18th November 2024
Legislation introduced in US Senate to reform H-1B, L-1 visa system

Legislation introduced in US Senate to reform H-1B, L-1 visa system

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The legislation “to reform and close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs” was introduced in the Senate Tuesday by Senate Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

H-1B visas – are used by US companies to employ highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations. 

L-1 visas – are available for intracompany transferees who work in managerial positions or have specialized knowledge. 

Indian professionals extensively use such visas.

The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act will reduce fraud and abuse, provide protections for American workers and visa holders, and require more transparency in the recruitment of foreign workers, the senators said.

The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act will require US Citizenship and Immigration Services to prioritize for the first time the annual allocation of H-1B visas. The new system would ensure that the best and brightest STEM advanced degree students educated in the United States receive preference for an H-1B visa, and also prioritize other US advanced degree holders, those being paid a high wage, and those with valuable skills.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

 The legislation explicitly prohibits the replacement of American workers by H-1B or L-1 visa holders and clarifies that the working conditions of similarly employed American workers may not be adversely affected by the hiring of an H-1B worker, including H-1B workers who have been placed by another employer at the American worker’s worksite, a media release said.

 “Reforming the H-1B and L-1 visa programs is a critical component to fixing America’s broken immigration system,” Durbin said. “For years, outsourcing companies have used legal loopholes to displace qualified American workers, exploit foreign workers, and facilitate the outsourcing of American jobs. Our legislation would fix these broken programs, protect workers, and put an end to these abuses,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Texas’s Krishna Jayasankar won Silver For Shot Putt

Texas’s Krishna Jayasankar won Silver For Shot Putt

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19-year-old Indian American Krishna Jayasankar representing the University of Texas at El Paso is now the second Indian woman shot-putter to break the 15m barrier and won the silver medal at the Conference USA Indoor meet that occurred, Feb. 19-20.

Training at TX, for her, has been about a series of lifting, bar repetitions on the push press, squats, and supporting exercises to intensify the strength. She had started the season at 14.10m, and over a series of meets, hit the 15-meter mark It makes her the second Indian woman, the first being Manpreet Kaur from Ambala, who threw 15.21meter in2016 at the championship in Doha.
Jaysankar was a student of SBOA School and Junior College in Chennai where she began her athletic career, though she had yearned for it from her 6th grade. With motivation from her parents, Prasanna Jayasankar and Jayasankar Menon, both of are well-known Indian basketball players, she pursued her love for throwing.
Her broad physique is stated to have embarrassed her in earlier days, but she soon learned to corral it for sport. She went to Jamaica to train and develop needed skills.
Coming on an academic scholarship to the University of Texas gave growth to her sporting career.

Users Can Use Skype To Make 911 Calls From Home Computers

Users Can Use Skype To Make 911 Calls From Home Computers

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Microsoft-owned web-based calling platform Skype now let’s users dial 911 from their home computers.

The app can share their location with emergency services if needed.

To enable 911 emergency location sharing in Skype, select your profile picture, select Settings and then Privacy.

“Turn 911 emergency location sharing on. You will need to acknowledge the Notices & Disclosures and the Special 911 Warning of Limitations & Unavailability to complete the process,” Skype said in an update.

“You can disable 911 emergency location sharing at any time, but this means your address will not be shared with 911 in case of an emergency”.

You may also need to allow Location sharing from your device settings.

Skype cautions that the service doesn’t operate the same as a traditional phone call.

Users are encouraged to not make an emergency call through Skype when outside of their home region since the call could potentially be rerouted elsewhere.

Some other features are rolling out with Skype 8.80 update, like the ability to zoom in on a screen share during a video call.

Microsoft has also made it possible to use custom reactions on Skype for mobile devices.

You can now record voice messages that last up to 5 minutes, instead of the earlier 2-minute limit.

Source – IANS .

Gajanan Maharaj Prakatdin celebration in Plano on 27th Feb (Sunday)

Gajanan Maharaj Prakatdin celebration in Plano on 27th Feb (Sunday)

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GMADP, Dallas Parivar is celebrating 144th Prakatdin Utsav of Gajanan Maharaj in Dallas, Texas on 27th of February 2022(Sunday) at Plano, Texas, from 1 pm onwards CST.

Address of the Event – 

@ Shri Ram Mandir, 

221 West Parker Rd, Suite 470, Plano, TX-75023 

Date & Time: 27th Feb (Sunday) from 1:00pm onwards (CST) 

The Legendary soul Sant Shri Gajanan Maharaj was enlightened through his noble incarnation and carried out an enormous transformation in the lives of countless people with his spiritual wisdom and divine power.
Every year, all around the world, devotees of Maharaj celebrate his Prakatdin Utsav.

Gajanan Maharaj has numerous devotees in the Dallas area, this will be a prominent event at the newly built Shri Ram Mandir in Plano, Texas.
All the devotees are planning a blissful event which will be comprised of Namjapa, reciting 21 Adhaya of Gajanan Maharaj and Arti, followed by Mahaprasad.
The Gajanan Maharaj America Devotees Parivar has put up a link to RSVP to join the most auspicious day of Maharaj and take Maharaj’s blessings on Prakatdin day.

