media, in recent years, has begun to believe in an irrational sense of entitlement. It is manifested in an odd conviction that it is owed an advance warning. There seems a rage over the Rafale purchase deal fuelled more by indignation that its mandarins were not told about it and were…

  • Facebook a marriage minefield

    —

    in ,

    One in seven Britons have contemplated divorce because their partners spend too much time on various social media platforms, a top British legal firm has revealed. The study by Slater and Gordon Lawyers found that social networking site Facebook was considered the “most dangerous” place for ruining relationships. “Five years ago, Facebook was rarely mentioned…

  • Humour make us happier than religion

    —

    in , ,

    Our view of what makes us happy has changed markedly since 1938, revealed a British psychologist who has recreated a famous study of happiness conducted in 1938. Seventy seven years back, Mass Observation, a social research organisation, placed an advertisement in the Bolton Evening News in Bolton, a town in Greater Manchester, asking readers to…

  • Tabloidization of Indian News

    —

    in , , , , ,

    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…

  • Waiting for Wassabi!

    —

    in , , , ,

    If the Boko Haram wants to kidnap little girls, the Taliban blow up a village and some mentally deranged idiot shoot up a Mall, that’s life. But to make Kanye West and Kim Kardashian wait 30 minutes for a sushi table in Calabasas, California is just not acceptable. The world is going to hell in a…

  • Being black in America

    —

    in , , ,

    By Arun Kumar   Even with an African-American president in the White House, it’s a still a hard day’s life for the blacks 150 years after Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and 50 years after two landmark legislations outlawed racial discrimination. With a population of 45 million, blacks make up about 14 percent of the total…

  • The P.G. Wodehouse of medicine!

    —

    in , , , , ,

    Vikas Dattain his weekly column Book-Shelf Involving a long and gruelling stint of study to qualify and everyday exposure to human pain and suffering, the practice of medicine is perhaps one of the last you could expect to serve as a base for comedy. But it is the saving grace of humanity that it too…

  • Islam snubs Tobacco campaigns

    —

    in , , , , , , , ,

      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

    —

    in , , , , ,

    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’ –…

  • New Equations at Arab World

    —

    in , , , ,

    Saudi Royalty which never conducted diplomacy above the sound of whispers are today in battle albeit from the air in Yemen. Syria was seen as Iran’s (and Russia’s) opening onto the Mediterranean, Yemen onto the Red Sea. They must block both. Atleast be seen to have checked Iran. Otherwise the GCC may bolt….writes Saeed Naqvi …

  • Rahul banking on poverty to revive Congress?

    —

    in , , ,

    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…

  • THE DAY OF THE ‘ITTING SON

    —

    in , ,

    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Just read about the Baltimore Mom who spotted her teenage son taking part in the present riots and marched up to him as he was proceeding to combat the police and larrupped him one. ONE RESOUNDING WHACK.  Then she dragged him back home yelling, whatchathinkyouaredoing. Good for you lady. Far too many…

  • Pandits deeply divided over possible return to Kashmir

    —

    in , ,

    By Sheikh Qayoom While politicians debate the possible roadmaps for a return of migrant Pandits to Kashmir Valley, the community remains deeply divided over the issue. H.N. Jattu, 81, president of the All India Kashmiri Pandit Conference, feels this is not right time to return to a place from where Pandits fled in thousands after…

  • A face of modern Islam in the Arab world

    —

    in , ,

    By Tarun Basu  The Arab world is in a bloody ferment. The Yemen conflict is just the latest in the upsurge in regional unrest, compounded by the spread of extremist forces with their violent ideologies that threaten to take the region and beyond into a vortex of uncertainty. This may have unpredictable – and possibly…

  • Where an injured comatose man lies all alone

    —

    in

    By Gaurav Sharma  Dilraj Giri lies comatose on a bed at a hospital. The other beds are all occupied by the injured, with worried attendants hurrying about them. But Giri lies all alone among beeping machines. One among many who were left badly injured and without families when an earthquake struck Nepal. When this IANS…

