News India Times
July 17, 2015
14
– that’s all you need to know
Community
By Ela Dutt
ndian-Americans are stak-
ing their claim as early
supporters of the
Democratic Party’s pre-
sumptive nominee Hillary
Clinton for the 2016 presidential
race .
At a fundraiser June 6, the
former Secretary of State made a
low-key stop at a gathering of
high-profile Indians. No media
was allowed at the event where
attendees paid $2,700 per plate
for some face time with the for-
mer First Lady.
The fundraiser was hosted at
the home of art collector and
retired U.S. Army Colonel Dr.
Mahinder Tak and her husband
businessman Sharad Tak. Close
to 100 people showed up and
about $275,000 to $300,000 was
raised Tak told News India
Times.
Clinton touched on all her pet
projects and interests, and also
more. “She talked about the cur-
rent state of the U.S. economy,
relations with India, praised
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and his successful trip to the
U.S., women’s rights and chil-
dren’s rights, and increased drug
use in the population, including
among youth,” Tak said.
Among those present were
businessman Sanju Bansal, co-
founder of MicroStrategy, a
provider of enterprise software
who is now CEO of the Virginia-
based data analytics company,
Hunch Analytics, founded by
President Obama’s first Chief
Technology Officer Aneesh
Chopra. Chopra was represent-
ed by his wife Rohini Dhir. Parag
Mehta, former LGBT liaison on
the Obama-Biden transition
team, former director of com-
munications and also director of
training at the Democratic
National Committee and special
assistant to the Secretary,
Department of Labor, was there
as were IT entrepreneurs Payal
and Chandra Tak, Sudhakar
Keshavan, chairman and CEO of
the publicly traded management
consultancy firm IFC
International.
The attendees also included
businesswoman Devinder
Singh; Arun Gupta, partner at
the venture capital firm
Columbia Capital; and Shekar
Narasimhan, DNCs co-chair of
the Indo-American Council and
managing partner at Beekman
Advisors, and several other
heavy hitters. Former U.S. Rep.
JimMoran, also showed up.
“She’s the most experienced
of all the those running, man or
woman, Republican or
Democrat,” Tak said.
“She’s a household name all
over the world. And at theWhite
House she put ‘women’s rights
are human rights’ on the map,”
she added.
Indian-Americans Rally Early Behind Hillary Clinton
I
Left, Mahinder Tak and Sharad Tak, hosts of the June 6 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton
in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, look on as she speaks to an audience of about
100 Indian-American heavy hitters who paid $2,700 a plate to get face time with the
Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for the 2016 Presidential race. Right, Clinton
addresses a gathering of about 100 successful Indian-Americans in business and gov-
ernment at a Greater Washington, D.C., fundraiser, who came to express their support
at a June 6 fundraiser which raised between $275,000 to $300,000.
By Arun Kumar
–WASHINGTON
N
oted Indian conservation
biologist Kamal Bawa
will be formally admitted
to the prestigious Royal Society
as a fellow on July 10 for his
“pioneering contributions to
understanding the population
biology of tropical forest trees”.
India-born
Bawa, an interna-
tionally recog-
nized evolution-
ary ecologist and
a distinguished
professor of biolo-
gy at the
University of
Massachusetts,
Boston, was elect-
ed a fellow of the
London-based
society in April, according to a
university media release.
Bawa joins former and cur-
rent fellows such as Isaac
Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert
Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and
about 80 Nobel laureates.
Established in 1660, each year
the Royal Society’s existing fel-
lowship proposes about 700
candidates for election, and
then elects up to 52 fellows from
England and the
Commonwealth countries, and
up to 10 foreign fellows.
Bawa’s “pioneering contribu-
tions to understanding the pop-
ulation biology of tropical forest
trees led to new strategies for
their conservation, and also for
the sustainable use of non-tim-
ber forest products”, read a
statement published
on the society website.
