IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DESI WORLD
-
Tidbit from 2014: World Food Prize
October 2014 - Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, winner of this year’s $250,000 World Food Prize, is a citizen of Mexico, not India or the U.S.--but he was born in India. He went to Australia for his Ph.D.
-
Tidbit from 2014: foreign students pursuing STEM
October 2014 - India accounts for four of the top 10 source cities among foreign students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in the U.S. More interesting education facts here.
-
Tidbit from 2014: first American TV series set in India
October 2014 - While Indian characters on American TV shows are no longer stereotypical, now we can check out the first American TV series set in India. Maya had 2 boys, an elephant, and a lost hunter father.
-
Tidbit from 2014: keeping track of beauty pageants
October 2014 - There is still an Indian contestant in the beauty pageant news this year: Gail Nicole Da Silva, a Goan, took the second spot in a pageant called Miss United Continent.
-
Tidbit from 2014: U.S.-based Saaranga Books
October 2014 - Raj Karamchedu, a techie, launched U.S.-based Saaranga Books to promote Telugu literature, but in seeking to gain a wider audience, he has brought out his debut novel in English: All Things Unforgiven.
-
MAN OF THE MOMENT
June 2014 - Time magazine's “100 most influential people” includes Narendra Modi, Arundhati Roy, Arunachalam Muruganantham, Arvind Kejriwal, Malala Yousafzai, and Hosain Rahman.
-
DIY MICROSCOPE PROMOTES HEALTH
June 2014 - A practically free paper microscope that magnifies up to 2100 times, Foldscope comes from Stanford University’s Prakash Lab. Bioengineer Manu Prakash is from IIT-Kanpur and MIT.
-
GOLDMAN & GUGGENHEIM
June 2014 - An Indian has been awarded The Goldman Environmental Prize (aka Green Nobel), one of the world’s largest awards honoring grassroots activists; two Indian-Americans are Guggenheim Fellows.
-
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships
June 2014 - The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships are awarded to immigrants or children of immigrants. This year, among 30 winners are four Indian-Americans, one with a tie to Georgia.
-
BEAUTY AND THE BEE
June 2014 - Lucy Edwards, an Indian-American, was crowned Miss Vermont 2014; Akhil Rekulapelli won 2014 National Geographic Bee; and many Indians and Indian-Americans won other US awards.