As a part of our ongoing effort to promote entrepreneurial growth, GOPIO Malaysia is organizing a Business Talk cum Networking Session entitled “Leadership Challenges in Today’s World: Managing Your Business Effectively”.

This event is held on the 21st of September 2011 in the Indian Cultural Centre from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

This event is specially organized for the benefit of GOPIO Malaysia members, GOPIO Facebook e-members, Entrepreneurs and Professionals to participate in the Business Talk cum Networking meeting.

We have specially invited distinguished Public Speaker and Top Flight Corporate Trainer Mr. Rohn Rajan to speak on “Leadership Challenges in Today’s World: Managing Your Business Effectively”.

This is an important topic for all Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Professionals on managing and growing your businesses while facing the many challenges in today’s environment.

This topic has been presented to large Multinational Corporations, Government Linked Corporations and as well as numerous Small and Medium Enterprises with much success by the much sought after speaker Mr.Rohn Rajan.

Speaker Profile: Human Capital Group (click to view)

We believe that this event would prove to be mutually beneficial to all participants.

This event is meant to be informal and in a relaxed environment. There is NO pressure to give referrals or to speak in public. Nevertheless, your feedback and comments would be greatly appreciated.

This events brings many benefits apart from the topic being presented:

1. Opportunities for New Business
2. Opportunities to meet new business contacts, leads, clients, customers
3. Provide opportunities to promote your services/products
4. Enable you to meet owners or decision makers from many other businesses
5. Allow you to share and gain knowledge, expertise and contacts
6. Give an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with others
7. Meet potential service providers
8. Form strategic alliances
9. To better know GOPIO

We limit this event to 100 pax only. As such kindly make your RSVP :- Call

GOPIO Secretariat: 0322724677
Magin: 0122882490 or
Gopal: 0123661502

There are NO fees charged for this talk and is made available for FREE courtesy of the generous support from the Indian Cultural Centre for the venue and the Speaker Mr.Rohn Rajan for his time and effort.

Event Details:

Date: 21st of September 2011
Time: 7.30pm to 8.30pm.
Venue: Indian Cultural Centre,

CapSquare Signature Office B,
(Level 1) Jalan Munshi Abdullah,
50100 Kuala Lumpur.
Telephone: 03 2691 0437, 03 2691 0439
Fax: 03 2691 0436
Website: http://www.icckl.com.my/
Map to location

Please come and participate in this event. We highly anticipate a huge turnout so please call and RSVP.

Ajit Narayanan, Invention Labs, Chennai and Aishwarya Ratan, Yale University, who were part of TR35 India Winners announced in March 2011, have made it to the annual list of people who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business and technology.

The honourees are blazing new paths in a wide range of fields, including medicine, energy, communications, IT, consumer technology, entertainment, and robotics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, based institution announced Wednesday.

Chennai-based Ajit Narayanan, 30, was selected for his work on affordable speech synthesizers He is currently working with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to improve the quality of the speech synthesis. He also plans to use mobile app stores to distribute a version of his software with about 90 percent of the full Avaz system’s functionality.

Aishwarya Ratan, 30, was working with Microsoft Research in Bangalore when she won the prestigious honour for her work on converting paper records to digital in real time. Ratan has since moved to Yale University, but the NGO that she was partnering with continues to test the slate in villages.

Two winners of Indian origin include Bhaskar Krishnamachari, 33, University of Southern California who has been selected for his work on smarter wireless networks and Piya Sorcar, 33, for Teachaids software that can be localised to teach taboo topics.

The TR35 will present their work and be honoured at an awards ceremony during the 2011 EmTech MIT conference, taking place Oct 18-19 at MIT’s Media Lab, USA.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/186133/4-indians-among-mits-top.html

The metal parts were stolen from 13 “hot spots” in Selangor, mostly from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and telecommunications substations.

In an immediate response to the disclosure of seizure by police, Malaysian Indian Metal Traders and Recyclers Association (MIMTA) president Datuk P Krishnamurthy told The Malay Mail the raid has been a big blow to their sector as genuine players are suffering due to activities of these unlicensed operators.

