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NewsBriefs |
Jan 2007 |
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Shilpa Shetty wins reality show
 JAN 29 - Shilpa Shetty has won the British reality television
show Celebrity Big Brother, in which she was subjected to
racist bullying by some fellow contestants. She
beat 13 other contestants, including those who were accused of
tormenting her. Hearing of
her victory after spending 26 days in a special house under
24-hour camera surveillance, the 31-year-old Indian actress
exclaimed: "Are you kidding me? Oh my god."
Show producers sought out Shetty and reportedly paid her
around $68,000 to "bring some Bollywood glamour to
proceedings and attract viewers with South Asian roots".
She bagged an estimated 100,000 pounds in prize money. |
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'Mumbai will burn if separated from Maha'
JAN 29 - Shiv Sena chief Bal
Thackeray has said there was a conspiracy to separate the city
from Maharashtra and it would not be tolerated. "The city will
burn if it is taken away from Maharashtra," he said this
evening at a rally in Shivaji Park in Central Mumbai."Let them even try to
separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and we will give them a
fitting reply. One hundred and five martyrs, mostly mill
workers, had sacrificed their lives for the cause of
Maharashtra with Mumbai and we will not let it go to waste," he
said. "It is due to the mill workers of Parel and Lalbaug who
came on to the streets that Mumbai is today a part of
Maharashtra," he added.
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NRI murders pregnant wife; gets jail
JAN 28 - An Indian in Britain, Jeskiran Bal will serve at
least 15 years in jail for murdering his 22-year-old pregnant
wife Marie Bal, at their home in East Ham in east London,
after he started an affair with another woman. Bal later
dumped his wife's body in a drainage canal. He was convicted
of murder and jailed in April 2002. "Although there was no
evidence that the deceased knew about her husband's affair,
there was evidence that Jeskiran and the deceased had been
quarrelling on the fateful day (March 17, 2000)," Justice
Forbes said, according to local media reports. |
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Hema Malini
retracts her statement on North Indians
JAN 27 - In the eye of a storm for her statement asking
North Indians to leave Mumbai, actress-turned-politician and
Bhartiya Janata Party MP Hema Malini yesterday retracted her
remarks saying she had no authority to advise them to do so.
“I was sitting at the function when some television channel
reporters attempted to ask me questions while I was watching a
program on the stage. I was unable to hear the questions
properly due to the noise and merely to keep them away in a
humorous vein I gave a reply,” Hema said in a statement. She
had reportedly said that north Indians should leave Mumbai if
they were unhappy. |
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Seven members of debt-ridden family found dead
JAN 26 - In a tragic incident, seven members of a
debt-ridden family in Karnataka’s Hassan district were found
dead in their house. Police said
the family of 40-year-old Keerthi Shetty, a hardware
businessman, had been driven to bankruptcy. The plight forced
him to kill his father, mother, wife and three children before
committing suicide. In a suicide note recovered from the
house, Keerthi Shetty stated that he had to kill his family
members and commit suicide, as they were unable to bear the
harassment of moneylenders. Police also recovered a bottle of
cyanide and chloroform from the spot. He had
named five moneylenders — a jeweler, two financiers, a
medical shop owner and a contractor. “If they want me to
return the money, let them come to the place where we are
going”, Shetty had stated in the suicide note. |
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Hema asks N. Indians
in Mumbai to go back
JAN 25 - Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini’s remark that
North Indians in the city should leave Mumbai if they faced
problems here set off a barrage of protests from the Congress
whose workers burnt her effigies and took to the streets in
protest primarily in the suburbs of Andheri and Bandra. The
actress had been asked at an election meeting on Wednesday
evening about north Indians not being happy with the treatment
given to them in the city, to which she had replied: “If they
have a problem, they should go back.”
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Shamita does a Britney!
 JAN 24 - A few months ago, a picture of Britney Spears became
the most-searched item in internet history because she stepped
out of her car sans her underwear.
On that night out and about town, the pop sensation
unintentionally gave the paparazzi an unrestricted view of her
no-no place.
At a recent filmi function, Shamita Shetty
unwittingly ended up doing the same. The actress too went
commando, flashing pretty much everything to click-happy photogs!
