Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sania Mirza honored at Times Now ICICI Bank NRI of the Year Award 2016

Washington, DC: April 12th, 2016: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sania Mirza are among the winners of Times Now ICICI Bank NRI of the Year Awards 2016. Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy in the Government of India Piyush Goyal graced the occasion gave away the awards to the winners on April 11th in Mumbai.

17 individuals under 7 different categories — Entrepreneur, Professional, Academics, Arts & Culture, Philanthropy, Special Jury Award, and Global Icon of the Year and India’s Global Icon Award, were recognized during the solemn event.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was given the Global Indian of the Year award, while Sania Mirza was honored with the India’s Global Icon award.  Nikesh Arora won the Special Jury Award. In the field of Academics, Prof. Ahmad Umar, Prof. Dr. Sanjay Gandhi,  Varun Gupta were de the winners of the award. Amit Shah, Mohit Malhotra, Josvaraja John Christopher, and Riju Agarwal were recognized for their achievements in the Professional Category.

Jabir Puthiya won the award for Philanthropy, while Sonia Nair was given the award for her work in Art & Culture. Dhruv Saxena, Joji Mathew, Saravana Kumar, and Virendra Chopra were awarded in the Entrepreneur category.

The gala event was hosted by Kabir Bedi and Mandira Bedi and witnessed the presence of eminent personalities from the industry and Bollywood. This is the first event attended by the newly crowned FBB Femina Miss India 2016 – Priyadarshini Chatterjee, Sushruthi Krishna – 1st Runner Up and Pankhuri Gidwani – 2nd Runner Up. The event also witnessed last year runner ups Sushrii Shreya Mishra (Miss United Continent 2015, Varitka Singh- Miss Grand International India 2015 and Aafren Vaz – Miss Supranational Asia and Oceania 2015. Raymond was also one of the partners for this year’s award function. The jury, for NRI of the Year 2016, comprised of eminent leaders with the likes of Suhel Seth, Partha Sinha, Anurag Batra, P. R. Chakravarty and Sudhir Dhar. EY was the process partners for the award.

Lauding the contributions and achievements of the Overseas Indians, MK Anand, MD and CEO, TIMES Network commented, “TIMES Network is the leading broadcast news network and our flagship channel TIMES NOW is the leader in English News space. As a premium network, we cater to premium English audiences in India and around the world. Non Resident Indians are a very important target group for our international business and their achievements go beyond the ordinary and this spirit truly needs to be acknowledged and awarded. I congratulate all the winners on getting this recognition and honour. ”

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “Congratulations to all the winners of the Times Now ICICI Bank NRI of the Year awards. It is indeed a pleasure to witness the phenomenal achievements of NRIs around the world. We at ICICI Bank are proud to celebrate and recognize the achievements of the NRI community.”

“The NRI of the Year awards is the most distinctive awards for Indians globally and we have received an overwhelming 25,000 registrations online and the multiple Jury rounds have ensured that the winners are of high quality. Among the winners this year are accomplished Neurologists, Oncologists, CEOs of global businesses and a former white house intern, and some very rich and accomplished Indians. We hope to take this further into more markets and reach out and cover more Indian Diaspora over the years ahead,.”  Naveen Chandra, Head- International Business, TIMES Network said.

Atul Temurnikar, Executive Chairman and CEO Global Schools Foundation, Singapore added, ” India is the world’s third largest exporter of skilled manpower, and the Indian Diaspora – comprising NRIs and PIOs – have been a source of great strength to over 140 countries where they are settled. As one of world’s premium and award-winning K12 schools serving over 45 diverse nationalities, Global Schools Foundation nurtures global, future-ready citizens. The Foundation is a proud co-founder of the ‘NRI of the Year’ Awards with TIMES NOW, to recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions of the Diaspora across the globe.”

Vijay Chandok, President, ICICI Bank Limited, said, “ICICI Bank has always offered the best-in-class products and services to suit NRI needs. These awards give us the opportunity to honor members of the NRI community who personify the same approach to being leaders in their fields.”

Hosted by TIMES NOW, India’s No. 1 news channel TIMES NOW and ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, the third edition of ‘NRI of the Year Awards’ recognize and salute the spirit of the Global Indian. The prestigious awards powered by Global Indian International School (GIIS) is India’s most distinctive awards recognizing the outstanding achievements of the Indian Diaspora globally. With their grit and perseverance, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) have achieved tremendous success in various fields in the countries they have chosen to adopt as their homes. Many NRIs are accomplished politicians, scientists, sportsmen, businessmen, professionals and academicians in various countries and TIMES NOW ICICI Bank ‘NRI of the Year’ awards recognize the success of these achievers. NRI of the Year, this year was also open to any Non Resident Indian (NRI), Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and Person of Indian origin (PIO) who resides in USA, Canada, UK, Middle East, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.