Leadership

Remembering and honoring Vidyasagar Haimanti Banerjee   The 19th century was a very important one among so many before that because it gifted the world with innumerable great personalities from Bharat, particularly from Bengal. To take a few names: Bharat Pathik, a great social reformer; Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a giant spiritual leader; Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and his disciple Vivekananda; Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, a genius and a pioneering scientist; Jagadish Chandra Basu, Kobiguru Rabindranath Thakur, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, CV Raman, Srinivasa Ramanujam and so many others in and outside of Bengal who will be remembered as stalwarts in ...

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards and addressed the closing session of the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bengaluru. The first award was received by Portugal Prime Minister Antonia Luiss Santos Da Costa for his contribution in the field of public service. As per the list, six awards were given to NRIs from the US, the highest in the list, while two each to those from the UK and UAE. One award each was given to NRIs from 20 countries, including Australia, France, Canada, Israel, Libya, Fiji, Brunei, Singapore, Portugal and others. Among the NRIs from ...

Asserting that Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a celebration to mark the return to India of one of the greatest Pravasis Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Indians abroad are valued not just for their strength in numbers but are respected for the contributions they make. He was accompanied by his Portugal counterpart Dr Antonio Costa, who is the chief guest for the event. “This is a stage where the host and the guest are the same,” said Modi speaking at the event. Talking about Indians living abroad, Modi said, “30 million Indians abroad are valued not just for ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017 in Bengaluru, the 14th edition of the three-day event began in the country’s IT hub with the spotlight on the role of youth in transforming the society and India’s potential to play the role of a ‘Vishwa Guru’ again. Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa was the chief guest of the meet. The session was also attended by Suriname Vice President Michael Ashwin Adhin, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel and Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh. Lauding the deep and emotional attachment Persons of Indian ...

Nikki Haley was named as US envoy to the United Nations by President-elect Donald Trump, as she scripted history by becoming the first-ever Indian-American to be appointed to a cabinet-level post in any US administration. “Governor Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation to move critical policies forward for the betterment of her state and our country,” Trump said, referring to his former critic with whom he had sparred bitterly during the campaign. 44-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, Haley is the first woman tapped by Trump for a top-level ...

As the festive season in India is getting over many people are happy to know that Chinese product sales  may be down by 30%. It may be a moment of celebration for patriotic Indians in short term although Indian traders will have to bear the brunt since they already had imported these items. Let us ask – why Indians would have to buy Chinese product to begin with? The answer is very simple –  Indian industries don’t make those items  or don’t pay attention to consumers’ concerns for price, choice and quality.  Suddenly one cannot stop trading according to international trade rules. And don’t forget Chinese do invest in the ...

By Shree Lahiri Google. Microsoft. Pepsi. Adobe. Cognizant. SanDisk Corporation. NetApp. All big international corporates. But, what is the common thread that links them? They all have Indian-born CEOs at the helm. As the image of India has been seeing a sea-change in the global arena, with the PM on a singularly focused mission, Indian-born CEOs have been trending in global companies, and have been leaving a blazing trail from Day 1. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google We can start this trail with Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, he worked at McKinsey & Company before he joined Google. ...

By Babita Ambekar Almost everywhere that you travel in the world you will come across a person of Indian origin. We look different, speak different languages and eat different food. Our thoughts and beliefs are shaped by our upbringing and environment, which is highly diverse and evolves from generation to generation. Some of us have never experienced life in India. We read about it in books, hear stories from our elders about the way that life used to be and watch a Bollywood movie every now and then. Others travel to India a couple of times a year or have ...

“They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive” By Kanchan Banerjee Yoga, Freedom & Universalism Despite the popular image and understating of yoga as some sort of exercise and stress-relief mechanism, Yoga is the original Indian idea of self realization through numerous paths and means. Swami Vivekananda was the one who formally introduced yoga to the Americans and the Western societies which has become household practice today. As he had great success in America in introducing Indian wisdom, it impacted Indians also to re-discover their heritage, the knowledge of the Vedas and the Upanishads. ...

“They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.” By Kanchan Banerjee Vivekananda and Science The progress of material science especially in the field of communication, energy and health are at a pace now that never happened before. While it is human nature to explore and discover nature’s secrets, nature has no say on how the knowledge is used. We are capable of developing technology most of which are for the good of mankind, but not all. Some especially in the field of weaponry, genetics and usage of various forms of energy and chemicals potentially ...