President Obama Chooses a Sikh For Key Administration Position

The President of the United States of America Barack Obama has chosen Sikh American CEO Ajay Banga for a major administration position on his Advisory Committee for Trade and Policy Negotiations.
Ajay Banga is currently the chairman for the US India Business Council and came to India as part of Obama’s CEOs delegation.

The White House in a press release confirmed that Ajay Banga will be part of the Advisory Committee. President Obama was quoted saying “The talent and expertise these individuals bring to their roles will serve our nation well. I am grateful for their service, and look forward to working with them.”

Ajay Banga has an MBA from the IIM Ahmedabad and since 2009 is the CEO of MasterCard.Before joining MasterCard Ajay Banga held the following Positions:

Senior Management Citigroup (1996-2009)

Director For Marketing and Business Development at Pepsi Rest

He served as Director for Marketing and Business Development at PepsiCo Restaurants International India from 1994 to 1996.

Mr Banga began his career at Nestle India, where he served in various sales and management roles from 1981 to 1994.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of MasterCard and The Dow Chemical Company. He received a BA degree from St Stephen’s College of Delhi University. Ajay Banga is president and chief executive officer of MasterCard and a member of its board of directors.Prior to joining MasterCard in 2009, Mr. Banga was chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific responsible for all businesses in the region, including institutional banking, alternative investments, wealth management, consumer banking and credit cards. He joined Citigroup in 1996 and held a variety of senior management roles in the United States, Asia Pacific, and the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. He was also responsible for Citi’s brand marketing and from 2005-2009 oversaw its efforts in micro-finance.

Mr. Banga began his career at Nestlé, India, where for 13 years he worked on assignments spanning sales, marketing and general management. He also spent two years at Pepsi Co, where he was instrumental in launching its fast food franchises in India as the economy liberalized.

Mr. Banga is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Weill Cornell Medical College and on the Board of the American Red Cross. He is currently chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council and was also appointed a member of the U.S.-India CEO Forum. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Round table. Mr. Banga is also a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He is also vice chair of the Business Council.

In addition, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Advisory Board of the Moscow School of Management (SKOLKOVO), the board of the Financial Services Round table, the Economic Club of New York, the New York City Ballet and the Partnership for New York City. He also is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012.

With Thanks : Sikhs Helping Sikhs 

Celebration of Hola Mahalla at Gurdwara Damdama Sahib

With Thanks : Media DSGMC

Inauguration of Shaheed Bhai Jeevan Singh Ji Langar Hall in Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib

With Thanks : Media DSGMC

Hola Mohalla: Punjab's rich and colourful tradition

A day assigned for mock battles for his troops by the 10th guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, has come to be the symbol of Punjab's own rich religious and cultural tradition. The festival of 'Hola Mohalla', as it is known, takes place this weekend in this Sikh religious town.

Hola Mohalla, celebrated a day after Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, has carved out its own unique place in Punjab's and Sikh religion's calendar. The festival made its beginning around 1701 as Guru Gobind Singh wanted his troops to have mock battles to keep them battle ready.

Tens of thousands of Nihang Sikhs assemble in this town, home to Takht Keshgarh Sahib, the second holiest of Sikh shrines (after Harmandar Sahib or Golden Temple in Amritsar), every year to be part of the festival.

The shrine is famous as it was here that Guru Gobind Singh founded the 'Khalsa Panth', the modern day Sikh religion, in April 1699.

During the festivities, various sects (deras) of Nihangs go in a procession from the main gurdwara and pass through the holy town.

The procession then culminates at a stadium where the Nihang Sikhs perform 'Gatka', a traditional form of martial art in which age-old weapons and equipment are used to showcase mock battles.

"It is an amazing sight to see the Gatka performance. The festivity around the procession and the colourful atmosphere make it a great spectacle to watch," travel writer and author Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu told IANS.

with thanks : Business Standard : LINK : for complete news.

SHOCKING NEWS : Sikh man converts to Islam in Afghanistan

A disillusioned Sikh man from India has converted to Islam in Afghanistan's Jawzjan province and has been named Abdul Rehman, according to a media report here. 

Tota Singh has converted to Islam and has been named as Abdul Rehman in the northern Jawzjan, Pajhwok Afghan News reported. 

Singh arrived from India in Shiberghan, capital of Jawzjan province two years ago. He was thinking of converting to Islam, the report said. "After doing a lot of research, he has finally chosen Islam," he said. 

with thanks : Business Standard : LINK : for complete news.

Optimism with positive behaviour is the crux of life !

Optimism is must if you wish to achieve something in your life. If you want to look upwards, you have to shed all of the negative thoughts.  Just a few months ago I read about Mr. Kailash  Satyarthi, who started his activities as a social activist on the ‘Bachpan Bachao Platform’. His activities reached to such a scale that he was selected for the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2014. He never started with a thought that he had to get the Nobel. He just started his journey with a positive mind, with optimism, with a will to do something for the downtrodden and the outcome was the Nobel Peace Prize. We feel proud that we belong to a country where we have persons of that calibre.

Now i will tell you about a person who is just a Tea seller. No I am not talking about our Prime Minister. This person is a Tea seller at the ITO in Delhi. His name is Laxman Rao. I just got a call from CNN IBN channel to come for a discussion on the Delhi elections on ‘Chay Pe Charcha’. The official cab took me to the spot & I saw a person making Tea on the footpath. We were told to sit on the nearby stones. He offered us a cup of tea & soon the discussion started.

