USA Today has named three Indian Americans to its All-USA High School Academic First Team, six Indian Americans to its All-Star academic second team, and three Indian Americans to its All-Star academic third team. Shantanu K. Gaur of Bethel Park, Pa.; Divya Nettimi of Alexandria, Va.; and Arjun A. Suri of Fresno, Calif., each will receive a trophy and a cash award of $2,500 for being named to the All-USA High School Academic First Team as "representatives of all outstanding" high school students, according to the newspaper sponsor. The students are honored for their outstanding scholarship, intellectual achievements and leadership. USA Today names students to the prestigious all-star team four times a year. Gaur's research on genetic susceptibility to prostate cancer in the male Afro-Caribbean population of Tobago was an Intel International Science and Engineering Scholars finalist, among other honors. Nettimi derived a new equation for the rate of myosin biomotor, which derives muscle contraction rates, and shows how muscle contractions could be more productive. Suri created 3-D models to better understand how drugs enter cells to ultimately better understand how the HIV-1 virus enters the cell. Three others were named to the All-Star academic third team: Parvathy Menon of Portland, Ore.; Sean Raj of Missouri City, Tex.; and Amar Toor of Norfolk, Va.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, May 21, 2004

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Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Tuesday said it has been awarded the 'Worldstar 2003 Award' by the World Packaging Organisation for anti-counterfeit packaging design of Omez capsules. The award ceremony was held on May 13 at Basel, Switzerland, a company release said here.

Courtesy: The Economic Times, May 19, 2004

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Kolkata has become the country's first city to have a floating hotel that arrived here and in turn joined cities like Moscow, St. Petersberg, Vienna, Hamburg, Amsterdum, Phnompen, Hong Kong where `Floatels' are the major tourist and business attractions. The four-storied Floatel in Kolkata has been built according to international four-star standards and was under construction for the past four and half years at the Kidderpore docks. The Floatel has a 24-hour coffee shop capable of accommodating 110 guests and speciality restaurant and is centrally air-conditioned with 73 rooms and three suites with attached marble and ceramic bathrooms. The Rs. 31-crore Kolkata Floating Hotel Complex built with 21st Century technology is expected to be in operation within the next three to four months after fitting out at its home on Strant Road, Manor Floatel Limited Director, Manab Pal, told reporters here. All rooms on Floatel are literally `on' the river and is expected to be a major destination for business travellers as it would have fully equipped with state-of-the-art meeting and conference facilities, Mr. Pal said.

Courtesy: The Hindu, May 18, 2004

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Aditya and Shreya were the most popular Indian names for babies in the United States for 2003, according to recently released government data. With 254 boys named Aditya in 2003, the name ranked 723 in the Department of Social Security Administration's overall list of 1,000 most popular baby names in the US. Arjun, ranked 771, was the second most popular Indian name, with 229 babies being given that name. The other popular Indian names in the top 1,000 list were Pranav, Rahul and Amav. Among female Indian baby names, Shreya ranked first (795 overall rank) with 311 babies named thus, followed by Amiya and Asha. Overall in the United States, Emily (for girls) and Jacob remained entrenched at the top of the list. Emily has been the most popular female name each year since 1996.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, May 17, 2004

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Stepping up technical assistance for the economic development of the four new entrants to the Asean grouping, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma, New Delhi has decided it will establish Entrepreneurship Development Institutes in these four countries. External affairs ministry officials say the four institutes apart from training people in entrepreneurship programmes, will also offer English language and Information Communication Technology training. India, whose role as a dialogue partner in the Asean grouping has been appreciated by the Asean leadership which has termed the engagement "active," is keen on taking up projects under the Initiative for Asean Integration. The IAI aims to reduce the development gap between the four new entrants and the six older member countries. The Asean grouping has identified infrastructure, human resource development and information and communication technology as a key driver of the initiative. "India has the required experience and strength in these areas, and is also keen to learn from experiences and strengths of the Asean countries which is why active cooperation and involvement between India and Asean has been envisaged at the government and the private-sector levels.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, May 13, 2004

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China has formally changed its maps, showing for the first time today, that Sikkim was a part of India. Considered a significant move indicative of a thaw in the boundary problem that has plagued bilateral relations, the world map in the just-published World Affairs Year Book: 2003-2004 has stopped showing Sikkim as a separate country and doesn't mention Sikkim in its index of countries. This, analysts said, shows recognition of the current India-China border.

The official Chinese publication last year had shown Sikkim as a separate country in the map and mentioned it among "independent" nations. New Delhi welcomed the move, but downplayed it, merely "taking note of the latest developments". A serious dialogue to resolve the boundary dispute began after Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Beijing last June. The dialogue is being handled at the political level Mr Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser, and Chinese vice foreign minister Mr Dai Bingguo.

