10.49 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Dubai-based Gujarati, Keralite get NRI award

Published
By VM Sathish

Fifteen prominent Non-Resident Indians, including two dedicated social workers from the UAE, have been conferred with the prestigious ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award’ this year.
 
  Bharath Kumar Shah Jayantilal, popularly known as Dada in the UAE, received the award for his relentless social service.

Bharatbhai Shah
 

Ashraf  Palarakunnummal

The UAE expatriate community is jubilant after two among them was honoured at the valedictory session of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Friday.
 
Ashraf told ‘Emirates24|7’before boarding the plane to India, “I have to clear about five to six dead bodies lying in the embalming centre and that is my duty.”
 
The 39-year-old expat, who runs a garage in Ajman, has so far repatriated between about 2,000 bodies to different countries in the past 14 years.Two books have been published about his work in the UAE.
 
Bharath Kumar Shah Jayantilal, a Gandhian, orator, crusader against alcoholism and charity worker, is a senior NRI in the UAE. He left India as a 15 year-old to study in Yemen before he landed his first job as an agent for Choithram. In 1962, he moved to the UAE as the Middle East coordinator for Reliance Industries and plunged into social work.
 
Other recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards are  Mala Mehta (Australia), Donald Ravindernauth Ramotar (Guyana), Dr Rajaram Sanjaya (Mexico), Kanwaljit Singh (Bakshi (New Zealand), Rajman Parakh (Oman), Duraikannu Karunakaran (Seychelles), Essop Goolam Pahad (South Africa), Mahendra Nanji Mehta (Uganda), Nathu Ram Puri and Lord Raja Loomba (Britain), Satyanarayana Nadella, Dr Lulla Kamalesh (USA) and Dr Nandini Tandon USA.