Karan Bilimoria, non resident Indian entrepreneur and founder-CEO of Cobra Beer has won the first Indo-British Partnership Award.
The award, set up by the NRI Institute, UK Chapter, was given out at its ninth annual banquet held in London on Wednesday night.
British Minister of State for Immigration and Citizenship Tony McNulty presented the award to Bilimoria, who is the youngest chancellor of the Thames Valley University.
NRI Institute Secretary General Jagmohan Singh said Bilimoria, as president of the Indo-British Partnership Initiative, UK, had played a pivotal role in promoting the business links between the two countries.
The banquet was attended by leading NRI industrialists, including S P Hinduja and G P Hinduja, chairman and president respectively of the Hinduja Group.
Seventeen others were honoured with 'Pride of India Awards.'
Prominent among them were HSBC, UK, South Asian Banking Head K B Shankar, who set up an India Desk to take care of India-based businesses, C B Patel, Publisher/Editor of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, UK and India Association Chairman Balwant Grewal, who recently undertook a marathon walk from Amritsar to Kanyakumari in five months to raise Rs 96.4 lakh towards finding a cure for Cancer and AIDS.
Payal Tak, President and CEO of TELESIS Corporation, Maryland, USA, was chosen for the NRI woman of the Year Pride of India Gold Award.