“Because of these illegal scrap metal operators, people are calling genuine ones conmen, too. The public no longer views this industry as a safe business,” said Krishnamurthy.

MIMTA is calling all licensed scrap metal operators to register with their association so they can be better protected.

So far, there are only 480 licensed operators registered with them.

“In our association, we have guidelines and law books to assist scrap metal operators so they know how to differentiate between legitimate goods and stolen items,” said Krishnamurthy, adding that the association always advises members never to buy stolen goods.

MIMTA also advised scrap metal operators not to entertain walk-in customers as most would have stolen the metal parts and would be trying to dispose of them fast.

If an operator still wanted to buy such goods, he said they should seek documentation to prove the items were not stolen.

During last week’s raid, police arrested two locals and three Indian nationals aged 30 to 40.

Selangor police chief Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said initial investigations revealed the suspects could be linked to other cases in Johor Bahru.

“The case has now been transferred to Johor as we believe they are linked to a few cases there as well.

“We are taking this matter very seriously and I urge all scrap metal operators to follow the rules. If they fail to do so, we may not hesitate to shut down their premises for good.”

Until July this year, police have issued 261 summonses to scrap metal premises for violating the rules and regulations.

This period also saw a total of 44 operators arrested— 37 had been charged in court and seven are still under investigation.

Currently, there are 820 licensed and unlicensed scrap metal premises in Selangor.

SOURCE: http://www.mmail.com.my/content/79619-another-hard-knock

When we don’t eat, hunger-inducing neurons in the brain start eating bits of themselves. That act of self-cannibalism turns up a hunger signal to prompt eating, according to Rajat Singh of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

“A pathway that is really important for every cell to turn over components in a kind of housekeeping process is also required to regulate appetite,” said Singh.

The cellular process uncovered in neurons of the brain’s hypothalamus is known as autophagy (literally self-eating.)

Singh says the new findings in mice suggest that treatments aimed at blocking autophagy may prove useful as hunger-fighting weapons in the war against obesity.

The new evidence shows that lipids within the so-called agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons are mobilized following autophagy, generating free fatty acids. Those fatty acids in turn boost levels of AgRP, itself a hunger signal.

When autophagy is blocked in AgRP neurons, AgRP levels stop rising in response to starvation, the researchers show.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Dieting-can-force-you-to-eat-more/H1-Article1-729105.aspx

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), for the first time, has decided to admit sons/daughters and wards of Persons of Indian Origin.

All these students will be admitted on the basis of GMAT score.

“NMIMS will also admit foreign students and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO). This is to internationalise the learning experience and to reach out to the Indian diaspora and the world,” said Rajan Saxena, vice-chancellor of the NMIMS.

The MBA entrance test will be conducted within three months starting from October 31, in 18 centres across India.

Bala Krishnamurthy, chairperson-admissions, NMIMS, said: “We realised the need for such an initiative while working on the GMAT council. This will be a platform to initiate internationalising learning experiences, especially as there are talks about bringing Indian higher education to international standards.”

According to NMIMS, NMAT is the only MBA entrance test that facilitates multiple trials (three times) to MBA aspirants as per global practice.

The best of three scores will be considered for MBA admissions. You can register online by logging on to www.nmims.edu

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_business-school-goes-international_1572089

Pulickel M. Ajayan, who did his B. Tech in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1985, India and Ph.D. from Northwestern University US in 1989, had been inching towards single nanowire devices for years. 

These researchers at Rice University first reported the creation of 3D nano batteries last December, the journal Nano Letters reported.

“The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes,” said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, study co-author and research scientist, according to a university statement. 

The team’s experimental batteries are about 50 micrometres tall, as thick as a human hair and almost invisible when viewed edge-on, Reddy said. 

Theoretically, the nanowire energy storage devices can be as long and as wide as the templates allow, which makes them scalable. 

The nanowire devices show good capacity. The researchers are fine-tuning the materials to increase their ability to repeatedly charge and discharge, which now drops off after about 20 cycles. 

A nanometre is a billion of a metre.