Courtesy: The Statesman, May 07, 2004

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After three phases of successful execution of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), India goes to the third round of polls on Wednesday morning.Impressed by the whole process, observers from various European as well as developing nations are here to examine the EVMs in action. Gary Wintle, a Norwegian, has come to India to have the first hand understanding of how EVMs are employed at such a largescale. "The officials at the Election Commission clarified that since the whole exercise has built-in checks and balances at several levels, chances of abusing the machines are almost negligible," says Wintle (after securing explanations from the EC). In the last two phases of polls held on April 20 and 26, according to EC, breakdown of around 70 EVMs out of 63,000 shows the success of this gadget in India. This time, the EVMs manufactured by two Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) - the Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and the Electronic Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad - are going to bring an end to the use of ballot papers in the country. Political observers believe that EVMs will considerably diminish, if not eradicate, electoral malpractices in our country. They believe that since the machines can be used only once in 12 seconds and need to be reset before the next vote is cast. The machine will automatically switch off after every vote is cast. Even when workers of a political party "capture" a booth, they will realize it unmanageable to cast more than five votes in a single minute. That too is possible only with the support of polling officers. According to Bhartiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitely, "Now with this the counting will be rapid and the result can be declared within 2 to 3 hours as compared to 30-40 hours, on an average, under the conventional system." Also there will be no invalid votes under this system. Earlier when the EVMs were first used in India two decades ago in the North Paravur Parliamentary by-elections in Kerala, the loser, A.C. Jose, challenged the result and the courts ordered a re-election but not on the grounds that EVMs were tampered with.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, May 05, 2004

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Ten Indian origin students have been named as 'Truman Scholars', the scholarship offered by the prestigious Truman foundation for the year 2004. The Indian students, Swati M Saini, Biren A Bhatt, Jacqueline Chattopadhyay, Swati Mylavarapu, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Sunita Arora, Maya A Babu, Anjali Garg, Ravi Gupta and Menaka Kalaskar were selected from among 77 students from 67 US Colleges and Universities. Each Truman scholar will receive $ 2,000 scholarship for their senior year in college, in addition to a $ 24,000 scholarship for their graduate education. The winners for this coveted fellowship, instituted in the name of former US President Harry S Truman, were selected on the basis of their leadership potential and intellectual ability, a press release stated.

Courtesy: www.economictimes.com, May 04, 2004

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Professor Sir Kumar Bhattacharyya, one of the leading manufacturing experts in the UK, has been elevated to peerage. He is the only Indian-origin person to figure among the new 46 Life Peers. He was "delighted" by the honour and now wants to speak in the House of Lords on international affairs, higher education and industrial issues. Sir Bhattacharyya, a professor of manufacturing at the Warwick University, advises governments and industry on policy making and strategy. " His goal is to spin innovations which are practical and achievable. Instead of practise theories, he evolves working methods to match technology and ambition." He is also the largest Labour donor, according to reports. One daily said he " is understood to have given about £1m to the party between 1998 and 2000" But it then goes on to acknowledge that he " is often consulted by the Government and has sat on several quangos". Other sources said he has been made a Lord for his unique contribution to making the industry develop competitive edge. He joins other Indian-origin peers like Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Dholakia, Lord Bikhu Parekh, Lord Bagri, Baroness Prashar and Baroness Flather, who was the first Indian woman to be elevated to the House of Lords in the late 80s by Margaret Thatcher.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, May 02, 2004

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Pub goers in England have been discovering the crunchier side of Indian cuisine. In most British pubs, the humble poppadum from south India has become the favoured fritter, nudging ahead of French fries. Spurring the poppadum success is a Chennai-based company which exports two million poppadums a day to retail chains like St Michael, Sharwoods, Phileas Fogg, Knorr, Marks & Spencers, Waitrose, Morrisons, Tesco, Assda, Sainbury and Safeway. McDonalds too has shortlisted it for its outlets. "Our poppadums have emerged as one of the favourite light munches in England with 80 per cent of our products being consumed by non-Indians. They are light on the palate as well as on the calorie-meter unlike other short-eats," pointed out M. Lankalingam, MD of Lanson Ventures, a Rs 50-crore company. The British romance with poppadum began in 1978 when Lankalingam's father Murugesu discovered that only French fries were served with beer. Importers in the UK can now unpack poppadums, fry them and repack them as ready-to-eat fritters, which account for 65 per cent of the UK market. Uncooked poppadums, which have to be deep fried in oil or in microwaves, are also sold in England. The next stop for the poppadum is the United States where, Lankalingam believes, lies a huge untapped market. Time to have the Yankees crunching.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, May 02, 2004

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Ronen Sen, outgoing Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, has called for the British media coverage of India to reflect the ``totality'' of the country's reality. Mr. Sen pointed out that in the past two years that he had been here, he had noted an appreciable change in British perceptions of India. The media coverage of India had not only increased, but was now becoming more positive. ``The process is gathering momentum.'' Mr Sen, who retired today, said that Indo-British relations were at their best today and the Indian potential in a whole range of areas was being increasingly recognised. In the past two years, there had been a quantum jump both in British investment in India and the Indian investment in Britain. ``Indian investment in Britain now equals the British investment in India,'' he said, pointing out that British exports to India had gone up by 30 per cent.

Courtesy: The Hindu, May 01, 2004