11 Indo-Canadian achievers to be honoured

TORONTO: The Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) will honour 11 outstanding Indo-Canadian achievers at the chamber's Annual Awards and Gala Night 2013 on Saturday.

Among those who will be honoured at the event at Metro Toronto Convention Centre are Deepak Chopra, president of Canada Post, Raj Kothari, managing partner for Toronto for PriceWaterhouse Cooper, and young achiever Bilaal Rajan.

The event is expected to be attended by 1,200 people, including guest of honour Kathleen Wynne, premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, and a business delegation from the Indian state of Karnataka, the Globe and Mail reported.

Chopra, who will be honoured as the 'Corporate Executive of the Year', said that the award "is truly a tribute to numerous unsung heroes who helped shape my thinking along the way".

"I believe, success is never a random stroke of individual brilliance (as) it is the sum total of influences you have had along your life," he was quoted as saying.

Terming Canada Post as one of the crown jewels of this north American country's economic infrastructure, Chopra said that when he joined it as president in 2011, "it was facing the onslaught of electronic substitution eating into its revenues and a difficult labour relations environment".

He said that he helped ensure sharpen the focus on physical delivery as well as digital delivery networks.

Kothari, who will be honoured as 'Male Professional of the Year', said that he has "always been focused on how I can make a difference - first in the profession that I work in and second in the community that I live in".

Rajan, 16, who will be honoured as the 'Young Achiever of the Year', is a motivational speaker and the UNICEF's children ambassador.

An environmental and social activist, he was only four years old when in 2001, the Indian state of Gujarat was devastated by an earthquake.

He then raised funds to help the victims by selling oranges.

Stating that he was humbled by the ICCC award, he said: "It reaffirms to me that the activism work that I am doing to especially engage others (and primarily youth) is being taken seriously and is having an impact to change the mindsets of society."

Others who will be honoured in Saturday's event are Sarabjit Hans as 'Female Entrepreneur of the Year', Sujay Shah as 'Male Entrepreneur of the Year', Sadhna Joshi as 'Female Professional of the Year', Sapna Shah as 'Young Achiever of the Year', Nilesh Bansal as 'Technology Achiever of the Year', Chandrasekhar Sankurathri as 'Humanitarian of the Year', and Jananath Wani for 'Lifetime/Outstanding Achievement'.

The ICCC is one of the largest membership-based national business organisations in Canada with over 1,500 members representing all sections of the nation's economy.

NRI Sabha, Canada congrats them all for their achievements.

9-year-old UK schoolgirl enters Turkey using toy passport

LONDON: A nine-year-old British schoolgirl managed to get past Turkish customs officers with a toy passport identifying her as a unicorn.

Emily Harris, from Cwmbran, South Wales, had taken the toy passport she had made for her pink toy unicorn on holiday with her.

When the family passed through customs at Antalya airport to start their one-week holiday, Emily's mom Nicky accidentally handed over the toy's passport, instead of her daughter's, 'The Daily Express' reported.

However, the parents were shocked when they later realised their mistake - and discovered passport officials had even stamped the unicorn's passport.

The passport is quite obviously a fake, Nicky said, pointing out that it is not only a completely different size and shape to the official document, but that it also has gold teddy bears on the front.

"The man even asked Emily how old she was, and she told him nine, before he stamped it," Nicky said.

"The picture ID wasn't even of Emily, it was of a pink unicorn," she said.

It was only when they got outside that Nicky realised that instead of handing in Emily's passport, she had shown her daughter's Bear Factory passport for a unicorn toy called Lily Harris.

"We saw the funny side, and laughed at the fact that the officer had even stamped the passport. But at the same time, it's a worry to any parent, how easy it would be to smuggle a child through customs and into another country."

Imran Khan damaged Pakistan cricket: Aamir Sohail

In the aftermath of the crushing defeat to India, former skipper Aamir Sohail has launched a scathing attack on one of Pakistan's greatest cricketers, Imran Khan, saying the World Cup-winning captain is responsible for the current state of sport in the country.

"I want to say clearly here and for once we must face the truth that Imran is responsible for the state of affairs in our cricket," Sohail said.

With his statement that is clearly a fallout of Pakistan's disastrous campaign in the Champions Trophy in England, where they lost all their three group matches, Sohail left the other two guest on the show -- Zaheer Abbas and Younis Khan -- surprised.

"Imran damaged Pakistan cricket by encouraging our bowlers to tamper with the ball. This has led to a culture where we can't produce good new ball bowlers or quality openers," the 46-year-old former opener told a news channel.

Sohail was retorting to the views expressed by former pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who felt Pakistan "need a dressing room culture where a winning mentality is promoted" and someone like Imran to guide and produce quality players.

The storm was already brewing and yesterday's eight-wicket defeat to arch-rivals India only added to the wounds.

A proven player with 47 Tests and 156 ODIs under his belt, Sohail has worked as a chief selector in the past and was a member of the 1992 World Cup winning squad led by Imran.

