‘Spread love, not hate’
A girl making a poster denouncing violence at the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation National Sikh Center in North Potomac, near Washington, DC, on Monday night. Photo by Sirmukh Singh Manku
Bobby Jindal as veep?
The presumptive Republican nominee is close to announcing his vice presidential nominee. What are odds of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal being selected?
According to the UK bookmaker Ladbrokes, he is an 8/1 favorite.
Read MoreCarl Lewis to Romney: Stay home if you don’t know what to say
The track legend tells The Independent:
“I swear, sometimes I think some Americans shouldn’t leave the country. Are you kidding me, stay home if you don’t know what to say.”
Speaking of Lewis, check out CNN-IBN special correspondent Amrita Tripathi’s account of her meeting with him.
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Indian missile defence system overrated?
Michael Krepon, one of the most outspoken critics of the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal, writes “the likelihood of” India “deploying effective missile-defence systems is remote” — even with U.S. help.
The civil-nuclear deal and the DRDO’s record of poor performance suggest that it would be wise to avoid unduly optimistic and pessimistic assessments about Indian missile defences. US technology transfers will be as unwise in this case as with the nuclear deal.
These transfers would not help India produce an effective missile-defence system, nor change New Delhi’s embrace of strategic autonomy. They would, however, add further impetus to a regional nuclear-arms competition. President Obama has not endorsed this initiative, but President Romney might.
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Gates Foundation’s operational strategy
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Girindre Beeharry, the newly appointed India head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, explains the organization’s operational strategy:
Mr. Beeharry: There are things you can do best at the central level and there are things you can do best at the state level. So if you take an example like immunizations, which, as you know, we’re passionate about, there are a bunch of things best done from the state level. If you want to improve coverage of insurance, it’s at the district level, the block level. You need to do district-by-district work. The vaccine needs to come there, the auxiliary nurse midwife needs to come, the cold chain needs to be working at that level and the child needs to come with his mother. You can’t do it from Delhi. You need to work at the state level.
If you want to introduce a new vaccine, that’s a decision that’s made at the central level. We work at all levels depending on what we’re trying to help accomplish.
Read the whole interview here.
Read More$21 trillion hidden in offshore accounts: study
A study by Tax Justice Network, first reported by The Observer, reveals that the global “super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together.” The author of the study the “Price of Offshore Revisited” is James Henry, a former chief economist at McKinsey.
Read MoreHe shows that at least £13tn – perhaps up to £20tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry puts it, “protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy”. According to Henry’s research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than £4tn in 2010, a sharp rise from £1.5tn five years earlier.
Thousands taste desi delicacies at Toronto festival
Here is our report:
Read MoreNearly 150,000 people attended the two-day South Asian festival in Gerrard India Bazaar in Toronto which concluded on Sunday with non-stop performances by various bands.
Freida Pinto at Trishna premiere
Indian actress Freida Pinto at the red carpet premiere of her movie Trishna in New York on July 10. The film, directed by Michael Winterbottom, releases in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. Photo: Vijay Shah
South Asia festival in Toronto
Nearly 150,000 people attended the two-day South Asian festival in Gerrard India Bazaar in Toronoto.
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Politics stalling reform: Subramanian
Check out our interview with economist Arvind Subramanian on ET Now.
Here is the interview text at VC Circle.
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