Among the awardees is Lekh Raj Juneja, 72, who was born in Haryana’s Gharaunda and travelled to Japan four decades ago to study fermentation science. Juneja, who headed a Japanese pharmaceutical firm earlier, now helms a snack company. He is being honoured in the ‘science & technology’ category.
FROM A former pharma CEO in Japan to a Spanish politician, a medical practitioner empanelled with the Saudi royals to a businessman in Malawi — the honours for overseas Indians this year typify the range and reach of the 35.4 million diaspora.
The 27 individuals and organisations chosen for the 2025 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards (PBSA), to be honoured by President Droupadi Murmu Friday, hail from 24 countries, including Malawi in East Africa, Fiji, Spain, Romania, US and the UK.
Among the awardees is Lekh Raj Juneja, 72, who was born in Haryana’s Gharaunda and travelled to Japan four decades ago to study fermentation science. Juneja, who headed a Japanese pharmaceutical firm earlier, now helms a snack company. He is being honoured in the ‘science & technology’ category.
In a recent interview to a Japanese daily, Juneja said the formula for global success was an integration of the best of Indian and Japanese working styles. “Indians are very aggressive when it comes to creating strategies and moving forward, but Japanese people are great at completing things properly,” he said.
Robert Masih Nahar, 50, to be awarded in the ‘community service’ category, is a politician from Catalonia who became a member of the Senate of Spain in 2017 – the first person of Indian origin to do so. Born in Punjab’s Gurdaspur, he got a degree in chemistry and moved to Barcelona in 2005. A few years later, he started to promote cricket in Catalonia and founded the Catalonia Cricket Club. He is known as the “godfather of local cricket” in Catalonia.
Syed Anwar Khursheed from Saudi Arabia is being honoured in the ‘medical services’ category. “As I was working in King Faisal Hospital, Taif, I had the privilege to help people… Then I moved to National Guard Hospital, Riyadh. I am the royal protocol physician there… it is a great privilege for me to work for the royal family in Saudi Arabia,” he told reporters in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
The PBSA is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians (Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin or an organisation established and run by them), as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention. A jury headed by the Vice President finalises the names of the recipients.
source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)