Sri Sri among new trustees of govt-established group
NEW ROLE Art of Living founder and Swami Chidanand Saraswati are some of the new members of India Development Foundation
The Centre has made Art of Living (AoL) foundation head, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Parmarth Niketan Ashram chief, Swami Chidanand Saraswati, new trustees of the India Development Foundation (IDF), a nonprofit trust set up by the government.
The IDF was set up to facilitate the contribution of overseas Indians to social and development projects in India.
The Swami, the founder and spiritual head of the Hindu Jain Temple in Pittsburgh, is also leading figure in promotion of yoga. He also played a key role in compiling the 11-volume Encyclopaedia of Hinduism.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is the president of the body and foreign secretary, home secretary, and secretary economic affairs among its ex-officio members.
Another new trustee of the IDF is Dr Bharat Barai, medical director of the Cancer Institute, Methodist Hospitals, Indiana, in the United States of America.
He was also the key organiser of the diaspora event of Prime Minister at Madison Square in 2014. The event was a roaring success. The other trustees include the UAE-based Indian businessman MA Yusuff Ali, chairman and managing director, Lulu International.
At the meeting of the founda- tion on Friday, Swaraj sought their guidance in making its working a success. The first board meeting of the foundation was held in 2009. It was founded to serve as a “credible institutional avenue” to enable Overseas Indians to engage in philanthropy to supplement India’s social and development efforts. The Trust is exempt from the provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010.
The Modi government has been trying to bring greater diaspora engagement to projects in sectors such as sanitation, heath, women and child development.
“We work to ensure that the money an overseas Indian spends on a scheme reaches the beneficiary. The foundation also provides an opportunity for the donor to visit the project to see the progress,” said an official. The foundation also displays the names of the contributors on its website.
The south-west monsoon has covered the Nicobar Islands and the entire south Andaman Sea, three days ahead of its normal onset date, the India meteorological department (IMD) said on Sunday.
“In view of the strengthening and deepening of southwesterly winds, persistent cloudiness and rainfall, south-west monsoon has advanced into some parts of south-east Bay of Bengal, Nicobar Islands, entire south Andaman Sea and parts of north Andaman Sea today,” the IMD said.
IMD director general K G Ramesh, however, said it was too early to forecast whether the monsoon would hit the Kerala coast ahead of schedule.
The normal onset date over Kerala, termed as the official arrival of the seasonal rainfall in India, is June 1.
Ramesh said the prevailing conditions do not suggest that monsoon could hit Kerala early simply because it has arrived early in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist with the Skymet, a weather forecasting agency, said monsoon is likely to hit Kerala on June 1 with an error of one-two days. “Conditions are favourable for further advance of south-west monsoon into some parts of south-west Bay of Bengal, some more parts of south-east Bay of Bengal, remaining parts of Andaman Sea, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bengal during the next 72 hours,” the IMD said.
ANOTHER NEW TRUSTEE OF THE IDF IS BHARAT BARAI, WHO WAS A KEY ORGANISER OF MODI’S EVENT IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN