[ Global NRI:]

NRI elected as councilor in London
LONDON: Sunil Chopra, an NRI entrepreneur and General Secretary of the Indian Overseas Congress here has been elected a councilor for Nunhead Ward in Southwark in London. Chopra, a Labor nominee, secured 2,698 votes against his nearest Liberal Democrat candidate who secured 1,144 votes.

Before shifting to the UK, Chopra was the President of National Students Union of India (NSUI) and vice President of the Youth Congress.

Indo-Canadian MP named in $120m bank fraud
TORONTO: Devinder Shory, Canada's newest MP of Indian origin, has been named in a $120 million mortgage fraud.

Shory, 51, who was elected to the Canadian parliament for the first time in 2008, is one of the nine MPs of Indian-origin in the House of Commons.

A practicing lawyer in Calgary, Shory was elected from Calgary Northeast, beating two fellow Indo-Canadians - Satnam Kang of the Liberal Party and Vinay Dey of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

In a lawsuit on Wednesday, the Bank of Montreal - which is one of the top five Canadian banks - named Shory along with over 100 people in the multi-million mortgage scam. Lawyers, brokers and the bank's own staff are among those named in the mega-fraud.

The Indian-born MP has been named in the lawsuit case as the lawyer for four mortgages. The bank is yet to serve a statement of claim to the MP who represents the ruling Conservative Party in parliament.

"Through media stories, it has come to my attention that I have been named in a civil matter. I want to state that I have not yet been served with a statement of claim," Shory said in a statement.

He said: "I will defend myself vigorously against these accusations. I have done nothing wrong. As the matter is before the courts, I have no further comment at this time."

As per the lawsuit, the fraudsters scammed the bank by finding houses with lower values than others. Then they found people whom they paid $3,000 to $8,000 each to sign on mortgage papers and become fake owners.

Then the fraudsters would inflate income of these fake buyers to get mortgage applications approved. Once the bank approved the mortgage, the fraudsters sent the money abroad, the bank said in its lawsuit.

Shory is the second Indian-origin MP in Canada to come under the scanner. Indianorigin former MP Rahim Jaffer, who lost in the 2008 parliamentary elections, is already facing a parliamentary probe for alleged ethics violations.

In Malaysia, PU alumni to head Punjabi party
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Parti Punjabi Malaysia (PPM) has for the first time elected a woman president. Susheel Kaur, 59, heads the party that her father Jeswant Singh founded 24 years ago. Frustrated at the party's inability to gain entry into the Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition, she has hinted that it might move to the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

A senior consultant who majored in social impact studies, Susheel Kaur was elected unopposed by more than 50 delegates at the party's biennial general meeting in Ipoh. Speaking to the New Straits Times, Susheel admitted that she was not cut out to be a politician but stressed that she felt responsible for the party, which was founded in 1986 by her father.

Susheel took over the reins from her cousin, Gurdeep Perkash Singh who had helmed the party for the last six years.

She served as the party's secretary for 10 years. With a PhD in population geography from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, she believed that her academic qualification and working experience would assist her in formulating a new direction for the party.

Susheel, however, acknowledged sentiments within the Punjabi community, which saw the party as a weakling compared with other political groups. "One of the reasons why the party has not been able to leap forward and become the de-facto voice of the Punjabis in this country is because of its repeated failures to gain admission into the BN."

"We've been trying to do this for over 10 years now. Not fewer than six applications were submitted but all went unanswered. In fact, our latest application was made on February 2. We are still waiting for an answer," she said before adding that it was an open secret that an Indian-based party within the BN coalition had opposed PPM joining the ruling coalition.

Indian-origin man wins South Africa's top national award

PRETORIA: An Indian-origin man who founded a humanitarian aid organization that has provided relief to people worldwide has received one of South Africa's highest honors.

Imtiaz Sooliman, who started the Gift of the Givers Foundation more than a decade ago, received the Order of the Baobab in Silver from President Jacob Zuma at a function in the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria last night.

The awards are given out to deserving recipients each year to mark the public holiday of Freedom Day, April 27, when South Africa's first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela was sworn into office in 1994.

The Order of the Baobab recognizes South African citizens who have contributed to community service, business and economy, science, medicine and technological innovation.

Sooliman's citation indicated that he was being honored "For his excellent contribution through the Gift of the Givers Foundation to humanitarian aid in South Africa and humanitarian relief missions in various countries."

This year's ceremony was held under the theme ‘Working together we can do more to achieve excellence'.

