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18
JULY: HILLARY CLINTON
AWARDS LALIT SURI
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The first
lady of USA, Hillary Clinton presented the industrial Lalit Suri with
an award for outstanding achievement in the field of business.
He was presented with
the award at a glittering function organised at New York Sheraton
Hotel by the ' International Punjabi Society '.
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22
JULY: SAM PITRODA HONOURED
|
Satyen
(Sam) Pitroda, Chairman and Chief Executive office of Worldtel Incorporation
was conferred the honorary degree of doctor of letters by De Monfort
University in London.
Pitroda, who holds more
than 50 patents with a successful career in digital switching, was
the adviser to the Prime Minister during the tenure of Indira Gandhi
and later Rajiv Gandhi on national technology missions.
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26
JULY: TWO INDIAN ACTIVISTS
WIN MAGSAYSAY AWARD
|
Indian activists Aruna
Roy and Jockin Arputham have won this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award
along with a former Philippine town mayor, a Chinese environmentalist
and a former Indonesian journalist, the award body said.
Aruna Roy, based in
Rajasthan, was given the community leadership award for "empowering
Indian villagers to claim what is rightfully theirs by upholding and
exercising the people's right to information", the board said.
Jockin Arputham, founder
of the Indian National Slum Dwellers Federation, was chosen for the
award for international understanding.
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27
AUGUST: INDO-AMERICAN
STRUMS HIS WAY TO THE GRAMMY'S
|
An
American of Indian origin, Anand Bhatt, whose Heavy Metal music made
waves around the world, was listed in several categories of the Grammy
Awards Contest, the most prestigious recognition for music artists
in America.
Bhatt's latest CD, Conflict,
where he teamed up with well-known guitarist Jim martin of Faith No
More, as well as other recordings, were accepted and entered in the
Grammy's various categories.
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27
AUGUST: MOVIE-MAKING MINNOWS FROM
INDIA HIT BIG TIME WITH TOP-GROSSERS
|
In
a rare new high for the Indian Diaspora, the top movie in both cinema
halls and video screens in America this week are made by Indian immigrants
from India.
Tarsem Singh Dhandwar's
horror-thriller The Cell continues its blowout debut as America's
top grossing film. Meanwhile, Manoj Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense has
been released on the video circuits and has climbed on top of the
rental charts.
The Sixth Sense, which
was nominated for six Academy Awards - but won none- grossed over
$ 300 million worldwide, making it only the second highest earning
movie for Disney after The Lion King. The film stands about tenth
in the list of all time top-grossing movies.
The Cell, on the other
hand, was a medium-sized hit, going on to gross about $ 50-million
to $ 60 million. Tarsem's dramatic debut, along with recent offerings
from the like of Shekhar Kapoor, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta and Manoj
Night Shyamalan, marked the emergence of Indian film-makers, as a
brand name to be reckoned with, somewhat like the Indian software
professionals and high-tech maestros.
