NEW DELHI: Bowing to tens of thousands Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO International) petitioners  over submission of old passports and “renunciation charges”, the government of India has backtracked and withdrawn the notification, say media reports.

Penalty charges for retaining a passport despite acquiring foreign citizenship for over three years have also been waived off.

PIOs had begun an online petition to protest against a notification by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) issued on May 13 that mandated that PIOs who had acquired citizenship of other countries would have to surrender their old passports and there would be a penalty of Rs 10,000 for retaining the passport for above three years. The new order also said that Rs 7,000 would be charged if applicants for overseas citizen card or PIO card claimed that their passport was lost or misplaced.

The government has now issued a clarification that PIOs will not be asked to pay any renunciation charges. The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has informed Indian embassies that the order will hold only for those Indian citizens who are in the process of acquiring foreign citizenship and will not be applied with retrospective effect. The other concern was that PIOs may have to pay Rs 10,000 for just possessing an old passport. This has also been addressed. The penalty charges will only apply if the PIO — who is already a foreign citizen — uses his or her old passport for travelling or buying property or other uses that are considered illegal under Indian law.

The decision was taken in a meeting held by overseas Indian affairs secretary Didar Singh with senior officials from MHA and MEA on May 26.

One petitioner, in his comments posted on this website had said that when he got the PIO card he was told by the Consulate officials that there was no need to surrender the passport then why they are imposing penalty for not doing so.

The New York based-Global Organisation of PIOs (GOPIO) in its online petition to PM Manmohan Singh pointed out that imposition of a rule with retrospective effect could cause “unimaginable hardship” in thousands of cases. “A large majority of new citizens did not have any use for their old Indian passports and may have lost, misplaced or never kept in their possession after naturalization,” the petition said. PIOs have expressed concern that this would cause delay in getting visas and visiting India in emergency situations.

The overseas Indian affairs ministry had also issued a new set of guidelines by which those PIOs who do not have primary evidence — that is documents to prove their Indian citizenship or proof of being born/or parents or even grandparents having been born in India — have now been allowed secondary evidence. Secondary evidence includes passports of foreign countries indicating that India is the place of birth or any other documents including a “nativity certificate” issued by the state district collector

 The earlier notice posted on the website of several Indian embassies and consulates stipulated that Persons of Indian Origin who have acquired citizenship of other countries are required to surrender their Indian passports within 90 days of their acquisition of citizenship of the countries of their adoption and obtain ‘Surrender Certificate’ from the nearest Indian Consulate. There should not be any objection in surrendering the old Indian passport. However, the new rules should not be applied retroactively. Retroactive enforcement of the new rules and requiring people of Indian origin who got citizenship of other countries years ago, to obtain “surrender Certificate” by paying hefty service fee and penalty for not surrendering within certain time is a rule that is unwarranted, burdensome and not well thought out.  In the meantime, a person of Indian origin applying for an Indian visa, OCI/PIO card or wanting other consular services is denied any such service without complying with the new rules.

 Per Section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1955, “Any citizen of India who by naturalization, registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires, or has at any time between the 26th January, 1950 and the commencement of this Act voluntarily acquired, the citizenship of another country shall, upon such acquisition or, as the case may be, such commencement, cease to be a citizen of India.”  Thus, Indians who have acquired citizenship of other countries are covered under Section 9 and their Indian citizenship is automatically terminated on acquiring citizenship of another country. The same Act has provisions for renouncing citizenship of India. Per Section 8, “any citizen of India of full age and capacity, who is also a citizen or national of another country, makes in the prescribed manner a declaration renouncing his Indian citizenship, the declaration shall be registered by the prescribed authority; and, upon such registration, that person shall cease to be a citizen of India.” Renunciation of citizenship has to be applied on a prescribed form, while automatic termination of citizenship, covered under Section 9, requires no formal application to the Indian government.

 There are a few millions of people who have obtained citizenship of other countries over the last fifty five years, since the passage of Indian Citizenship Act 1955. The Indian Passport does not contain any instruction for surrender (per Passport issued in 1974 by Indian Consulate in the US) except the ones issued by the High Commission of India in Canada which stamps passports with warning that states, “If the holder acquires nationality of another country, he should surrender this passport forthwith to the nearest Indian Mission abroad.” Many of the former Indian citizens have been travelling to India on passports of countries of their adoption but with Indian visas granted by the same consulates whose websites now have postings of new rules. If the law or rules did exist in the past, Indian embassies and consulates everywhere should have asked for the surrender of Indian passports before granting Indian visas for the first time to Persons of Indian Origin who had acquired citizenship of other countries. Requiring surrender of Indian passports after the lapse of many years of acquisition of such citizenship, would cause undue hardship and delay in getting consular services.

