Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year 2013 Greetings

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013.

MAY THIS YEAR BRING YOU ALL THE GOOD HEALTH,
WEALTH AND FULFILL ALL YOUR WISHES TO REALIZE YOUR DREAMS.

Thanks,
Sankar Gunturu
------------------------------
Did you visit the Free Desi Web Portal for Colorado?
Visit http://www.DesiShades.com

 

New Year 2013 Greetings

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013.

MAY THIS YEAR BRING YOU ALL THE GOOD HEALTH,
WEALTH AND FULFILL ALL YOUR WISHES TO REALIZE YOUR DREAMS.

Thanks,
Sankar Gunturu
------------------------------
Did you visit the Free Desi Web Portal for Colorado?
Visit http://www.DesiShades.com

 

New Year 2013 Greetings

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013.

MAY THIS YEAR BRING YOU ALL THE GOOD HEALTH,
WEALTH AND FULFILL ALL YOUR WISHES TO REALIZE YOUR DREAMS.

Thanks,
Sankar Gunturu
------------------------------
Did you visit the Free Desi Web Portal for Colorado?
Visit http://www.DesiShades.com

 

Monday, June 4, 2012

North South Foundation Congratulates Winners of Spelling, Geography, Math and Science National Competitions

When Snigdha Nandipati, the eighth grader from San Diego, California won the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee, it has been a defining moment in the history of North South Foundation, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Snigdha became the fifth consecutive Spelling Bee champion by joining the ranks of Sameer Mishra, Kavya Shivashankar, Anamika Veeramani and Sukanya Roy, all of whom were also participating in the foundation’s regional and national contests. In fact the second place winner Stuti Mishra of Jacksonville, Florida and the third place winner Arvind Mahankali of Long Island, New York had the opportunity to hone their spelling skills along with Snigdha and several other bee contestants at the foundation’s national event held at San Jose State University last July. In the National Geographic Bee contests, NSF kids had an amazing run this year. Rahul Nagvekar from Sugar Land, Texas won the championship, while Vansh Jain of Madison, Wisconsin won second rank and Varun Mahadevan of Palo Alto, California finished third. MATHCOUNTS competition had several NSF kids advancing to the national finals held in Orlando, Florida. Ashwin Sah, a seventh grader from Portland, Oregon won the second place in the individual championship, while Niket Gowravaram of Acton, Massachusetts and Sarvasva Raghuvanshi of Naperville, Illinois were placed first and second respectively in the Team competitions. The National Science Bowl competitions conducted by the US Department of Energy also had several NSF children as contestants. Team from Bellevue, Washington consisting of Abhinand Sivaprasad, Aditya Murali, Suvansh Sanjeev, Tejas Bharadwaj and Gokul Gowri was placed third in the middle school category. Dr. Ratnam Chitturi, founder and president of the foundation congratulated the winners and said that the credit goes to the children, their parents and more than 1,000 volunteers of the foundation. North South Foundation has been a training ground for children of Indian origin in US for the past twenty years. Foundation conducts contests in Spelling, Vocabulary, Math, Science, Geography, Essay Writing and Public Speaking at 86 chapters across US during March-May every year. Top scorers in these contests are invited to the national finals held during summer. At the finals, high school students have the opportunity to also participate in Brain Bee, a competition in neuroscience. In 2012, more than 15,000 contestants participated at the chapter level, and about 1,000 will participate at the National Finals. In addition to the contests, NSF conducts workshops and online coaching to help children excel in studies. Through its activities, foundation raises funds to award scholarships for college education to meritorious children from poor families in India, who otherwise would have to abandon the pursuit of higher education. Last year, NSF provided nearly 1,500 scholarships and plans to provide 2,500 this year. For more information please visit the foundation’s website www.northsouth.org.

