CANADA INDIA FOUNDATION
to Honour Sam Pitroda with Global Indian Award
Dr Abdul Kalam - Chief Guest

At the Media Launch
(L to R)  Babu Panchal   Ajit Someshawar   Manoj Pundit   Vasudev Chanchlani

Dr Abdul Kalam, President of India from July 25 2002 to July 25 2007, has accepted an invitation of the Canada-India Foundation (CIF) to be the chief guest at their gala dinner on April 18 at Toronto's 'Liberty Grand' during his four-day visit to Canada.

The dinner will honour Sam Pitroda, chairman, Indian Knowledge Commission, as the recipient of the first Canada India Foundation Chanchlani Global Indian Award for pioneering the telecom revolution in India.

The award will be presented annually to an outstanding Indian “who has demonstrated global leadership, vision, and personal excellence, which has made all Indian-origin people extremely proud of our heritage”, announced CIF Convener Ajit Someswar at a media briefing on March 12, convened at his company 'Antex' Boardroom in Mississauga.   

CIF has also invited Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to join over 400 leaders from the Indo-Canadian community to celebrate excellence and acknowledge the community's success. 

The dinner will be co-chaired by Ramesh Chotai, President of Bromed Pharaceuticals, Anil Shah, President and CEO of Ni-Met Resources and David Singh, Chairman and CEO of Destiny Group of Companies.

The award will be in the form of a unique trophy accompanied with $50,000 that will go to the charity of the award recipient's choice. The award has been made possible with a million dollar donation from Vasu Chanchlani, CIF co-founder and local Indo-Canadian businessman, who is co-founder of  Sigma group of Companies, after whom the award is being named.

Chanchlani said that the cause is right for the use of his donation and added, "I would like this award to grow from $50,000 by 20 percent annually and may be one day it grows to be a million dollar award."

Pitroda becomes the first recipient "for all what he has done for the country and he has made us all proud', Someswar said.

Sam Pitroda has "laid the foundation for and ushered India's technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s' and how he 'has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the digital divide… owns close to a 100 patents”, reads the bio released at the media briefing.

CIF media spokesperson and Toronto-based lawyer Manoj Pundit explained the objectives of CIF and detailed the achievements since it was launched  over  one year ago. They have 25 Charter members and they each pay $5,000 annually. 

CIF's 25 charter members include hotelier Steve Gupta, businessmen Anil Shah, Ramesh Chottai and David Singh.

Responding to a question, if this high annual fee doesn’t make it an ‘elite club’ he responded, "We didn't want to start with little membership fee as it is too much work dealing with large number of members."

Pundit said, CIF “actively promotes Indo-Canadians in the political process and national dialogue, including supporting qualified Indo-Canadians who are seeking to serve on agencies, boards, and commission and that CIF takes an active role in educating Canadians about India and Indian about Canada.”

Since inception last year, the foundation has interacted with top political and business leaders from the two countries, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ministers, Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs Vayalar Ravi and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Tarun Das, to make them aware of the CIF mission, added Manoj Pandit. "We seek to become a public policy player on Canada-India issues."

Pundit referred to their meeting with Prime minister Stephen Harper last year in Ottawa  when they explained to him their objectives of launching CIF: "He (Harper) was very receptive to hearing what our objectives were and committed to working with us to advancing those objectives."

Pundit also referred to the round table that Harper had with the Indo-Canadian leaders business leaders June last year in Toronto.  Five Charter members of the CIF were invited to that exclusive roundtable, he said. 

On the political front, Someswar said CIF "is actively supporting the establishment of a Canada India Inter-parliamentary Association," which currently has 76 MPs.

Chanchlani, who runs the Sigma Group of companies, said: "Our focus will be to change the minds of top Canadian leaders, ministers and business people about India. We will invite federal ministers to dinners and events to discuss issues impacting Canada-India relations."

The foundation plans to work for free trade and strategic partnership agreements between the two countries, opening of Canadian visa offices in Mumbai and Chennai and restarting Canadian engagement with Gujarat. The group, which currently has 21 members on its rosters, will also seek to work in concert with other Indo-Canadian organizations based in Canada.

Canada India Foundation is a national, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization (NGO) established in 2007 to foster support for stronger bi-lateral relations between Canada and India; to educate Canadians on India; and to increase the participation by Indo-Canadians in political process in Canada. CIF's founding members include industrialists, senior Canadian business executives and top tier professionals.

It will seek to represent all Indians, rather than only a particular state or territory of India; nor does it purport to represent all of South Asia.