The new rules also require that an applicant who has lost, damaged or surrendered his/her Indian passport to a foreign Government, he/she should furnish certified copies of the following documents:

Details of last held Indian passport (Passport No., Date of Issue & Place of issue). The onus of providing details rest on the applicant.

1. Official documents submitted to authorities of new country at the time of obtaining citizenship/naturalization & documents used for entry such as US Form I -130.
2. Notarized letter explaining reasons for loss.
3. Police report.

A large majority of the new citizens did not have any use for their old Indian passports and may have lost, misplaced or never kept in their possession after naturalization.  The production of items 1 and 2 above, in particular, will not be easy and could take months to obtain from the immigration authorities. In the meantime, consular services will not be available to visit the mother country, even for emergency situations.

The Government of India is urged to reconsider the retroactive enforcement of the new rules as many thousands of people who have acquired citizenship of other countries could suffer undue and unnecessary hardship for no fault of their own. Indians who have been naturalized for years should be given the same 90 days to obtain “surrender certificate” as being allowed to those Indians who become citizens of other countries now and heretofore, without fees and penalties. The minimum service fee of $175 (USD) for the surrender certificate is also very high and should be reduced to a reasonable amount of $25 (USD).

GOPIO urges Indian community groups, organizations and individuals to join in protesting against the new rules by writing to the Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) at psfs@mea.gov.in and Secretary Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) at secretary@moia.nic.in  with a copy to GOPIO at GOPIO-Intl@sbcglobal.net.

For more information, please contact GOPIO International at +1-818-708-3885, Email: GOPIO-Intl@sbcglobal.net.

Aravind Adiga displaying the prize

Beating predictions by bookies and others, debutant Indian novelist 33-year-old Aravind Adiga’s book “The White Tiger” was on Wednesday declared the winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 2008.

 Adiga beat favourite Sebastian Barry to take the 50,000 pound (USD 47,000) prize.

 The other authors in the shortlist were Amitav Ghosh, Steve Toltz, Linda Grant and Philip Hensher.

Adiga’s novel was described as a “compelling, angry and darkly humorous” novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an “unadorned portrait” of India seen “from the bottom of the heap”.

Adiga, who wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Madras (now known as Chennai) and now lives in Mumbai.
He becomes the fifth Indian author to win the prize, joining V S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1971, 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively.
In addition, “The White Tiger” is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity.
His book, “The White Tiger”, has been published by Atlantic Books and has already won rave reviews.

Michael Portillo, chairman of the judges, said: “In many ways it was the perfect novel.

The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure.

 Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group PLC, presented a cheque of 50,000 pounds to Adiga at a gala dinner in the Guildhall in London.

“The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader’s sympathy…dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour.”

Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives 2,500 pounds (USD 4,357) and a designer-bound edition of their book.
The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comprised: former MP and Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, editor of Granta Alex Clark; novelists Louise Doughty, founder of Ottakar’s bookshops James Heneage and Hardeep Singh Kohli, a TV and radio broadcaster.

President Pratibha Patil has congratulated Aravind Adiga for his achievement.

In her message to the 33-year old author, Patil said that the honour was international recognition of Indian writings.

The novel is a narrative of Balram Halwai, a school dropout who kisses entrepreneurial success in booming Indian economy.

PM congratulates Adiga

 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday congratulated Adiga, saying the nation was proud of him.

 “The nation is proud of the international recognition of Adiga’s talent,” he said in his congratulatory message to the writer.

While congratulating Adiga, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the award will inspire and encourage aspiring young authors to produce quality literature of world standard. — DDI News

RMIT University’s Professor Suresh Bhargava, Head of the School of Applied Sciences, has received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s prestigious RK Murphy Medal

Considered the most coveted award in the field of industrial chemistry, the medal was presented in Newcastle last week as part of Chemeca 2008, an annual national conference for academics and business professionals from chemical engineering and chemical process-related sectors.

Professor Bhargava was nominated by previous recipient Professor Max Lu, seconded by Dr Stephen Grocott, formerly Global Technology Manager with BHP Billiton and currently Adjunct Professor at RMIT, and Dr Ian Harrison, Director R&D, Global Refining, Alcoa World Alumina.

Dr Grocott said Professor Bhargava’s research was the catalyst for a number of acclaimed innovations within the Australian chemistry industry.

“It is rare for a university researcher in industrial chemistry to see their research output lead to a single new or modified industrial process,” he said.

“It is even more unusual to see that occur on a number of occasions.