It was my very first meeting with him and I got a strange feeling on finding that he too was a speaker in the discussion. He spoke so well that I was surprised on his vast knowledge on various issues. He was a very active participant in the discussion. Soon the show was over & I started to leave. But just than I saw a  big lot of books lying nearby. Out of curiosity, I went there to see what kind of books these were & to my surprise, all of these books were written by that Tea seller Mr Laxman Rao - Author.

Soon he became very friendly & explained about himself. He said that after writing his very first book he went to various publishers but none of them agreed to print it. But he continued his efforts & when he found none to publish his book, he himself published it at his own cost. One after another he wrote dozens of books & all of them were published by himself.

His books are so famous that these are regularly sold at various Book fairs. He was awarded by the President Smt Pratibha Patil. He is a Blogger too. I know we all have thousands of friends on Facebook but have you ever sought friendship with a CHAY WALA AUTHOR. Just try it & you will find a great personality in him as he is also very active on Facebook. Just search Laxman Rao on your FB page & you will find him.

Even though he is an ordinary Tea vendor but his will to look upwards, his optimistic behaviour, his positive vibrations have made him a great author. Have a cup of tea with him if you want to see a real hero of life. Please log on to the website https://housing.com/lookup if you too really want to look upwards in your life. Pic has been taken with thanks from the weblink https://housing.com/lookup. Plz shed all of your negative thoughts and start looking upwards. Laxman Rao is a great example for all of us. 

DSGMC President condemns racial abuse of Sikh boy in Georgia,USA

The president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Manjit Singh GK has condemned the incident of racial abuse of a Sikh boy in Georgia recently of which the video recording has gone viral over the social networking sites. The Sikh boy identified as Harsukh Singh was called terrorist by a group of school students.

“The aghast incident and such incidents happening the past, has been a cause of pain for the Sikh diaspora living in India and the outside world and my appeal to everyone is not to hurl such expletives on the Sikhs. Sikhs are God fearing, hard working, peace loving, tenacious, sincere people and are a chivalrous community and adds to the highly skilled, semi skilled and unskilled work force in a big way and contributes towards the prosperity and economy of US,” said Manjit Singh GK, issuing and appeal to the US administration and police to protect the Sikhs so that the country doesn’t lose its character where all races and religion live in peace and cohesion.

Manjit Singh GK adds that United Kingdom and France are raising Sikh regiments as a mark of respect to the community recognizing their role in the world wars.  

With Thanks : Media DSGMC

Young Sikh Boy Racially Abused in US, Video Goes Viral

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee contributes towards Campaign for Sikh Identity in USA

Manjit Singh G K, DSGMC President with Dr. Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education and Senior Advisor to the Washington based National Sikh Campaign

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee President Manjit Singh GK announced a contribution of $10,000 towards an awareness campaign to educate Americans about Sikhism and Sikh Identity. 

Manjit Singh GK, President  & Manjinder Singh Sirsa, General  Secy. of DSGMC, appeared with Dr. Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education and Senior Advisor to the Washington based National Sikh Campaign, in New Delhi in a press meet and endorsed an American Sikh plan to reach out to millions of fellow Americans. This awareness initiative is being spearheaded by newly formed National Sikh Campaign (NSC) based in Washington. NSC has engaged AKPD, a high profile media consultancy founded by President Obama’s top political strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe, which has managed Obama’s senate election and two presidential campaigns. APKD has submitted a plan to launch a presidential style nationwide media campaign on Sikhs.

Sikhs in the United States have faced numerous incidents of violence, discrimination and prejudice since 9/11 due to ignorance about Sikhism. A country- wide survey and polling was conducted by Hart Research Associates headed by Geoffrey Garrin, Hillary Clinton’s former top political strategist. The purpose of this most comprehensive study about Sikhs in America was to identify the problem of ignorance and confusion about Sikh identity and suggest remedies for them. The findings of this national research was released last month which concluded that 60% of Americans knew nothing about Sikhs and only 3% of them have interacted with Sikhs. Over 48% identified them as either Arabs or Muslims. 54% of the Americans were neutral towards Sikhs and 16% were cool. However, upon learning about the Sikhs, Americans warmed up to them across demographics. AKPD will prepare ads based on these findings and these ads will be vetted by experts before national media campaign is launched.

Manjit Singh GK said, “We feel that DSGMC has the moral responsibility to support such innovative strategies to fight ignorance and prejudice against Sikhs and to educate all non-Sikhs about Sikh religion and its traditions. We are satisfied with this approach and this will help in changing the perception of the Sikhs in USA.  We stand behind any plan to make our community strong in America.”

Dr. Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education and Senior Advisor to the National Sikh Campaign, said, “We are grateful to DSGMC for this kind gesture and it sends a strong message to the entire American Sikh community that Sikhs in India care for them. This is the most significant step taken by the Sikh community in the United States and this kind of high level media campaign is critical for our community’s standing. There is no substitute for media strategy and it is imperative that all Sikhs join in this effort. We appeal to all Sikhs to contribute generously to make sure our coming generations do not face the negative environment.”

Gurwin Singh Ahuja, Co-Founder of NSC, said, “DSGMC’s support is big boost to this effort and we are highly encouraged by this contribution. We are confident that this campaign will produce the desired results for the community.”

With thanks : Media DSGMC 

National Seminar in SGND Khalsa College on "Guru Granth Sahib in 21st Century: Traditions & Modernity"

"Guru Granth Sahib in 21st Century" :National Seminar in SGND Khalsa College,University of Delhi