NRI:Indian student stabbed in Melbourne, Australia, critical

Melbourne: A 23-year-old Indian student, working as a taxi driver, was brutally stabbed and left bleeding on the roadside here today.

The Indian, who was lying injured for over two hours, was found at 6 AM local time disoriented and with hypothermia near a hotel in Clifton Hill, several hundred metres from his smashed car and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

The victim, whose name has not been released, had stab wounds in the upper body and the homicide squad has been notified “as a precaution,” police said.

The Indian had apparently just started doing night shifts driving the cabs.

According to detective Senior Constable Brendan Smith, the suspect was possibly a passenger who might have driven the taxi a short distance after the attack before it collided with a power pole.

Smith said the police were unclear of the motives and had not been able to talks to the victim due to his condition.

“We are unclear of the motives. We believe there was one other person in the taxi,” he said Victoria Police were reviewing CCTV footage from the taxi and have released photos that might help identify the attacker.

Taxi drivers blockaded a major intersection in central Melbourne to protest the incident.

The secretary of the Victorian taxi drivers association, Pritam Singh Gill, said about 200 cabbies were blockading Swanston street to demand that all vehicles be fitted immediately with security screens.

“The drivers are very upset with this,” he said. “The Government promised us the security for drivers 18 months ago and they haven’t done anything so far,” Gill was quoted as saying by media here.

Students: Canada welcomes

Canada lures Indian students IANS

Canada has rolled out a new open work permit scheme to attract foreign students – a move that may lure away Indian students from their favourite destinations like the US, Britain and Australia.

Under the new scheme, announced by the Canadian government Thursday, foreign students going to Canada will now be able to get an open work permit under a post-graduate programme, with virtually no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement of a job offer.

Previously, international students were allowed to work for one or two years, depending on location.

The duration of the work permit has been increased to three years to ensure easier employment opportunities to target foreign students in an increasingly competitive global education market.

“The government of Canada wants more foreign students to choose Canada,” Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley said in a statement, released by the Canadian High Commission here.

“Open and longer work permits provide international students with more opportunities for Canadian work experience… This will help make Canada a destination of choice, and help us keep international students already studying in Canada,” the minister added.

Canada is not a preferred destination for Indian students, but the last decade has seen a spurt in interest in Canadian universities.

A total of 5,700 Indian students were studying in Canada in 2007 while 2,531 study permits were issued to Indians that year. This was a big jump from 339 Indian students who went to Canada in 1997.

Over 80,000 Indian students study in the US, forming the largest number of foreign students in that country. Around 19,000 Indian students went to Britain last year.

India has emerged as a battleground for foreign universities looking for bright students. British universities rolling out their education roadshows for Indian students and the US easing visa procedures to sustain the flow of the “best and brightest” shows that none of these countries want to lose out in the race.

Canada has crafted this new scheme to address severe shortage of skilled personnel that is affecting the global competitiveness of its economy.

“As we move toward the implementation of the Canadian Experience Class, these changes will help create a pool of individuals who, with work experience, will find it easier to apply to immigrate to Canada,” said the Canadian minister.

“Our ability to retain international graduates with Canadian qualifications, work experience and familiarity with Canadian society, will help increase our competitiveness and benefit Canada as a whole,” said the minister.

Consumer Court : Ruling on Lost Baggage

Airline directed to pay Rs 2 L for lost baggage

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

 

      New Delhi: The state consumer commission has directed Emirates airline to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation to a doctor of Indraprastha Apollo Hospital for the loss of baggage in transit as well as tampered baggage on the return journey.
  

       Dr Rakesh Chopra, chief of haematooncology division at Apollo, attended an international conference at Athens between 6 and 10 November 1998, accompanied by his wife.
   

      On arrival at Athens airport, out of his two checked-in baggage, one did not reach the airport. As a result, he could neither participate in the conference nor attend any of the official functions and his entire trip was horrifying experience. Till date, his baggage has not been traced.
  