Many other former players including Akhtar and Zaheer made it clear that it was time for Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, and Shoaib Malik to get the axe.

"Changes have to be made and new players must be brought in and given time to settle down. We have tried the same set of players time and again and they have not delivered in big tournaments," Akhtar said.

However, Younis, who was dropped for the Champions Trophy, felt changing and chopping or pressing the panic button will not solve problems.

On the sidelines, former captain Zaheer Abbas has lamented the shortage of quality batsmen in Pakistan and said the absence of role models has led to the side's woes in batting department.

"The way I see it our poor batting performances in recent years can be put down to the fact that we are not producing role models for the new players," Zaheer said.

"Tell me today who is the role model for young batsman in the team. In the past we had a line of top batsmen from generation to generation. When I came in I looked up to Hanif Muhammad and others when younger players came in they looked up to us," he said.

He pointed out that for years Pakistan had produced quality pace bowlers because new players had idols to follow.

"We need to think about how to revamp the system to produce quality players. I don't think any coaching will help until we get players of the highest caliber."

Zaheer referred to neighbouring India as the perfect example of how young players followed in the footsteps of quality role models.

"Today India has a wealth of quality batsmen why because they have maintained a culture of producing top line batsmen.

Today players like Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina know if they don't live up to the standards set by their predecessors they will not survive for long in the team," he said.

"India produced quality batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Sourav Ganguly and they all went at the right time leaving behind a legacy for new players to follow.

"Unfortunately in Pakistan cricket after Inzamam or Yousuf we have just not produced enough quality batsmen. Younis is the last in line and he is out of the team," Zaheer said.

Former captain, Aamir Sohail called for changes in the domestic structure and for regional cricket associations to be given more responsibility.

"You will only find quality new players from these regions. In the past the regions produced players and departments groomed them. They were big names in these departments. But over the years standards have declined," Sohail said.

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport bags world's second best airport award

New Delhi - Indira Gandhi International Airport has been named the world's second best airport in the 25-40 million passengers category by the Airport Council International.

The airport also has been adjudged as the fourth best in the world among 199 airports across all categories.

A nine-member team, comprising representatives from airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Central Industrial Security Force, Airport Operations Control and Air India received the 'ACI ASQ Award' at an award ceremony organised by the Airport Council International (ACI) in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday.

"This recognition is testimony to the efforts of all our employees and partners who have consistently met the expectations of the industry," DIAL CEO I Prabhakar Rao said.

IGI airport scored 4.83 out of 5 on the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) scale.

IGI has managed to retain its position of second best airport in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category for 2012 year.

The airport had an ASQ score of 3.02 in 2007 and ranked last among the 101 participating airports of the world.

The airport has an annual capacity of over 60 million passengers, but in 2012, around 34.2 million passengers passed through it.

IGI handled around 550,000 tonnes of cargo and over 300,000 aircraft movements during the same period.

Since its inception in 2006, the ASQ Awards have become the world's leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark with over 275 airports participating in it.

The ASQ Awards recognise and reward the best airports in the world based on ACI's ASQ passenger satisfaction survey done on uniform format worldwide and represent an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of airports worldwide to continually improve passenger experience.

Prince William Has Indian Heritage? DNA Test Of Princess Diana's Lineage Indicates So

London - Prince William, second-in-line to the throne, will be first British king with proven Indian ancestry, DNA analysis has revealed. The DNA analysis of saliva samples taken from the Duke of Cambridge’s relatives has established a direct lineage between the 30-year-old prince and an Indian housekeeper on his mother Princess Diana’s side.

It is his only non-European DNA and means he will become the first Head of the Commonwealth with a clear genetic link to its most populous nation — India.

William is now likely to be encouraged to make his debut mission to India soon after the birth of his baby next month.

Researchers have uncovered the details of his lineage via a doomed relationship of William’s Indian great-great-great-great-great grandmother.

Eliza Kewark was housekeeper to Prince William’s great grandfather Theodore Forbes (1788-1820), a Scottish merchant who worked for the East India Company in the port town of Surat in Gujarat.

Eliza’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was passed on by her daughters and granddaughters directly in an unbroken line to Princess Diana and then on to Prince William and Prince Harry.

Eliza is claimed to have been Armenian, possibly because her surname is rather like the Armenian name Kevork and letters from her to Forbes have been found which contain Armenian script. “But we believe that all the evidence we have gathered shows that her genetic heritage through her motherline is Indian,” BritainsDNA, a DNA ancestry testing company, said in a release.

Decoding Ancestry
DNA analysis of saliva samples taken from Prince William’s relatives establishes his direct lineage to Indian housekeeper Eliza Kewark on Princess Diana’s side
Eliza was housekeeper to William’s great grandfather Theodore Forbes, a Scottish merchant who worked for the East India Company in Surat, Gujarat
Tests indicate Eliza’s mtDNA was passed on by her daughters and granddaughters to Diana and then on to her children
The two princes carry Eliza’s markers but will not pass this Indian mtDNA on to their children, as it is only passed from mother to child.