Indian-American IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath, Norwegian MP Himanshu Gulati and South African diplomat Anil Sooklal were among 30 NRIs, people of Indian origin and their organisations honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award on January 23.

President Ram Nath Kovind, who gave the valedictory address on the third and final day of the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, presented the awards at a grand event in Varanasi. The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award is the highest honour conferred as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conventions on a non-resident Indian (NRI), person of Indian origin (PIO) or organisation or institution established and run by NRIs or PIOs.

Apart from 28 people, two organisations - Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha and Indian Community Association in Egypt - were also awarded for their work in community service.

In the field of business, Canada’s Ramesh Chotai, China’s Amit Waikar, Italy’s Bitthal Das Maheshwari, New Zealand’s Bhavdeep Singh Dhillon, Oman’s Vinodan Verambally Thazhikuniyil, UAE’s Girish Pant and Surender Singh Kandhari were named for the award.

Others who were honoured included Australia’s Nihal Singh Agar (social work), Bhutan’s Rajinder Nath Khazanchi (civil engineering), France’s Malini Ranganathan (academics and arts), Jamaica’s Guna Sekhar Muppuri (medical and entrepreneurship) and Kenya’s P.V. Sambasiva Rao (technology).

Kenya’s Prakash Madhavdas Heda (medical science), Kuwait’s Rajpal Tyagi (architecture), Myanmar’s Banwarilal Satya Narayan Goenka (business management) and Poland’s Jagdeshwar Rao Maddukuri (entrepreneurship) were among those who were honoured.

Qatar’s Purnendu Chandra Tiwary (training and simulation), South Africa’s Swami Saradaprabhananda (community service), Switzerland’s Rajendra Kumar Joshi (science), Tanzania’s Shamim Parkar Khan, UAE’s Zulekha Daud (medical science and business) and Uganda’s Rajesh Chaplot (chartered accountancy) also won the award.

Chandra Shekhar Mishra (science), Gitesh Jayantilal Desai (structural engineering) and Kiran Chhotubhai Patel (medical science) won the award. All three are from the US.

The 15th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was organised by the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the Uttar Pradesh government.

Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh, who chaired four plenary sessions on different issues, said unlike previous editions where sessions became platforms for airing grievances, this year, substantive discussions took place and tangible outcomes were expected from the deliberations. A total of 7,228 registrations were done for this year’s event from over 90 countries, Singh said.

A unique feature this year is that the delegates will also be taken to the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj and from there to New Delhi to witness the Republic Day parade. Singh said the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas is held on January 9 to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India in 1915, but this year it was delayed keeping in mind requests from members of the Indian diaspora to attend the Kumbh Mela and the Republic Day parade.

During the event, Uttar Pradesh also honoured its Pravasis with the UP Apravasi Bharatiya Ratna Puraskar 2019. Eight NRIs and people of Indian origin received the honour from UP Governor Ram Naik.