Home > Magazine > Desi World > Briefs/ Overseas Indians Honored in Odisha/ Two Indian Americans in TIME100 Next/ Book Matters.

 

Briefs/ Overseas Indians Honored in Odisha/ Two Indian Americans in TIME100 Next/ Book Matters.

Compiled/ Written by Murali Kamma Email Compiled/ Written by Murali Kamma
February 2025
Briefs/ Overseas Indians Honored in Odisha/ Two Indian Americans in TIME100 Next/ Book Matters.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, & WHY

Priyamvada Natarajan won the 2025 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. A professor of physics and Chair of Astronomy at Yale, Natarajan, who studied at MIT and Cambridge, is also director of the university’s Franke Program in Science and Humanities. She received the $10,000 award for furthering the understanding of dark matter substructure in galaxy clusters, and the formation and fueling of black holes.

DesiWorld_04_02_25.jpg

 

Dev Pragad is president and CEO of Newsweek, which he co-owns. The audience for this digital-first publication rose from eight million to 100 million in three years. The Indian-born Pragad, who grew up in the U.K., now lives in the U.S. and is a dual citizen. After receiving his bachelor’s and PhD in engineering from Kings College London, Pragad did a two-year owner/president management program at Harvard Business School.

DesiWorld_10_02_25.jpg



Ayush Noori is among 32 Rhodes Scholars from the U.S. who will be heading to Oxford in the U.K. for higher studies. A Harvard senior and a Goldwater Scholar, Noori published several research papers on neuroscience and co-founded OpenBio Laboratory, which supports underrepresented students. Other American Rhodes Scholars in 2025 include Anushka Nair (MIT), Om Gandhi (UPenn), and Aneesh Muppidi (Harvard).

DesiWorld_13_02_25.jpg

 

 

Sudha Setty will take over as president and CEO of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). Besides administering the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the nonprofit assists law schools and applicants with the admission process. Setty, who earned her JD from Columbia, serves as dean of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. She was dean of the Western New England University School of Law.

DesiWorld_05_02_25.jpg


Caitlin Sandra Neil of California was crowned India USA 2024 at the annual pageant in New Jersey. There were 47 contestants for three categories from 25 states. A student at UC Davis, the 19-year-old Caitlin, who moved from Chennai to the U.S. when she was 5, focuses on women’s health and empowerment. Arshita Kathpalia of Washington was crowned Miss Teen India USA, and Sanskriti Sharma of Illinois became Mrs. India USA.

DesiWorld_01_02_25.jpg

 

Pal Aggarwal is among five Rhodes Scholars from India who will be heading to Oxford in the U.K. for higher studies. She plans to pursue a DPhil in astrophysics. The other Indian Rhodes Scholars are Rayan Chakrabarti, Vibha Swaminathan, Avinash Vats, and Shubham Narwal (India’s first veterinarian to be named a Rhodes Scholar since 1947). The 2025 Rhodes Scholars from Pakistan are Javera Shakeel and Shahmir Aziz.

DesiWorld_11_02_25.jpg


Aneesh Sohoni is taking over as CEO of Teach for America (TFA), the famed nonprofit that’s been providing educational opportunities in low-income communities since 1990. It was founded by Wendy Kopp. Graduates from top universities, after they’re recruited and trained, teach for at least two years in a K-12 school. As CEO of One Million Degrees, Sohoni has strengthened the support for community college students across the nation.

DesiWorld_12_02_25.jpg

 

Vivekanand Balija of New Jersey is among five Indian Americans who got the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) for outstanding STEM teaching in grades K-12. Others are Rajini Sundararaj of Georgia (more in Community Newsmakers), Rama Devagupta of Washington, Anjana Iyer of New Jersey, and Ranjani Krishnan of Oregon. Prof. Binod Tiwari of CA is also a winner.



 > >> >> >>   

OVERSEAS INDIANS HONORED IN ODISHA

DesiWorld_02_02_25.jpgLaunched in 2003, the now-biannual convention for overseas Indians—known as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)—honors the contributions of India’s far-flung diaspora, said to be around 35.4 million. It was held from January 8 to 10 in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, whose cultural heritage was highlighted in an exhibition. Other exhibitions focused on the diaspora’s contributions in technology, depictions of the Ramayana in contemporary and traditional art forms, and the passage of migrants from Mandvi to Muscat. In 2025, there were 27 honorees representing 23 nations, stretching from Australia to the U.A.E. and from Austria to Uganda. Three individuals from the U.S. were included for this award, known as Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. They were Sharad Lakhanpal (Medicine), Sharmila Ford (Community Service), and Ravi Kumar Singisetti (Business). The Pravasi Bharatiya Express was a special train that took guests from Delhi to various destinations in India for three weeks.

Indian President Droupadi Murmu was an attendee, as were Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Distinguished guests included President Irfaan Ali of Guyana and President Chan Santokhi of Suriname. On the second and third days of PBD, there were plenary sessions on diaspora youth leadership, migrant skills, sustainable development, women’s leadership, and cultural connections. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the U.S. has the biggest population of Indians (5.4 million), followed by the U.A.E. (3.5 million). The Cook Islands have only five Indians, and the Marshall Islands have nine. South Korea has 17,001 Indians, and surprisingly, 16 Indians live in North Korea. Several other nations, including those in Central America, have double-digit figures, but Myanmar has about 2 million Indians.

