Akshay Rajagopal from Lincoln, Nebraska, won the 2008 National Geographic Bee

Eleven-year-old Akshay Rajagopal won the 2008 National Geographic Bee contest over a total of ten contestants who came from across the United States. Students from fifth to eighth grades, age ranging from 10 to 14 years, competed in the contest. The Bee contest was held in Washington D.C. and was organized by the National Geographic Society. Nearly five million students take part in the National Geographic Bee contest each year.
Akshay, a sixth grader, took home $25,000 in college scholarship and a lifetime membership of the National Geographic. He attends Lux Middle School in Lincoln, Nebraska. The final question which cinched Akshay's victory was: The urban area of Cochabamba has been in the news in recent years due to protests over the privatization of the municipality water supply and regional autonomy issues. Cochabamba is the third largest conurbation in what country? Answer: Bolivia.
Akshay, who likes Science and Math and whose hobby includes collecting coins, is considering a career in cartography, but he has enough time to think about that. For now, he enjoys studying the globe.
He said, "I get to learn about the world and how it works, which is cool." This was the 20th year for this contest which is moderated by "Jeopardy" host, Alex Trebek.

 

By Parveen Chopra
New York, (IANS) — An Indian American, a native of Amritsar, has become the top individual donor to a US university, his alma mater, by gifting it nearly $11 million.
John P. Kapoor, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, bequested the money to the State University of New York at Buffalo, which had offered him a graduate fellowship in the 1960s when the Bombay University graduate could not afford to pay.
The gift will support construction of a new home for the Buffalo university's nationally ranked pharmacy school, as well as to fund research, student financial aid and an emerging-technologies fund.
While making the bequest, Kapoor said, "I owe so much to this university. Fortunately, I am in a position to help, and the university is on the top of my list."
The Amritsar-born Kapoor earned his doctorate in medicinal chemistry in 1972 at the university and went on to become an entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry. But he never forgot his alma mater. In 2000, he gave it $5 million, and increased it to $10.8 million last month.
John B. Simpson, president of the university, and Wayne K. Anderson, dean, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, thanked Kapoor.
"It's a point of substantial pride for us that our pharmacy school provided the foundation for Dr Kapoor's remarkable career in the pharmaceutical industry. It is very significant to our university that he has chosen to honour his alma mater with another truly extraordinary gift that will help us take the school to even greater heights of excellence," Simpson said.
Kapoor began his corporate career on Grand Island, New York as general manager for Lyphomed, a unit of Stone Container Corp. He was named president of the division in 1980, and in 1981 he bought it for $2.7 million.
He took the company's sales from $4 million to $172 million, before eventually selling it. With the profits, he formed EJ Financial Enterprises Inc, which invests in healthcare startups.
Kapoor and his late wife, Editha, a Grand Island native, ran the John and Editha Kapoor Charitable Foundation to support children and youth services, higher education, hospitals and other causes in India. Since 1986, the Foundation has funded research, a state-of-the-art instrumentation core and graduate fellowships at the Buffalo university.
Kapoor remembered that without the university's support "it would have been impossible for me to come to the US to pursue higher education. I received tremendous support and encouragement from the faculty at the school as I tried to adjust to a different system of education. I also learned a great deal about this country at the university."
The honours he has received include the American Cancer Society International Achievement Award for Philanthropy and the San Diego Indian American Society Chakra Award.

