‘Indians abroad are ambassadors of our culture’: President Mujherjee

BENGALURU (TIP): The three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention came to an end on Monday, January 9, with the President Pranab Mukerjee delivering valedictory address and conferring Pravasi Bharatiya Samman on 30 NRI’s which included the Chief Guest at the PBD, Prime Minister of Portugal Luiss Santos DaCosta, who has his roots in Goa, and Nisha Desai Biswal, US Asstt Secretary of State, On the occasion, President also released a Book of Prime Ministers speeches abroad.

President Pranab Mukherjee praised the Centre’s efforts of extracting thousands of Indians from difficult situations across the globe during Bengaluru’s Pravasi Bharatiya Sammelan, says overseas Indians are ambassadors of the country’s culture abroad.

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) from the US led the list of 30 persons conferred the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman awards by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The first award was received by Portugal Prime Minister Antonia Luiss Santos Da Costa for his contribution in the field of public service.

As per the list, six awards were given to NRIs from the US, the highest in the list, while two each to those from the UK and UAE.

One award each was given to NRIs from 20 countries, including Australia, France, Canada, Israel, Libya, Fiji, Brunei, Singapore, Portugal and others.

Among the NRIs from the US, Hari Babu Bindal was honored for his contribution in the field of environment engineering, Nisha Desai Biswal for public affairs, Sampat Kumar Shidramapa Shivanagi for community leadership, while Mahesh Mehta, Ramesh Shah and Bharat Haridas Barai were awarded for their contribution in the field of community service. Neena Gill and Priti Patel from the UK were honored for their contribution in the field of public service.

In the list of NRIs from the UAE, Vasudev Shamdas Shroff and one organization Indian Social and Cultural Centre were awarded.

In the field of business, Rajasekharan Pillai Valavoor Kizhakkathi from Bahrain, Mukund Bhikhubhai from Canada and Susheel Kumar Saraff from Thailand were honored.

In the field of medical science, Lael Anson E Best from Israel and Carani Balaraman Sanjeevi were selected.

Sandip Kumar Tagore from Japan was awarded for his contribution in the field of arts and culture, while Muniandy Thambirajah from Malaysia and Zeenat Musarrat Jafri from Saudi Arabia were honored for education and community service. In the field of public service, Pravin Kumar Jugnauth from Mauritius and Winston Chandarbhan Dookeran from Trinidad were honored. Vinod Chandra Patel from Fiji was selected for his contribution in the field of social service.

The theme of this year’s PBD is “Redefining engagement with Indian diaspora”. A record 8,000 delegates from 30 countries participated in the three-day event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the Indian diaspora across the world as he addressed people at the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2017 in Bengaluru on Sunday.

He added that Indian diaspora has made invaluable contribution to our economy and the government aims to change brain drain to brain gain through its policies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the persons of Indian origin for their support to government’s initiative against black money and corruption.