Srinath Srinivasan is the first South Asian judge after a Senate committee confirmed his nomination the to DC Circuit Court, America's second highest Court after the Supreme Court..

President Barack Obama described Chandigarh-born Srinivasan as a 'trailblazer', as he was unanimously approved by the 18 member Senate Judiciary Committee. He was first nominated to the post by Obama nearly a year ago.

Srinivasan, 46, has now to be confirmed by the Senate before he becomes the first Indian American to be appointed to the American court. He is currently principal US deputy solicitor general and is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Srinivasan successfully worked for both Republican and Democratic Administrations and has bipartisan support from the legal community.

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Three Punjabi NRIs have won the elections to the British Columbia legislative assembly. These include two sitting members of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Hary Bains and Raj Chouhan. Amrit VIrk an inspector in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a candidate from the ruling British Columbia Liberals Party has also won.

Bains is from Hardaspur village in Kapurthala district and Raj Chouhan is from Gohar, Ludhiana.

As many as 32 Indian origin Canadians, mainly Punjabis were in the fray . They mainly preferred to contest from constituencies of Surrey that has a sizeable Punjabi population that is said to be the Mini Punjab of Canada.

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Amit Bhatnagar an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee gave up his job in Hollywood's Universal Studios so village folk in India may have access to accurate medical diagnosis at their doorstep. He designed a portable biochemistry laboratory that fits in a suitcase and performs 23 medical tests including for kidney, liver, heart, anaemia, diabetes and arthritis.

Amit's Mobile Lab that was launched by Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy costs a maximum of Rs.3.5 lakhs and includes a blood analyser, centrifuge, micro pipettes, incubator, laptop with Patient Data Management Software and consumables.

Bhatnagar received a soft loan of some Rs.4 crore to develop the lab from the Technology Development Board of the Government of India and he raised Rs.4 crore more from other resources.

After his stint in IIT Roorkee, Bhatnagar went to Pennsylvania State University to complete his Masters in Biomedical Engineering then joined as a business consultant at Universal Studios where he analysed consumer trends for products of the Studios.

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Kolkata born Ritankar Das has become the youngest medalist in a century of the University of California, Berkeley to complete a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology in just 3 years. He is just 18 years old.

Ritankar is also the first student from the University's College of Chemistry in 58 years, and the first ever from the Department of Bioengineering, to earn the honour.

Das is graduating with over 200 credits and a fine GPA of 3.99 that includes 8 A+ marks. He will receive the medal and give a speech at the Commencement Convocation on May 18 which is to be addressed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The university is immensely proud of its young graduate and praised his accomplishments, range of activities and projects, and his academic excellence.

Das moved to Wisconsin at age 7 with his parents Sankar and Kakali Das. He grew up with modest financial resources, however he excelled in school. After he moved with his parents to California he soon made his mark at UC Berkeley. He speaks Bengali and Hindi and conversational Spanish and intends to head to Oxford University for a Master's in biomedical engineering with a fully funded Whitaker Fellowship. He will then move on to MIT where he has been admitted to the chemistry Ph.D. program.

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Businessman Kiran Patel has been named the 2013 Ambassador of the Year 2013 by the Henderson Chamber of Commerce in Henderson, Kentucky.

Presenter of the Award Janet Hortin stated that like previous winners of the Ambassador of the Year Award, Patel puts in several hours a day at his job and is very active in the Chamber - attending ribbon cuttings, Brown Bag lunch events and other chamber events held through the year.

Patel who moved to Henderson with his family in 1994 bought a motel and in 2011 bought the Henderson Hotel building, rebuilding it into what is now The Gilmore Inn in the city.

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