Colorado's scientist Dr.MS Reddy nominated to the Nobel prize

The Telugu Entrepreneurs Association (TEA) congratulates Dr. MS Reddy for being a nominee to 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. The Telugu Entrepreneurs Association (TEA) had an immense pleasure of honoring Dr. Reddy as a chief guest in 2011 to give lecture and motivate Telugu community on how to foster entrepreneurship among Telugu's in greater Dallas area and around the globe. We are very proud that he lives in Colorado, whom we call as Cheese Reddy with a greater love and effection. Dr. Reddy is the author of several books like Keys to Winning, A to Z of Success, etc,. It is a proud movement for all members of Telugu Entrepreneurs Association (TEA) and all Indian professionals and Indian citizens living abroad and in India to know that Dr. M.S. Reddy (Dr. Malireddy Srinivasulu Reddy) has been nominated in excellent standing for 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. The other outstanding nominees for 2012 Nobel Peace Prize from U.S. include former President Bill Clinton, Microsoft Chairman and the world's richest man Bill Gates etc. To be nominated, for the Nobel Peace Prize, the candidate must be outstanding, exceptional, well established, and well recognized all over the world and must have contributed throughout his life, significantly, to improve the quality of life of the people worldwide, peace in the world through reduction of conflicts among nations, reduction of hunger through improved food production etc.,. This year's Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. M.S. Reddy, a billionaire scientist, who has contributed immensely to the world economy by over one trillion dollars through his scientific inventions, which had a significant impact to reduce the hunger, diseases, pollution, global warming, and human suffering in the world and thus to improve peace. A brief biography of Dr. M.S. Reddy: Dr. Malireddy Srinivasulu Reddy (M.S. Reddy), son of Jala Reddy and Sankaramma of Uppalapadu, Kovur (Taluk), Nellore (Dist), A.P. (India), received his B.V.Sc. degree (D.V.M.) from A.P. Agricultural University, Tirupati, A.P., India, M.S. and PhD. degrees from Iowa State University, U.S.A in food technology and microbiology with honors and distinctions. He serves as Chairman and President of U.S.A. based American Dairy and Food Consulting Laboratories (ADFAC Labs) and International Media and Cultures (IMAC, Inc.), Denver Colorado, with eleven manufacturing facilities in eight states. He has received over 100 national and international awards and honors from all over the world. The notable awards: Richard M. Hoyt memorial award from American Dairy Science Association; Outstanding Young Alumnus Recognition award from Iowa State University; Sigma-Xi Research award, Outstanding Scientist award from Washington, D.C. the presentation was made by the Prime Minister of India P.V. Narasimha Rao, Ronald Regan Gold Medal award from U.S. Vice President Honorable Dick Cheney at Washington D.C. Recipient of prestigious 2006 Bharath Gaurav Award, Hind Rattan Award; invited as a guest of honor to attend the 2005 inauguration of U.S. President George W. Bush and recipient of the first '2009' Veda Brahma award' and 2010 'International Dharam award' from the AAPNA (Association of Ayurvedic Professional of North America) for his worldwide patent on integration of Probiotics and Ayurveda as a treatment modality in the field of complementary alternative medicine. Dr. Reddy holds over 150 U.S. and international patents and has published over 70 scientific articles on dairy starter cultures, Probiotics, pharmaceuticals, and complementary alternative medicine and has written several books including 'A to Z of Success' and Compendium of Microbiological Methods (published by the American Public Health Association). He has served as a technical consultant to over 70 national and international companies all over the world.

Friday, March 9, 2012

The Religious Affiliation of International Migrants

An estimated 214 million people -- about 3% of the world's population -- have migrated across international borders as of 2010. While the percentage may seem small, if the migrants were counted as one nation, they would constitute the fifth most populous country in the world, just behind Indonesia and ahead of Brazil.

Nearly half of these migrants (49%) are Christians, and the top country of origin has been Mexico, followed by Russia and the Ukraine where borders changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The second-largest group of migrants are Muslims (27%), among whom the largest share has come from the Palestinian territories, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

Jewish migrants represent a smaller share of the total number of those who have crossed international borders to a new destination country. But relative to their numbers, they have by far the highest level of migration compared with other religious groups. About one-quarter of Jews alive today have left their birth country and now live somewhere else.

While migrants come from a very diverse and widespread array of countries, the vast majority end up immigrating to a relatively few areas -- North America, Europe, Australia and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Read the full report for detailed findings on migration patterns among religious groups.

Source: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2214/religion-religious-migrants-christians-muslims-jews

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011, a disastrous year for the rupee

In a roller-coaster ride, the rupee plummeted to life-time low levels in 2011 due to a slew of factors such as unrelenting demand for the dollar, the worsening domestic economic scenario and sustained capital outflows.
 
The domestic currency started the year on a strong wicket and was trading at 44.76 to the dollar in January. In the second part of the year, there was panic reaction in the inter-bank foreign exchange market after cracks started appearing in the Eurozone.
 
Towards the end of the year, the rupee fell to its all-time low of to 54.30 on December 15, much to the worries of policy makers. On the last day of the year (December 30) the rupee closed 53.10 to the greenback, down over 18 percent from the first day of the year.
 
Traders attributed the sharp fall to investors rushing to buy dollars as there were no sign of easing in eurozone crisis. They said dollar's increased appeal as a safe haven, especially in times of crisis, generated much demand.
 
The trouble for the local currency became intense when on worries of economic growth came to the fore along with fears of a higher government borrowings which is budgeted at Rs 4.17 trillion.
 
