|
8
APRIL: FRENCH
HONOUR
FOR SCIENTIST C.N.R. RAO
|
Linus Pauling
Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Research, Dr CNR Rao was elected Foreign Member of the prestigious
Academy of Sciences in France.
Dr CNR Rao
created history by becoming the first Indian scientist to be a member
of all the major science academies of the world, such as the Royal
Society in London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Russian
Academy, Japan Academy, Academy European, the Pontifical Academy at
the Vatican and the American Philosophical Society.
|
11
APRIL: VIJAY SINGH WINS
GOLF'S BIGGEST TITLE
|
Vijay
Singh is about as Indian as VS Naipaul is, but watching him sink one
final birdie putt to win the golf world's most prestigious title of
Augusta Masters Champion, 2000 at Augusta, Georgia, it was hard not
to feel a surge of pride for the Indian diaspora - scattered and distant
though it may be. The 37-year-old Fijian, whose name at once informs
his Indian origin, emerged from the shadows of the golfing greens
and beat the best names in the game - including Tiger Woods and Ernie
Els - to bid fair for the title of the world's top golfer.
|
12
APRIL: 10 PIO-RUN
FIRMS ENTER FORBES 500
|
Several
Indian American companies made it to the Forbes 500 list, especially
among the newcomers. Of the newcomers, at least 10 are Indian American-owned
or operated.
This year's
Forbes 500s list is the largest in its 32-year history, with 892 companies
qualifying in at least one of the four categories - sales, profits,
assets and market capitalisation. There are 190 newcomers compared
to 76 first-timers among last year's Forbes 500s.
Amongst
the 190 who made it for the first time, mostly because of their soaring
stock prices, the 10 that are Indian American-owned or operated includes
i2 Technologies, Juniper Networks and Sycamore.
|
12
APRIL: US BASED
INDIAN WINS PULITZER PRIZE
|
Jhumpa
Lahiri, a US based writer of Indian descent, was awarded America's
most prestigious literary award, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for
2000.
The London
born Lahiri, 33 was awarded the annual Pulitzer Prize on Tuesday for
'Interpreter of Maladies' (Houghton Mifflin Co), a stellar collection
of short stories, several of which are bittersweet reflections on
the lives of Indian immigrants in the US.
|
13
APRIL: 3 INDIAN AMERICAN
SCIENTISTS HONOURED
|
US President
Bill Clinton named three Indian Americans among 60 outstanding young
scientists as recipients of the fourth annual Presidential Early Career
Awards for Scientists and Engineers.
This was
the highest honour bestowed by the US on young science professionals
at the outset of their independent research careers.
The three
scientists to receive the accolades were Smita Mohanty of the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, Preete Verghese of the Smith
Kettewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco and Sanjay Raman
of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
|
14
APRIL: ARUN SHOURIE GETS WORLD
PRESS AWARD FOR EXPRESS EXPOSES
|
Union
Minister of State for Planning and Programmes Implementation Arun
Shourie, known for his string of exposes during his stint in The Indian
Express, was one of the fifty ' World Press Freedom Heroes' chosen
by the International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors
and media executives.
The selection
was made from a long list of journalists who have made a significant
contribution to defense and promotion of press freedom in their country
or on a global basis over the past 50 years.
|
17
APRIL: FIRST-EVER
HINDI FILM WEEK IN ISRAEL
|
After Bombay
block-buster Dil To Pagal Hai turned many a heart crazy in Tel Aviv
with the film running to full houses for several weeks, five more
Hindi movies thrilled Israelis during the first-ever Hindi film week
in Israel, thus signalling a new opening for the Indian films in the
Jewish state.
The Hindi
film week, being organised between 3rd and 10th May coincided with
the first Indian Trade Fair in Tel Aviv, and witnessed the screening
of box office hits like Khamoshi, Virasat, Mr India, Dil To Pagal
Hai and Massy Sahib, which provided an insight into the lesser known
side of the Indian cinema according to Indian Embassy officials.
|
20
APRIL: ARUNDHATI ROY
ON CANNES FEST JURY
|
India's
celebrated writer and social activist Arundhati Roy was among the
10 jury members of this year's Cannes Film Festival.
