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<![CDATA[India Journal - More stories]]>Thu, 06 Apr 2023 01:25:15 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[India Journal Merges with India West]]>Thu, 15 Aug 2019 01:21:57 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/india-journal-merges-with-india-westBy NIMMI RAGHUNATHAN
LOS ANGELES, CA - Just days after Gannett Newspapers and rival Gatehouse Media (the two largest print media empires in the U.S.) announced plans to merge their operations together, the top executives of India-West and India Journal met and also decided that it was time to...

join forces. “Given the rapidly changing landscape of print media all across the world, joining forces was not only inevitable, but it also made a lot of common sense,” declared both parties.
The challenges for both India-West and India Journal began shortly after the huge mortgage meltdown of 2008.Then came the rapidly growing influence of social media affecting the bottom line of thousands of small newspapers across the country even forcing some to shut down. Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram became the primary source for several consumers of news.
This national news trend also affected India Journal and India West but the market remained and remains strong for local news. While the national media does not concern itself with any regularity with issues affecting the community, the two papers have focused precisely on this, filling an all-important need.
With this coming together of both papers, one based in Southern California and the other in Northern California, the expectation is that, as one unit, the newspaper will become an even stronger voice of the community, especially with a robust digital presence.
Executives of IndiaWest and India Journal met in San Leandro in mid-July and both sides quickly saw the wisdom of joining forces.“In this all-stock transaction, IndiaWest will be the surviving entity and will conduct an Asset Purchase of India Journal,’’ explained Navneet Chugh, Publisher of India Journal and also CEO of the The Chugh firm.
Chugh will join IndiaWest’s Board of Directors and serve as the general counsel for the company.
Ramesh Murarka, will be the Publisher and President of India West while Parminder Singh, President of India Journal, will step in with the company as Vice President as well as General Manager of the Southern California office. The paper will continue to serve the Southern California community from the same location as the erstwhile India Journal office.
The first combined issue of IndiaWest and India Journal is slated to be the issue dated August 30, 2019. India-West was founded in 1975 by Ramesh and Bina Murarka.India Journal was founded in 1988 by Mohinder Singh.

]]><![CDATA[Meditation And Healing Concert Benefits Many]]>Thu, 18 Jul 2019 20:32:46 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/meditation-and-healing-concert-benefits-manyWASHINGTON,D.C. - Amidst a huge gathering, Dr. Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji of Mysore, India performed ‘Raga Maya Raga Sagara,’ a meditation and healing concert at the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts here on July 6. At the concert, Swami Chidatmananda of Chinmaya Mission offered a garland to Swamiji. Special invitees, Ambassador P K Kapur,

former Indian Ambassador to Chile, and Cambodia, honored Swamiji with a Vastram, and Rajan Natarajan, Transportation Commissioner, and former Deputy Secretary of State for Maryland, presented a memento to Swamiji from the State of Maryland. Another special invitee Shambhu Hakki, First Secretary and Spokesperson for the Indian Embassy, who represented the Ambassador, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, honored internationally acclaimed violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam, who played alongside Swamiji at the concert.
At the press conference, prior to the concert, in the Kennedy Center, Swamiji said he was happy to be performing at the Kennedy Center, and talked about the importance and benefits of attending the music for meditation and healing concerts. Soon after the concert Swamiji conveyed that the Kennedy Center concert had been planned for a long time but finally the star, date and time aligned and the concert happened. He played two new ragas, Chandika and Kamavardhini and their combination turned out very well. He appreciated special guest, violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam for an excellent performance, and the overall troupe for their musical support.
The main raga, Kamavardhini, a very powerful healing raga, works on the entire body, all chakras, all zodiac signs, and all five elements. Swamiji also played Rushyaketupriya, Kapi, Mohana, Chandika, Kamavardhini, Madhuvarshini, and Sama ragas. The ragas played are helpful in cervical spondylosis, computer related stress, thyroid diseases, laryngeal disorders, hyperacidity, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, high blood pressure, and insomnia to name a few. Regularly listening to these ragas help relax persons with such ailments. During the concert, Swamiji walked amidst the audience with a crystal rod and identified people with chronic diseases and channeled healing energy and vibrations.
At the concert, artists Jaitra Varanasi (violin), Shankar Ramesh (mridangam), Mahesh Bhatt (tabla), and Mani (keyboard), and Jaya Datta (cymbals) from Swamiji’s Celestial Message Troupe accompanied him. The event was jointly organized by Datta Yoga Center, DC Chapter and Yoga Sangeeta,Swamiji’s non-profit organization based in New Jersey.