Broadly, the rupee fall could be seen in two time periods. First, it fell from 43-44 to 47-48 a dollar in the January-July period and then plunged to 48-54.30 in the August-December period, triggered by the US downgrade by S&P on August 5, which led to scramble for the dollar.
 
The fall was also precipitated by the poor foreign portfolio inflows during the year. The April-October period saw only USD922 million inflows compared to USD27 billion in the year-ago period.
 
"While the fall from 43-44 to 48 was due to external factors, especially sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone, the steeper slide was due to local factors like the structural issues (higher fiscal and current account deficits) faced by the domestic economy," Alpari Financial Services chief executive Pramit Brahmbhatt said.
 
However, the rupee slide is not a lone phenomenon. Rather, it has happened across all emerging markets as investors globally seek safe haven options in dollar.
 
"Dollar scarcity was visible throughout the year. Due to Eurozone uncertainty, US banks cut their exposure to European banks. Even inter-bank lending by US banks was restricted, which squeezed dollar availability.
 
"In turn, the dollar rose against all major currencies, especially the euro," IDBI Bank treasury head NS Ventkatesh said, adding that the depreciation was the natural fall out.
 
The rupee is one of the worst performers among the emerging currencies, and the worst hit in Asia, losing over 18 percent during the year.
 
"The domestic economy was visibly slowing down due to higher interest rate regime and policy inaction. Inflation was not showing any sign of cooling down throughout the year, which had impacted the sentiments of foreign investors," Brahmbhatt of Alpari said.
 
Some experts are of the opinion that given the country's poor share in global trade, coupled with the near-double digit inflation, the present depreciation is in sync with the real effective exchange rate (REER) of the currency.
 
"If you see trade weight and inflation numbers, the rupee had been overvalued for a long time. So, this depreciation is in sync with the REER," a bank official said.
 
The REER is the weighted average of a currency relative to an index or basket of other major currencies adjusted for inflation.
 
In the meanwhile, there was a raging debate with respect to extent of the Reserve Bank's intervention to check the rupee fall.
 
Interestingly, while there was no formal word from the central bank, in more one than occasion, market players have suspected intervention of the central bank indirectly to check volatility.
The central bank has reportedly sold USD 1.8 billion in September-October and a higher USD 6 billion in November to stem the slide in the local currency.
"Given the resource availability with RBI, the steps taken are in the right direction. Allowing the rupee to move as per market dynamics is a better approach as our currency is partially convertible and forex reserves are not that big," Brahmbhatt said.
Even some of the steps taken up by the central bank to curb speculation and increase dollar flow are lauded by market players.
"The central bank has recently come up with norms like reduction of limit, banning rebooking of cancelled forward contracts, deregulation of NRE deposits, higher ECB limits, doubling of FII holding in infra debts will help in rising dollar flow into the country and check further depreciation," IDBI's Venkatesh said.
What's is in store for rupee is the million dollar question right now and no wonder, nobody is out there to guess the possible movement.
 
Still, experts believe the rupee will move up to 46-48 range in the second half of the new year as some of the major concerns of global economy and India's see reasonable solutions.
 
"The rupee should be around 51 to a dollar by March. Beyond that, global trade should revive and the pace of growth of the domestic economy should improve," Venkatesh said.
 
Brahmbhatt also sees better time for the rupee from the second half of 2012.
"In the second half, the rupee should be in the range of 46- 48 to the dollar," he said adding a lot will depend on fixing the European problem and the direction of domestic economy.

Foreigners can now invest directly in Indian stocks

NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday gave a New Year gift to the stock markets by allowing qualified foreign investors (QFIs), including overseas individuals, to invest directly in Indian stock markets. So far, QFIs were permitted to invest only in mutual fund schemes.
"As a next logical step, it has now been decided to allow QFIs to directly invest in the Indian equity market in order to widen the class of investors, attract more foreign funds and reduce market volatility and to deepen the Indian capital market," the finance ministry said in a statement. Detailed norms are expected to be issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) over the next two weeks.
By allowing QFIs, the government is opening a new avenue for investment, earlier controlled by foreign institutional investors. Foreign nationals, who wanted to invest in Indian stock markets, came through the sub-account route. Non-resident Indians were, however, permitted to invest directly.
"In this arrangement, a large number of Qualified Foreign Investors, in particular, a large set of diversified individual foreign nationals who are desirous of investing in Indian equity market do not have direct access to Indian equity market. In the absence of availability of direct route, many QFIs find difficulties in investing in the Indian equity market," the finance ministry said.
The move comes at a time when FIIs are withdrawing from Indian equity markets due to problems in their domestic markets.