
Washington: Indian-American Srikanth Srinivasan inched closer to scripting history as the first South Asian judge after a key Senate committee confirmed his nomination to the DC Circuit Court, America's second highest. Described as "trailblazer" by US President Barack Obama, Chandigarh-born Srinivasan's nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was unanimously approved by the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
He was first nominated to the post by Obama nearly one year ago, and if confirmed, he would fill one of the four vacancies on the DC Circuit. "I am glad we are moving forward with this fine nominee in a bipartisan way," said Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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03:16 PM, May 17, 2013

Washington: India received $69 billion remittance in 2012, the highest in the world, followed by China with $60 billion and the Philippines $24 billion, World Bank data showed. Other major recipients of foreign remittances were Mexico with $23 billion and Nigeria and Egypt with $21 billion each, according to the latest edition of the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief released here on Friday. "India remains the largest recipient country...

07:40 PM, Apr 20, 2013

Washington: Rebalancing its security posture in the Asia-Pacific region, the US says it is investing in a long-term strategic partnership with India to support its ability to serve as a regional economic anchor and security provider. The US defence department's "commitment to the Asia-Pacific region is part of a broader US Government focus", the Pentagon said Wednesday as it rolled out a $527 billion budget for fiscal 2014 starting October...

04:07 AM, Apr 12, 2013

Pooja Chaurishi claimed the gold in the sprint event which included swimming, cycling and running. ...

07:09 PM, Apr 01, 2013

Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone carrier, said on Tuesday Sanjay Kapoor, its chief executive for India and South Asia, will leave the company on February 28. Gopal Vittal, currently group director of special projects will take over as the company's India CEO, effective March 1, it said in a statement. ...

03:30 PM, Jan 15, 2013

Pakistan saw the highest number of journalists losing their lives in South Asia with 13 of them dying in the line of duty, followed by India with five among a total of 25 mediapersons falling victim to violence. "In 2012, South Asia, the most volatile region, mourned the murder of 25 media persons, with Pakistan again remaining in the lead. 13 journalists lost their lives in Pakistan, followed by five...

07:54 PM, Dec 30, 2012

Washington: The core of al Qaeda has seriously degraded in South Asia, a top American counter-terrorism official has said, noting that the US has removed 20 of its top 30 leaders. "In South Asia, al Qaeda's core has been seriously degraded. Without a doubt, Osama bin Laden's departure from the scene was the most important milestone in the fight against al Qaeda," Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's top counter-terrorism official...

11:39 AM, Dec 20, 2012

On Board Special Aircraft: India on Sunday said China was a "major concern" than Pakistan given the power it has to impact the country in various spheres. Noting that China was necessarily more important in terms of India's global vision and the ties between the two countries can impact the region, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, in an interview to PTI, said as far as Pakistan was concerned, the impact...

08:49 PM, Dec 16, 2012

London: Six shortlisted candidates are today announced for the 2013 Tibor Jones South Asia Prize. Manuscripts by Avni Doshi (Girl in White Cotton), Ayesha Heble (Third Person Singular), Devdan Chaudhuri (Anatomy of Self), Kanza Javed (Ashes, Wine and Dust), Minakshi Thakur (Lovers Like You and I), and Sanjay Lafont (Arjun) have been selected for the shortlist. More than one hundred manuscripts of full-length novels were submitted for the 2013 prize,...

04:13 PM, Dec 06, 2012

New Delhi: Six books including "River of Smoke" by Amitav Ghosh, "Narcopolis" by Jeet Thayil and "The Wandering" by Pakistan-based author Jamil Ahmad, have been shortlisted for the DSC South Asian Literature Prize 2013. The list, announced in a gala at the Mayfair Hotel in London, it includes six writers -- three Indians, two Pakistani and one from Bangladesh -- besides an American translator for the $50,000 prize. The finalist...