The 53rd
edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival began in the southern
French city on 10th May.
|
22
APRIL: US-BASED INDIAN
ON BOARD OF LEADING US FIRM
|
A US-based
Indian, among the richest people in the United States, was named on
the board of directors of the Boston Communications Group (BCGI),
a leading wireless carriers support service firm.
Rajasthan
born Rajendra Singh, 45, was nominated as an outside director by the
board of directors and is expected to be elected by shareholders at
the company's annual meeting in May.
With a personal
net worth of $ 1.1 billion, Singh was ranked 223 in Forbes Magazine's
1999 list of 400 richest Americans. Born in Kairoo village in Rajasthan,
Singh is considered to have a gold-finger, has investments in several
businesses and has turned around the fortunes of several others.
|
24
APRIL: DELHI BOY BAGS
MILLENNIUM DREAMER'S AWARD
|
A ten-year-old
school student Abhishek Eshwar from New Delhi flew to Disneyland,
Orlando, to receive the Millennium Dreamers' International award.
Ministers,
social workers, educationalists and leaders from other walks of like
assembled in New Delhi on April 25 to facilitate the young boy, a
Class VI student of St George's School, Alaknanda, New Delhi.
He is the
only student selected from north India for this award, instituted
by McDonald and Disney in association with the UNESCO and Reader's
Digest on the basis of international competition.
|
25
APRIL: PIO IN US CREATES
FIRM WHERE EVERYONE IS NO 1
|
Atul Jain
(39), who came to the US in 1981, created a software company in which
there is no real boss and all 85 employee-owners are No 1.
Those who
work at TEOCO (Totally Employee Owned Company), based in Fairfax,
Virginia, in the greater Washington area, write their own maternity
and paternity benefit plans, choose the worker of the year with little
input from top executives, and equipped with $ 10 million in cash,
they jointly create new companies for TEOCO.
|
3
MAY: FIVE 'INDIAN ANGELS'
|
A network
of highly successful Indians in the Silicon Valley are not only aiding
more start-ups in the US and India but also amassing a great fortune
in the bargain.
The 'Wall
Street Journal' has identified five successful software whizkids from
India - KB Chandrasekhar, Kanwal Rekhi, Suhas Patil, Rakesh Mathur
and Ram Sriram - and nicknamed them as "five angles from India." Although
there are other ethnic groups in Silicon Valley, Indians are the largest
group, it said.
According
to a 1998 estimate by a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for
Economic Policy, 774 companies in Silicon Valley were run by Indian
entrepreneurs.
|
3
MAY: AMIT
CHAUDHURI
BAGS LA TIMES FICTION PRIZE
|
Days after
Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for the fiction 'Interpreter
of Maladies' (Stories about "Bengal, Boston and Beyond"), Calcutta's
best known Indo-Anglican writer, Amit Chaudhuri, has scooped the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction, one of America's most distinguished
literary awards.
'Freedom
Song', a collection of three of Chaudhuri's novels - 'A Strange and
Sublime Address', 'Afternoon Raag' and 'Freedom Song' - brought out
by the American publishing giant Knopf last year, walked away with
the prize for fiction from a particularly strong shortlist chosen
from several thousand books.
|
5
MAY: YOUNGEST
ASIAN QUEEN'S COUNCIL
|
Delhi-born
Manjit Singh Gill emerged as the youngest Asian QC (Queen's Council)
appointed in Britain. Gill (39) a barrister by profession, is a specialist
in cases pertaining to human rights.
|
9
MAY: US INDIAN'S FIRM
WINS $ 50,000 CONTEST
|
An Indian
American's software firm bagged the first prize worth $ 50,000 in
a Californian business plan competition.
