News & Update

PUNJAB, Pakistan – The Punjab government in Pakistan has decided to promote religious tourism for strengthening provincial economy. In first phase of it’s plans, the government has decided to focus on Sikh religious tourism.

The government has directed the Punjab Planning and Development Board (P&D), Provincial Departments of Tourism, Archives, Archaeology, Law and Justice to finalize the reports related to all Gurduaras in Punjab Province for promotion of Sikh tourism.

Reports in Pakistani media notes that Pakistan has huge potential of promotion of religious tourism which could not be fully explored in the past.

Several religious places of Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs exist in Pakistan.

Sikh religion’s most sacred places like Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib (Kartarpur) and Gurdwara Dera Sahib (Lahore) are in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

~ Source: www.eturbonews.com

Victor Harvey Briggs III / Vikram Singh Khalsa / Antion (b- 14 February 1945) was born in Twickenham, London, England. Growing up with a love of music and particularly Jazz, he became a rock musician, best known as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon and The Animals during the 1966-1968 period. Currently plays classical Indian and Hawaiian music.

Vic Briggs played guitar and piano with various groups in the 1960s, including The Echoes (Dusty Springfield’s backing group), Brian Auger and the Trinity (the Back up band of Steam Packet), Johnny Hallyday and Eric Burdon and The Animals.

He says that a “jugalbandi” (duet) recording of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan that he purchased in the late 1960s, hooked him on Indian music. It was the deep vibrant ringing sound of Khansahib’s sarod that appealed to him more than the sound of the Sitar. The music of Ali Akbar Khan captured his imagination, in particular, he states, it was his ability to express karuna (spiritual longing) that intrigued him deeply.

It was after listening to a concert by Khan, that he in his own words said, “I realized that music could be much more of a tool for raising consciousness than I had previously imagined”.

After being laid off from a job with Capital Records in LA, he answered an ad for a yoga class where he met Yogi Bajan. Hoping to learn a little about Sikh devotional music he went with a friend he made in the yoga class to listen to a ‘Punjabi folk singer’ named Jagat Singh Jagga.

Soon he was off to London with a message relayed from Yogi Bhajan, “Tell him to study harmonium, learn the music of the Sikhs and go to Sikh Temple occasionally”. In London he found a giani, Giani Joginder Singh Sarl who agreed to teach him Gurbani Kirtan. As his name was Vic, the Giani the giani suggested he call himself Vickram Singh. It wasn’t long before he realized that he would need to learn to read Panjabi and in particular the script or alphabet that the Guru Granth Sahib is written in; Gurmukhi.

Next, while out for a walk, he chanced to meet three men, a ragi jatha visiting from India, Bhai Gurcharan Singh, his brother, Bhai Avtar Singh and Bhai Swaran Singh, the tabla accompanist who were staying at a nearby Gurdwara.

He later became the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harmandir Sahib (also called the Golden Temple of Amritsar). He moved to San Diego, where he had a plumbing business in the 80s. He has made several albums of Indian music and was the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harimandir Sahib (also called the Golden Temple of Amritsar).

Briggs currently goes by the name Antion and plays Hawaiian chant music.

Melbourne: Three Indian-origin politicians, including a Sikh, were elected to New Zealand’s Parliament in the just-concluded general elections.

Kanwaljeet Singh Bakshi, Dr Parmjeet Parmar and Mahesh Bindra have made it to the 121-member Parliament, the New Zealand Herald reported on Monday.

While Delhi-born Bakshi is set to begin his third term in Parliament, Pune-graduate Parmar and Mumbai-born Bindra are ready to make their debut, taking the growing contribution of Kiwi Indians in New Zealand to Parliament as well.

Bakshi is both New Zealand’s first Indian and first Sikh member of Parliament. He was first elected in the 2008 elections.

Bakshi and Parmar fought the elections as the candidates of the ruling National Party, while Bindra was elected as the New Zealand First candidate.

The National Party, led by Prime Minister John Key, won 61 seats as compared to 59 in the last elections, claiming 48.06% of the total votes cast, up from 47.31% in 2011.

Following the election results, Bindra said he was the living proof that his party New Zealand First and its leader Winston Peters were not anti-immigration and anti-Asian.

“Mr Peters was perceived by the Indian community for some time as being a politician who doesn’t want immigrants. That was a myth and that myth has now been dispelled,” Bindra was quoted by the paper as saying.

