India May Be the Ideal CEO Training Ground

India May Be the Ideal CEO Training Ground - TIME:

"What on earth did the Banga brothers' mother feed them for breakfast? Whatever it was, it worked: Vindi Banga grew up to become a top executive at the food and personal-care giant Unilever, then a partner at the private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. His younger brother Ajay, after heading Citigroup's Asian operations, was last year named CEO of MasterCard — all without a degree from a Western business school and without abandoning his Sikh turban. When Ajay took over at the credit-card company's suburban — New York City headquarters, the Times of India crowed that he was the first 'entirely India-minted executive' at a multinational's helm."

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Jim Luce: Meet the Amazing Aroon Shivdasani of NYC's Indo-American Arts Council

Jim Luce: Meet the Amazing Aroon Shivdasani of NYC's Indo-American Arts Council

"In fact, after U.S. immigration laws were changed in 1965, Indians began to immigrate to the U.S. in larger numbers. As a group, they are the most highly educated immigrant community here, with approximately 68% of Indian Americans over the age of 25 possessing a college degree and 36% possessing a graduate degree.

"The initial Indian immigrants were in a lower economic stratum. Today, 90% of Indians in North America have attended the best universities and are a visible, viable minority," Aroon told me. "This country now sees Indians in a whole different milieu."

Two other interesting facts: Indian-Americans are the most religiously diverse immigrant community in the country, comprising of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Parsis, and Baha'is, speaking languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali (16 Indian languages), and have the highest median household income of any group in the U.S., at $83,820..."

Kabbadi, a Punjabi Sport, Finds a Home in Queens

Image via WikipediaKabbadi, a Punjabi Sport, Finds a Home in Queens - NYTimes.com

After cricket and field hockey, now its the turn of the traditional Punjabi game of Kabaddi to woo New York. Its interesting how the 'melting pot" not only allows assimilation of languages, food and cultures, but also sports and fashion...

"Yet in keeping with the sport’s international appeal, Sunday’s competitors also included a London team of white blond women and an Australian crew with two African-American men from California, one of whom described himself as a mercenary of sorts..."

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'Hiding Divya' was a real challenge for Pooja Kumar

Image via Wikipedia'Hiding Divya' was a real challenge for Pooja Kumar
Pooja Kumar has come a long way. From the early days of Miss India America to a familiar face on ads on NYC buses to her latest movie, Hiding Divya. In fact, at a recent meeting at a large financial planning company, their standard product collateral had a picture of her - maybe showing diversity or the girl next door..
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The movie sounds very intriguing, but with a new director, its always iffy...as NY TImes states, “Hiding Divya” has moments that feel drawn from life, and the nurturing, smothering Indian community where Divya lives is nicely sketched in. But Ms. Mirza’s storytelling has too many holes: pieces that don’t add up, scenes that leave you with fundamental questions. In the end, you’re none the wiser about mental illness or even about these characters. "

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• Movie Review | 'Hiding Divya': Mental Illness in New Jersey, Secretly (movies.nytimes.com)
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