While the Toxic singer has been thus photographed on
three separate occasions, this is a first (and probably the
last) for the Bollywood actress.
Shetty’s photo has also made
its way to the internet, where such pictures usually turn up,
prompting many clicks and several more ‘tsk-tsks’! |
93 per cent Indians believe in God
JAN 24 - A survey by HT-CNN IBN found that urban, educated
Indians are more religious than their rural and illiterate
counterparts. Yes, women are more religious, but metropolitan
women are far more religious than rural women. Predictably,
the youth are a little less enthusiastic about religion. But
the point is: religion in the country is on the rise. 93 per
cent believe in god; education makes no difference, and 64 per
cent visit a temple, mosque or gurudwara regularly.
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Putin's Indian Agenda
JAN 24 -
Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking
forward to trying out Indian food when he visits
India this week, although he is unable to recollect the
names of the delicacies for fear of getting them wrong. "In
Moscow and St Petersburg I have visited Indian restaurants.
I will not try to articulate the names of variety of Indian
dishes because I am afraid I will make mistakes. But I know
perfectly well that they are tasteful and I like them," he
said. |
Greg Chappell slapped by fan
JAN 22 -
India's cricket coach Greg Chappell was on
Monday slapped by a fan who was angry about player selection.
Chappell was hit and pushed as the Indian team arrived in
Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Orissa to play a one-day
international against the West Indies. Indian cricket board
vice-president Rajiv Shukla said that the 58-year-old Chappell
was unhurt and had been immediately rushed into the team bus
stationed outside the airport gate. The attacker, identified
as Biranchi Maharana by local officials, was arrested soon
after the incident. “I am angry with Chappell because no
player from Orissa has been included in the national team,”
Maharana shouted to reporters before being whisked away in a
police jeep. |
'Talaq, talaq, talaq, not enough'
JAN 21 - Talaq, talaq, talaq . These three words are not
enough for a Muslim husband to divorce his wife, the Bombay
High Court has ruled. Under Muslim law, a man can divorce his
wife at his will by talaq (release from marriage) or Ila (by
taking a vow of abstinence) or Zihar (by declaring his wife to
be his mother). A woman can divorce her husband only by his
expressed consent (tafweez). She can also purchase her divorce
from her husband. |
No date fixed, says Ash's makeup man
JAN 21 - Aishwarya Rai’s and Abhishek Bachchan’s wedding could
possibly be only after three months, says Pradeep Nohate,
Aishwarya’s makeup artist. “Madam is busy with Jodha Akbar’s
shooting, which will take three months to complete. All the
dates of her marriage that are being speculated about are just
that…plain speculation. No date or venue has been finalized.
But, the marriage will take place within this year,” reported
Mid-Day quoting Nohate, Aishwarya’s make up artist for 11
years, whom she fondly calls Pradeep dada. Nohate says that it
was during the shooting of Umrao Jaan that he noticed the
couple “becoming very close.” |
All-Indian-women team heads to Liberia
 JAN
19 - Last year, Liberia, which has a 20-year-long history of
ethnic conflict, sought an all-women peacekeeping force from
the UN and India was happy to oblige. A 125-member all-Indan-women
team is being sent on a United Nations peace-keeping mission
to Liberia. The contingent will carry out joint patrolling,
area control, riot control and also train officers of the
Liberian National Police during a year-long stay.
Interestingly, the country has for the first time elected a
woman president recently as part of the democratic transition. |
Shilpa's TV 'abusers' get threats
JAN 18 - The Shilpa Shetty racial abuse episode is threatening
to snowball into a big issue in the UK with London police
reportedly investigating threats against the "abusive"
housemates of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother. The
police say this is being done after an outburst of public
concern over alleged racist bullying Shilpa on the British
show. According to news agency Reuters, nearly 10,000
complaints have so far been registered with the media
regulator Ofcam. Most of these complains are about the
ill-treatment meted out to the 31-year-old Shilpa, who has
been called a "dog'', "a Paki" and "the Indian" among other
things, since the reality television series started two weeks
ago. According to Reuters report, two emailed threats
had been sent to the show's broadcaster Channel 4. ''(They)
contain unspecified threats against a number of the
housemates. Police are currently looking in to the e-mails,''
a police spokesman was quoted as saying. |
Kabul Express
kicks up row in Pakistan
JAN 16 -
Bollywood flick
Kabul Express has kicked up a row in Islamabad with
members of the Hazara community that live on both sides of the
Pakistan-Afghan border calling for the boycott and ban of the movie
for using "derogatory language" against them.