A political science and psychology graduate, Bindra moved to New Zealand in 2002 with his family.

Bakshi graduated from the University of Delhi in 1985 and moved to New Zealand in 2001 with his family.

Parmar, who lives in Auckland, was born in India and migrated to New Zealand in 1995. She holds a PhD in biological sciences from the University of Auckland and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry from the University of Pune.

~ Source: www.hindustantimes.com

The humanitarian task undertaken by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for providing relief to the flood-hit people of Jammu and Kashmir entered the 10th day on Friday.

The SGPC continues to send relief material to J&K by airlifting essential commodities to Srinagar from the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee international airport here. The only difference being that now the SGPC is sending only what is required in the Kashmir Valley after coordinating with the state officials camping in Gurdwara Shaheed Bunga at Badgam near Srinagar.

The relief material dispatched by the SGPC included 10 quintal rice, 5 quintal pulses, onions, bread, dry milk powder and blankets.

SGPC SENDS MONITORING TEAM
Along with the relief material, a 15-member SGPC team, led by its general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and executive member Rajinder Singh Mehta, left for Srinagar. There task will be to monitor the distribution of relief, including ‘langar’ (cooked food) to the flood-hit families in and around the capital town.

According to information received at the SGPC headquarters here, the SGPC relief camp at Gurdwara Shaheed Bunga is catering to a large number of families who have been rendered homeless. ‘Langar’ is being distributed round-the-clock to these families.

On Thursday around 500 persons reported at the medical camp se tup by the SGPC at the gurdwara. They were given medicines free of cost. A 5-member SGPC team along with medicines was sent from here three days ago.

Two women patients who needed hospitalisation were airlifted by the SGPC to Amritsar and New Delhi. The patient coming to Amritsar was admitted at the SGPC-run Sri Guru Ram Das Chairtable Hospital, Vallah.

In Srinagar, the SGPC has set up mohalla-level committees with the assistance of the locals there for house-to-house distribution of cooked food and other relief material. The SGPC team, under Bhaur, will send a detailed report to their chief Avtar Singh Makkar, who was also to go to Srinagar, but could not do so due to the death of former SGPC president Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

The SGPC is also receiving relief material from other religious groups and is dispatching it to Srinagar.

DIST ADMINISTRATION ALSO SENDS RELIEF
Deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat said that on Friday 25,000 blankets, 2,000 towels, 7000 ladies suits and 5 tonne of food packets, which included dry milk powder, were sent by a special IAF cargo plane to Srinagar. Till date, the administration has sent 31,000 blankets and 45 tonnes of dry ration.

The DC said that around 5,000 persons airlifted by the IAF from Srinagar have landed at the airport here so far. He said that the administration made arrangements for sending these persons to their homes. The entire expenditure was borne by the administration.

CII REACHES OUT
Continuing its efforts to reach out to the most distressed people in the flood affected in J&K, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Friday provided relief material in one of the most affected area — Bemina. The CII team not only reached out to villages outside Srinagar but also interacted with the villagers to understand their needs and plan the next course of action.

CII Amritsar Zonal Council is also contributing its bit for the cause. The Amritsar Computer Traders Association (ACTA) handed over a cheque of `50,000 to Gurpreet Singh Munjral, Chairman CII Amritsar Council towards CII Foundation for relief and rehabilitation.

Mr Munjral said, “CII, under the aegis of CII Foundation, has already reached and impacted 4,000 families and the aim is to provide immediate relief to 5,000 families in the next few days.The relief material being distributed includes most essential items like drinking water, medicines, ready- to-eat food packs, blankets, family tents, dry rations, water purifiers and baby food”.

~ Source: www.hindustantimes.com

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London: Leading academic Sir Tejinder Singh Virdee, known for originating the concept and construction of the Compact Muon Solenold (CMS) that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson, has won the ‘Professional of the Year’ award.

At an awards ceremony here, organised by the Asian Achievers Awards 2014, Virdee received the award for his outstanding achievements in the field of physics.

In recognition of his work on CMS, he has been awarded the Institute of Physics 2007 High Energy Physics Prize and the IOP 2009 Chadwick Medal and Prize.

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Institute of Physics in 2012 and in 2014 he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to science.

The award recipients on Friday night also included Dr Richie Nanda, an international security magnate and the executive chairman of Topsgrup and The Shield Group (Entrepreneur of the Year).

