What do you get when you give children a creative outlet, a bunch of pencils, pastels and paints, and a teacher who thrives on connecting them to their everyday world? The answer is simple — artists. Lexington, Mass., was host to 2012 INDIA New England Woman of the Year Finalist and well-known artist Java Joshi's class of young artists who displayed their drawings, paintings and sketches to the throngs of people who visited the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society on June 9. The visitors were in for a shock. How could such small people draw and paint so well? Again, the answer is simple.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to India on June 23 to co-chair the fourth annual India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue. On Wednesday, Kerry's spokesperson said the meeting would involve a range of topics, including technology and security, among others. "The Strategic Dialogue, inaugurated in 2009, is a forum for discussing the full range of U.S.-India cooperation on bilateral and regional issues, reflecting the strong strategic partnership between our countries," State Department spokesperson Jen Penski said in a statment.

Three students from India received awards for academic excellence from the MGH Institute of Health Professions during the school's commencement ceremony on May 9. The three women each received a Master of Science in Physical Therapy after completing the two-year course of studies at the Boston graduate school. A total of 492 students in physical therapy, nursing, communication sciences and disorders, and health professions education graduated during the MGH Institute's ceremonies at Boston's Hynes Convention Center.

Seshu Strong, a group devoted to raising cancer awareness and supporting patients, is hosting an “Indian Youth Night for High School Students” on June 30 beginning at 3:30 p.m. The event, which will take place at Littleton High School in Littleton, Mass., is intended for high school students in grades 9 through 12 along with 8th graders about to enter high school. Parents are also welcome to attend. The evening will recognize recent high school graduates while also offering students a chance to share their experiences.

Accomplished Ghazal singer Jaswinder Singh Bunty is set to perform at the Chinmaya Mission in Andover, Mass. on June 21. Singh was trained and mentored by Jagjit Singh — a legendary Indian Ghazal singer, songwriter and musician. Jaswinder Singh accompanied the elder Singh on stage during concerts in India and around the world. His voice and singing style greatly resemble those of his teacher, who passed away in 2011. Jaswinder Singh has released three albums to date.

"Saptapadii," a popular film produced by Amitabh Bachchan starring Manav Gohil and Swaroop Sampat, will return to the Boston area for a showing on June 22. The film, which debuted earlier this year to widespread success in Canada, Australia, China and India, will return to the U.S. for Sunday's 2:30 p.m. showing at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass. The movie centers around the contemporary story of a Gujarati Indian woman who risks her comfortable, married life to help a young boy she meets while celebrating her 20th anniversary with her husband.

MIT literature professor Shankar Raman has received the 2013 James A. and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities —  a $25,000 prize awarded annually to support an innovative and creative scholarship in the humanities. The prize will support Raman's development of his manuscript-in-progress, "Before the Two Cultures: Literature and Mathematics in Early Modern Europe.

Visual IQ, a marketing software company based in Needham, Mass., has continued to add both employees and clients since launching in 2006, according to co-founder and CEO Manu Mathew. Speaking to the Boston Business Journal, Mathew said Visual IQ recently passed the 150-employee mark while also expanding to serve 66 customers — some of which include American Express, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Honda, Home Depot and Toyota. He also said the firm is currently on track to reach between 90 and 110 clients by the end of this year.

Abhijit Das knows exactly what he wants out of a hotel company and it is a far cry from what the big name hotels offer around the globe — his vision is of boutique hotels, with bigger rooms, a more residential feel and a connection to the local setting, geography and history. Through his Boston East India Hotels LLC he has already launched one signature luxury brand of hotel properties under Troca Hotels and his plan is to launch many more, both in the New England region and around the globe.

 

Eight-time NBA All-Star Chris Bosh will travel to India next month to conduct a series of events in an effort to both grow the game of basketball and the league's fanbase in the country. Bosh, who's currently playing in the 2013 NBA Finals with the defending champion Miami Heat, will participate in a number of activities in Mumbai.

An elite group of students from both the United States and India will converge later this summer for the Open Society Internship for Rights and Governance — a newly launched internship program aimed at exposing students to public policy, advocacy and human rights. The program, which was launched earlier this year in a joint collaboration between Central European University and the Open Society Foundations, will prepare students to act confidently in complex situations where policy, advocacy, international actors and human rights intersect.

India is scheduled to send the world's final telegram next month in a move that will officially close the history books on a major form of communication dating all the way back to 1844. The country's state-run telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. is losing more than $23 million a year by keeping telegraph services running, the company's general manager told The Christian Science Monitor. Roughly 5,000 telegrams are sent in India each day, a relatively minor figure in comparison to the country's massive population of 1.2 billion.

Doctors Without Borders, an international medical group devoted to solving humanitarian issues, is raising concerns over India's shortage of tuberculosis drugs — an issue the group describes as a "routine" problem for the country. In a statement issued June 17, DWB said India is currently experiencing shortages across the country for both pediatric TB drugs in addition to those used to treat drug-resistant TB. The group also highlighted issues with India's public TB treatment program, which puts the central government in charge of buying and distributing the drugs to India's states, which subsequently provide treatment.

Talks are ongoing between the United States and India after recent reports uncovered large-scale data mining by U.S. intelligence agencies against India — an act the South Asian country blasted as "unacceptable" during a news conference on June 11. According to The Guardian newspaper, India emerged as the fifth most tracked country by the U.S. National Security Agency. The publication claims to have acquired top secret documents about the agency's data-mining tool, known officially as Boundless Informant. The tool, which details the amount of information it collects from computers and telephone networks, has reportedly acquired 6.3 billion pieces of computer data from India during each of the past several years, according to The Guardian.

On Monday, AirAsia India appointed S. Ramadorai as the company’s chairman in a move that finally cemented the proposed airline’s entire top management squad. The decision, which was made public just one day after picking a chief advisor, was confirmed by AirAsia India’s CEO Tony Fernandes via Twitter. “I would like to confirm Ramadorai as chairman of AirAsia India, a giant of Indian industry, and man from the South,” Fernandes tweeted Monday. “That completes our team. Advisor, chairman, CEO and the board. Quite a heavyweight team for super exciting AirAsia India.”