Modi govt names 27 overseas Indians for Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2023

• Shubham
• 03 January, 2023

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By: Shubham Ghosh

A doctor in Brunei, an educationist in Bhutan, and social activists in countries such as Israel, Ethiopia, and Poland were among 17 people who were chosen on Monday (2) by the Indian government for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA), the highest award for non-resident Indians.

The award will be conferred by Indian president Droupadi Murmu at the 17th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention which will be held in Indore in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh between January 8 and 10. Murmu will hand over the awards in the valedictory session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations.

The 17th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention will be held from January 8-10 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards at the PBD Convention in the valedictory session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations that are held on January 9 to acknowledge contributions made by the overseas Indian community towards the country’s development.

This year, the theme of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal,” according to a statement released by Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, will be the chief guest on the occasion. He is also one of the awardees.

The recipients for this year’s awards were chosen by a jury-cum-awards committee which is chaired by India vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is the panel’s vice-chair and its other members are drawn from various walks of life.

The committee considered nominations for the PBSA and unanimously selected the awardees, according to India’s external affairs ministry.

The ministry said in a press release, “The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians. PBSA is conferred by the Hon’ble President of India as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention on Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin or an organization / institution organization/institution established and run by the Non-Resident Indians or Persons of Indian Origin in recognition of their outstanding achievements both in India and abroad.”

The awardees of 2023:

The awardees this year include:

• Jagadish Chennupati of Australia in the field of science and technology and education
• 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
• Ramjee Prasad of Denmark in IT
• Kannan Ambalam of Ethiopia in community welfare
• Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay of Germany in community welfare
• Mohamed Irfaan Ali of Guyana in politics and community welfare
• Reena Vinod Pushkarna of Israel in business and community welfare
• Maqsooda Sarfi Shiotani of Japan in education
• Rajagopal of Mexico in education
• Amit Kailash Chandra Lath of Poland in business
• Parmanand Sukhumal Daswani of the Republic of Congo in community welfare
• Piyush Gupta of Singapore in business
• Mohanlal Hira of South Sudan in community welfare
• Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel of South Sudan in community welfare
• Sivakumar Nadesan of Sri Lanka (community welfare)
• Dewanchandrebhose Sharman of Suriname (community welfare)
• Archana Sharma of Switzerland in science and technology
• Frank Arthur Seepersad of Trinidad and Tobago (community welfare)
• Siddharth Balachandran of the UAE (business)
• Chandrakant Babubhai Patel of the UK in media
• Darshan Singh Dhaliwal of the US (business and community welfare)
• Rajesh Subramaniam of the US (business)
• Ashok Kumar Tiwary of Uzbekistan (business)