]]><![CDATA[Tech giants to face US hearings on anti-trust, cryptocurrency]]>Mon, 15 Jul 2019 18:16:06 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/tech-giants-to-face-us-hearings-on-anti-trust-cryptocurrencyWASHINGTON - Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook are set to face two US House hearings on anti-trust issues and Facebook's planned cryptocurrency Libra. On Tuesday, the House Committee on Judiciary will discuss anti-trust issues while the Senate Banking Committee will discuss Facebook's digital currency 'Libra' that is slated to arrive in 2020,

CNET reported on Sunday. Amazon is often criticized for undercutting competition on price.
"Facebook and Google have struggled with questions around privacy, free speech and election interference. Amazon and Apple meanwhile have grown so large and powerful, some lawmakers say they've become monopolies that need to be split up," said the report.
Facebook has reached a whopping $5 billion settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the Cambridge Analytica privacy violations.
The FTC opened a probe last year into the matter after the social networking giant admitted Cambridge Analytica acquired detailed personal information of more than 87 million Facebook users via an academic researcher.
The report of the $5 billion settlement, the largest ever by the FTC against a tech company over privacy issues after a $22.5 million settlement with Google in 2012.
The Facebook case is being looked at as a measure of President Donald Trump's administration's willingness to regulate US tech companies. The European Union's anti-trust regulators in March fined Google 1.49 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for abusing its dominance in the online search market by blocking rivals. Google has abused its market dominance by imposing a number of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites which prevented Google's rivals from placing their search adverts on these websites, according to the European Commission.

]]><![CDATA[Blackout hits heart of NY affecting several thousands]]>Sun, 14 Jul 2019 18:41:46 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/blackout-hits-heart-of-ny-affecting-several-thousandsNEW YORK - The heart of New York has been hit by a massive blackout that darkened Times Square, disrupted Broadway shows, stranded underground metro trains and paralysed traffic. The Saturday evening disaster cut power to several hundred thousand people in the capital of the nation's media that often mocks India and other developing countries for their...

infrastructure problems. The blackout cut a swath through the midtown from the Hudson River on the west to trendy Fifth Avenue and from Madison Square Garden to the Lincoln Centre, blanketing tourist magnets like Times Square and Rockefeller Centre.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that he was calling out the National Guard and sending state troopers to help the city. About 25,000 fans of Jennifer Lopez were evacuated from her concert at the Madison Square Garden after the third song. Broadway musicals and plays were also cancelled and some artistes took their music to the streets holding impromptu concerts. Chaos prevailed underground where five train lines were affected and thousands of passengers were stranded on the trains and in the stations before a slow evacuation began.
Citizen volunteers helped direct traffic at cross-sections after the electric signals failed disrupting vehicles. John McAvoy, the CEO of ConEdison, the city's private electricity company, told the media that over 73,000 connections were affected. He said that a "significant disturbance" at an electric substation triggered the power failure with the problem cascading to other substations.
McAvoy added that the incident was under investigation, but said that although there were reports of people hearing explosions, it was unlikely that there were any. The sounds were probably the massive circuit breakers tripping, he said. New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill at a news conference ruled out "criminality" behind the blackout.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told TV news stations that hospitals were running on emergency power and did not have air conditioning during the blackout.
Power was slowly being restored to affected areas more than blackouts began.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was away in Iowa campaigning for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, was rushing back to the city as he was being upstaged by local political rivals. Saturday was the 42nd anniversary of the legendary citywide blackout which lasted 25 hours and the city was torn by rioting and looting. The 1977 disaster with the public disorder marked a point of decline of the city that took it several decades to recover from.
The entire north-east region of the US suffered a blackout in 2003 that lasted several days. But there were no law and order problems in New York at that time or this.
The US suffers from geing infrastructure, especially in older cities like New York.
In very hot summer days, New York has rolling blackouts in the outer boroughs with the city unable to keep up with the demand. Fires and explosions in the underground conduits for electric and other utilities happen frequently sending manhole covers shooting up and causing blackouts.
Such an underground electric utility explosion recently in April in the midtown area injured six people and caused the evacuation of several buildings.
Despite the embarrassing reminders of just plain equipment failure or ageing infrastructure in the wealthy nation causing large scale power blackouts, the US media puts an ominous spin when it comes to India or other developing countries. After the 2012 blackout in India, The New York Times wrote disparagingly, "For a country considered a rising economic power, Blackout Tuesday - which came only a day after another major power failure - was an embarrassing reminder of the intractable problems still plaguing India".