The members of the Hazara community, with an estimated population of around two
lakh, live mostly in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
Quetta is home to a large number of Hazaras who fled from the Afghan
semi-autonomous province of Hazarajat in the late
19th century due to the excesses of the then Afghan King Abdur Rahman. |
An 'untouchable'
sworn in CJ of India
JAN 15 - Justice Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan was
sworn in as the new Chief Justice of India on Sunday, the
first Dalit to become head of the country’s judiciary.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam administered the oath of office
and secrecy to him at a simple ceremony at the Ashoka Hall
of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Born in Kerala on May 12, 1945,
Justice Balakrishnan is the 37th Chief Justice of India. In
the Indian caste system, a Dalit, often called an
untouchable, is a person who does not have any varnas. Varna
refers to the Hindu belief that most humans were created
from different parts of the body of the divinity Purusha and
according to which part they were created from it defines
their social standing for issues such as who they can marry
and what jobs they can do. |
Top American university goes all out to
engage India
JAN 14 - Purdue University, one of America's most respected
institutions, is going all out to engage India, which many
of its faculty members describe as 'one of the two most
exciting destinations'. Currently, of the 4,831
international students enrolled at Purdue in the academic
year, 1,021 are from India. The university also has more
than 85 faculty of Indian origin, mostly in engineering,
management and science. Charles Rutledge, vice president for
research, who is leading a delegation to India from Jan 29
to Feb 7, says: Of Purdue's international enrollment, India
provides Purdue with more students than any other country.
And by expanding the bridge between India and Purdue's
Discovery Park, we look to become a preferred US institution
for research collaborations with India.' Discovery Park is
Purdue's impressive $330 million interdisciplinary complex
tackling challenges in areas ranging from alternative energy
and health-care delivery to nanotechnology and cyber
infrastructure. |
Indian American Doctor fights for info
JAN 14 - US-based Indian doctor Kunal Saha, fighting a case of
medical negligence in India over his wife's death, has moved a
writ petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking action
against the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) and its
functionaries for their 'deliberate violation' of the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Saha's wife Anuradha had
died from alleged medical negligence during a trip to Kolkata
in 1998. The WBMC acquitted all three Kolkata doctors (Sukumar
Mukherjee, Abani Roychowdhury and Baidyanath Halder) accused
of medical negligence after an investigation, which Saha
termed "botched up" saying that the organization had "refused
to provide any documents until now". 'The Right to Information
Act has ignited the battle for medical justice in West
Bengal,' Saha told IANS over telephone from Columbus, Ohio, in
the US. |
Aishwarya, Abhishek get engaged
 JAN 14 - Bollywood film stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya
Rai got engaged Sunday, finally putting to rest all media
speculations brimming over past one year. The much-awaited
news was confirmed by Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishel's famous dad
himself. The wedding will take place sometime in February. The
engagement took place at the Bachchan residence in Mumbai and
was attended by close relatives of both the families. Apart
from the entire Bachchan clan, family friend Amar Singh was
also present on the occasion. |
India’s top judge opposes death penalty
India’s top judge, Justice YK Sabharwal, whose court turned
down an appeal by Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man sentenced to
death for helping to launch a deadly attack on the Indian
parliament on 2001, says he opposes the death penalty but
courts were bound to impose it in the “rarest of rare” cases.
“Once a court arrives at a conclusion that a case falls in the
category of ‘rarest of rare’ it has no option but to award
death penalty,” Sabharwal said in his last news conference
before his retirement. “My personal view that death penalty
should be abolished doesn’t matter,” he said. |
Has Sanjay Dutt married Maanyata?
Bollywood actor Sanjay
Dutt's family on Thursday denied the strong buzz in the film
fraternity that the actor had married a starlet named Maanyata,
saying if he was married, he would announce it to the world.
