Leaders, on the World Stage – All others – Page 2

Chef Vikas Khanna first Indian to make Gazette Review’s global top 10

Indian celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was ranked sixth in Gazette Review’s rankings of the top 10 global chefs. The list is topped by Gordon Ramsay.

Michelin star celebrity chef Vikas Khanna has been ranked among the top 10 global chefs in the world by Gazette Review, becoming the only Indian chef who has made it to the prestigious list. Gazette Review ranked Mr. Khanna sixth, with British chef Gordon Ramsay leading the list.

The 50-year-old Amritsar-born and New York-based Khanna is known for taking Indian cuisine across the globe and on the world food map. He is the only Indian origin chef who has made it to the list along with great names in the industry.

Mr. Khanna, who also wears other caps including that of being a writer, filmmaker and philanthropist, took to social media on Tuesday and shared his joy on being listed.

In elite company

Others on the list include Anthony Bourdain, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Emeril Lagasse, Marco Pierre White, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Jamie Oliver.

Mr. Khanna is one of the first Indian chefs to receive international acclaim. Since 2011, his main restaurant Junoon in New York City has received a Michelin star, a hallmark of fine dining.

Mr. Khanna has served food to the former U. S. president Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many other world leaders and celebrities.

Mr. Khanna is known for creating the most expensive cookbook in the world. From 2011, Khanna hosted five seasons of Master Chef India, a series based on the original British version.

th/first

** Gautam Adani, advocate Karuna Nundy, jailed activist Khurram Parvez in TIME’s 100 most influential list

Apart from them, Indian American Bela Bajaria, the head of Global TV at OTT platform, Netflix, is also part of TIME’s list.

TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2022 includes billionaire Gautam Adani, advocate Karuna Nundy, who has been championing the cause of the criminalisation of marital rape in India, and human rights activist Khurram Parvez, who is currently in jail as part of an investigation in a terror-funding case in Kashmir.

Apart from them, Indian American Bela Bajaria, the head of Global TV at OTT platform, Netflix, is also part of TIME’s list.

** Devasahayam Pillai: An anti-caste crusader who was canonised

Devasahayam Pillai was recently canonised by Pope Francis

For Devasahayam Pillai, recently canonised by Pope Francis , the enemy was caste.

And finally, with the canonisation, he will be known as Martyr Saint Devasahayam and not by his caste honorific Pillai. For a man who served food for all communities together in a common dining room, this is conceivably a dream realised.

Born Neelakanta Pillai to Vasudevan Namboodhiri and a Nair mother Devaki Ammal, he became Devasahayam, the Tamil rendering of Lazuras as “God’s help.”

He was referred to as Devasahayam Pillai when Pope Benedict XVI first made the announcement of his beatification on December 2, 2012. But the official press release on May 3, 2021, announcing Pope Francis’s decision to confer sainthood on him referred to him as Devasahayam.

GLOBAL RECORDS: INDIA RECORDS: India-born Scientist & Conservation Biologist Kamal Bawa Elected to US National Academy of Sciences

Conservation biologist Kamal Bawa has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Kamal Bawa is president of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) as well as an elected fellow of the Royal Society (London) and the American Philosophical Society.

“The election is a reaffirmation of our important work on the ecology, conservation, and management of tropical forests that are declining all over the world but are critical to humanity’s well-being,” said Dr. Bawa.

A few years ago, Dr. Bawa brought together scientists from India’s leading institutions to develop the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing under the banner of the Biodiversity Collaborative.

The effort was supported by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, and is currently funded by the Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

** At $76.6 billion, India is third highest military spender in world, says report

According to data published by SIPRI, the top five military spenders—the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia—accounted for 62 per cent of the global military expenditure.

India was the third-highest military spender in the world behind the US and China as the global defence expenditure reached an all-time high of $2.1 trillion in 2021, hitting record levels despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday.

According to data published by SIPRI, the top five military spenders—the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia—accounted for 62 per cent of the global military expenditure.

SIPRI said India’s military spending, amounting to $76.6 billion in 2021, grew by 0.9 per cent from 2020 and by 33 per cent from 2012. “Amid ongoing tensions and border disputes with China and Pakistan that occasionally spill over into armed clashes, India has prioritized the modernization of its armed forces and self-reliance in arms production,” according to the report.

** Indian-American Navy veteran appointed Kamala Harris’s defence advisor

In her new role, Ms. Sethi coordinates National Security Advisor documentation across the Office of the Vice President.

Shanti Sethi, a trailblazing Indian-American Navy veteran, has joined US Vice President Kamala Harris’s office as her executive secretary and defence advisor, according to a media report.

Ms. Sethi, the first Indian-American commander of a major US Navy combat ship, recently joined Vice President Harris’ office, Politico news website quoted vice president’s senior advisor Herbie Ziskend as saying.

** Chennai to host Edinburgh’s Royal College of Surgeons’ conference in October

This is the first time the 517-year-old institution will hold meet outside England

The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, will hold its first international conference in Chennai in October.

This is the first time the 517-year-old institution will hold a meeting outside England, said its first Indian vice-president Pala Rajesh.

The three-day conference, ‘Beyond COVID-19: Impact and innovation’, will have sessions in various specialities for doctors and a training symposium for postgraduate medical students.

The training session will be held in the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University.

According to him, the event, being held from Oct. 5 to 8, would be a knowledge-sharing platform where doctors from across the globe and all specialities would share their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

th/first

** India’s Rickey Kej and Falguni Shah win big at 2022 Grammy Awards

Rickey Kej earned his second coveted gramophone trophy in the best new album category for Divine Tides. Falguni Shah, a New York-based Indian singer known by her stage name Falu, won her first Grammy Award for A Colorful World in the best children’s album category.

A Mumbai-born singer went to the US and made her career in music, while the other, born in the US, moved back to India, the country of his parents’ birth. The ‘crossover’ stars Falguni Shah and Rickey Kej have now won their respective Grammy Awards.

At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards held on Sunday night in Las Vegas, Kej earned his second coveted gramophone trophy in the best new album category for Divine Tides, his collaboration with The Police drummer Stewart Copeland.

Shah, a New York-based Indian singer known by her stage name Falu, won her first Grammy Award for A Colorful World in the best children’s album category.

** Gaurav Gupta, the Indian designer of choice for American rappers?

With a fabulous Oscar debut, and Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B as clients, the Indian designer is making his way onto Hollywood stylists’ checklists

There’s a certain rhythmic pattern that defines the design vocabulary of Indian couturier Gaurav Gupta, whose creations have recently been spotted on American rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B. On Monday morning in India, Gupta’s blue-and-silver ruffled gown made a shared debut with Megan on the red carpet of the 94th Academy Awards.

** Amin Jaffer’s new chapter in Paris

The Rwanda-born Indian curator, who has made the French capital his home, on the Al Thani collection’s first museum, his new book, and the importance of private collections

Writer, curator, collaborator, colonial furniture specialist: Amin Jaffer wears his titles effortlessly. And in the last couple of years, he’s added another one — that of Paris denizen — after he uprooted his English life of 25 years to move into a hôtel particulier (a grand townhouse) on Quai Voltaire along the Seine.