Light of India Awards – Recognizing Indians Abroad

LIGHT OF INDIA AWARDS – YOUR VOTE COUNTS

Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, or M G Vassanji – who would be the one you’d vote for in the world of journalism and literature? Bobby Jindal, Swati Dandekar, Dr. Ruby Dhalla or Ameya Pawar – who would be your choice for political leadership? Would you feel torn if you had to choose among Mira Nair, Russell Peters, Meera Syal, Sunil Nayar and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the field of entertainment?

Well, now you have a chance to vote for the most notable NRIS – and perhaps win free tickets to India in the bargain, with the upcoming Light of India Awards.

Honoring Indian Achievers

These awards have been launched by Remit2India, a company of the Times of India group which is noted for hosting some of the most prestigious awards in India, with the goal of making these awards a major marker of excellence in the global Indian Diaspora. As Gurdeep Suri, the Country Manager of TimesofMoney points out, apart from the Pravasi Bharatiya Awards which are given by the Government of India, this is one of the first initiatives done by a private company to honor NRI achievers.  He adds,  “In India the Times Group has the prestigious ET Awards, and this is a step toward building the Light of India awards to that scale and we will need the support of everyone to take it to that level.”

Indian-Americans are an opinionated lot and love to exercise their fingers when it comes to online voting.  Now is a chance to click your mouse for your favorites, and be in the running for two air tickets to India donated by Etihad Airways.

Remit2India of  the Times Group is organizing the first ever Light of India awards ceremony at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on April 22 to recognize the best of the best in the fields of business and corporate leadership, science and technology, journalism and literature, and arts and entertainment.

In the field of corporate leadership, the nominees are Ajay Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard; Arun Sarin, senior Advisor –KKR; Dinesh Keskar, VP, Boeing International Trading; Francisco D’Souza, CEO – Cognizant Technologies; Vikram Pandit, CEO – Citigroup.

Vinod Khosla, CEO of Khosla Ventures is a nominee for business leadership, along with Naveen Jain, founder – InfoSpace and Intelius; Mukesh Majumdar, president and CEO of Star Hotels; and Pramod Sharma, President and CEO of Criterion Systems.

Science and technology, which are so important in the changing global landscape, are also on the radar and nominees in this category include an impressive group of movers and shakers: Vivke Kundra, Federal chief Information officer, Vinod Dham, CEO – Silicon Spice  Inc., Narasimha Chari, Chief Technology Officer, Founder and Chief Architect, Tropos Networks; and Shiladitya Sengupta, assistant Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences and Technology.

There is a panel of jury members who will select the winner of the Jury Award – and the list of the jury members is an impressive one: Poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, actress and activist Shabana Azmi, journalist and author Pranay Gupte, director and playwright Mahesh Dattani, veteran journalist Madhu Trehan, and author and educator Shiv Khera. The list also includes Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Managing Director Kinetic Motors India, Priya Paul, chairperson Apeejay, the Park Hotels and Prasoon Joshi, Executive chairman McCann World Group India.

As an individual voter, you needn’t fret. Your choice counts as there is also a People’s Choice Award to be awarded to the nominees who get the most votes online. All the nominees are listed on the event’s website – Light of India Awards where Indians from all over the world can vote for their favorite nominee in each category.

So whether you’re a fan of  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Mira Nair, Russell Peters, Bobby Jindal or any of the other nominees, it’s time to get that finger clicking. The closing date is April 15 but you do have the chance to play kingmaker – and also win 2 air tickets to India!