      It got worse when on their return, the doctor and his wife found locks and zippers tampered with at the Dubai airport on their remaining checked-in baggage.
   

      The airline pleaded that as per the Carriage Act it was liable to pay a sum of US $20 per kg only and with respect to damage of suitcase, it reimbursed US $150 as an interim relief at Athens.
   

      This did not find favour with Justice Kapoor who noted,‘‘Liability under the Consumer Protection Act arises from the offence of deficiency of service which is to be judged independently. Loss of baggage, non-delivery, late delivery and pilferage is in itself a deficiency in service. Hence the consumer who suffers mental agony and harassment needs to be compensated.’’
   toireporter@timesgroup.com

UK:Asian Docs win battle as UK sheds visa bias

Docs win battle as UK sheds visa bias
LONDON: Indian doctors in the UK have won a significant legal battle as the Blair government agreed to withdraw a “discriminatory clause” which would have excluded them from job interviews and the appointment process if they did not have visas beyond August 1, 2007.

The High Court here was to hear on Thursday the application filed by the British Association for People of Indian Origin (BAPIO) seeking permission for a judicial review of the injunction on rules affecting Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) doctors.

As the judge began the hearing, counsel of the secretary of state requested a brief adjournment. BAPIO was then informed that the secretary of state was prepared to concede.

“BAPIO accepted this offer and agreed to withdraw the case since the secretary of state gave an undertaking to the court that this clause will be removed,”Dr Ramesh Mehta, BAPIO president, said on Friday.

Mehta said: “For the first time, a clear message has been sent out that promises made to international medical graduates must be kept. Doctors under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) were allowed to make UK their home; HSMP doctors must be treated at par with UK and EEA (European Economic Area) nationals and there is no basis for discriminating against them.”

Last Sunday, BAPIO obtained an emergency injunction to prevent discrimination of doctors on HSMP visa whose visa were due for renewal before August 1 in the first round of the current recruitment for 21,000 training jobs.

BAPIO said this was necessary because while the health department had agreed to keep the new rules discriminating against HSMP doctors in abeyance, it had introduced a new clause stating that to be considered for the interview these doctors must have HSMP visa that was current on August 1, 2007.

BAPIO believed that this would disadvantage many international doctors whose visa came up for renewal before this date and hence filed for and obtained this injunction.

extract from TOI of 09 March 08

UK : long-term visas for Indians

UK : long-term visas for Indians
 

NEW DELHI: After introducing bio-metric visas last December, Britain has decided to re-introduce long-term visas of up to 10 years for Indians intending to visit that country.

“It is entirely in our interest to give you 10-year visas,” the UK High Commissioner Charles Richard Vernon Stagg told industrialists at a luncheon meeting organised by the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) in New Delhi on Thursday.

The UK High Commission introduced bio-metric visas, which carry the information and photograph of the person in the digital form, in December last year in view of security concerns.

“We are now re-introducing 5-10 years visa,” Stagg said. The High Commission had stopped issuing long-term visas briefly in view of security concerns.

The main problem at the moment, he said, is that the turnaround time has increased from 24 hours to four days, primarily because “we cannot transmit data across the internet according to the Indian rules”.

It takes four days to receive the data and get it processed from London, the High Commissioner said, adding that he had taken up the matter with Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

“I spoke about it to every government official that I meet,” the High Commissioner added.

extracts from TOI

NRI: FBI arrests two for killing NRI couple

FBI arrests two more  for killing NRI couple

      Two more suspects will face charges in the alleged contract killings of a Troy couple, Birj Mohan Chhabra, 65, and his wife Aasha Chhabra, 56, police said Saturday.

       Narayan Thadani and Douglas Tabor, both Texas residents, were arrested late Friday night in the Houston area by FBI agents on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in conjunction. 

      They were arrested in connection with the deaths of a husband and wife found shot in the head in their home. Computer programmer and yoga instructor Birj Mohan Chhabra ( 65) and his 56- yearold wife Aaasha were shot dead on Tuesday at Troy, Michigan. Both had been shot at close rangein their home on Delaware Drive.