/|\  /| \  /|\  /| \

TWO INDIAN AMERICANS IN TIME100 NEXT

 

DesiWorld_03_02_25.jpg

Tara Raghuveer and Adith Moorthy (see picture) are among those picked for TIME100 Next, a yearly list of emerging leaders who’re shaping the future. Raghuveer is the founding director of KC Tenants, which caters to working class tenants in Kansas City. And she’s the homes campaign director at a network of grassroots organizations committed to racial, economic, gender, and climate justice. Moorthy of California founded Boomitra when he was still a graduate student at Stanford. His startup, winner of the Earthshot Prize, is involved in removing emissions from the atmosphere through carbon monitoring technology and a verified carbon credit marketplace. This has boosted the profits of agriculturalists and rejuvenated their land. A Stanford Knight-Hennessey Scholar, he also studied at the California Institute of Technology, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees.

Others on the list include Nahid Islam, a Bangladeshi student activist who was at the forefront in the nationwide revolt that overthrew Sheikh Hasina and her regime. Then there’s Rukshana Kapali, a law student and Indigenous activist who fought for transgender rights in Nepal. Filmmaker Payal Kapadia, who’s been receiving a lot of attention for her award-winning and acclaimed debut feature film, All We Imagine as Light, is the only person from India on the list. Also included is British Indian Dr. Mehreen Datoo. An associate fellow of Green Templeton College and an infectious diseases researcher at Oxford, she’s been recognized for crucial fieldwork in Uganda that led to the development of a new malaria vaccine. Finally, British Indian actress Ambika Mod won a spot on the list as well. Her most recent role was as Emma Morley in One Day, a 14-episode British series on Netflix.

& & & & & & & & & &

BOOK MATTERS

DesiWorld_07_02_25.jpg

The Inheritance (Viking), by Trisha Sakhlecha. In this mystery novel, there’s a small gathering on an isolated private island off the coast of Scotland. If Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None comes to mind, you’re not mistaken. Her famous novel seems to have been an inspiration, except here the murder occurs at the end of the novel, not the beginning. The well-heeled Raj Agarwal (he owns a multimillion-dollar company in Delhi) wants to announce his succession plans to his wife, Shalini, and their three children. Another reminder for readers, despite the Indian twist, could be the hit TV series Succession. Myra, Agarwal’s daughter and host of the reunion, has a secret, as do her siblings, Aseem and Aisha. “Sakhlecha’s glamorous thriller portrays a dysfunctional family doing despicable things in the name of love,” according to The Washington Post. The author, who grew up in Delhi, is a diplomat who divides her time between London and Berlin, where she is director of the Tagore Centre, Embassy of India.

 

DesiWorld_06_02_25.jpg

 The World With Its Mouth Open: Stories (Tin House), by Zahid Rafiq. A Kashmiri journalist who turned to fiction writing, Rafiq focuses his lens on his native state in this debut collection of eleven stories. There’s no title story—but the title, implying bewilderment and uncertainty, is a recurring theme. “Do you know what is waiting there?” a sadistic tutor yells at his young pupil. He’s referring to the world . . . with its mouth open. While the political world remains at a distance, its brutal reality becomes obvious through the everyday experiences of characters who’re often ordinary folks like shopkeepers. One story involves a partly dismembered mannequin, and in another tale, an obituary is published prematurely. But “real death” also haunts the collection. A narrator laments the death of an ex-lover. A luggage store salesman has lost his brother, making it harder for him to tell his parents that he is no longer employed. Author Omar El Akkad calls it “a brilliant debut collection, both restrained and revelatory.”

 

DesiWorld_09_02_25.jpg

Rosarita (Scribner), by Anita Desai. At the age of 87, the redoubtable Desai has come out with a new novel—or, more accurately, a novella. This is the form she prefers in her late phase as a fiction writer. We travel to Mexico (which was also the setting for an earlier novel), where the protagonist Bonita is learning Spanish in San Miguel. Unusually for Desai, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, the story unfolds in the second person. She was inspired to write it after reading about the Indian artist Satish Gujral, who’d gone to Mexico to study under the muralist Diego Rivera. Bonita, who’s from India, meets an older woman who claims that she met Bonita’s late mother, Rosarita, when she’d come to Mexico to study art. But did Bonita’s mother, whose name was actually Sarita, really go to Mexico? “A haunting meditation on identity and understanding,” notes Kirkus in a starred review. Kiran Desai, Anita’s youngest daughter, won the Booker Prize in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss.

DesiWorld_08_02_25.jpg

Missy (Canelo Hera), by Raghav Rao. In this debut novel, Savi, an orphan at St. Ursula’s Convent in Madras, is destined for a life as a maid. Rejecting that fate, the plucky 17-year-old, using her gift for languages as a selling point, finds a job at a prosperous estate in the countryside. Then comes a tumultuous night that dramatically changes her life. Embarking on a perilous journey, she and her lover end up in the U.S. under assumed identities. Resourceful as ever, Savi becomes a successful entrepreneur in Chicago. The past may be a different country, but there’s no avoiding it, even though four decades have gone by. Savi is by now the mother of two young women. How does the arrival of Varun, a doctor, upend her carefully built life with its buried secrets? “A heartwarming story of grit and survival,” says author Namita Gokhale. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Rao teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and National Louis University, also in Chicago..


 


Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.


  • Add to Twitter
  • Add to Facebook
  • Add to Technorati
  • Add to Slashdot
  • Add to Stumbleupon
  • Add to Furl
  • Add to Blinklist
  • Add to Delicious
  • Add to Newsvine
  • Add to Reddit
  • Add to Digg
  • Add to Fark
blog comments powered by Disqus

Back to articles

 

DIGITAL ISSUE 

02_25-Cover-Desi-Comedians-W.jpg

 

eKhabar

 Tanishq135x140.jpg 

NRSPAY_Khabar-Website_2x2_Ad.gif

Krishnan Co WebBanner.jpg

Raj&Patel-CPA-Web-Banner.jpg

Embassy Bank_gif.gif 

MedRates-Banner-11-23.jpg

DineshMehta-CPA-Banner-0813.jpg