H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to be conferred Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2023

H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, will be bestowed with the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians – Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) – for the year 2023.

President Ali joins 26 other persons of Indian origin/non-resident Indians who have been recognized by the Government of India for their outstanding achievements both in India and abroad. The 17th PBSA will be conferred by the Honourable President of India as part of the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention (Indian Diaspora Day)  to be held in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, from 8-10 January 2023. The Award will be conferred during the valedictory session of the Convention on 10 January 2023. President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has been invited as the Chief Guest for the upcoming PBD Convention and will be travelling to India with a high-level delegation comprising of both official and private sector representatives. 

A Jury-cum-Awards Committee, with Hon’ble Vice-President of India as the Chairman, Hon’ble External Affairs Minister of India as the Vice-Chair and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, 2023 and unanimously selected the awardees. The awardees represent the excellence achieved by the Indian  Diaspora in various fields.

Following is the list of Awardees recommended by Jury-cum-Awards Committee for conferment of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2023:

Sr. No.                        Name                                     Country                     Field

1.         Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali                 Guyana                      Politics/Community Welfare

2.         Prof. Jagadish Chennupati             Australia                   Science & Technology/Education

3.         Prof. Sanjeev Mehta                        Bhutan                                  Education

4.         Prof. Dilip Loundo                           Brazil                         Art & Culture/Education

5.         Dr. Alexander Maliakel John                     Brunei Darussalam Medicines

6.         Dr. Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan Canada                       Community Welfare

7.         Mr. Joginder Singh Nijjar              Croatia                                   Art & Culture/Eduction

8.         Prof. Ramjee Prasad                                    Denmark                   Information Technology

9.         Dr. Kannan Ambalam                                 Ethiopia                     Community Welfare

10.       Dr. Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay  Germany                   Community Welfare/Medicine

11.        Ms. Reena Vinod Pushkarna                     Israel                          Business/Community Welfare

12.       Dr. Maqsooda Sarfi Shiotani                     Japan                          Education

13.       Dr. Rajagopal                                                Mexico                       Education

14.       Mr. Amit Kailash Chandra Lath    Poland                                   Business/Community  Welfare

15.       Mr. Parmanand Sukhumal Daswani        Republic of Congo    Community Welfare

16.       Mr. Piyush Gupta                            Singapore                  Business

17.       Mr. Mohanlal Hira                          South Africa              Community Welfare

18.       Mr. Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel South Sudan             Business/Community Welfare

19.       Mr. Sivakumar Nadesan                 Sri Lanka                   Community Welfare

20.      Dr. Dewanchandrebhose Sharman           Suriname                  Community Welfare

21.       Dr. Archana Sharma                                   Switzerland               Science & Technology

22.       Justice Frank Arthur Seepersad    Trinidad & Tobago   Community Welfare/Education

23.       Mr. Siddharth Balachandran                     UAE                            Business/Community Welfare

24.       Mr. Chandrakant Babubhai Patel UK                              Media

25.       Dr. Darshan Singh Dhaliwal                      USA                            Business/Community Welfare

26.       Mr. Rajesh Subramaniam              USA                            Business       

27.       Mr. Ashok Kumar Tiwary               Uzbekistan                Business

High Commissioner of India to Guyana Dr. K J Srinivasa has officially congratulated H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali on being the recipient of the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award calling it a recognition of the outstanding contributions of President Ali to Guyana and his efforts to bring about the rapid and equitable development of Guyana. 

High Commissioner also expressed hope that the upcoming visit of President Ali to India for the PBD 2023 and subsequent interactions with the top political hierarchy including H.E. President of India  Smt. Droupadi Murmu, Hon. Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, Hon. External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S. Jaishankar and other dignitaries along with high-level interactions with the business/private sector of India especially pertaining to Agriculture, Agro-processing, Health, Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure, Information Technology and Energy sectors will provide the necessary impetus for further strengthening bilateral partnership between India and Guyana.

In his New Year’s message for 2023, High Commissioner Dr. K J Srinivasa had called upon the Guyanese to work for the growth and success of Guyana and to play an active role in fulfilling “Guyana’s unique destiny”.