Global diaspora body seeks closer ties with India

The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) is making concerted efforts to attract Indian diaspora entrepreneurs and businessmen to take more interest in investing in India in all spheres ranging from business, to education, healthcare and socia causes.

With India at the threshold of adopting new technologies and business investment, the newly elected international executive council has a fresh motto "GOPIO Means Business," the diaspora organisation said.

"With an investment and business friendly government in India, we see a lot of opportunity for the Indian diaspora to invest and actively participate in India's development," Gopio president Niraj Baxi.

GOPIO executive vice president Noel Lal said that GOPIO would reach out to all countries where the Indian diaspora has a presence.

Vice president Ram Gadhavi who had brought together the Gujarati Diaspora writers on to a common platform in the US, plans to expand it to include all Indian writers at a global GOPIO forum.

GOPIO founder president Thomas Abraham, who also serves as the executive trustee of the GOPIO Foundation, said that GOPIO will increase its social and philanthropic activities in India as well as in countries with a large Indian diaspora population.

For the first time an electronic voting system was used for the election with 93 percent participation. The process was supervised by the GOPIO chairman Inder Singh who will continue in that position.

The New team: Niraj Baxi (US) president; Noel Lal (Australia) executive vice president; Ram Gadhavi (USA) vice president; and Rajeev Mehta (US), Pradip Sewoke (France), Suman Kapoor (New Zealand), and Rajidre Tiwari (Netherland) international coordinators.

Formed in 1989 to promote the interests of people of Indian origin worldwide, GOPIO today has 65 chapters and over 200 life members in over 24 countries.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)