Source: http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-38859.html

AUSTRALIAN students will be able to complete part of their degrees at Indian universities, and Indian students in Australia, under a new scheme being worked out between the two countries.

After a serious rift over a spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, and a massive fall in the number of Indian students coming to Australia, the federal government is trying to rebuild the relationship and targeting the country’s massive, and growing, tertiary education sector.

International student visa applications from India dropped almost 63 per cent in the last financial year, a federal government report showed this week.

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Education Minister Chris Evans is in India on a four-day tour, selling Australia as an education destination and encouraging greater co-operation between institutions.

One of the key priorities of the newly formed Australia-India Education Council will be a credit-sharing arrangement between universities in Australia and India, similar to those already established with countries such as China and Malaysia.

”So it’s not just about an overseas degree in Australia, it’s about allowing credit for exchanges, for a semester, a year. Many universities are looking to joint-badge degrees,” he told The Age in Delhi.

There is still ”work to do” in establishing a scheme with India, with the country still forming its regulatory framework.

Senator Evans said any scheme would also encourage Australian students, undergraduate and postgraduate, to study in India.

”I’m very keen to get more students to study abroad,” he said.

”We can be monocultural in Australia, and we need to have our students with a view of the world, and with experiences in other countries, so we’re very keen to get more Australian students to do at least part of their degrees in China and India and other places.”

The minister said recognising overseas qualifications benefited the labour markets of both countries.

”We are in a global economy now, companies are operating across borders, quality assurance requirements, all of those things take you towards that mutual recognition.”

With rising standards of living and a burgeoning middle class, India’s tertiary education sector is set to boom over the next decade.

Already, places for some courses at prestigious colleges are demanding ”perfect” scores to get in.

India will need 1000 new universities over the next decade to meet demand, India’s Human Resources Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, said this year.

”Today 14 million people are served by 600 universities and 26,000 colleges. But in 2020 … this figure will touch 40 million.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/student-swap-to-help-fix-india-rift-20110802-1i9ya.html#ixzz1US7FSsKK

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Conventions provide the largest platform to the Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) for exchange of views and networking on matters of common interest.

Among the decisions taken by the Government of India, as a result of wider consultations held at these Conventions, are formulation of the Overseas Citizenship of India scheme, establishment of Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, conceptualizing of Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, formation of Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council of People of Indian Origin, setting up of the India Development Foundation, enabling professionals holding Overseas Citizens of India cards to practice in India in accordance with the provision of relevant acts, providing for voting rights to Non-Resident Indians and launching of The Global Indian Network of Knowledge (Global-INK).

PBD 2012 will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India on 8 January 2012. President of India will deliver the Valedictory Address on 9 January 2012.

The PBD 2012 sessions will include meaningful discussions related to development issues such as health, education, youth and inclusive growth.

The PBD sessions will also include an opportunity to address issues and concerns of the overseas Indian community.

- Asian Tribune -

The shift in strategy reflects the growing complexity of outsourced work that now requires levels of expertise not widely found in India. It’s getting harder to hire the best Indian engineers — as competition grows from such U.S. giants as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM and Accenture, which have massive operations there — and harder to move them overseas. With all that, the outsourcers are finding U.S. employees a much more attractive option.

It’s also a good public relations strategy as high unemployment and anemic economic growth has led some politicians to take a dim view of these companies.

“The irony is IBM (and other tech companies) moved East and the Indian companies are moving West,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a researcher on immigration and labor issues at UC Berkeley.

Surya Kant, president of Tata Consultancy Services’ North American, United Kingdom and European operations, said his company is adding 1,200 people in the United States in fiscal 2012, which began in March. TCS, India’s

largest IT services company, has 2,100 U.S. employees now and an office in Santa Clara.

“Every year, we are hiring more” in the United States, he said.

Infosys Technologies, which has a large office in Fremont, said it plans to hire 250 Americans every quarter this year. Infosys and other Indian IT companies are setting up development centers in the United States, as well.

Wipro Technologies, whose U.S. headquarters is in Mountain View with more than 700 employees, expects to hire an additional 1,500 Americans this year, said Priti Rajora, vice president of talent acquisition. In all, the company has more than 8,500 workers based in the United States.