Tinseltown was abuzz
with talk about Sanjay's marriage to Maanyata aka Dilnawaz
Shaikh after a tabloid carried a front page story quoting the
actor as saying that he had married her on November 19.
The duo were
photographed at a recent awards function, entering and leaving
the venue together.
But no one
knows that the Dutt family is strongly opposed to this match,
reported Mid-Day today.
According to a close source to the family, the Dutt parivaar
is up in arms against Maanyata.
Sanjay has been married twice before,
first to Richa Sharma, with whom he has a daughter Trishala
and later to model Rhea Pillai. |
Hyundai India can't meet demands!
Insufficient capacity is crimping the carmaker Hyundai Motor
India Ltd's ability to meet domestic demand as well as serve
export markets from its Chennai plant. Hyundai, which makes
the popular Santro model in India, sells 1.86 lakh cars a
year making it the No 2 seller in India. The rest of its
production out of India is currently exported. In a market
where 2,740 cars are bought every day, the capacity
bottleneck may hurt Hyundai's market share, analysts say.
The Indian unit of the Korean carmaker is running at a full
capacity of three lakh vehicles at its Chennai plant that
makes cars for both the home and export markets. It is
working on adding a second manufacturing facility in the
same city that will double capacity. The only catch: the
second factory will only be operational 11 months from now,
in November. |
Sadhus say Ganges too dirty for bathing
Sadhus threatened on Monday to boycott the Kumbh festival, in
which millions of people wash away sins in the Ganges, saying
it was too polluted. Thousands of sadhus clad in
saffron-colored clothes held protests for a second day,
demanding that the river be cleaned up before the next
auspicious bathing day on Sunday. “The water in (the) river is
so dirty that no one can take a dip. It is dark red whereas
the Ganges used to be bluish green,” said Shankaracharya
Vasudvanand Saraswati, who heads the main Hindu monastery in
Allahabad, where the festival is taking place. “If the
government takes no corrective measures we will have no option
but to boycott the festival,” he said. The Ardh Kumbh mela, -
the largest congregation on earth, held every six years, is
expected to draw 70 million people over the six weeks. Lawsuit
has been filed against the UP government for not keeping the
Ganges clean. State officials said they would release fresh
water via canals and dams to help improve water quality for
the mela. |
Indian woman in Uncle Sam’s army
She may not have followed in the footsteps of Kalpana Chawla
or Sunita Williams. But she has made a splash in the Indian
Diaspora by her own feat. Gents, doff your hats for Neha
Hotchandani, the first Indian woman to join Uncle Sam’s Army.
And to think that she is only 20! Neha is currently serving as
a Company Leader at the 82nd Chemical Battalion in Missouri.
About 250 people work under her. A student of commerce but a
lover of the arts, she writes poetry, is an accomplished
western dancer, and is crazy about jazz. She describes herself
as a “party animal” and a “diehard” Hrithik Roshan fan. But
the ebullient youngster does not have a high opinion of the
Indian Army. “I’m not at all impressed. Even if I get an
opportunity, I don’t think I’ll ever join it,” she said to TOI. |
'NRI doctors can now practice in India'
Union minister for Overseas affairs Vayalar Ravi on Sunday
announced that overseas Indian doctors would now be allowed
to practice in the medical arena in India. "I am happy to
announce that we are looking at allowing overseas Indian
doctors to practice in India," Ravi, said, to a thunderous
applause. |
600 LeTs prowl Mumbai
The Indian Intelligence Bureau delivered a secret advisory to
Mumbai police, warning of possible attacks in the city by a
group comprising 600 Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. According to
the advisory, the militants have received navigational
training from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency
and the Pakistani navy to infiltrate India's coastlines and
island territories. The advisory also warns of attempts by
militants to kidnap VIPs or aircraft in order to demand the
release of Mohammed Afzal Guru, a convicted Kashmiri militant
sentenced to death for a 2001 suicide attack on the Indian
Parliament. (Stratfor) |
Indians Behind Most Startups
Indian immigrants in USA founded more tech startup companies
from 1995 to 2005 than people from the four next biggest
sources - United Kingdom, China, Taiwan and Japan - combined.
