President Kovind to confer Pravasi Bharatiya awards today

15th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD) will culminate with valedictory address of President Ram Nath Kovind today evening.

The President will also confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards to 30 recipients from all over the world. More than 5000 NRI are participating in the Pravasi Bharatiya Sammelan.

Secretary overseas Indian affairs Gyaneshwar Mule told media that there were largest ever registration of 7,228 people this time and overseas delegates were about 5 thousand which is highest for any PBD.

Today is the last and final day of PBD. The opening day of event started with the Youth PBD and UP PBD on Monday and on the second day of event, PM Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the convention.

For the first time, the three day long convention is being organized in Varanasi, the cultural and spiritual capital of India. The theme of PBD Convention 2019 is "Role of Indian Diaspora in



building New India".

Tuesday evening became memorable for NRIs who got the chance to see the famous actress and classical dancer Hema Malini performance as holy river Ganga and narration about the history of Ganga and how it's getting polluted.

Today before President’s valedictory address there will be three plenary sessions on different issues like Indian Community Organizations working for Indian nationals in distressed Situation, Role of Indian Diaspora in Capacity Building for Affordable Waste Management and Capacity Building of Artificial Intelligence in India.

There will also be a special session on developing cyber capacity of India in afternoon.

After the Convention, participants will visit Prayagraj for Kumbh Mela tomorrow. They will then proceed to Delhi on 25th January and witness the Republic Day Parade at New Delhi on 26th January.