Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards-2017

1. 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations are being held in Bangalore from January 7-9,2017. PBD conventions are being held every year since 2003 and we have been honoring our Pravasis since the first edition.

2. It was decided late last year to hold the PBD conventions after an interval of two years. Therefore, the number of awards to be conferred for PBD 2017 have been doubled to 30. The Jury cum Awards Committee can also make upto six suo-motto nominations for persons from the fields in which the awards are to be conferred. This year, the jury also considered Pravasi’s contribution for achievements on philanthropic investments and charitable work in India and for contribution towards India’s development.

3. Nominations were invited in the prescribed format from all eligible categories of Overseas Indians/Organizations. The last date for receipt of nominations at the Ministry was 29th August 2016.

4. The Jury-cum-Awards Committee, chaired by Hon’ble Vice-President, considered all the nominations for the PBSA. A list of 123 nominations that were found eligible as per the guidelines and another list of 55 nominations that were received late were presented for consideration of the Committee. The nominations were initially examined by a Screening Committee comprising of Officers from the Ministry of External Affairs.

5. The Jury-cum-Awards Committee for Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards (PBSA) comprised of following members:

i. Vice President of India-Chairman

ii. Hon’ble EAM , Vice-Chairman

iii. Shri Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

iv. Principal Secretary to PM

v. Dr. S. Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary

vi. Shri Rajeev Mehrishi, Home Secretary

vii. Shri Satish Chandra, former Ambassador of India to the USA

viii. Ms. Indra Noooyi CEO Pepsico

ix. Shri Yusuf Ali M.A. Managing Director, Lulu Group of Industries, UAE

x. Shri Shyam Parande, Secretary, Antar Rashtriya Sahyog Parishad

xi. Shri Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, Secretary (OIA & CPV) & Member Secretary

6. The Jury members considered all eligible nominations and the relevant information placed before the Committee. After detailed discussions, thirty nominees were unanimously recommended by the Jury-cum-Awards Committee for Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, 2017 by the Committee on December 20,2016.

List of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman-2017 Awardees

S.NO.	Name	Country	Field
1	Dr. Gorur Krishna Harinath	Australia	Community Service
2 .	Mr. Rajasekharan Pillai Valavoor Kizhakkathil	Bahrain	Business
3 .	Antwerp Indian Association	Belgium	Community Service
4 .	Mr. Nazeer Ahamed Mohamed Zackiriah	Brunei	Community Service
5.	Mr. Mukund Bhikhubhai Purohit	Canada	Business
6.	Mr. Nalinkumar Sumanlal Kothari	Djibouti	Community Service
7.	Mr. Vinod Chandra Patel	Fiji	Social Service
8.	Mr. Raghunath Marie Antonin Manet	France	Arts & Culture
9.	Dr. Lael Anson E. Best	Israel	Medical Science
10.	Dr. Sandip Kumar Tagore	Japan	Arts & Culture
11.	Mr. Ariful Islam	Libya	Community Service
12 .	Tan Sri Dato Dr. Muniandy Thambirajah	Malaysia	Education and Community Service
13 .	Hon’ble Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth	Mauritius	Public Service
14 .	H.E. Mr. Antonio Luis Santos da Costa	Portugal	Public Service
15 .	Dr. Raghavan Seetharaman	Qatar	Business Management
16 .	Ms. Zeenat Musarrat Jafri	Saudi Arabia	Education
17.	Singapore Indian Association	Singapore	Community Service
18.	Dr. Carani Balaraman Sanjeevi	Sweden	Medicine
19 .	Mr. Susheel Kumar Saraff	Thailand	Business
20.	Mr. Winston Chandarbhan Dookeran	Trinidad & Tobago	Public Service
21.	Mr. Vasudev Shamdas Shroff	United Arab Emirates	Community Service
22 .	India Social and Cultural Centre, Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	Philanthropy and Community Service
23 .	Rt. Hon’ble Ms. Priti Patel	United Kingdom	Public Service
24 .	Ms. Neena Gill	United Kingdom	Public Service
25 .	Mr. Hari Babu Bindal	USA	Environmental Engineering
26 .	Dr. Bharat Haridas Barai	USA	Community Service
27 .	Ms. Nisha Desai Biswal	USA	Public Affairs
28 .	Dr. Mahesh Mehta	USA	Community Service
29 .	Mr. Ramesh Shah	USA	Community Service
30.	Dr. Sampatkumar Shidramapa Shivangi	USA	Community Leadership