  • The day my world was reduced to rubble

    —

    in ,

    Gaurav Sharma writes on how life changed for ever for a medical engineer as told to him in for UK’s leading Asian newspaper Asian Lite.  The main earthquake, which struck Nepal on Saturday morning with a magnitude of 7.9, did the maximum damage in the capital and other places, with the aftershocks adding their bit.…

  • Guwahati, Srinagar at highest earthquake risk

    —

    in , ,

    By Chaitanya Mallapur Guwahati and Srinagar are the two Indian cities at highest risk of being devastated by an earthquake, with 36 other cities in areas prone to earthquakes, according to government data. Guwahati and Srinagar fall in what is called “very severe intensity zone”, or zone V, the highest-risk earthquake zone. Eight cities, including…

  • Why target only India for rapes:Danish designer-writer

    —

    in , , ,

      By Ranjana Narayan   Why target only India for rapes, they happen all over the world, says Danish designer-turned writer Inger Solberg, who has come out with her first book “Pushpa”, a vibrant account of her life in India, which she has made her home for the past 15 years. Solberg, who loves India and…

  • INTERVIEW: Doctor P aka Shaun

    —

    in , , ,

    I think streaming music has allowed artists to self-release music without the need to pay a record label. It’s really opened up the music industry to allow talent to rise to the top more easily. Doctor P aka Shaun Brockhurst talks to Siddharth Jha  American Electronic Dance Music artist Doctor P, aka Shaun Brockhurst, who performed in…

  • ‘Cord blood banks fooling the public’

    —

    in , , , ,

    Experts says private cord blood banks in India are fooling the public…writes K.S. Jayaraman  Cord blood banking (CBB) with dubious benefits has become a money-making scam in India and needs tighter control to protect gullible parents from being exploited, top medical researchers say. Blood collected from umbilical chord after child birth is a rich source of…

  • The plight of leprosy patients in India

    —

    in , , , , , ,

    According to the 12th Five Year Plan, India aims to achieve complete elimination of leprosy by 2017. Leprosy is perhaps the only disease against which there is no vaccine. This is because the bacteria cannot be cultured outside the human body. Despite being easily treated now and discovered to be much less contagious than previously…

  • LONDONWALLAH DAILY BLOG – Modi Gaadi

    —

    in , , , ,

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  finally travelled in the Delhi metro! It was a big news in India but invoked cynical comments in other parts of the world. Most of the seats in his carriage and the nearby one was nearly empty. The pic clearly shows the presence of security guards all around the place!…

  • Is moving from farms to factories the answer?

    —

    in , , ,

    By Amulya Ganguli  The stir against land acquisition took a tragic and macabre turn when a farmer hanged himself during an Aam Admi Party (AAP) rally in the heart of the national capital. The mortifying episode only showed how the political exploitation of a complex problem was diverting attention from what really needed to be…

  • Indian media’s lack of intrest in world affairs

    —

    in , , ,

    By Saeed Naqvi Werner Adam, the late foreign Editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine, used to tell me a story about his meeting in Moscow with India’s ambassador, T.N. Kaul. Kaul had barely started his conversation with Adam when his secretary tip toed in and handed Kaul a slip of paper. “Dobrynin on the line,” Kaul whispered…

  • US seeks ‘rebalance’ in Asia

    —

    in , , , , , ,

    By Arun Kumar  Citing President Barack Obama’s historic “good trip” to India in January, US officials have said that different partnerships it’s forging across Asia can contribute to the stability and prosperity of the broader region. In a conference call on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state visit next week, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben…

  • Warnings over bringing back 66A

    —

    in , ,

    By Aparna Kalra  Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra is still anxious a month after the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a controversial law that led to his arrest for e-mailing a cartoon mocking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On April 27, his lawyer will rise in a court in Kolkata and ask that…

  • Farmland declines in India

    —

    in ,

    By Saumya Tewari  The land available for farming in India, already under decline, is feared to drop further with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government trying to push through a controversial bill that is being criticised in the present format by a host of opposition parties, led by the Congress. The most controversial change proposed…