            Two other Texas men, Miguel Angel Servando- Ortiz ( 40) and Nelson Oswaldo Mendoza ( 34) have already pleaded not guilty on Friday on murder charges.

     The duo were arrested on 11th Tuesday, soon after the police found the elderly couple’s bodies. The police have said the attack was not random.

      Aaasha is believed to have relied on Thadani’s help in liquidating assets left to her in India by her parents. In a 2006 lawsuit she accused Thadani, a longtime family friend, of moving her funds to his own account without permission and refusing to return them to her along with her passport, green card and ID.

      Friends say the shootings may have been a contract hit connected to the lawsuit. Tabor is an associate of Thadani, according to a statement released by Troy police.

     

The News has reported how Servando-Ortiz and Mendoza, both El Salvador nationals, were allegedly promised $100,000 to kill the couple, according to prosecutors.

NRI: Dr Pallavi induced into Florida Women Hall of Fame

Dr Pallavi inducted into Florida Women Hall of Fame 

         Eminent philanthropist and physician Dr Pallavi Patel has been inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame for advancing the role of women in the US and other parts of the world.        Based in Tampa, Florida, Dr Patel is the first Indian-American to be included in this prestigious hall of fame. The Florida Commission on the Status of Women so far has inducted 74 women in this exclusive list.       ”It is a great feeling,” Dr Patel told NDTV.Com in an interview after being inducted into the Hall of Fame by Florida Governor, Charlie Christie, at a ceremony in Tallahassee, Florida on March 11.

       ”I was a little surprised when I was informed about it as I never work for award or reward. It is a great honor to be recognized and inducted in the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame,” said Dr Patel, who along with her husband Dr Kiran Patel are well known for their philanthropist works in the US, India and Zambia having donated millions of dollars for charity work.

       The couple donated $5 million to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in 2004 to establish the Dr Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory, which enables thousands of young people in the State to pursue their dreams in music and the performing arts.

       Born and brought up in Gujarat, Dr Patel started her medical career with her husband Dr Kiran Patel in the African country of Zambia.

        Besides continuing her practice as a pediatrician she is passionate about issues related to teen pregnancy, single motherhood, adolescent self-esteem and women’s health and education. ”These are issues very dear to me and I keep on working,” she said.

        Dr Patel said she has plans to expand the 50-bed hospital that they have build in Motafofalia village near Daboi in Gujarat which serves around 1,00,000 people in and around the village.

        Termed as true role models for Florida and its citizens by the State Attorney General Bill McCollum during the induction ceremony, Dr Patel said she would continue to work for welfare and betterment of women. 

NRI:Trafficking racket: Indian workers file case against US employer

Trafficking racket: Indian workers file case against US employer

Extracts from TOI

       WASHINGTON: Some 500 Indian workers caught in what they claim is a human trafficking racket have asked the Indian government to protect their families in India from vengeful recruiters even as they filed a class action anti racketeering lawsuit in the US against their American employer.

       While the workers sought a meeting with the Indian ambassador in Washington DC to explain their case, the embassy has already directed the consulate in Houston to investigate the matter. Meantime, the workers also sought the minister’s intervention in preventing the recruiting company in Mumbai, which sent them to the US under false assurances, from intimidating their families in India following the flap.

         The case involving the Indian workers and their alleged exploitation is more than a year old Sometime in 2006, hundreds of welders and pipefitters, mostly from Kerala, responded to a series of advertisement placed by a recruiting company run by Mumbai-based Sachin Dewan promising green cards and permanent residency in US. Over 600 workers from all around India and some from the Gulf paid Dewan up to Rs 10 lakh (about $ 25,000 in today’s rates), often selling their homes and raising loans, for the promised “American dream”.

When they arrived in US, they discovered that there were no green cards. Instead, the workers found themselves working for Signal International, a major marine construction company, on ten-month “H-2B’’ visa that bonded them to work for it. Most of the work stemmed from the post-Hurricane Katrina labour shortage in the Louisiana-Mississippi region.

