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Kalam to honour Fareed Zakaria
The Newsweek International's Editor is among the 15 members of Diaspora who will be honoured at the PBD 2006.
Newsweek International magazine Editor Fareed Zakaria is among 15 members of the Indian diaspora who will be honoured by President APJ Abdul Kalam at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Hyderabad on Monday.
They will be presented the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman at the concluding session of the three-day event that is being inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, officials said.
Mauritius Vice President Raouf Bundhun, who is of Indian origin, and Pratima Kale, the Manila-based chief of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, are also among members of the diaspora who are expected to get the award.
The names -- selected by a panel headed by Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat -- are expected to be announced Saturday after a notification in the official gazette.
There was, however, some uncertainty over the inclusion in the list of awardees of Sudhir Parekh, a prominent doctor in the US who was among those tipped for the award, because of his proximity to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
But Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes declined to comment on whether Parekh was on the list, saying the names would be announced only after they were notified in the gazette.
"We will not make it a political issue," he told a pre-event news conference that he addressed jointly with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Parekh had sought to organise Modi's "Gaurav Yatra" from New York to Los Angeles in 2002. It was subsequently cancelled after the US denied a visa to the chief minister.