Though these companies still rely on cheaper engineering labor in India, they are beefing up their front-line ranks of U.S. workers.

“A few years ago, I didn’t think I’d be in-sourced,” said Michael Beese, an application architect who joined Tata Consultancy Services’ Santa Clara office in February to build up a mobile applications team. Beese is now helping to recruit dozens of technologists. “We are making a full-court press here in Silicon Valley.”

Roger Dorris, a Bay Area software developer, found himself working for an Indian company when KPIT Cummins — which is based in Pune, India — acquired his company, Sparta Consulting, in 2009. “We have an offshore team we work with on every project to mitigate costs,” he said. “However, there is a large presence of Americans who are onshore.”

As the level of sophistication of outsourced work increases, the traditional offshore contracting model needs to change, said outsourcing expert Michael Murphy, a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in San Francisco.

“What works well in offshoring is highly commoditized routine work — something that can be executed with a script,” he said. “The closer you get to true knowledge work, where experience and judgment is required, the closer you need to be to (customers).”

The Indian companies are battling powerhouse U.S. tech companies on their own turf for business, said Vamsee Tirukkala, co-founder of Zinnov, a Silicon Valley outsourcing consultant. “So they have to hire the best talent.”

It’s also becoming tougher to bring overseas employees to the United States.

Last year, Congress hiked the cost for foreign worker visas — called H-1B and L visas — $2,000 each to more than $5,000 to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for increased security along the country’s border with Mexico.

Also, the process of obtaining visas to bring overseas employees to the United States has become much more difficult, particularly after allegations made in a lawsuit by an employee of Infosys that the company used temporary business visas to circumvent the H-1B visa program, Tirukkala said. The suit has led to a federal investigation. Bangalore-based Infosys, considered a leading company in India in terms of corporate governance and transparency, denies the charges.

Kishor Patil, CEO of KPIT Cummins, which specializes in product engineering in industries such as semiconductor, automotive, energy and utilities, said his company has added about 400 employees in the United States in the past two years. He expects to add an additional 60 or so workers by the end of the year. “It’s not as easy to bring people from outside into the United States” as it used to be, Patil said.

The hiring binge, though, has as much to do with the changing nature of outsourcing, which requires seasoned technologists.

Patil, whose company recently took a 50 percent stake in San Francisco-based Systime Solutions, which provides software consulting services, said his clients increasingly are looking for cutting-edge services and local talent.

“The area in which we are growing needs a lot of specialized knowledge,” he said. “These are pretty significant assignments from the customers, very value-added, very transformational.”

Indian companies also need business managers who understand the inner workings of different industries. “If I am trying to find a solution for a retail company, I must understand how retail is being conducted” in the United States, Kant said. “You need to know those nuances.”

There was a time when Indian executives had a bias against potential U.S. employees because they thought they were less productive, Wadhwa said. But that has changed.

“They are realizing they can get a lot of value from American workers. I think they are delighted. In the next five years, you will see much more.”

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18625774?nclick_check=1

Indian colleagues seem to be dominating strategic positions in this municipality, he said adding that “Krish Kumar, Derrick Naidoo and Raymond Rampersad are to name a few,” Nyandeni told the Weekly Post newspaper.

“We have black people with suitable qualifications for these positions, but for some reason there is a cluster of top officials coming from the Indian community,” Nyandeni said.

The union leader was reacting to an earlier strike by workers at a main depot of the municipality who alleged that engineer Raj Dhrochand had been appointed irregularly.

eThekwnini Municipality spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said that the matter has been resolved adding that “there is no sign of racism on our side, but I cannot speak on behalf of the union.”

Ashin Singh, convenor of the South African Minority Rights Equality Movement said Dhrochand’s case was not an isolated incident.

“Over the past few years, a direct attack has been made on Indians through all levels of government and municipality. This is pure reverse racism and there is seldom any merit to this kind of attack,” Singh said.

This type of anti-Indian sentiment proves that Indians were “soft targets and scapegoats,” he said.