“The industrial chemistry training Professor Bhargava has provided to students has created a pool of absolutely outstanding, industry-ready researchers and industrial scientists.”

Professor Lu said Professor Bhargava had an outstanding reputation both within Australia and in the international scientific community in the field of Catalytic Wet oxidation, making significant research advances in fields as diverse as alumina production productivity and the reduction of car exhaust pollutants.

Professor Bhargava said he was honoured to receive the award and was grateful to his research students and collaborators for their years of dedicated work.

“The award recognises the fact that we at RMIT have been successful in developing sustainable partnerships with industry for productive R&D,” he said.

“It also helps in producing real world graduates – we develop knowledge in our laboratories and transfer it to industry for application.” — AAP

New Delhi: The government on Friday approved the setting up of the ‘India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians’ to direct funds from abroad for philanthropic purposes.

A proposal for setting up the foundation, a non-profit trust, was forwarded by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) after receiving recommendations from several noted overseas Indians.

“The Foundation will be instrumental for the relief and rehabilitation operations during natural calamities like Tsunami or earthquake. It will also assist overseas Indians to contribute for education, health and rural development in their native districts or villages,” a Ministry official said on Friday.

The foundation will form strong partnerships with reputed NGOs in a bid to direct contributions from overseas Indians to their target beneficiaries.

Once set up, the foundation will have a corpus and a fund management policy in place to establish and maintain a “Social Capital and Philanthropic Network” in India, he said.

A set of reputed overseas Indians will oversee the functioning of the Foundation along with MOIA officials as Directors.

“Currently ideas to seek funds for addressable causes are being ratified by noted overseas Indian philanthropist. Once identified a drive will be initiated to collect funds and disburse them in a transparent manner,” he added.

 — DD News

American business magazine Forbes on Monday said India-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is being conferred the third Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award, which honours heroes of entrepreneurial capitalism and free enterprise.

Mittal will get the award on Monday night at Forbes Global CEO Conference, being held in Singapore and expected to be attended by more than 450 business leaders with a combined net worth of more than $160 billion from across the world.

Earlier in March this year, Forbes had named Mittal as fourth richest with a net worth of $45 billion in its annual ranking of the world’s richest billionaires.

“Mittal will receive the third Malcolm S Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening dinner tonight from Steve Forbes, Chairman & CEO of Forbes, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine,” Forbes said in a statement.

“The award honors heroes of entrepreneurial capitalism and those who embody and exemplify the ideals of free enterprise,” it added.

Born in Rajasthan in India, Mittal founded Mittal Steel Company (formerly LNM Group) in 1976. It later acquired numerous steel companies around the world, including the International Steel Group in the US, to become the world’s largest steel producer following merger with Arcelor in 2006.

Forbes said that this year’s theme at the three-day conference is “The Winning Hand” and would discuss strategies in dealing with the global uncertainty and issues such as US elections, real estate, China, India and entrepreneurship.

Those speaking at the conference include TCS CEO and MD S Ramadorai, Sajjan Jindal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of JSW Steel, Tulsi Tanti, Chairman and Managing Director of Suzlon Energy. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will deliver the keynote address.

Around 300 overseas students, including Indians, were put into detention centres in Sydney and Melbourne in the past three years after found breaching Australian immigration laws.

According to a report in ‘The Australian’, it was revealed that in the last three years 299 overseas students were put into the detention centre in Sydney or Melbourne of which most were deported.

University, TAFE and secondary school students from 24 countries were detained and majority of them hailed from India, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Of the detainees, 207 were held for overstaying their visas, 30 for attendance breaches, 14 for failing their courses, seven for not starting their courses, four for withdrawing from their courses, one for a work breach and 36 for other reasons, the report said.

Senior psychology professor of University of Sydney Christopher Lennings said overseas students could be easily overwhelmed by conditions in Australia, leaving them vulnerable to breaches of migration law.

“People’s English is not as good, they get overwhelmed, have financial problems or illness. They get depressed and fail their studies, and next thing they know they are on a roller coaster and have lost control of their lives,” he said adding “The trauma period is within a few to 10 days, especially if they don’t know how long they would be incarcerated for.”

Students who have their visas cancelled — often for working more than 20 hours a week, for attending less than 80 per cent of scheduled contact hours, for unsatisfactory academic results, for completing a course early, deferring study or transferring to another provider — become unlawful non-citizens.

Once located, they are usually detained pending removal from Australia, granted a bridging visa or made to arrange their own departure. The report further said that a former Bangladeshi university student was detained for almost three years and one of the 27 Chinese nationals was detained for 371 days.

Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers said while illegal residency should be dealt with by deportation, these processes “should minimise the need for detention and ensure a proper allowance for associated refugee claims”.

National Liaison Committee President for the country’s 250,000 international students, Eric Pang, said it was “shocking to know that it’s such a big export industry for Australia, where students are treated as cash cows, yet others are receiving such harsh treatment in detention … If they overstay they should be deported.”

Student detainee advocate Milchaela Rost said she was appalled by the figures and Australia was the only country in the world to detain some full-fee-paying international students.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans recently announced that mandatory detention for over stayers and unlawful non-citizens would only apply in certain circumstances, such as where a person presents a risk to the community, or where there is repeated non-compliance.

 
Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been honoured by the New Jersey general assembly and by the city of Edison for his organisation’s initiatives in the US and its service to the world at large. The state assembly passed a resolution acknowledging that the guru, currently visiting the US, has been “furthering the best of human instincts, traits and characteristics, and promoting sustainable growth in poor rural communities”.
It also praised his Art of Living Foundation, “which assists at-risk youth in turning away from gang violence, drugs and alcohol toward a life of greater generosity and service”.
The foundation’s projects in the US include inner city youth leadership programmes, free trauma relief for survivors of tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings, special programmes for returning war veterans, prisoner reform, stress-elimination programmes for corporations and working adults, and human-values based programmes for children and youth.
The mayor of Edison and other leaders also honoured Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his Art of Living Foundation July 4 for their service to the city and the world during a ceremony inaugurating a three-day meditation and yoga retreat conducted by the guru in the city, a foundation press release said.
Mayor Jun Choi declared July 4-6, which coincides with the US Independence Day, as “His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Weekend in Edison” in front of 1,500 people participating in the course at the Raritan Exposition Centre.
“Sri Sri Ravi Shankar serves as a great leader and as a symbol of wisdom and encouragement through his teachings on spiritual values,” said Choi. “He shares his wisdom and ancient knowledge on how to achieve health and happiness.”
The Town Council of Edison also issued a Proclamation of Commendation for his universal initiatives.
“Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s divine messages and teachings of developing the spirit of universal brotherhood and love amongst one another have provided a model and standard towards which all members of the human family should strive,” said Town Council member Sudhanshu Prasad.
The guru’s initiatives have benefited 300 million people in 145 countries, the press release said. He travels to more than 40 countries every year, sharing his vision of a violence-free, stress-free global family.
 
email from Atul Aneja,Sydney

Prince Charles has appealed to Asian billionaires including steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Tata chief Ratan Tata to help him protect the environment, preserve historic buildings and support the young unemployed throughout the Indian subcontinent. 

Prince Charles has invited some of India’s richest tycoons to see his Prince’s Trust in action in the East end of London, and to a series of working lunches and formal dinners at Clarence House and Kensington Palace next month, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

His guest list includes Mukesh Ambani, whose 21 billion pounds wealth is thought to make him the richest Indian, Ratan Tata, who recently bought Jaguar, K P Singh, the world’s wealthiest property developer, worth about 15 billion pounds and Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s richest man.

Their support could give the prince’s new project more financial muscle than almost any other charity.

Sources close to the prince said his British Asian Trust would stage concerts, sporting events and fashion shows and invest in local charities and communities to help them to help themselves. – PTI

Indian-origin boy Sameer Mishra has won Scripps National Spelling Bee contest, beating 288 children in the 8 to 15 age group.

“Guerdon” said the judges. Thirteen-year-old eight grader asked for the definition, and then confidently spelled it out correctly to the thunderous applause from the audience.

It was a proud moment for Mishra who had participated in the contest for the fourth time and was trained by his sister Shruti who herself is a spelling enthusiast.

His parents and sister stood proudly behind him as he was awarded the coveted trophy on Friday night. Besides engraved trophy, he gets USD 30,000 in cash and USD 2,500 worth US savings bonds from Merriam-Webster with a complete reference library.

The second place went another Indian American 12-year-old Sidharth Chand, a seventh grade student.

In all four Indian Americans were among the last 12 who qualified for the final. Kavya Shivashankar was tied in the fourth place with four others and Janhnavi Iyer was in the 8th place.

Mishra is a computer and video games enthusiast and hopes to grow up to be a neurosurgeon. Earlier he had competed in 2005 when he occupied 98th position.

In 2006, he was at 14th place and last year at 16th position. The youngest to qualify to participate in the champions was 8-year-old Indian American Sriram Hathwar.

The last student of the Indian origin who won the championship was Anurag Kashyap in 2005 by correctly spelling “appoggiatura.”

Nine students of Indian-origin had made to the semi-finals.