  • IN LOVE WITH MY MPS

    —

    in ,

    BY BIKRAM VOHRA I am thrilled. Indian Members of Parliament have been reassured that their VIP status at Indian airports will be maintained and they need not worry about these privileges being rescinded. Some idiot had suggested that these over 500 MPs should curtail their pushing and shoving and wanting special waiting rooms and lounge…

  • Logic enables understanding our pets

    —

    in

    By Nury Vittachi  My dog spends hours visualising her dinner, licking her lips in anticipation of it and walking in and out of the kitchen to catch the precise moment when it is served. And then she inhales it in one nanosecond. Slurrrp! Gone. “At least savour the thing” I shout, but she pretends not…

  • Sowing the seed for holistic farming

    —

    in

    M. Rajaque Rahman  writes on holistic farming in India for the UK’s leading Asian newspaper Asian Lite. The diktat to make it mandatory for domestic fertiliser producers to ‘neem-coat’ at least 75 percent of their urea production would qualify as one of the most holistic decisions ever taken by any Indian government. Beyond the economic…

  • YOURS MINE AND OURS

    —

    in ,

    BY BIKRAM VOHRA All these years we have laughed at people who never lose an opportunity to show pictures of their grandchildren. Silly folks. Where do they get off? We have warmly congratulated ourselves on being restrained. When we have them we told each other, we shall refrain from inflicting this imposition on others, it…

  • India’s inevitable rise to the top

    —

    in , , , ,

    Bhim D. Asdhir writes on India’s rise top in world affairs in UK’s leading newspaper Asian Lite. India’s meteoric rise to global prominence is inevitable. Perhaps, US President Barack Obama, writing in Time Magazine on April 16, puts India’s and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to prominence best: “Today, he’s the leader of the world’s…

  • The changing demographics of Bengal’s tea estates

    —

    in ,

     Avishek Rakshit writes on the changing demographics of Bengal’s tea estates in UK’s leading Asian newspaper Asian Lite. Even as seven tea gardens in the north Bengal hills remain closed, labour demographics in the estates producing the globally famous Darjeeling tea have begun to rapidly change with local workers migrating to other areas and states and those…

  • WHY CARE ABOUT THE ORPHANS FROM THE SEA

    —

    in ,

    BY BIKRAM VOHRA It is one of the ironies of our times that the ripple effect of internecine conflicts wash up like flotsam on foreign shores and the world does not care. Although Europe has become the favoured destination it is an accordion that traps every nation in the world because no nation is an…

  • Spotlight on missing black men in America

    —

    in , , ,

    By Arun Kumar  As yet another black man died, this time in police custody, unleashing a fresh wave of protests asking whether black lives matter, a media report spoke of some 1.5 million missing black men in the United States. For every 100 black women not in jail, there are only 83 black men, the…

  • WHY THE RICH OPINIONS COUNT

    —

    in ,

    BY BIKRAM VOHRA Why is it that rich people have worthy opinions? I have never seen the connection between someone making a fortune from manufacturing sticky tape and suddenly becoming an authority on all things. Make your sticky tape, miles of it and be the man the bank manager stands up for when you enter…

  • How to build and protect your brand image?

    —

    in , , ,

    Amit Dasgupta provides the expert tips to build and protect your brand image Who am I? The question lies at the very heart of human enquiry. On a basic level, it refers to identity. In other words, it seeks to answer what we do and what we stand for. I could be seen, for instance, as…

  • Tributes to a Romantic Hero

    —

    in , , , , ,

    Vikas Datta on  Percy Bysshe Shelley – Maverick freedom fighter and poet of romance Disproving Percy Bysshe Shelley’s description of poets as “unacknowledged legislators of the world”, he combined his illustrious poetic career with membership of the Constituent Assembly that drafted free India’s constitution. This responsibility followed a four-decade stint as an outspoken, unbending freedom fighter across the…