“On this base he has
provided leadership in
conservation science in
India by establishing
ATREE, an influential
NGO that generates
interdisciplinary
knowledge, guides pol-
icy making, dissemi-
nates information, and
builds human capacity
in biodiversity science.
“Through his work and popu-
lar writing Kamal Bawa, has pro-
moted international coopera-
tion in science, while also
strengthening biodiversity
awareness and public support
for conservation in Indian civil
society,” it said.
“I am interested in develop-
ing new paradigms of conversa-
tion that take into account the
need to alleviate poverty in bio-
diversity-rich areas through sus-
tainable use of biodiversity,” said
Bawa.
Bawa noted that there was
considerable debate about the
success of integrated conserva-
tion and development projects
in meeting the twin goals of
conservation and poverty reduc-
tion.
Work on sustainable liveli-
hoods at several sites in the
Eastern Himalayas tests whether
conservation and biodiversity
can be enhanced while alleviat-
ing poverty, he said.
His approach is to quantify
changes in economic and social
parameters resulting from eco-
nomic and institutional inter-
ventions, Bawa said.
Data are analysed and find-
ings integrated with results from
other similar projects both with-
in and outside South Asia.
“Kamal Bawa’s election as a
fellow of the Royal Society fur-
ther validates the critical impor-
tance of his contributions to and
legacy as one of the chief
founders of the field of substan-
tiality,” said Massachusetts
University Chancellor J. Keith
Motley.
- IANS
Indian Scientist Kamal Bawa
Elected Fellow Of Royal Society
By Arun Kumar
–WASHINGTON
R
. Paul Singh, a distin-
guished professor
emeritus at the
University of California,
Davis, has been named as the
2015 Global Confederation
for Higher Education
Associations for Agriculture
and Life SciencesWorld
Agriculture Prize laureate.
Singh, an agricultural engi-
neering graduate from India’s
Punjab Agricultural
University, has
been recog-
nized for a
body of
research in
areas such as
energy conser-
vation, freez-
ing preserva-
tion, posthar-
vest technolo-
gy and mass
transfer in
food process-
ing.
He has helped establish
and evaluate food-engineer-
ing programmes at institu-
tions throughout the world,
including in Brazil, India,
Peru, Portugal and Thailand.
As of June 2015, his 115
video tutorials have been
viewed more than 150,000
times by individuals from 193
countries.
“I’m deeply humbled and
honored, upon receiving
news of this award,” said
Singh.
“I’m also indebted to my
UC Davis colleagues for their
consistent support, which has
allowed me to pursue my
research and teaching activi-
ties in food engineering,” he
said. The award was
announced at the annual
GCHERA conference, held
June 24-26 at the Holy Spirit
University of Kaslik, Jounieh,
Lebanon, according to a post
on UC Davis website.
Formal presentation of the
award will take place Sep 20,
during a ceremony at Nanjing
Agricultural University,
Jiangsu Province, China.
Singh earned a master’s
degree and PhD at the
University ofWisconsin-
Madison and Michigan State
University, respectively. He
joined the UC Davis faculty
one year later, in 1975.
“For over four
decades, Professor
Singh’s work as a
pioneer in food
engineering has
been improving
lives the world
over,” said UC
Davis Chancellor
Linda P.B. Katehi.
“This presti-
gious, and well-
deserved, honor is
a testament to the
importance of his research.”
Singh’s research on airflow
in complex systems helped
design innovative systems for
the rapid cooling of strawber-
ries, and his studies on food
freezing led to the develop-
ment of computer software
that is used to improve the
energy efficiency of industrial
freezers. Under a NASA con-
tract, his research group cre-
ated food-processing equip-
ment for a manned mission
to Mars.
In recent years, his
research focused on the phys-
ical mechanisms responsible
for the digestion of foods in
the human stomach, with an
eye toward developing the
next generation of foods for
health.
- IANS
Indian-American Named World
Agriculture Prize Laureate