Commenting on the fact that Indians and Africans had been equally discriminated against by the white minority apartheid government, political analyst Kiru Naidoo said the problems of the country would not be fixed by throwing people out of jobs so that other people could get in.

“For historical reasons, KwaZulu-Natal province and Durban have a large number of people of Indian origin (because the first Indian indentured labourers arrived here 150 years ago),” Naidoo said.

“That history can’t be washed away for political convenience,” he added.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Indian-origin-people-soft-targets-at-workplace-in-S-Africa/Article1-721341.aspx

Besides the country’s positive attitude toward outsiders, the chief attractions for Indian students are the lower costs for both tuition and living expenses, in addition to its lenient visa requirements, according to students and consultants who advise them about overseas study options.

The number of Canadian student visas issued in India jumped to more than 12,000 in 2010, from 3,152 in 2008.

While applications have increased at all levels, growth has been greatest at community colleges, which typically offer career-focused certificate and diploma programs, according to Simon Cridland, a spokesman at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi.

“They offer very practical training that is very job-market focused,” he said, adding that courses range from highly technical subjects like aircraft maintenance and computer animation to sports management and hospitality.

Shreya Dasgupta, a recent high school graduate from New Delhi, plans to start studying economics and business at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus this fall. Ms. Dasgupta, 18, said that while she did not have a strong preference for any one country, she found Canada’s relatively liberal visa rules attractive.

“I think it’s easier than the United States,” she said. “Plus, you do have job opportunities later on. In the U.S., it’s very expensive and it’s not sure that you’ll get a job.”

Kartik Rao, who has been admitted to an M.B.A. program at Concordia University in Montreal, also said that Canada is more welcoming. “Irrespective of my getting a job, I have a three-year work visa which will allow me to work, which will in turn allow me to pay back my loan,” he said.

Mr. Rao, 25, estimates that his business degree in Canada will cost 35 percent to 40 percent less than what it would cost in the United States or in Britain. Also driving his optimism is the belief that employment prospects in Canada are better.

“The financial downturn has forced people to look for new avenues,” he said. “Canada was not as badly affected, which really tilted people’s views about Canada.”

Also, warming political ties have raised the country’s profile in India. Among the agreements signed during a visit to Canada last summer by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a pact on broadening ties in higher education. To promote this initiative, 15 university presidents from Canada visited India last November.

Last month, the heads of dozens of Indian universities participated in a high level meeting at Carleton University in Ottawa to explore possibilities for increased collaboration.

“There is increasing awareness of what kinds of experience and expertise are available in the Canadian higher education system,” said Gail Bowkett, the assistant director for international relations at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “Indian students can find pretty much any niche that they are looking for.”

As part of its effort to showcase the variety of academic programs, Canada has launched a program for Indian students to complete three- to four-month paid research internships at leading Canadian universities. In 2010, 105 students from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology were chosen for the all-expenses-paid program. They travelled to British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick to conduct research.

Ms. Bowkett said the positive experience of these elite students has been a huge image booster. “The program exposes them to faculty and facilities, and those students are going back to India and it spreads like wildfire by word of mouth when they go back.”

Also, starting in 2009, the Canadian visa offices in India started to increase the promotion of community colleges. According to Mr. Cridland, the jump in applications to these institutions is a sign that Indians who normally send their children overseas for a university degree are now open to the idea of also sending them to community colleges.

For instance, a course in accounting or public relations “can be an additional qualification that complements a university degree, or it can be a stand-alone qualification, depending on the needs of the student,” he said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/education/18iht-educSide.html?_r=1

The way to a person’s heart is truly through his or her stomach. This wise adage holds true even in today’s world in which computers and iPads are as ubiquitous as the craving for good food.

Asian diplomats in the United States are discovering that the easiest way to win friends and influence people is through food. American audiences have been treated to culinary delights at parties, cultural events and specialised country-specific food shows. The Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), the trade-promotion arm of Malaysia, has been popularising Malaysian food through its much-publicised Malaysian Kitchen Programme, now in its second year in the US.

