Rimpy Sidhu, a US NRI who hails from Pandori village has built the Marrievilla Resorts spread over 8 acres near Mullanpur especialy for Punjabi weddings.

Sidhu says the interiors are designed in Roman style and the resort is an ideal one-stop shop for weddings. The rental for a party is Rs.2 lakhs apart from other arrangements.

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Drs Kiran C. and Pallavi Patel, have donated $12 million to the University of South Florida in a new endowment aimed at creating the Patel College of Global Sustainability, that will expand on years of world-leading applied research to advance sustainability around the world and improve the lives of the most vulnerable people.

Pending approval from university panels, the new college will elevate the work of the Patel School of Global Sustainability to a new level that allows it to build on its portfolio of projects focused on improved urban systems, water and transportation. The new endowment brings the Patel's contributions to the University of South Florida to $23,798,329.

In a joint statement the Patels said they believe the current generation must ensure that we do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

India born Pallavi Patel and Zambia born Kiran Patel met while studying medicine in Ahmedabad. Both received their advanced specialisations at Columbia University in New York. He is in cardiology and she in paediatrics. They have a reputation for generosity to various programmes in health, education, arts and culture.

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One of the 3 Indian American delegates to the Republican National Convention and a major fund raiser in Mississippi state, Dr Sampat Shivangi, says the Democrats' India-friendly image is just a myth and Republican contender Mitt Romney is the best bet for strong and enduring Indo-US relations.

Shivangi who is President of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, said Obama openly and unhesitatingly criticised outsourcing to India, and though a majority of Indian-Americans do support the Democratic Party and Obama in particular, the trend is changing among second and third generation Indians. Obama is increasingly becoming anti-India whereas Romney publicly declared that India is the strategic ally of the US and he is to bring out a White Paper on India in the near future.

Shivangi helped raise $1.7 million for Romney in Mississippi, the highest collected in the state.

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A Sikh American community organised a fund-raising event in support of the Sikh Human Development Foundation (SHDF)'s mission to provide scholarships for needy students striving for higher professional education in Punjab and neighbouring Indian states.

The Foundation Chairman said SHDF has over the last 12 years awarded nearly 2400 scholarships at a cost of almost a million dollars, that is changing the lives of families there.

Applauding the recent fund-raiser that was held in Virginia, chief guest and philanthropist Harshivinderjit Singh Bains of Texas stated that the SHDF extends a helping hand that will improve the lives of this and future generations.

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A group of NRI doctors are to set up a Rs.300 crore rural Institute of Medical Sciences at Tirumangalam, near Madurai. The first phase, a 300-bed multi-specialty hospital will be ready by December 2013 and a medical college will begin functioning in mid 2014.

The Mandira Institute of Medical Sciences is entirely an initiative of NRI doctors who intend to contribute to the creation of an equitable healthcare infrastructure in India and increase the supply of its physician workforce.

The coordinator of the project P Madhu said they will have 700-beds when the first batch of 150 students complete their MBBS by 2019. The college will utilise modern medical education technology including digital teaching boards and virtual dissection methodology. It will be modelled on some of the best universities in the world and staffed by a number of return NRI doctors trained in medical centres like Harvard Medical school and the University of Pittsburg.

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