President APJ Abdul Kalam on Tuesday presented the fifth ‘Pravasi Bhartiya Samman’ to people of Indian Origin for excellence in their fields and their outstanding contribution towards furthering India’s interests abroad. The President bestowed the honours on 15 PIOs, including Lord Diljeet Rana of the UK and Gopal Raju of US, founder of the Indo-Asian News Service, for their contribution towards promoting India’s interests in the respective countries they have settled in.Some of the other notable persons to have got the awards are Dave Sukhdip Singh Hayer of Canada, M Anirudhan of the US, Pheroze Nowrojee of Kenya, Nirmal K Sinha of US and Kenneth S Benjamin of Jamaica.Among the other awardees were Dato K R Somadundaram of Malaysia, Sibabrata Roy of Germany, Syed M Salahuddin and B R Shetty of UAE, Moti Tikaram of Fiji, Abdool Magid Abdool Karim Vakil of Portugal, P Jayaraman of US and Billy Nair of South Africa.