     The workers, many of them sent to Pascagoula, Mississippi, say they found the living conditions horrible. They were placed in cramped quarters, 24 to a 24×36 room equipped with bunk beds. They were given substandard food, for which Signal charged them $ 1050 per month, although the company claimed to have hired an Indian cook from New Orleans.

            “I was desperate…I was ready to die,” he says. Signal, on its part, denies all charges and say the company has gone out of its way to make the workers comfortable, spending up to $7 million to build plush new housing facilities.

      The living condition has been inspected by local authorities and found to be adequate (dissenting workers say the company dressed up the living quarters before the inspections). The company also denies it has anything to do with promising green cards or permanent residency to the workers, who come under the H2B guest worker visa.

       The workers allege that Signal was fully aware of Sachin Dewans misleading ads and that company representatives worked closely with Dewan in the recruitment process.

       Meanwhile, the workers, acting under the aegis of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New Orleans late Friday against Signal, which is a sub-contractor for Northrup Grumman

NRI:Confusing Reports on the Death of Indian Student

‘Indian student in US may have committed suicide’

      Confusing reports are being received about the demise of Akkaldevi Srinivas.          Earlier reports said that it was a case of murder. Now there are rumors that it may be a suicide.

      What is the truth?       Police were searching for clues on the motive behind the suicide by a young Andhra Pradesh medico who was found dead in Pennsylvania in the US. They said the investigations so far pointed that it was not a case of murder.

After six hours of probe, the investigators said Akkaldevi Srinivas, 29, whose body was found in a pool of blood with wounds to his neck on Saturday, committed suicide. The coroner is also understood to have said that Srinivas had ended his own life.

Srinivas, who hails from Korutla in Karimnagar district, cut the vein of his neck, sources said. This may have guided early reports that it was a case of stabbing, they said.

Srinivas was an intern in a hospital in Scranton town but Scranton State University said he was not their student.

Sources said a suicide note was found but declined to reveal the contents citing ongoing investigations.

The medico’s father was on his way to the US to claim the body and the Indian Consulate officials in New York said they were ready to give all assistance needed by the family.

Meanwhile, about 50 people, mainly residents from the Scranton-Temple Residency Programme(STRP) at Mercy hospital attended a memorial for Srinivas at a funeral home where his body was kept.

extracts from TOI

NRI Another Indian Student killed in North Carolina: Fourth incident

      A young doctor from  Andhra Pradesh pursuing his post-graduation in Internal Medicine in Pennsylvania in the US was found murdered over the weekend, the fourth Indian student to meet a violent end in that country in the last three months.

      The body of Akkaldevi Srinivas (29), hailing from Korutla in Karimnagar district, was found in a pool of blood with stab wounds under mysterious circumstances on Saturday last.

      An MBBS student of 1995 batch of Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad, Srinivas joined Scranton State University for an MD programme in 2005 after completing his MS. He went to the US in 2002. The victim’s father, Anjaiah, left for the US to bring the body after the family had received the shocking news on Sunday.

        The motive for the crime and the identity of the assailants was not immediately known. A friend of Srinivas informed the family members that the doctor’s body was found in a pool of blood with stab wounds in his neck.

       His family members have appealed to the government to render assistance in bringing back the body of the deceased and also to get the incident investigated. In December, two PhD students from Andhra Pradesh– Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma of Kurnool district and Allam Kiran Kumar of Karimnagar district–were shot dead at Louisiana state university.

        Abhijit Mahato, a research student from Jharkand, was also shot dead in his apartment in North Carolina last month.

PS

        Students from India make up over a third of international graduate students at NC State – and graduate degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and computer networking are the most popular among these 498 students.         Over the past 10 years, more than 1,000 graduate degrees to Indian students have been awarded.       There are  40 professors who are originally from India.  Since 2001, the number of Indian students applying to graduate school has increased by about 20 percent.