UK Mayor Sadiq Khan is most influential Asian in Britain

October 21, 2016

London, Oct 21: London Mayor Sadiq Khan, son of a bus driver from Pakistan, is the most influential Asian in the UK, according to a list featuring Britain's 101 prominent Asians, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the Hinduja brothers, Laxmi Mittal and musician Zayn Malik.

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According to GG2 Power List brought out by the leading bi-lingual weekly Garavi Gujarat, 46-year-old Khan "smashed one of the biggest glass ceilings in the country" by becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital.

Launched by Indian Acting High Commissioner to the UK Dinesh Patnaik at the GG2 Leadership Awards at Park Plaza hotel yesterday, the list ranks Sajid Javid - business, innovation and skills minister in the former prime minister David Cameron's government, at second place followed by new international development minister and Indian-origin Priti Patel.

Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the fourth most powerful Asian in the country while Hinduja family led by S P Hinduja is ranked sixth on the list.

"The UK has the best relations with the Commonwealth countries. So I am sure that the UK will negotiate and try to work more with Commonwealth countries where they have an edge on the EU. With India, the UK has a long historical and trade relations," Gopi Hinduja, said Co-Chairman of the Hinduja Group.

The list compiled by the Asian Media and Marketing Group (AMG) also includes NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal at seventh position while Pakistani-origin activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai features tenth on the list.

Sir Rabinder Singh, one of Britain's most celebrated high court judges, presiding in the south eastern circuit since 2013 is rated 12th on the list.

Lord Navnit Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords is rated 41st followed by NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul at 42nd spot.

Malik, who signed a solo recording contract with RCA Records last year after his departure from the popular boy band 'One Direction', is ranked 17th on the list.

"The one Prime Minister who has truly recognised the value of Non-Resident Indians after Mrs Gandhi is Narendra Modi. I think he has been a great prime minister. He is the first one who has been able to deliver respectability to NRIs," Paul said.

"This is what the NRIs deserve. Mrs Gandhi tried (to do the same) but unfortunately at that time she didn't have the kind of majority (Modi has) and her own ministers in government also let her down," he was quoted as saying in the publication.

Paul said that Modi's policy of engaging with the Indian diaspora has been beneficial both to NRIs and the Indian government.

"I am very optimist of India. I think Modi and his cabinet members whom I've met are all very committed. I think his greatest achievement is you don't hear of corruption at the top," he said.

The top 20

1. Sadiq Khan London mayor

2. Sajid Javid Conservative MP

3. Priti Patel Conservative MP

4. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Nobel chemistry prize winner

5. Nadiya Hussain Great British Bake Off winner and TV presenter

6. Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja of the global conglomerate Hinduja Group

7. Lakshmi Mittal a steel magnate, and his wife Usha a philanthropist

8. Rakesh Kapoor businessman

9. Alok Sharma Conservative MP

10. Malala Yousafzai campaigner and Nobel prize winner

11. Tariq Ahmad Conservative peer

12. Rabinder Singh high court judge

13. Amol Rajan editor of the Independent

14. Ivan Menezes businessman

15. Bobbie Cheema-Grubb high court judge

16. Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar actors

17. Zayn Malik singer

18. Rajesh Satija Ram businessman

19. Asif Kapadia film director

20. Mishal Husain BBC presenter

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News Network
May 6,2024

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Several women, believed to be victims of Prajwal Revanna, have left their homes in Karnataka's Hassan district over the last ten days, according to media reports.

These departures reportedly come amid fear and stigma after their identities became public due to the circulating video clips showing the women who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Prajwal Revanna.

"The entire district is in H D Revanna’s control. You speak ill about them and chances are high that it will reach them, because the family and the party have a large following," a shopkeeper in Hagare - 20 km from Hassan – was quoted as saying by the news paper. 

Hassan is the bastion of the JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda, and Prajwal, his grandson, is the sitting MP.

The family of the woman whose complaint was the basis of the first FIR against Prajwal has now left their home, the publication reported, citing a neighbour who said, "The woman worked at Revanna’s house as a house help. Some of her videos started to circulate and then, her house was seen locked. We don’t know when she left."