11:32 AM, Nov 22, 2012

New Delhi: Looking for an online archive of primary research material on South Asia? Now, here's a resource to uncover the history of the region with digital access to over five million pages of primary and secondary sources. Named South Asia Archive, the resource spanning from 1750s to 1950s brings together documents from across India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The archive includes a diverse collection of reports from colonial...

01:19 PM, Nov 08, 2012

New Delhi: Adil Hussain, who has films like 'Ishqiya', 'Life of Pi' and the recent 'English Vinglish' to his credit, has bagged the best actor award at a US festival for his role in Unni Vijayan's 'Lessons in Forgetting'. Directed by Vijayan, the film is an adaptation of Anita Nair's book by the same name and is a gripping and heart warming story of redemption, forgiveness and second chances. The...

10:56 AM, Oct 12, 2012

New Delhi: Actor Riteish Deshmukh's debut production venture, Marathi film 'Balak Palak' (BP) about sex education, will have its world premeire at the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF), to be held in New York Oct 24-Oct 30. "I'm very proud to be associated with the film. I've always believed that we could do more with regional cinema, which is already doing such great work over the last few years,"...

12:41 PM, Sep 26, 2012

Islamabad: Asserting that Pakistan is committed to better relations with India, President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said he hopes that the search by the two countries for peaceful resolutions to all disputes through sustained and productive dialogue will bear fruit. Zardari made the remarks in a message issued on the occasion of a seminar to be organised by the South Asian Free Media Association in Lahore and Amritsar on...

08:04 AM, Aug 13, 2012

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced the jury for its 2013 edition. The five-member panel includes Eleanor O'Keeffe, K Satchidanandan, Muneeza Shamsie, Rick Simonson and Suvani Singh. Eleanor O'Keeffe is an Irish/Canadian cultural entrepreneur. After living and working in Paris for a number of years, she was co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival for two of its earlier years as well as co-director of the Shakespeare and Company...

02:16 PM, Jul 10, 2012

London: A stunning image by one of India's foremost modern artists Jehangir Sabavala sold for a record 253,650 pounds to lead a strong selection of works by major South Asian artists at the Bonhams annual summer sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian art on Thursday. Sabavala's piece of art Vespers I had been estimated to sell for 100,000-150,000 pounds but after a saleroom tussle between two buyers, it was...

08:40 PM, Jun 07, 2012

New Delhi: Literature, the soul of cultural exchange, is giving conventional diplomacy a run for its space in South Asia with the mushrooming literary festivals that are provoking, discussing and building new bridges across cultures. Five major literature festivals - the Jaipur Literature Festival, Mountain Echoes in Bhutan, the Kathmandu Literary Yatra, the Galle Literary Festival in Sri lanka and the Karachi Literature Festival - which have been showcasing literature...

10:45 AM, May 28, 2012

New Delhi: A new study by UK-based medical journal Lancet has found that seven per cent of anti-malarial drugs tested in India are of poor quality and many are fake. The study goes on to say that 1 in every 3 anti-malarial drugs sold in southeast Asia are also fake. Researchers analysed data based on 1400 drug samples in five classes from seven Southeast Asian countries to reach to this...

10:11 AM, May 23, 2012

Washington: Having doubled its population in the last decade, Indian-Americans have emerged as a powerful political group in the US that the Republican and the Democratic parties cannot ignore in a presidential election year. According to 2010 census, more than 11.54 lakh Indian-Americans are eligible to vote as against 5.76 lakhs in 2000, said a report released by two American NGOs -- South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and Asian...

10:19 PM, Mar 11, 2012

New Delhi: Cultural ties between India and Britain received a new boost with leading London-based literary agency Tibor Jones and the prestigious Foyles Bookstore honouring two emerging south Asian fiction writers, Sri Kumar Sen and Rohit Manchanda, with the maiden Tibor Jones South Asia Prize. The prizes, to be given annually, were awarded to the writers on the strength of their unpublished manuscripts, "A Place in the Mind" by Rohit...

07:13 PM, Jan 18, 2012