Prez confers Pravasi awards on 27 eminent persons

Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu conferred the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards on 27 eminent persons at the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention, which concluded here on Friday.

Murmu congratulated all the awardees and appreciated them for working for the society in different fields. She especially thanked Trinidad & Tobago President Christine Carla Kangaloo, one of the recipients of the award.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians. The awardees represent the excellence achieved by the Indian diaspora in various fields.

Those who received the award included Kangaloo, who got it in the public affairs category. The Trinidad & Tobago President joined the event virtually.

Other awardees included Ajay Rane (Australia, community service), Marialena Joan Fernandes (Austria, education), Swami Sanyuktanand (Fiji, community service), Saraswati Vidya Niketan (Guyana, community service), Lekh Raj Juneja (Japan, science and technology), Prem Kumar (Kyrgyz Republic, medical science) and Soukthavy Chowdhury (Laos, business).

A Committee, with the Vice-President of India as the Chairman and the External Affairs Minister as the Vice-Chairman, selected the awardees.