Sohan Joshi elected new head at NFIA Chicago convention

CHICAGO: The culmination of the 33rd national annual convention of the National Federation of Indian Associations(NFIA) held in Chicago last week was the election of ‘Son of the Soil’ Sohan Joshi as its President for the coming year and induction of two other ‘Sons of the Soil’ Kanti Patel as Executive Vice President and Satheeshan Nair as Secretary
Unlike the Convention that was held 10 years ago, this Convention achieved a fair degree of success, judging from the number of attendees not only from Chicagoland but also from other parts of the country, and the smooth manner in which various seminars and sessions were conducted. The highlight of the three-day Convention from October 12 at Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows was the session on Investment in India and Tax Implication. This was held on Saturday morning. Another session that generated great interest was on pulse reading by a great master from India, Dr Pankaj Naram.
The cultural show presentations during the Kick Off session on Friday and the Dinner Banquet on Saturday were well conducted affairs, although many felt that the Saturday event could have been better planned with more diversity and attractions like a fashion show and promoting young talent. But that did not undermine the overall performances.
At the Saturday Dinner Banquet there was presentation of Awards to a number of community activists from across the USA. Dr Hemant Patel, past president of AAPI was recognized for his contributions in the field of Medicine and Public Health, Sid Gautam for Promoting Entrepreneurship, Harkrishan Majumdar for Community Services, Nitin Shah for excelling in Hospitality and Financial business, Ratna Kumar for contribution in Performing Arts, Indo American Center for Extraordinary Services to the Community, Najma Sultana for Community Services, Sudhir Vaishnav for Art and TV, Rajiv Bhambri for his contributions in Print Media and Hema Potla for Community Services.
A source of concern for Indian Americans is the recent IRS cracking down on unreported gains from investment abroad .The concern got aggravated with two medical professionals – one in Wisconsin and the other in New York – landing themselves in huge trouble with fine and criminal prosecution. It was in this context that a seminar on Investments in India ad Tax Implications assumed significance.
The tax seminar had four Tax attorneys participating – one from Chicago and three from India. It was moderated by a prominent Financial Advisor Ajit Gandhi and co-moderated by a Tax expert Sushila Gidwaney from New York
The Chicaogland attorney was Michael Sawyier and he touched upon the essential requirements that IRS seeks in reporting income from investments abroad and penalties involved in failure to so. He eloquently distinguished the status in willful hiding and unintentionally not reporting the gains, the different levels of penalties involved, including criminal proceedings. He also suggested voluntary disclosures which would save a lot of trouble in future.
The three Indian Attorneys – Rajesh Dhruva from Rajkot, Anil Jain and Deepender Kumar from New Delhi – had telecast addresses from India. Rajesh Dhruva from Rajkot defined the status of NRIs and permissible areas of investments. He said that NRIs could not invest in RBI bonds or postal schemes and deposits in Indian companies. “NRIs are forbidden from investments in Post Office schemes; Public Provident Fund accounts ; Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bonds and deposits with Indian companies,” he observed
Ajit Gandhi moderated the session beautifully and observed that IRS regulations at some stage need detailed and minute interpretation which in turn would require an expert involvement and advice. The question answer session that followed was lively too and many participants sought clarifications for their specific problems. As put by Ajit Gandhi, the problems involved are so vast that they could not be compressed or addressed effectively in one hour session. “Even the tax experts need time to explain and the constraint of time really came in the way of their furnishing explanation or exposition of the subject, or effective answering of the questions put,” he said.
The following is the new NFIA Board for 2012 -2014:
President: Sohan P Joshi, Exec Vice President: Kanti S Patel, Vice Presidents: Angela Anand, Chandrakant ‘CK’ Patel, Hari Har Singh, Secretary: Satheesan Nair, Joint Secretary: Yogendra Gupta, Treasurer: Anil Kumar, Director-At-Large: Rajasekhar Reddy, Arvind Joshi, Satish Mishra, Varghese Paramayil, Arvind Pillai, Ashwin Shah, Gulshan Bajaj.

– Ramesh Soparawala & Harish Rao