CHENNAI (TIP): Rotary International will confer its highest award of Life Time Achievement to Dr Prakash M Swamy, a senior Indian-American journalist and former United Nations Correspondent at a gala investiture to be held in Chennai on June 11.

The award will be presented by Dr A Surya Prakash, Chairman of Prasar Bharti in New Delhi. He will also bestow the Young Journalist Award to 20-year-old J. Vedhavalli Jagadeeshan, News Anchor, Puthiya Thalaimurai TV Channel in Chennai.

Dr. Swamy served as a member of the historic Madison Square Garden Committee to welcome Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to New York and worked hard to make the event a global success. He was the United Nations Correspondent in New York for over a decade and former Judge of Emmy Awards panel in New York. He is also the current President of America Tamil Sangam. He has been a journalist for the past 35 plus years.

The previous recipients of the Life Time Achievement Award of the Rotary Club of Madras North include Yashwant Sinha, Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader; Sakthi Kanta Das IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Prof. P. Vanangamudi, Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University and TM Veeraraghavan Senior Correspondent of CNN IBN in New Delhi among others.

Ravi Sundaram President of the Club said Rotary Club of Madras North was chartered in 1969 and is one of the oldest clubs in Chennai. The Club donated land to the Government of Tamil Nadu to establish a school in Napalayam near Chennai. Over the last 35 years, the Club has contributed to the infrastructure of the school and has established the school as a premier institution in the area, he said.