]]><![CDATA[Mexican airline offers $1 fares to return home]]>Fri, 21 Jun 2019 19:41:48 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/mexican-airline-offers-1-fares-to-return-homeMEXICO CITY - A Mexican airline has launched a promotion that offers Central American migrants $1 fares, including taxes, to return home. The programme, called "Reuniting Families", is for those who "want to voluntarily return to their country of origin", the airline said on Thursday. Till June 30, Central Americans looking to return can show up at airports in Tijuana,

Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara and Mexico City, reports Xinhua news agency.
Volaris is pleased to serve those who are willing to take its flight to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. Adults only need to show a national identification, while minors are required a birth certificate or passport.
"In this way, Volaris bolsters its commitment to unite families and collaborate by offering an alternative solution to the immigration phenomenon in recent months," the company said.
Since the end of 2018, thousands of Central American migrants have been fleeing poverty and violent crime at home by forming successive caravans heading north to the US border, where they hope to apply for asylums. This isn't the first time the carrier has based a promotional campaign on the immigration issue. A year ago, Volaris offered free flights for families separated by the US zero-tolerance policy towards undocumented migrants.

]]><![CDATA[Indian dies after setting himself on fire near White House]]>Thu, 30 May 2019 20:37:16 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/indian-dies-after-setting-himself-on-fire-near-white-houseWASHINGTON - A 33-year-old man, identified as an Indian, died after setting himself on fire near the White House, the US Park Police said on Thursday. Arnav Gupta of Bethesda, Maryland, set himself on fire on Wednesday afternoon at the Ellipse Park, not far from the Washington Monument, in full view of passersby, CNBC reported. He was taken to a hospital in a critical condition and he later died of his injuries, the police said.

Gupta was reported missing on Wednesday morning and authorities had put out a notice asking for the public's help in finding him. The Montgomery County Police Department in a Facebook post described Gupta as an Indian male who was last seen by his family when he left his home on Cindy Lane, about 10 miles northwest of the White House, around 9.20 a.m. on Wednesday.
The police said his family was "concerned for Gupta's physical and emotional welfare".
The US Secret Service said that officers responded in "seconds" after Gupta set himself on fire, then began administering first aid and transported him to a local area hospital. Alina Berzins, 17, an eyewitness to the event, told CNBC that she saw the man "running, and then we saw him covered in flames" while she was visiting the National Mall with two of her cousins. The Indian man's motive for the act, which has historically been performed as an extreme form of political protest, remains unclear.

]]><![CDATA[May quits, new British PM likely by end of July]]>Fri, 24 May 2019 19:17:05 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/may-quits-new-british-pm-likely-by-end-of-julyLONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday announced that she would quit as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party on June 7, paving the way for a leadership battle for the next Prime Minister's post. "I believe it was right to persevere even when the odds against success were high. But it's now clear to me that it's in the best interest of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort. I am today (Friday)...

announcing that I will resign as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on 7th of June, so that a successor can be chosen," she said. The party said it hoped a new leader could be in place by the end of July, reports BBC.
Fighting tears outside Downing Street, May said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of "deep regret" that she had been unable to do so.
"It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit. It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honours the referendum. To lead, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not," May said.
She said she would continue to serve as Prime Minister while a Conservative leadership contest takes place. According to the party, a new leader could be elected by the end of July, the UK media reported. May, under increased pressure from her party to pronounce her departure date amid internal schisms over her handling of Brexit, announced her decision after a meeting with Chief Whip Julian Smith, the lawmaker in charge of keeping the party unity in Parliament.
May's Brexit withdrawal bill has been rejected three times in the House of Commons.
Her voice croaked as she ended her speech saying: "I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold. The second female prime minister, but certainly not the last."
She took over from former Prime Minister David Cameron when he resigned the day after the Brexit referendum in June 2016. In a statement, the Conservative Party said the likely timetable for the party leadership contest was that nominations would close during the week beginning June 10, with the process of whittling down candidates to the final two to conclude by the end of the month.
Following the May's decision, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt became the latest MP to say he would run for the party leadership, joining former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Conservative Party politicians Esther McVey and Rory Stewart. Meanwhile, Johnson told an economic conference in Switzerland on Friday: "We will leave the EU on October 31, deal or no deal." A new leader would have "the opportunity to do things differently. The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal," he said..
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said May had been "right to resign" and that the Conservative Party was now "disintegrating". Cameron said she should be thanked for her "tireless efforts". "I know how painful it is to accept that your time is up and a new leader is required. She has made the right decision -- and I hope the spirit of compromise is continued." On May's decision to quit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had always worked well with May. "Britain's departure from the European Union is a major transition and regardless of what happens now in Britain, the German government will do everything to achieve a good partnership, an orderly exit and good co-operation," Merkel said.

