One of 27 recipients of the 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour given to Indians living abroad, is the president of Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali. Another laureate is the famous Canadian scientist Dr. Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan.
New Delhi: The 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour given to Indians living abroad, has been given to 27 people, including the president of Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, and famous Canadian scientist Dr. Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan.
President Droupadi Murmu will present the honour as a part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, which takes place from January 8–10 in Indore.
Ali, a Muslim who was born into an Indo-Guyanese family, took the oath of office in August 2020.
Additionally, he will attend the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention as the principal guest.
Amit Kailash Chandra Lath, a 45-year-old Polish businessman from Goa, also received the honour for his assistance in the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine to Poland when conflict broke out with Russia.
Dr. Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan, a scientist and inventor who immigrated to Canada in 1974, channelled his love for volunteer work via organisations like the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and the Canada-India Business Council.
In rural India, he has funded clean drinking water systems and a mobile hospital. In 2019, the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Rajesh Subramaniam, the CEO of FedEx Corporation, Chennupati Jagadish, an economist from Australia, and Reena Vinod Pushkarna, a chef from Israel, are a few more honorees.
A statement from the Ministry of External Affairs stated that “a jury-cum-awards committee, with the vice-president as the chairman and the minister of external affairs as the vice-chairman, and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations… and unanimously selected the awardees.”