Notably, a former Zilla Panchayat member has also filed a rape case against Prajwal, and in that village many women who worked for the party formerly are now incommunicado, a JD(S) leader told the publication. "We noticed many of the party women deleting their photos with Prajwal on social media. In some instances, men are questioning their wives about their association with the MP. It is shattering the lives of many women in the district," he said.

The local leader added that the former Zilla Panchayat member was there on April 24, but no one had seen the family since the videos came out.

The case is currently being probed by an SIT team and when they reached the Revanna residence, party workers were reportedly heard talking about the women. "I know this woman, she lived close to our residence and was very active in JD(S) activities. Her house is locked… she has small children," one said, as per IE.

Another shopkeeper added, "It was really wrong to reveal the faces of the women. I know some of them, and they have gone into hiding. We don’t know whether they can return."

He noted that it is impossible to survive in Hassan while fighting a case against the Revanna family.

While Prajwal's father, H D Revanna is in SIT custody, a Blue Corner notice has been issued against the sitting MP.

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News Network
May 10,2024

Mangaluru: A teenage boy from a remote village in Dakshina Kannada district, who was undergoing treatment for stomach pain for past few days, breathed his last after hospitalization. 

The deceased has been identified as Nithin Kumar, 19, who had completed PUC and was attending computer classes. 

According to police, on May 4, when he informed his family that he had been suffering from a stomach-ache for the past 4-5 days, his family members took him to a clinic in Kaniyoor.

The doctors who examined him advised him to undergo scanning. He was informed about a kidney stone and later, they returned home. That same night, he suffered from stomach-ache again and was rushed to a private hospital in Puttur.

On May 7, as per doctors’ advice, he was discharged around 12:45pm. However, when he came home around 2:30pm, he again suffered from stomach-ache and was taken to another private hospital in Puttur, where doctors conducted a surgery.

On Wednesday, as per doctors’ advice, he was asked to be shifted to Mangaluru for better treatment.

He visited a private hospital in Derakatte, where doctors suggested that he be shifted to government Wenlock Hospital.

The doctors who examined him at the Wenlock Hospital declared him dead. A case has been registered at the Bellare police station, and an investigation is on.

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May 17,2024

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Hubballi, May 17: Karnataka Police have arrested the killer, Vishwa, also known as Girish, in the sensational Anjali Ambigera murder case, police said on Friday.

Preliminary investigations reveal that Vishwa was a habitual thief who exploited innocent young women. The accused is also a drunkard and was caught while attempting to commit theft. He was also part of a gang which stole bikes.

The accused targeted gullible young women, enacting a drama of love and playing the emotional card to forcefully extort gold, silver, and cash from them. When Anjali did not agree to any of his attempts to rob her and outrightly rejected his offer to go with him to Mysuru city, he brutally killed her.

The police had formed two teams to hunt down the killer. One of the teams was searching in the south Karnataka region, and another team, which launched a hunt in Davanagere, nabbed him. The accused was arrested by the police on Thursday.

The police could not catch him sooner as the killer did not carry a mobile phone and did not use his phone for 15 days, before murdering Anjali. The jurisdictional Bendigeri Police were aware of the killer's history, but even after the complaint by the girl’s family, they showed "utter negligence".

The 24-year-old Vishwa entered Anjali Ambigera's (20) residence at 5.30 A.M. on Wednesday and stabbed the young woman multiple times before she could react. Vishwa dragged Anjali Ambigera all over the house, kicking and stabbing her. Later, he pushed her into the kitchen where he stabbed her repeatedly.

Despite efforts by Anjali’s grandmother and two sisters to stop the attacker, he killed her and managed to flee. The incident occurred in the Veerapura Oni area within the jurisdiction of the Bendigeri Police Station.

Vishwa had been blackmailing Anjali and pressurising her to accompany him to Mysuru without informing her parents. The incident which took place close on the heels of MCA student Neha Hiremath’s brutal murder by the jilted lover has raised concern over the safety of women all across the state.

The BJP had demanded the resignation of Home Minister G. Parameshwara while the Congress leaders have also demanded that the Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar should be transferred for failing to sensitise the police force regarding issues of women’s safety.

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