]]><![CDATA[How Indian NRI’s Are Influencing The General Election 2019]]>Mon, 20 May 2019 22:47:48 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/how-indian-nris-are-influencing-the-general-election-2019By Ramesh Lohia
It is the world’s biggest democratic exercise, with more than 900 million people eligible to cast their vote in seven stages over 39 days (April 11 to May 19), voters will decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party should continue running the country for another five years. In the last Phase 7 (May 19),

59 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across eight states will vote: Bihar (8 parliamentary constituencies), Jharkhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (8), Punjab (13), West Bengal (9), Chandigarh (1), Uttar Pradesh (13) and Himachal Pradesh (4).
The contribution is instructive for future elections too.
There are many WhatsApp groups but NaMo constituency based focused group (for example, Robertsganj Lok Sabha Constituency in Uttar Pradesh, By-election to Kundgol and Chincholi assembly seat in Karnataka) is a novel approach. It is brainchild of Achalesh Amar, Rajiv Rai team. It distinguished itself by global reach. The participants are also reaching out directly to voters in the general population For last one month alone its participants have called over 100,000 voters.
Another key contributor is Arun Mundra with groups like NRI4NaMo, Patriots for NaMo-BJP, Modiji19. During Modi’s first visit to the US as Prime Minister, many TV channels took Arun Mundra’s interview and to his surprise Modi put his interview clip on Narendra Modi YouTube, NaMo Channel and website. From March 2019 to May 2019, its participants have made phone calls to more than 35000 voters in UK, Indonesia, Australia, Kenya and various parts of world along with North America.
Many participants have exchanged suggestions through focused election constituency calling groups, callathons, text rather than living in WhatsApp echo chambers. It conveys a message that Modi has huge global followers and Indians living overseas truly value Modi’s leadership.
YouTube videos were compiled and choreographed by Retired Indian Army officer Captain Ramesh Lohia who was 22 years old when he took part in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. YouTube videos in English, Hindi, Rajasthani, Marwari languages have been viewed more than 350 times across the globe with 1000 video thumbnails impression viewers. The videos have energized voters in India.

]]><![CDATA[Jeff Bezos unveils new Moon-lander from Blue Origin]]>Fri, 10 May 2019 20:18:11 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/jeff-bezos-unveils-new-moon-lander-from-blue-originWASHINGTON - Speaking about his plans of getting to the moon by 2024, Amazon and US-based aerospace company Blue Origin Founder, Jeff Bezos unveiled a new Moon-lander called "Blue Moon" along with a smaller rover at the Walter E. Washington Convention Centre here. "Today, our founder shared our vision to go to space to benefit Earth. We must return to the Moon-this time to stay.

We're ready to support @NASA in getting there by 2024 with #bluemoon," Blue Origin said in a tweet on Thursday. The Moon-lander "Blue Moon" was in development for three years. In the near future, Bezos envisions creating enormous space colonies in close proximity to Earth, as a way of expanding humanity to a trillion people, CNET reported. Bezos revealed that the larger variant of the lander would not only be able to get people on the Moon, but also be able to carry the rover to shoot off small satellites and execute scientific missions. Apart from Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic are also working on the future of space tourism with larger rockets for orbital space travel. Sharing a screenshot of Bezos' announcement, Musk took to Twitter and wrote: "Oh stop teasing, Jeff."

]]><![CDATA[UK PM expresses regret over Jallianwala Bagh massacre]]>Wed, 10 Apr 2019 20:25:28 GMThttp://www.indiajournal.com/more-stories/uk-pm-expresses-regret-over-jallianwala-bagh-massacreLONDON - UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expressed regret over the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, describing it as a "shameful scar" on British Indian history. Her comments came just ahead of the 100th anniversary of the bloodbath committed by the British Army during the colonial period. "The United Kingdom deeply regrets what happened and the suffering caused in Jallianwala Bagh tragedy," said the British leader while...

replying to questions in Parliament. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron had described the tragedy as "a deeply shameful event in British history" during a visit to India in 2013.
On April 13, 1919, British forces led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire in Jallianwala Bagh on thousands of unarmed and peaceful protesters, including women and children, killing hundreds of them.
The Jallianwala Bagh houses the martyrs' memorial which was established in 1951 to commemorate the massacre. It is managed by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust.
In February this year, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to mount pressure on the Centre to seek a formal apology from the British government "for one of the worst ever bloodbaths in the world".

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