Matrade’s initiative was started primarily to increase food exports by generating demand for Malaysian foods, ingredients and spices.

However, this initiative has also become a potent weapon in Malaysia’s diplomatic arsenal.

Amy Hamidon, the wife of Malaysia’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, Hamidon Ali — he recently returned to Malaysia after a six-year stint in New York — tried to popularise Malaysian food at various fora, including the United Nations, where she held a number of food-related events and where, as one American observer told me, “the whole world came to eat”. Indeed, Yoo Soon-taek, the wife of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was a patron at one event organised by Hamidon’s wife at the huge UN dining room.

Though it has made a “Johnny-come-lately” entry into the world of food diplomacy, involving the use of food as a vehicle to promote national interests in a foreign land, Malaysia also discovered that serving food could be done in an entertaining way. For example, it recently introduced the teh-tarik to New Yorkers, who watched in sheer delight and curiosity how hot tea can be mixed with sweet condensed milk and poured from a pot into the glass.

Teh-tarik has its origins in the ubiquitous Indian chai and is said to have been brought to Malaysia and other South East Asian countries by Indian immigrants. Teh-tarik literally means “pull tea”, as the beverage is prepared by using outstretched hands to pour the piping hot tea from a pot or mug into a glass held in the other hand by the person preparing the tea. Though the tea itself may not always have a huge fan following because of the sweetened condensed milk, the acrobatic manner in which the tea is prepared can be amusing for someone who has never witnessed the teh-tarik spectacle.

“It’s not the tea but the acrobatics involved in making it that the tea drinker will always remember,” Shalini Manoharan, a Malaysian Tamil housewife who lives outside New York, told Weekend Review.

New York is, of course, the ultimate melting pot not only of races but also of their national cuisines — from Ethiopia and Mauritius through India, China and Japan to France and Italy.

Indeed, the whiff of curry and tandoori chicken floating through the air is as common in New York as the sight of the roasted ducks displayed in the windows of Chinese restaurants.

Most foreign diplomats in New York would almost certainly have had some exposure to food diplomacy because their own country would have, probably, also resorted to it. India, for example, started its food diplomacy many decades ago with sampling of food at Indian events in the US. The Indian samosa (a stuffed pastry, triangular in shape with a savoury filling that may include potatoes, onions, peas, coriander and, alternatively, ground meat or lentils) has, meanwhile, unlocked doors for Indian diplomats and businessmen who have recognised the samosa’s attribute as an excellent companion to beverages such as tea and coffee.

Frozen, ready-to-eat samosas along with dosas (a paper-thin crepe-like wrap filled with potatoes and vegetables), naan (bread) and other food products can often be spotted in American supermarkets.

American experts familiar with food used as a diplomatic tool say that diplomacy also operates to convey cultural ideals and values of a country to foreign audiences. Food diplomacy, as an extension, relies on culinary delights to arouse and stimulate the world’s appetite, and can bolster a nation’s image and create what modern marketers describe as “brand awareness”. India, China, Japan, Thailand, etc have reaped the rewards of their food diplomacy.

Malaysia, like other Asian countries, recently also participated in the LuckyRice Festival’s night market in Brooklyn, New York. India is starting outreach campaigns such as the India Calling event in Los Angeles or the Maximum India Festival held in Washington DC to introduce global audiences to the cultural reality of Asia’s third strongest economy.

“Food is a universal language. Even the most disciplined person can succumb to the sights and smells of good food. You can make lasting friends with good food,” says a Filipino diplomat who prefers to remain anonymous.

Thailand has effectively used food diplomacy as part of its foreign policy. Thai food diplomacy takes a front-stage position at all kinds of events, including industry trade shows where food becomes, invariably, part of anything that Thailand has to offer — ranging from tourism holidays through automotive parts and components to textiles, jewellery and precious stones.

“Food has a unique gift to convey cultural sentiments and even change public opinion and perceptions, provided the food is of good quality and is presented elegantly,” says Kate Andrews, an English food aficionado, on a visit to a food show in New York.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/a-taste-of-diplomacy-1.840320