"This theme has always been a basic premise in all the humanitarian work that we have done for more than a decade now in countries across the globe, with assistance from the South African government and other agencies and volunteers," Sooliman said.

The organization's previous work includes relief work after the earthquake in Gujarat, a few years ago and their latest efforts were in earthquake-stricken Haiti, where its team found the first survivor.

Sooliman received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Natal. "It's great to be recognized in this way by the institution where I started off," he said.

The Order of the Baobab in Silver was also awarded posthumously to another South African Indian, Vincent Naidoo of Cape Town "For his outstanding courage in fighting crime in Mitchells Plain and for sacrificing his life for the safety of his community."  [ By Ritu Pandey ]        

Indian Migrants To Be One Of Australia's Largest Communities, Says Report 

MELBOURNE: Indian migrants will be one of the largest communities in this country in the next 15 years when Australia-born families will become a minority group, a media report said on Sunday citing statistics from a consulting firm.

Outnumbered by a surging wave of migrants from Europe and Asia, especially from India and China, Australians will become a minority group in their own country within 15 years, Australia-based ‘Daily Telegraph' reported quoting figures from demographic consultants Macroplan Australia.

It said most migrants came from Britain (14.2%), followed by New Zealand (11.4%), India (11.2), China (10.5%) South Africa (5.3%) and the Philippines (4.1%).

"Figures from Macroplan Australia show record overseas migration and an ageing population mean migrant families will overtake the number of locally born residents by 2025 - far sooner than previously imagined," the newspaper reported.

According to 2006 census data, 40% of Australia's population was either born overseas or had at least one parent who was born abroad. With the current immigration levels that proportion will jump to over 50% by 2025.

The newly-appointed first Population Minister Tony Burke now faces the task of managing the influx of migrants, which is expected to swell the population from 22 million today to 36 million by 2050.

In a survey of 3,000 people conducted after Burke was sworn in, 70% of Australians said they do not want a bigger population. Fewer than a quarter favored immigration as the main contributor.

But experts said a migrant majority will be healthy for Australian culture and attitudes.

"It all adds to the cosmopolitan nature of modern Australia," KPMG demographer Bernard Salt said.

"It means our views become less blinkered, and we become more tolerant, confident, engaged, opportunistic and optimistic because we are open to new ideas, not obsessed with keeping things the same."

Macroplan chief executive Brian Haratsis said Australians tended to "stare at our shoes and say we're the best in the world".

"While immigration needs to be managed with better infrastructure, we also need high immigration for sound economic reasons - if we don't, we'll all end up paying higher taxes."

Bob Birrell, co-director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research and reader in sociology at Monash University, said the ratio of foreign-born residents was already higher in Sydney and Melbourne because they were the two most popular destinations for new arrivals.

"We're getting lots more Indian and Chinese immigrants coming to study, but many of those will end up settling here," Birrell said.

The Federal Government estimates that cutting immigration from 280,000 to its target of 180,000 will result in a population of 36 million by 2050.

But it also means the number of working taxpayers will halve in relation to the number of people aged over 65. Salt said there would be more Iraqi and Afghan migrants.         

New Malaysian Indian Congress Chief Next Year 

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) will have a change of guard next year, its longtime chief S. Samy Vellu has announced.

Vellu, who has been party chief since 1979 and is now in his 11th term, said he would make way for a successor in the third quarter of next year, well before his term ends in May 2012.

The new chief will lead the party, which claims to speak for Malaysia's 1.7 million ethnic Indians, into the next general election.

Vellu said: "I will hand over the leadership to the next generation of leaders. This is what I told the Prime Minister (Najib Tun Razak) when I met him before the Hulu Selangor by-election.

"Before (vacating the top post), I want to revamp the party completely, starting with the branch and state leaders. People have asked me when I would leave the post and this is the time-frame I have set."

He didn't name his successor. The party constitution, however, dictates that the deputy shall move up should the top post be vacated, New Straits Times said. Vellu also vowed that before stepping down, he would "destroy" those who destroyed the party.

"I'm not going to go like a fool from the MIC and I will make a good decision before I leave. I want all party members to know that the transformation of the MIC will continue. The transition of power in the MIC will be smooth."

MIC is a key constituent of the ruling alliance Barisan Nasional (BN). The BN and the MIC fared badly in the last poll in March 2008.

The MIC, founded in 1946, won just seven of the 18 state seats contested.

Vellu himself lost his ninth re-election bid by a narrow 146-vote margin. He has fended off pressures to quit since then.

[ By Ritu Pandey ]