Nami Kaur, Koshy Thomas, Umi Mukherjee among nine award winners of NFIA

Washington, DC
The National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) honored nine individuals with awards at the national convention held in Washington, DC. They were selected nationally for different categories and disciplines by a committee of five, chaired by NFIA Past President Inder Singh. The award ceremony was conducted by Dr. Thomas Abraham, chairman of GOPIO.

The awardees: Dr. Ajay Kothari – Engineering, Digvijay “Danny” Gaekwad - Business & Entrepreneurship, Shweta Misra, Classical Dance Artform – Performing Arts, Dr. Aman Mann - Health Sciences, Umi Mukherjee - Service to Indian American Seniors, Koshy Thomas – Media, Arti Manek - Folk and Classical Dance Art Forms, Aloke Dasgupta - Performing Arts, Sitar playing in Classical Tradition and Nami Kaur - Service to Non-profit Institutions.

Dr. Ajay Kothari - Engineering
Dr. Ajay Kothari is president and founder of Astrox Corporation. Kothari has a Ph.D in aerospace engineering are from University of Maryland. He has over 50 professional publications, has been interviewed on TV about Space and authored more than 20 articles. He has managed more than 30 contracts from Air Force, NASA and DARPA. Kothari also got the "Engineer of the Year" award from ASEI. He served as the president of ASEI National Capital Chapter from 2014-2015, and was on Board of WHEELS Charity Foundation in 2016-2018.

Digvijay “Danny” Gaekwad - Business & Entrepreneurship
Digvijay “Danny” Gaekwad is the founder and CEO of NDS USA Information Technology. During the last three decades, Danny has built over a dozen small-and medium-sized companies, in diverse fields, such as convenience stores, real estate development, hospitality industry and information technology. His companies have created thousands of jobs in Florida and other parts of the United States, contributing millions of dollars to the economy. In 2016, Gov. Rick Scott recognized him with the “One Million Jobs” certificate of appreciation for his contribution “in helping Florida job creators add 1 million jobs between December 2010 and December 2015.”

Shweta Misra, Classical Dance Artform – Performing Arts
Multi-talented Shweta Misra is a well-known Kathak dancer in the DC area and operates Nrityaki Dance Academy to teach Kathak dance artform. Her dance school is affiliated with a university in India – Prayag Sangeet Samiti, through which students can obtain Master’s degree in Kathak. She and her dance academy students have performed at prestigious locations such as White House, Kennedy Center, and Indo-American Galas. She has a MS Degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and works as a Senior Software Engineer. She became Mrs. India Virginia 2015 and is Mrs. India DC 2018.

Dr. Aman Mann - Health Sciences
Dr. Aman Mann is a Research Faculty at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Aman’s research expertise span different fields of neuroscience including neurotrauma (TBI) and neurodegenerative conditions (Multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease). His discoveries in the laboratory support the development of new disease-modifying drug candidates for brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease which are currently being developed at AivoCode. Aman is the founder and Chief Operating Officer of AivoCode Inc., in La Jolla, California. He completed his Bachelors in Bioengineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and received his PhD in Nanomedicine from University of Texas.

Umi Mukherjee - Service to Indian American Seniors
About 27 years ago, I started a Seniors’ club in Southern California. I used to pick up and drop them off at their homes on Tuesday afternoons. After 5 months, I changed the venue to a more central place and the membership increased manifold. I paid for the rental of the hall, snacks & lunches for first 4-5 years. The membership has always been FREE and we have about 250 seniors at monthly meetings. For the last few years, I have been getting sponsors for monthly meetings. We take seniors to overnight trips also. For me, it is the biggest achievement of my life when I can make seniors happy.

Koshy Thomas - Media
Koshy Thomas, publisher and CEO of Voice of Asia Group, the parent corporation for the weekly publication, Voice of Asia, which has served as the authoritative voice of the South Asian community in Texas for over 30 years. Mr. Thomas created Voice of Asia to nurture and promote the political, economic and cultural ambitions of the South Asian community in Texas. Mr. Thomas and his wife Moani have three daughters and three grandsons.

Arti Manek - Folk and Classical Dance Art Forms
Dancing, performing and teaching has been Arti’s passion since childhood. Arti learnt Indian Classical kathak dance from the renowned Guru, Abhay Shankar Mishra, in England culminating in the establishment of Shankara Dance Academy, now flourishing in Los Angeles. Legendary Pt. Birju Maharaj attended the first Rang Manch Pravesh of her student as the chief guest. Arti also achieved immense acclaim in folk dance, getting numerous awards in FOGANA competitions and productions of mega dance drama shows including Ramayana with Pujya Morari Bapu as chief guest.

Aloke Dasgupta - Performing Arts, Sitar playing in Classical Tradition
Aloke Dasgupta studied under the guidance of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and has performed with V.G. Jog, the LA Philharmonic and the Rolling Stones, Gwen Stefani, among others. He composed for movie “Out Source” and for “Ocean of Pearl” received award. He has performed extensively in India, Japan, the USA, and Europe. He played for Lincoln Center, Hollywood Bowl, Ford Theatre. Finally with “Cheap Trick” he performed 36 shows in Vegas “ Recreation of Sgt. Pepper by Beatles. He founded the Raga Ranjani School of Music in 1986 and has been teaching sitar ever since.

Nami Kaur - Service to Non-profit Institutions
Nami Kaur donates her time/skills to non-profit organizations, following a corporate career at IBM Corporation. She serves as: Executive Board Member - Children’s Hope India (CHI); a New York based non-profit. At CHI, she led the development of its new website and manages outreach initiatives with dignitaries; Chair – GOPIO Media Council. Manages communication with the South Asian media and Editor – monthly Newsletter, GOPIO International; Board Director - Riveredge Coop; Her focus, has been to improve communications between the Board, Property Management and the Resident Shareholders and Volunteer - New York Botanical Garden. Nami holds MBA in Marketing and MS in Mathematics.

Contact: NFIA President Angela Anand, [email protected]

Awardees, Dignitaries and NFIA Officials