A team of researchers at Duke University estimated that 25
percent of technology and engineering companies started from
1995 to 2005 had at least one senior executive - a founder,
chief executive, president or chief technology officer - born
outside the United States. California led the nation, with
foreign-born entrepreneurs founding 39 percent of startups,
even though they make up only 25 percent of the state's
population. In New Jersey, 38 percent of tech startups were
founded by immigrants, followed by Michigan (33 percent),
Georgia (30 percent), Virginia (29 percent) and Massachusetts
(29 percent). One of the study's biggest surprises was the
extent to which Indians led the entrepreneurial pack. Of an
estimated 7,300 U.S. tech startups founded by immigrants, 26
percent have Indian founders, CEOs, presidents or head
researchers, the study found. |
Nissan moves production to India
Japan's second largest automaker Nissan Motor
plans to invest some $840-million dollars in construction of
auto factories in India, a newspaper said on Monday. It s
considering two or three coastal cities in western and
southern India as possible locations. Construction on a
main assembly plant will begin this year. Some 30 percent of
the vehicles will be sold in India with the remaining 70
percent to be exported to Europe and other markets. It
currently only exports some 200 vehicles to India from Japan
a year. Its top shareholder Renault SA has separately drawn
up plans to jointly produce vehicles with midsize Indian
automaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. India's passenger
vehicle market in Asia's fourth-biggest economy is forecast
to double to 2 million units by 2010. |
Jodhpur - town of export excellence for handicrafts
Jodhpur has emerged as India’s second largest exporter of
handicrafts. According to Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of
State of Commerce who was on a visit to Jodhpur, the city
follows Moradabad and it has around 400 units employing around
a lakh people and exporting close to Rs 700 crores. The
exports are mainly of woodcrafts. Other such towns include
Ludhiana (woolen knitwear), Panipat (woolen blanket), Dewas
(pharmaceuticals), Kollam (cashew), Alapuzzha (coir), Madurai
(handlooms) and Tiruppur (hosiery). Shri Ramesh also
highlighted the fact that India accounts for over 80% of the
total guar gum produced in the world and 70% of this is
cultivated in Rajasthan alone. |
Indian-born doctor is acting chief of BBC
In a rare distinction, Dr Chitra Bharucha, an Indian-born
hematologist, today took charge as the acting Chairperson of
the British Broadcasting Corporation, becoming the first
woman and first Asian to head the giant organization. The
post of the Chairman of BBC fell vacant following the
resignation of Michael Grade after he decided to join the
rival organization ITV. Born in Madurai, Bharucha has lived
in Britain since 1972. She shifted from a career in medicine
to media in 1996 when she joined the BBC Broadcasting Council
for Northern Ireland, a position she stayed in till 2003. |
Indian Radio Hots Up
On billboards all over Bombay, Abhishek Bachchan, who is
said to marry one of the
hottest stars of Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai - can be seen promoting BIG 92.7FM
in a massive advertising blitz. BIG 92.7FM, which is owned
by Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADA, one of the biggest
conglomerates in India, is aptly named. Starting from
scratch and spending about £45 million, it is aiming to
launch a station in each of 45 cities, reaching 200 million
people, in six months. The first station went on air in
Delhi in September and new ones are launching at a rate of
two or three a week. The station is hoping that Bachchan,
son of the renowned actor Amitabh Bachchan, will draw
listeners to its adult contemporary hits. Putting prominent
figures such as Abhishek Bachchan on the air, rather than on
the advertising billboards, might be the next logical step,
reported The Times, UK. |
Female cops keep Romeos at bay
Young women officers are being hand-picked by Ahmedabad city police
top brass to keep Romeos at bay during New Year
celebrations. According to TOI, fifteen
young women constables who would fit the bill as
fashion-conscious party animals out to enjoy the New Year
celebrations have been identified.
Thousands of people throng CG
Road and a few points on the SG highway to welcome the New
Year. "Eve- teasers mingle with the crowd and give a hard
time to the young girls, who go there to celebrate," said a
police official. Earlier
during the Navratri and Gauri-Puja, anti-Romeo squad
comprising women police constables had been introduced.
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Newsbriefs Dec 06 > |
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