Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi announced the names of the winners at the concluding day of India's annual convention to connect with its 27 million diaspora in 150 countries, which also included the Indian Community Benevolent Forum in Qatar.
The other awardees are:
-Prof. Veena Harbhagwan Sahajwalla (Australia)
-Lata Pada (Canada)
-Harindrapal Singh Banga (Hong Kong-China)
-Mohammad Munir Nazir Hassan Ansari (Israel)
-Upjit Singh Sachdeva (Liberia)
-Tan Sri Dato Ajit Singh (Malaysia)
-Saleh Wahid from (Netherlands)
-Mohiaddin Syed Karimuddin (Saudi Arabia)
-Mano Selvanathan (Sri Lanka)
-Mohan Jashanmal (United Arab Emirates)
-Baroness Sandip Verma (United Kingdom)
-Ashook Kumar Ramsaran and Rajiv Shah (United States)
They names were chosen by a panel headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari and announced just ahead of the formal investiture ceremony chaired by President Pratibha Patil as part of the concluding session of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here Sunday.
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