SkyFlow,
co-founded by Nibha Aggarwal, that develops infrastructure software
for wireless applications beat seven other high-quality finalists
to win the University of California(UC) Berkeley Business Plan Competition.
|
14
MAY: INDIAN BEAUTY
WOWS UNIVERSE AGAIN
|
Lara
Dutta, 21-year-old Femina Miss India, who said beauty pageants give
woman a platform to "voice our choices and opinions", was crowned
Miss Universe 2000.
Dutta succeeded
Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana to become the 49th winner of the pageant.
She said it was a birthday present to her father, a retired Indian
Air Force pilot, who turned 60. Claudia Moreno of Venezuela was placed
a second, and Helen Lindes, of Spain, third.
"It is
going to take a while to sink it. It is a wonderful, incredible and
exhilarating feeling," Dutta told reporters after the pre-dawn extravaganza.
|
21
MAY: TWO INDIAN AMERICAN IT
PROFESSIONALS BAG EXCELLENCE 2000 AWARDS
|
Two Indian
American Information Technology (IT) entrepreneurs were among six
Asians to receive American Excellence 2000 awards at the 12th Anniversary
celebrations of the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC).
An Indian
American student was among the 12th Asian American college-bound scholarship
winners also honoured at the glittering event held at Washington.
The Indian
American Excellence 2000 award winners were Naveen Jain and Jagdeep
Singh. The student of Indian descent among the scholarship winners
was Ajita Kundaiker of New York.
|
23
MAY: RAJ BABBAR TO RECEIVE
PUNJABI AWARD IN US
|
Actor-filmmaker
and Member of Parliament Raj Babbar was chosen the ' Punjabi male
actor ' of the millennium by people of Punjabi origin in the US.
The Punjabi
American Heritage Society, the largest organisation of American based
people of Punjabi origin, conferred the honour on Babbar at a special
Punjabi American Festival 2000 in California.
|
29
MAY: DELHI GIRL
FLIES HIGH IN US ARMY
|
21-year-old
Delhi girl Beneka Bali made history in the US by becoming the first
Asian woman to join the American Army.
Beneka
joined the 82nd Airborne Division of the US army after graduating
from the famous West Point Military Academy as a full-fledged lieutenant
following a gruelling four year training period.
|
3
JUNE: PIO
BOY WINS
SPELLING CONTEST
|
Thampy deserves
a thump on his back. For Thampy's not only done India proud, he's
done what several Indians - and Americans too - would not have been
able to do. He spelt words like "propaedeutic", "eudaemonic", "trophobiosis",
"quodibet" and "demarche", and he spelt them correctly.
12 year-old
George Abraham Thampy won the coveted 73rd US National Spelling Bee
contest in Washington, beating 247 bright young kids after successfully
navigating through 597 words, some of which he will never use later.
The bespectacled,
thoughtful looking youngster, whose parents hail from Kerala, won
the top prize before a packed hall burst into applause as he spelt
"d-e-m-a-r-c-h-e". Thampy who finished third last year won $10,000,
an encyclopedia set and a $1,000 savings bond from the Spelling Bee
and had also won $15,000 for his second place finish in the geography
contest held earlier.
|
8
JUNE: PIO ELECTED
PRESIDENT OF BRITISH PARTY
|
Lord Dholakia,
a person of Indian origin, was elected unopposed President of the
Liberal Democratic Party of United Kingdom.
Indian High
Commissioner N Dayal felicitated Lord Dholakia on his election.
|
11
JUNE: INDIAN STUDIO GETS
ANIMATION AWARD FOR UNICEF FILM
|
Toonz Animation
Ltd has been awarded the first prize at the prestigious World Animation
Celebration 2000 held in Los Angeles. The award marks the first major
international recognition given to any Indian animation studio.
Given in
the category 'Animation Produced for Educational Purposes', the award
was for Toonz's short film Stone Crusher. It was conceived and produced
by the company for the UNICEF to help it protect children's rights
in developing countries.
|
16
JUNE: INDIAN STUDENTS WIN
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
|
Two Indian
students, Abhay Bhonsle and Dyanesh Deshpande from the Centre for
Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, won the top prize
at the International Architecture Design Competition.
