PM Modi conferred award to 27 NRIs at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
On 9 January PM awarded 27 NRIs with17th Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the highest honour for Indians living abroad. An educationist in Bhutan, a doctor in Brunei, and civil society activists in Ethiopia are among them.
The 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention will take place from January 8–10 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The President will present the awards during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations’ closing session.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)
Every year on January 9, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) day is celebrated to honour the Overseas Indian community’s contribution to the advancement of India. The greatest Pravasi, Mahatma Gandhi, returned to India from South Africa on this day in 1915, spearheading India’s freedom movement and forever transforming the lives of Indians. As a result, January 9 was chosen as the date to celebrate this anniversary.
Since 2003, PBD conventions have been conducted annually. The overseas Indian community can interact with the government and citizens of the country of their ancestors through these conventions to carry out collaborative projects. The overseas Indian society, which is spread across the globe, can network and share experiences at these conventions, which are also highly beneficial for networking.
In honour of their contributions to India’s development, persons of remarkable achievement are presented with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award at the occasion. The occasion provides an opportunity for talking about important issues affecting the Indian Diaspora.
Who is receiving these prestigious awards?
Irfaan Ali, 42, is an Indo-Guyanese Muslim who was inaugurated as Guyana’s ninth president in August 2020. He will also serve as the convention’s chief guest, the Ministry of External Affairs announced in a statement.
Dhaliwal, a US-based NRI, was sent back from Delhi’s IGI Airport on October 23-24, 2021, over his alleged involvement in organising a langar for protesting farmers at Delhi borders against the three farm laws, now withdrawn. Dhaliwal is the younger brother of Surjit Singh Rakhra, a minister in the previous Akali Dal government in Punjab.
Businessman Amit Kailash Chandra Lath, who resided in Poland and helped Indian officials evacuate students during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also received the award.
Rajesh Subramaniam, the CEO of FedEx Corporation, Chennupati Jagadish, an economist who is both Indian and Australian, and Kannam Ambalam, a professor at Wolega University in Ethiopia who is credited with constructing water springs and tiny bridges in the African country, are among the other honorees.
The awardees, who represent excellence achieved by the Indian diaspora in different fields, include Sanjeev Mehta of Bhutan in education, Dilip Loundo of Brazil in art and culture and education, Alexander Maliakel John of Brunei in medicine, Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan of Canada in community welfare, Joginder Singh Nijjar of Croatia in art and culture and Ramjee Prasad of Denmark in IT.
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The other awardees are Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay of Germany in community welfare, Maqsooda Sarfi Shiotani of Japan in education, Rajagopal of Mexico in education, Parmanand Sukhumal Daswani of the Republic of Congo in community welfare, Piyush Gupta of Singapore in business, Mohanlal Hira and Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel of South Sudan in community welfare.
Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award
Sivakumar Nadesan of Sri Lanka (community welfare), Dewanchandrebhose Sharman of Suriname (community welfare), Archana Sharma of Switzerland (science and technology), Frank Arthur Seepersad of Trinidad and Tobago (community welfare), Siddharth Balachandran of the UAE (business), Chandrakant Babubhai Patel of the UK (media), and Ashok Kumar Tiwary of Uzbekistan (business) are also among the awardees.
One of the awardees is Reena Vinod Pushkarna, an Israeli chef who was a member of the group that prepared meals for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to the nation in 2017.
According to the external affairs ministry, A jury-cum-awards committee led by the vice president selected the winners. The panel’s vice chair, S Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, has members from many various backgrounds. The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award nominees were chosen by the committee after considering all nominations.