Other award recipients were Mumbai-born Hanif Kureishi, an English playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker and novelist (achievement in media, arts and culture); Wasim Gulzar Khan, the first British-born Pakistani to play professional cricket in England (achievement in community service); and Dilawar Singh, director, Sports Council for Glasgow, the first Asian and Sikh police officer in Scotland, who spent over 30 years with Strathclyde Police (sports personality of the year).

Philip Hammond, Britain’s secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, who was the chief guest, said a new generation of Asian entrepreneurs was encouraging the British Asian community to expand into new sectors.

“Today, 50,000 British Asian businesses in the UK together generate more than 60 billion pounds nationwide,” he said.

The High Commissioner of India to the UK, Ranjan Mathai, was among the prominent personalities present on the occasion.

~ Source: www.hindustantimes.com

Beginning of September, ​Santokh Singh came from India to the Ajai Alai International Kundalini Yoga Community Centre in Shenzhen (China). He is with us for a whole month,​ sharing​ with Chinese students his long experience of Shabd Guru. We organized two 7-day​ sessions at the Center for the participants learn to play harmonium and chant shabd. After only three​ days of practice, I was very touched listening to the group chanting the Name guided by Santokh Singh playing tablas. Each student played harmonium, diving into the vibration of the sound current. I realized how important it is to bring this technology to China, as ​an inspiring way to rise the Sadh Sangat.

~ Satmukh Singh

“Deeply inspired by my late father Bhai Kalyan Singh Ragi, I feel that sharing my knowledge is my seva. I travel worldwide to teach Shabad Kirtan and tablas but it is my first time in China. I was very warmly welcomed. The students show me a lot of respect and have a deep sense of seva. Even if they are are just beginners, they learn fast and the majority of them have a high sensitivity to music. Their voices are very special too. I could teach 3 shabd and 4 mantras in only one week to the students of the first workshop. I taught 6 hours a day and everyday they would ask for more. They were so eager to learn more about Shabd Kirtan! Now I am looking forward to the second workshop next week and, above all, to come back next March for continuing this new adventure.” Santokh Singh

~ Source: Facebook.com

An Indian space probe has successfully entered Mars’ orbit, marking the first interplanetary mission for the country.

Scientists broke into wild cheers Wednesday morning local time as the orbiter’s engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered into its designated place around the red planet.

The success of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.

The Indian Space and Research Organisation described the mission as flawless.

“We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, standing alongside ISRO scientists at the command center in the southern tech hub of Bangalore. “We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few.”

India is the first country to reach Mars’ orbit on a maiden venture and the first Asian country to launch a successful Mars mission, all with a much cheaper price tag than any Mars mission before it.

NASA congratulated the ISRO for the successful mission on Twitter.

The ISRO launched the small unmanned satellite Mangalyaan (Hindi for “Mars craft”) in November of last year. The probe has spent the last 300 days journeying more than 420 million miles between Earth and the red planet at a speed of 13.7 miles per second.

The mission’s success was not guaranteed. If the onboard rocket engine did not slow the satellite to just the right speed, it could have either careened off into space or crashed down to the planet’s surface, wrote science writer Pallava Bagla in an article for BBC News.

Only about 42% of the 51 probes sent to Mars since 1960 have completed the mission Only about 42% of the 51 probes sent to Mars since 1960 have completed the mission, Bagla said.

The probe is expected to use five tools to map the planet’s surface and search for signs of life, including a color camera, a methane sensor and a thermal imaging spectrometer. To cut down on costs, the probe has a relatively small payload and used a smaller-than-average rocket engine to break into Earth’s orbit.

In June, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi claimed that, at a cost of just $74 million, the Mars Orbiter Mission was less expensive than production of the Oscar-winning science fiction film “Gravity,” which cost a reported $100 million to make. For comparison, NASA’s most recent Mars probe, Maven, which made orbit on Sunday, ran up a cost of about $671 million and the European Space Agency’s 2003 mission’s price tag was roughly $386 million.

India’s space agency has honed its ability to make do with limited resources over the years out of “sheer necessity,” according to the Wall Street Journal. In addition to operating on a comparatively paltry budget, many international agencies refused to share expertise with ISRO’s scientists after the country began conducting nuclear weapons tests.

While some critics question whether a nation that is home to a third of the world’s poorest people should be spending roughly a billion dollars per year on space exploration, India counters that the program drives innovation and fuels employment in the country. Modi hopes the mission will help establish India as the world leader in cheap space exploration.

~ Source: http://mashable.com/