Kumar Nadesan, Managing Director of the 92 year old Virakesari published by Express Newspapers, is the only Sri Lankan among 27 others selected globally to receive the coveted Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award. The Award is given by the President of India to honour exceptional and meritorious contributions in their chosen field/profession both in India and abroad.
Kumar Nadesan serves as Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and represents the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka. In addition, he serves as a Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka. He is also President of the Global organization of people of Indian origin (Sri Lanka) and has been a recipient of the “Service above Self” from Rotary International for Community work.
The 17th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is scheduled to be held from 8–10 January 2023 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, where Her Excellency Droupadi Murmu the President of India will confer the awards
A Jury-cum-Awards Committee, with Hon’ble Jagdeep Dhankhar, Vice-President of India as the Chairman and Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister as the Vice-Chair and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, 2023 and unanimously selected the awardees for conferment of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards 2023.
The awardees, who represent excellence achieved in different fields, include Jagadish Chennupati of Australia in the field of science and technology and education, Sanjeev Mehta of Bhutan in education, Dilip Loundo of Brazil in art and culture and education, Alexander Maliakel John of Brunei in medicine, Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan of Canada in community welfare, Joginder Singh Nijjar of Croatia in art and culture, Ramjee Prasad of Denmark in IT and Kannan Ambalam of Ethiopia in community welfare. Reena Vinod Pushkarna of Israel in business and community welfare. Piyush Gupta of Singapore in business, Mohanlal Hira and Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel of South Sudan in community welfare.