17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas | Murmu: Indian diaspora making stellar contributions in leadership positions

Murmu was speaking at the valedictory session of the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention where she handed over the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards, the highest honour for overseas Indians, to 27 individuals.

President Droupadi Murmu confers the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award to Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali in Indore on Tuesday. Suriname President Chandrikapersad Santokhi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were also present at the event. ANI

“We are facing challenging times today, with economic and geopolitical upheaval all around us. Amid all these challenges, India is engaging with the world with greater self-confidence and a wider goal of securing national interests,” Murmu said.

“These awards are significant as they not only show our appreciation and acknowledgment of the achievements of the pravasis, but also reflect our faith in their resolve to keep India’s flag flying high in the world,” she said.

Among those who received the award include President of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali, US-based NRI businessman Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, and DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta, Poland-based businessman Amit Kailash Chandra Lath, who assisted Indian authorities during the evacuation of students during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia were among those present on the occasion, which was attended by over 3,500 delegates from nearly 70 countries.

On Monday, many delegates had strongly expressed their disappointment over not being able to enter the venue due to overcrowding when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke, prompting Chouhan to apologise. Even on Tuesday, he said, “The PM’s popularity is such that the hall could not accommodate everyone. I express my apology once again.”

During the day, at a media briefing addressed jointly by officers of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Madhya Pradesh government, the authorities said that over 3,200 people had registered for the event while the auditorium where the PM spoke had a capacity of 2,200.

“But we had prearranged large screens in adjacent halls but people naturally felt since they had come all the way to India; they would rather watch the event in person… shortcomings were there on our end,” Madhya Pradesh additional chief secretary Mohammed Suleman said, while Ausaf Sayeed, Secretary (Overseas Indian Affairs) in the MEA, sought to downplay the issue, saying the event was “overall a success”.

“When you organise an event of this scale, there are many challenges. It was a very good partnership with the state government and the local administration. We should ignore one or two small things which are there,” said Sayeed. The event, which commenced in 2003 and turned biennial in 2015, commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi to India on January 9, 1915, from South Africa.

FedEx Corporation CEO Rajesh Subramaniam, Indian-Australian physicist Chennupati Jagadish, and Associate Professor at Ethiopia-based Wollega University Kannam Ambalam, who is credited with building water springs and small bridges in the African country, were also among the recipients of the award.