GEORGETOWN : President Ali to receive prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award

GEORGETOWN : President Mohamed Irfaan Ali is among 27 persons of Indian origin who will be bestowed with the highest honour conferred to persons in the diaspora – the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) 2023.

This award is conferred to persons who have been recognized by the Indian Government for their outstanding achievements both in India and abroad. The Guyanese Head of State will be awarded for his work in politics/community welfare.

President Dr Irfaan Ali during a previous meeting with Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
The 17th PBSA will be conferred by the President of India as part of the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention (Indian Diaspora Day) to be held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, from 8-10 January, 2023.

President Ali has been invited as the Chief Guest for the upcoming convention and will be travelling to India with a high-level delegation comprising of both official and private sector representatives.

Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr K J Srinivasa has officially congratulated President Ali on being the recipient of the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, calling it a recognition of the outstanding contributions to the country and his efforts to bring about the rapid and equitable development of Guyana.

High Commissioner also expressed hope that the upcoming visit of President Ali to India for the PBD 2023 and subsequent interactions with the top political hierarchy and private sector pertaining to agriculture, agro-processing, health, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, information technology and energy sectors will provide the necessary impetus for further strengthening bilateral partnership between India and Guyana.

A Jury-cum-Awards Committee, with Hon’ble Vice-President of India as the Chairman, Hon’ble External Affairs Minister of India as the Vice-Chair and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, 2023 and unanimously selected the awardees. The awardees represent the excellence achieved by the Indian Diaspora in various fields.

OTHER AWARDEES INCLUDE:
Professor Jagadish Chennupati of AUSTRALIA;
Professor Sanjeev Mehta of BHUTAN;
Professor Dilip Loundo of BRAZIL;
Dr Alexander Maliakel John of BRUNEI DARUSSALAM;
Dr Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan of CANADA;
Joginder Singh Nijjar of CROATIA;
Professor Ramjee Prasad of DENMARK;
Dr Kannan Ambalam of ETHIOPIA;
Dr Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay of GERMANY;
Reena Vinod Pushkarna of ISRAEL;
Dr Maqsooda Sarfi Shiotani of JAPAN;
Dr Rajagopal of MEXICO;
Amit Kailash Chandra Lath of POLAND;
Parmanand Sukhumal Daswani of the REPUBLIC of CONGO;
Piyush Gupta of SINGAPORE;
Mohanlal Hira of SOUTH AFRICA;
Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel of SOUTH SUDAN;
Sivakumar Nadesan of SRI LANKA;
Dr Dewanchandrebhose Sharman of SURINAME;
Dr Archana Sharma of SWITZERLAND;
Justice Frank Arthur Seepersad of TRINIDAD & TOBAGO;
Siddharth Balachandran of UAE;
Chandrakant Babubhai Patel of the UNITED KINGDOM;
Darshan Singh Dhaliwal of the USA;
Rajesh Subramaniam of the USA;
Ashok Kumar Tiwary of UZBEKISTAN.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas commemorates the day when Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India in 1915.

To mark this day, the tradition of celebrating the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas started in 2003. The first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention was organised on January 9, 2003 to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the development of India.

Former Presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar were Chief Guests of previous Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Conventions and were bestowed with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards in 2004 and 2015, respectively.