INDIA New England is proud to announce Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School, as the 2012 INDIA New England Person of the Year. The Person of the Year award is a new honor bestowed by the newspaper and follows closely on the heels of INDIA New England's first ever "50 Most Influential People" list, which was released in the November edition. Nohria was also honored on this list and rose above his fellow honorees to be tabbed as "Person of the Year" for his work with Harvard in 2011.

Headlines last fall were ominous: Rajat Gupta to surrender to the FBI; Rajat Gupta released on $10 million bail. It was the lead story in major American newspapers and the lead story on evening news on network TV. 

Rajat Gupta was one of a special group of Indian Americans who had made their way to the top in American business and academic world, and so in a way, he was among the "best and the brightest," even in the "best and the brightest" group. 

At an age when most students in the United States are worried about acclimating to high school, 14-year-old Geeta Renuse left her hometown in Pune, India, when she accepted a full scholarship to attend five weeks of classes at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. In so doing, she became the first member of an organization dedicated to supporting childhood education and health to attend school in the United States.

With two successful, sold-out years under their belt organizers of the South Asian Showdown expect nothing but the same this year for the South Asian dance competition. South Asian Showdown 2012 is set for Saturday, Feb. 11 at the John Hancock Hall in Boston.

The South Asian dance competition features a unique element with Bhangra dance teams, fusion dance teams, garba/raas dance teams and Bollywood dance teams all competing against each other for the crown of champion.

Proloy K. Das, a partner with Rome McGuigan in Hartford, Conn., was named one of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's "Best Lawyers Under 40" for 2011.

Das was presented with the award at the bar association's annual gala, which was held late last year in Washington, D.C.

According to the bar association, the "Best Lawyers Under 40" awards recognize talented Asian Pacific American attorneys under the age of 40 who have achieved prominence in their respective areas of law while demonstrating an unwavering dedication to the Asian Pacific American community. 

 

The immigration law of 1924 enacted by the Congress of the United States and signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge allowed immigrants to enter, live and work, and apply for citizenship here, under a quota system. Under this law, the annual quota for Britain was set at 34,007, while a mere 100 were allowed to emigrate from India. Some four decades later, with President Kennedy’s initiative and at the urging of President Johnson, Congress abolished the system entirely and allowed annually up to 170,000 people worldwide to emigrate on a first-come, first-served basis. This law contributed to increasing the number of students entering from India in the 1960s. 

The Isha Foundation had a successful evening of music and fund-raising with “Isha Isai Mazhai 2012,” which was held on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Ashland High School in Ashland, Mass. Over 300 people attended the event and the foundation raised $6,000 to support its efforts.

IMS Health has acquired PharmARC, an India-based company specializing in commercial analytics and services for the life sciences industry. The acquisition adds to IMS’s business process outsourcing capabilities, the Danbury, Conn.-based company said.

PharmARC, which is headquartered in Bangalore, serves 15 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies and covers multiple therapeutic areas, geographies and data types. 

Aap Ka Manoranjan has been bringing Bollywood stars, in concert and on the movie screen, for almost two decades and now the entertainment promoters are launching new Indian movie screenings in Rhode Island.

The movies will be screened at Cinemaworld in the Lincoln Mall at 622 George Washington Highway in Lincoln, R.I. Cinemaworld has state of the art facilities including stadium seating, digital projection and digital surround sound.