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Veteran Indian journalist T.V. Parasuram dead; Indian-origin NASA scientist detained at US border, phone confiscated

Published on 14 February, 2017
Veteran Indian journalist T.V. Parasuram dead; Indian-origin NASA scientist detained at US border, phone confiscated

Washington/New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) Veteran journalist T.V. Parasuram, who served for long as the Washington correspondent of the Indian Express, died on Monday night in Maryland, his family said. He was 93.

Parasuram passed away in his sleep in Bethesda, the family said. He is survived by his wife Anantha Lakshmi, son Ashok Parasuram and daughter Anita.

Parasuram, who won a Harvard Niemen Fellow in journalism, was known to take shorthand notes at 170 words per minute and would type almost as fast in the typewriter era. 

He served briefly as the PTI correspondent at the UN in New York after which he joined the Indian Express as its Washington correspondent for two decades till his retirement at age 58. 

He then became the PTI's Washington correspondent till he quit journalism at age 82.

Parasuram wrote two books, "A Medal for Kashmir", a first hand account of the Indian Army's operations in 1947-48 in Jammu and Kashmir. His other book was "India's Jewish Heritage".

Parasuram came from a family of journalists including T.V. Venkitachalam, who worked in PTI and the National Herald, and T.V. Satyanarayanan, who worked in UNI. Another brother is a scientist.


Indian-origin NASA scientist detained at US border, phone confiscated


Washington, Feb 14 (IANS) A US-born NASA scientist of Indian-origin was detained by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials and was not permitted to enter the country unless he unlocked his PIN-protected work phone.

Sidd Bikkannavar, who works in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was detained on January 30, upon returning to the US from Santiago, Chile, a US media network, the Verge, reported.

Bikkannavar said he was pressured to give the CBP agents his phone and access PIN. Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn't supposed to be shared. Bikkannavar's phone was returned to him after it was searched by CBP, but he doesn't know exactly what information officials might have taken from the device.

Bikkannavar is a natural-born US citizen enrolled in CBP's Global Entry programme, which allowed participants who have undergone a background check to speed up their entry into the US. 

He had not visited any of the countries mentioned in Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban, but Bikkannavar told the Verge that agents may have become suspicious about his family name, which is southern Indian.

The JPL scientist returned to the US four days after the signing of a sweeping and controversial executive order on travel into the country. The travel ban caused chaos at airports across the US, as people with visas and green cards found themselves detained, or facing deportation. 

Within days of its signing, the travel order was stayed, but not before more than 60,000 visas were revoked, according to the US State Department.

"Sorry for my absence. On my way back home to the US last weekend, I was detained by Homeland Security and held with others who were stranded under the Muslim ban," he wrote on Facebook.

"CBP officers seized my phone and wouldn't release me until I gave them my access PIN for them to copy the data. I initially refused since it's a JPL-issued phone and I must protect access."

He added: "Just to be clear -- I'm a US-born citizen and NASA engineer, traveliing with a valid US-visa." 

Bikkannavar said he was eventually released. His employers gave him a new phone.

According to the Verge, Bikkannavar was yet to receive an explanation for why he was stopped at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

He had travelled to South America for personal reasons, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars. He had recently joined a Chilean team.

"It was not that they were concerned with me bringing something dangerous in, because they didn't even touch the bags," he said.

"They had no way of knowing I could have had something in there. You can say, 'Okay well maybe it's about making sure I'm not a dangerous person', but they have all the information to verify that."

Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a statement that people visiting the US may be asked to give up passwords to their social media accounts. 

"We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say," Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee. "If they don't want to cooperate, then you don't come in."


H1-B visas help make US firms globally competitive: Indian envoy


Washington, Feb 14 (IANS) With a private member's bill being introduced in the US Congress that seeks to fix the minimum salary of H1-B visa holders at $130,000, India's Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna has said this visa category has actually been crucial in making American companies globally competitive.

"You know, this H1-B scheme has been crucial in making US companies competitive globally, in increasing their client base, in increasing their innovations," Sarna said in an interview to CNN on Monday. 

"And it is the Indian tech industry which has been actually creating jobs here. There are reports, analyses by very respected houses which say that over 400,000 jobs have been directly and indirectly supported in the US," he said. 

The Ambassador pointed out that Indian tech companies have invested $2 billion in a four-year period and have paid $20 billion in taxes. 

"Out of every 100 H1-B visas have resulted in support to 183 jobs in the US," he said. 

"So, it is again a win-win situation and this is very important because, you know, the US companies... nine out of the 15 top tech companies in India are American companies." 

Sarna said this relationship was a symbiotic one and has the "potential of becoming much stronger for both countries". 

Asked if he was trying to send across a message to new US President Donald Trump, he said: "I think this is information which needs to be out there." 

Silicon Valley Democrat Zoe Lofgren introduced the bill which pegs the minimum pay requirement for short-term work visas at $130,000 as against the current minimum of $60,000. And it suggests bar on jobs to the spouses of such visa holders.

Around 70 per cent of the H1-B visas issued by the US goes to Indians.

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