As many as 19 noted personalities of Haryanvi origin would be honoured with ‘Gaurav Samman’ at the maiden 2-day ‘Pravasi Haryana Divas-2017’ beginning January 10 at Kingdom of Dreams in Gurugram.
The two-day event would provide an opportunity to the people belonging to Haryana living in other States and abroad to reconnect with their roots and project the possibilities of investment in various sectors in the State.
Around 900 NRIs have got themselves registered online for the event. Memorandum of Understanding would also be signed with the NRIs for Haryana’s development during the event.
Special Achievement Award would be conferred posthumously upon astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, to be received by her father, Bl Chawla, said an official spokesman.
He said that the awards would be conferred on January 11 upon noted singer Sonu Nigam and Ritu Sheoran and Vikas Sheoran from Australia and actor Randeep Hooda in Art and Culture category.
In health and education, Founder Patanjali Ayurveda, Uttarakhand, Baba Ram Dev, who is also state’s ambassador for promotion of yoga and ayurveda would be honoured. In the Social Service category, former Prime Minister, Fiji, Mahendra Pal Chaudhry and Chairman, Essel Group of Companies, Subhash Chandra among others would be honoured.
The spokesman said that two villages of Haryana namely Sui in district Bhiwani and Dangra in district Fatehabad have been adopted by NRIs namely Jagmohan Jindal and Gaurav Aggarwal, respectively, who would also be honoured in the event for philanthropic activities undertaken by them. Jindal and Aggarwal would also interact with the villagers through video conferencing at the valediction function.
The Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and District Information and Public Relations Officers of concerned districts would also remain present in the respective villages at that time, he said.
Besides, the NRIs who are taking up or are planning to take up philanthropy activities in any part of Haryana would also be honoured in the valedictory function on January 11, said the spokesman.
Several Ministers of the Central and Haryana Governments would attend the event, which would be hosted by Haryana Government with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as its national partner. They include Union law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Steel Minister Birender Singh, Textiles Minister Smriti Zubin Irani, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen V.K. Singh (Retd.), and Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment. Krishan Pal.
The spokesman said that in view of the mega event, Haryana Government has given a facelift to Gurugram. All roads leading to the venue, Kingdom of Dreams, are sporting a festive look. The event aims to not only honour the people from Haryana who have made a mark for themselves all over the world, but also provide to them an opportunity to experience how well their motherland has metamorphosed into modern Haryana, which is on its way to rapid industrial development, said he.
Actor Randeep Hooda, singer Sonu Nigam, and director, Subhash Ghai would also attend the event, said the spokesman.
Prominent sports personalities including Paralympian Deepa Malik, boxers Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar, wrestlers Sangram Singh, Dalip Singh Rana (The Great Khali), Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari, former cricketers Anjum Chopra, Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Joginder Sharma would also attend the event.