 

New York, (IANS) — Testifying before the New Jersey governor's panel on immigrant policy, a South Asian women's rights organisation has said linguistic and cultural barriers as well as the lack of information prevent many South Asians from accessing critical social services such as healthcare and law enforcement.
Manavi, a New Jersey-based body that works to end violence against South Asian women living in the US, also pointed out that the anti-immigrant sentiment coupled with the fear of deportation resulting from official directives such as on undocumented women reporting incidents of abuse, has forced many South Asian women to stay in abusive situations.
Maneesha Kelkar, director of Manavi, spoke last Wednesday to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigrant Policy, which hosted a public hearing welcoming comments and suggestions from community organisations and members of the public in order to better integrate the growing immigrant population in New Jersey.
The recommendations Kelkar made to the panel include introducing a state-wide initiative to address issues around domestic violence, especially as they affect immigrants, improving language access to social services by increasing the availability and quality of trained and supervised language interpreters, and improving cultural access to services through cultural competency training about South Asian communities.
She also suggested revisiting ordinances that adversely impact a section of the immigrant population and encouraging feedback from community leaders and practitioners in their respective areas of expertise, as well as from immigrants who have faced the impact of various policies.
Manavi runs a wide variety of programmes to ensure that women of South Asian descent in the US can exercise their fundamental right to live a life of dignity that is safe and free from violence. Its services include individual counselling, legal clinics and referrals, support groups, court and medical accompaniments, and transitional housing.
Manavi serves some 300 abused South Asian women each year with a variety of culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services, besides training mainstream agencies in cultural competency.

 

A conference on "The Development of the East Indians in the Caribbean", organized by Leo Club Campus and supported by OHM, was held at the IGSR Building (Staatsoliegebouw), University of Suriname on Saturday, 24 May 2008. The conference commemorated the 135th anniversary of the first arrivals of Indians as indentured laborers from India to Suriname.
The conference was opened by H. E. Hon. S. Sardjoe, the Acting President of Suriname. The Keynote speech on Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean was delivered by Prof. Brinsley Samaroo of Trinidad. Other speakers included: Prof Tota Mangar of University of Guyana (Historical Perspective and Guyana: Social & Economic Development); Hon. Maurits S. Hassankhan (Suriname Historical Perspective); Dr Sham Binda (Suriname Social & Economical Development); Prof. Brinsley Samaroo (Trinidad Historical Perspective); Dr. Suruj Mangroo (Trinidad Social & Economical Development). Closing remarks were made by Suriname's Minister of Education.
GOPIO's Regional Caribbean Vice President Amb Krishna Nandoe spoke of the participation of others from the Caribbean region saying, "Their contribution today to this seminar is a demonstration of friendship, good will understanding and South - South cooperation".
He concluded with the hope "that this seminar will contribute in strengthening the fundamentals of a just society, a society that places integrity, fraternity and social justice at the heart of its existence".

 

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Washington, (IANS) — Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal has once again discounted speculation that John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, may pick him as his running mate, saying he's currently focused on his current job.
"The speculation is flattering. I've talked to the senator several times. We've never talked about the topic," Jindal said Sunday on "Face the Nation" on CBS. He was one of a handful of potential candidates who spent Memorial Day weekend at the Sedona, Arizona home of McCain.
"The reality is, I've got the job that I want. This is an historic time for my state, not only because of Katrina and Rita, those awful hurricanes in 2005, but for many reasons, like the energy economy and other opportunities."
"I'm certainly supporting Senator McCain, will do whatever I can to help him get elected, but I'm focused on being governor of Louisiana," Jindal said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
But Jindal, a former member of the US House of Representatives, who became the first Indian American governor of a US State in January, did not say whether he'd reject a running-mate offer.
Some analysts have drawn comparisons between Jindal and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Both are newcomers to the national scene, minorities, highly educated, young and talented at public speaking.
Jindal said that, even aside from policy differences, those comparisons have their limitations.
"I think Senator Obama is an incredibly gifted speaker. I don't think I should be included in that same short list, and I mean that as a sincere compliment," Jindal said.
"I don't agree with all of his ideas, but I think he brings an earnestness, I think he's genuine. I think he speaks better than any elected official I've heard in several, several years, maybe going back to President Reagan."
Two former 2008 presidential candidates - Democrat John Edwards and Republican Fred Thompson - have also made it pretty clear that it's pretty unlikely that they would be Obama or McCain's running mates this fall.