Devotees can RSVP here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOTGREFagF2B7uTiuPkWI_Z8Ae_2ty7RLESdLjwel2L6G9fg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

For more information, please contact:
Rahul Nimbargi – +1 (972) 971-4369
Pallavi Thatte – +1 (309) 838-3419

Meet Mr. Amit Warkad, the Co-Founder of US IMPACT and Officer of the City of Plano

Meet Mr. Amit Warkad, the Co-Founder of US IMPACT and Officer of the City of Plano

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Building a life and career is each and everyone’s dream. What brings special meaning to your life is helping others, no matter in what way. Such efforts not only help the community but also the individuals who walk along such paths. Amit Warkad, Officer of the City of Plano, is indeed a personified definition of this ideology. Always enthusiastic, Amit is setting an example of how an Indian can amalgamate with the nation and society they are living in while contributing to its betterment.

Initial Journey and Background –
Amit’s journey in the early years is typically like that of any small-town Indian guy who kept on scaling heights. Born at a maternal place in the Nagar district of Maharashtra. Amit was schooled and completed his graduation for Mechanical Engineering at the city of Aurangabad in 2001. Soon after finishing his MBA from the reputed Welingkar Institute of Management, his professional journey started. He began in a sales team in Emerson network India Pvt ltd and in 2005 moved to L&T Infotech, beginning his reputed career in Mumbai. Later after working for about five years in Mumbai, he shifted to Plano, Dallas in the year 2010 and since then has been a part of the active community in Plano and all around the US.

Entrance in Community Service –
While working on the professional end, Amit also started taking part in the social activities of the Maharashtra Mandal. He always had been a social person and has a huge friend circle may it be in India or US. Around the year 2015/2016, while working in a social field and getting involved in local community efforts he and some of his friends in the neighborhood noticed that there is a gap between Indian American community and the mainstream American political system. Indian Americans are not much aware of the political and administrative systems while the political representatives do not have much knowledge about the issues related to Indian Americans, Amit and his friends found. Even in Indians, priorities are different depending upon your Visa status. There was a need for a platform to educate the Indian Americans on the American political system and educate the American politicians about the Indian American issues and priorities.

The inception of US IMPACT –
There was a need to give voice to Indian American priorities. There was no outreach from either side, the political system, and Indian American community. This issue triggered the need of working on this front and Amit along with his peer’s started efforts of bridging the gap. This urge saw them involved in local elections, connecting political representatives with the Indian community, participating in their election campaigns for them in a variety of forms, and other such things. They started an organization – US IMPACT to make it more structured. They registered it as a state and federal-level Political Action Committee (PAC). Under the umbrella of PAC, they began supporting candidates and building the bridge between the politicians and Indian American community. They were able to coach the local people about the political system, Information about ISD’s, State and federal structure, and opportunities available for participation and functioning of these entities in different stages. They encourage people to take part in the political system and recommended people for volunteer-level positions with the city & ISD. Amit told US IMPACT PAC is more inclined and aligned towards the Republican Party of America.

Campaigning for political candidates – Later, in the 2020 elections, they helped around 70 congressional candidates across the US. They helped candidates in making phone calls to voters, did data analytics for candidates, give them exposure to Indian media houses, and other such things. On the other hand, they organized political and Judicial educational programs for Indian American community too.
Got Indian American Community Centre to Dallas –
Thanks to these consistent efforts of US IMPACT and its impact on the elections, the Republican party also helped to build Indian American Community Center in Coppell that is proving useful for the Indian community here. This was the result as the political system is coming closer to Indian American people now.
Amit’s and his US IMPACT organization work and success are very well praised in Indian media. This was a great achievement by itself as to how the Indian community organizations can function by staying into the mainstream political system and working for the betterment of the Indian American community.

Appointed on the Board of Community Relations Commission of the City of Plano –
While doing all these things, Amit decided to personally participate in the Community Relations Commission for the City of Plano and formally applied for that. Completing the formal process, he got nominated and started working for one of the important Commissions of the City of Plano. He is designated as an officer of the city and his designation as a Commissioner. This commission is responsible for recommending funding allocations to City Council from three different grant funds. They do the evaluations of the projects and provide recommendations to the city council. The Final decision is taken by the City Council based on the recommendations.

To provide a solution, be the solution – 
They also formed a non-profit organization WE IMPACT, which is working on providing workable solutions to various social problems. In the Indian community, some women who come to the US face domestic violence, for some or other reasons. Helpless without financial independence, they need support in this regard. WE IMPACT works for such women and provide them helping hand. In addition to that, WE IMPACT also has projects in the area of Tracking Internationally adopted children. Each year 1000s of kids are adopted and brought into the US from different countries (India and China being the most prominent countries from where the kids are adopted). There is no formal tracking process to check on the wellbeing of these children once they are adopted. WE IMPACT is taking an advocacy initiative with the Attorney General’s office to implement a basic tracking of adopted children. It also organizes programs like Yoga for New Beginnings for the rehabilitation of soldiers who suffer mental and emotional trauma.
“Our basic idea is to connect Indian American community to the mainstream here and bridge the gap as much as possible. Now People emphasize Amit to enter electoral politics, but there are no such plans for now- said Amit. Through WE IMPACT and other work, we are purely concentrating on social purpose and problem-solving. Being in an active social circle has always been part of my life since childhood. That is still alive there and I enjoy what I am doing now for the community,” reacts Amit.