Gates, who is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made these remarks in his annual letter while recalling his experiences during his India visit last year.
The award, announced by Canada India Foundation on Tuesday, carries $225,000 and citation.
Sri Lanka on Friday assured India that a devolution package for the minority Tamil community in the country was not out of its radar as it discussed with India the key issue of resettlement of internally displaced people in the post Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -era.
The United States has made it clear that its first strategic dialogue with Pakistan next week is not being held at India's expense, even as it said it is 'pleased' that Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is part of Islamabad's delegation as there can be no such talks without the military participation.
Top US Senator Christopher Dodd would travel to India next month as part of his effort to give a new thrust to Indo-US relationship, before the November visit of President Barack Obama.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday held a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of a meeting of CEOs from India and the US.
The Obama administration's point man for South Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has assured that there will be deliverables from the first US-India Strategic Dialogue that will be held in Washington, DC, on June 2-3.
The Obama administration is apparently committed to alleviating India-Pakistan tensions and consequently influencing the Pakistani army to focus on the internal terrorist threat from the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and not India, in order to advance Washington's AfPak agenda.
Another crucial power group, the US legislative Congress, is increasing pressure for closer ties between Washington and New Delhi.
The Al Qaeda terrorist havens in Pakistan will be dismantled through "the combination of military operations -- aggressive military operations on the Afghan side -- and working energetically with the Pakistani government to shut down these safe havens."
Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has been selected as a member of the United Nations' high-level panel on global sustainability.
Influential United States Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the new Democratic co-chair of the reconstituted US Senate India Caucus, who took over from the erstwhile Senator and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in welcoming Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Washington, has said, "That President Obama chose the visit of Indian Prime Minister Singh as the occasion for the first State Dinner of his administration should come as no surprise."
The security situation in South Asia could get further complicated if the United States agrees to have a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan, according to experts. Pakistan and the US are set to hold their first high-level strategic dialogue this week in Washington, co-chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Pakistan wants a nuclear deal with the US on the lines of the ndo-US nuclear deal.
United States lawmakers, who attended the annual Sikh American Heritage Dinner on Capitol Hill organized by the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, pledged to support the community's efforts to serve in the armed forces without compromising their religious principles.
A key aide to United States President Barack Obama has dismissed reports that the new US administration has kept the nuclear deal with India on the backburner. Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency official who co-chaired an inter-agency committee which formulated Obama's Af-Pak policy, also did not see Robert Einhorn's recent appointment, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's special adviser on non-proliferation issues, as an impediment.
Mukherjee is in Washington, DC to co-chair the US-India CEO's Forum with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
'And we said to him, "What will you do for us if we jump in early?"' 'His answer was very simple: "I'm going to have the most diverse cabinet and administration in the history of the US".' '"You can expect that you will have a seat at the table, okay? Number one. So influence if I win".' '"Number two, you should fully expect that we will focus on the issues that you care about: Immigration".'
Among key Congressional leaders, the Foreign Secretary met included Jim McDermott, co-chair of the India caucus at the Congress; Howard L Berman, Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs; and Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Member of the powerful Senate Committee on International Relations
Republican United States Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the founder and co-chair of the newly reconstituted US Senate India Caucus, believes that the Caucus is 'really unique' because "it's the only country caucus that I am aware in the Senate."Cornyn addressed the packed audience of Indian Americans community leaders from across the country.
The newly re-constituted US Senate India Caucus will resurrect itself on Tuesday evening with its first meeting for the year during which it will also formally welcome India's Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, who assumed duties two months ago.
United States Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, has profusely apologised and expeditiously gone on damage control mode after stating that 'a rising India' is a grave threat to the US. The Senator from Texas states that the F-22's are "important to our national security because we're not just fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We're fighting --we have graver threats and greater threats than that: From a rising India, with increased exercise of military power'.
Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has been awarded the 2010 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award. It will be presented to him at Canada-India Foundation Annual Gala scheduled for May 15 in Vancouver, says Barj Dhahan, gala chair and co-chair of CIF.
Among the areas of cooperation would be education, science and technology. The meeting would be co-chaired by Tata Sons chairman, Ratan Tata and David Cote, chairman of fortune 500 Honeywell. Tata heads the 12-member Indian delegation to the CEO Forum while Cote leads the US side.
Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in New Delhi onto participate in the fourth round of Indo-US strategic dialogue even as US announced to invest $100 million in India's burgeoning clean energy sector.
The economy has developed a resilience beyond expectations.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will travel to the United States next week to hold discussions with top officials of the Obama Administration on a wide range of bi-lateral and regional issues.
India is "very important" for America's foreign policy and crucial for the stability and peace in the region, an influential US lawmaker said on Thursday. "India is a very important part of the United States foreign policy," Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who is co-chair of the Congressional caucus on Pakistan and heads the Afghan caucus said at a panel discussion in Washington.
'It is time India calibrated a policy of what Indira Gandhi called equi-proximity rather than equi-distance between the US and Russia.'
"India is one of our most important allies and creating an exchange program between members of the US Congress and Representatives of India's Parliament will only deepen our ties and lead to greater understanding between our countries," McDermott said.
Though the Indian caucus in the Obama administration is concerned over the recent reports concerning Pakistan's funds being used against India, it may be unable to bring any changes in the Kerry-Lugar bill that has assured Pakistan of USD 1.5 billion on an annual basis for five years.
India granted the MFN status to Pakistan in 1996
The Independence Day weekend in America was a memorable one for hundreds of Jain teenagers and young adults from North America. Some of them were inspired to change their diet. Several of them may have met their future spouses. Others learned about the history of their ancestors. Many found a way to relate to their spirituality.
United States Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the new Democratic co-chair of the re-constituted US Senate India Caucus, feels that he has impossible shoes to fill, that of erstwhile Senator and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Dodd, one of the senior-most members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, addressed an overflowing audience of Indian Americans from across the country in the ornate Mansfield Room of the US Capitol.
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers comprising erstwhile and current co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans have circulated a letter among their colleagues expressing their strong support for the US-India civilian nuclear agreement and included in their 'Dear Colleague' letter a copy of the September 12 Washington Post editorial titled 'Yes for an Answer: Why Congress should expedite approval of the US-India nuclear accord."
Sri Lanka, which is poised to capture the remaining strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has rejected the plea of the United States-led donor countries for a temporary 'no-fire period' in the island's north, saying this would be detrimental in efforts to wipe out terrorism from its soil.
US Congressman Jim McDermott, the Democratic co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, has urged President-elect Barack Obama that when he makes his first overseas trip as President that it be to India.
The joint secretary also said a high-level task force to work on frontiers of science related to vaccines and drug testing was formed on Sunday.
American business tycoon and philanthropist Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Friday announced an emergency relief fund of $700,000 for the flood victims of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sanjay Sinho,an Indian-origin doctor has been appointed chief executive officer of the American India Foundation which gives grants for education, public health and livelihood projects in India.
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