At the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, three Indian Australian woman leaders shine the brightest and rocked the show.
Australia’s Federal MP of Indian origin Zaneta Mascarenhas was guest of honour at the inauguration of Youth Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas on the first day.
Ms Mascarenhas charmed the audience with her sheer enthusiasm and zeal to take the relationship between Australia and India to new heights.
She told a hall full of hundreds of non-resident Indians coming from all over the globe that, “India is arguably one of the most successful Nations that practices ancient religions while embracing new technologies”
The plenary session on ‘Enabling Global Mobility of Indian Workforce – Role of Indian Diaspora’ in 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas could not get a better speaker than Sheba Nandkeolyar, CEO of MultiConnexions a marketing agency specialising in multicultural communities.
Ms Nandkeolyar wears many hats including former National Chair of the Australia India Business Council and President of IAA Australia.
She said, “Indian Australian diaspora is an integral part of India’s civilisation and has played an important role in improving the relationship between two countries.”
“Australia is already a go-to place for Indian students and a skilled workforce however we as a diaspora have a role and responsibility to enhance the capacity and mobility of India’s workforce to serve humanity,”
said Ms Nandkeolyar.
The final session at the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Harnessing the potential of women diaspora entrepreneurs towards an inclusive approach to nation-building was chaired by the Indian Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman.
In this session, Indian Australian entrepreneur Mitu Bhowmick Lange, Director of Mindblowing Films mesmerised everyone with her story of creating a brand for the Indian Film industry in Australia.
Ms Lange recalled the days when she had to wait to watch the second half of the #Hindi movie at an Australian theatre.
“Today we have one of the most successful celebrations of Indian cinema through the ‘Indian Film Festival of Melbourne’ with a flag hoisting ceremony on India’s independence day 15th August every year,”
said Ms Lange.
She didn’t forget to mention that Australia is in real love with Indian cinema, barring the barriers of language Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi are generating $200 million per year.
The focus of this wonderfully inspiring and stimulating three days long function was to celebrate the Indianness living inside the 32 million-strong global Diaspora of India.
These three Indian Australian women are among the leaders who are instrumental in envisioning a flexible model with multiple entry-exit and skilling pathways that focus on building competencies of the Indian Diaspora.
Sheba Nandkeolyar rightly sums it up by saying the Indian workforce is hardworking, honest and responsible which can help India emerge as the global hub of skilled manpower.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention is the flagship event of the Government of India. It provides an important platform to engage and connect with overseas Indians and to enable the diaspora to interact with each other.
The 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention was organized in partnership with the Madhya Pradesh Government from 08-10 January 2023 in Indore. The theme of this PBD Convention was “Diaspora: Reliable partners for India’s progress in Amrit Kaal”.
Over 3,500 diaspora members from nearly 70 different countries participated in PBD Convention.
