Plainsboro New Jersey:

The Federation of Indian Associations of Tristate along with the Consulate General of India, Indus American Bank and the Indian visa processing agency Cox and Kings, commemorated the International Womenâ€™s Day with a visa camp inaugurated by the women of FIA, women staff of Indus American Bank and CKGS.

The 15 minute inaugural session on April 4 consisted of a purple ribbon cutting to mark and honor the women of our community. The inaugural ceremony was performed by executive chairman and founder of Indus American Bank Anil Bansal, Consul Dhirendra Singh, chief of HR for CKGS Mercedes Turner, COO of EBC Radio Alka Aggrawal, Karishma Vaidya, Karina Parikh, Chhavi Singh, Arti Rai, and Daxa Amin from FIA.

The ceremony was supported and sponsored by FIA tristate along with chairman Ramesh Patel, FIA president Ankur Vaidya, Andy Bhatia and Mahesh Dubbal of FIA and CKGS New York Manager Ranjit Singh along with a host of CKGS/FIA/IAB team of volunteers and staff.

â€œThe significance of the event is to mark the International Womenâ€™s Day by empowering our women who are 70% of the 1.2 billion population around the world living in poverty, who contribute to 67% of the work hours performed around the world and yet get paid 10% of the Worldâ€™s income and own 1% of the worldâ€™s properties. It is high time that we unite as one to work collectively in empowering our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters for a better and equal tomorrowâ€ said Vaidya.

Swayam (from India) and Manavi (From NJ, USA) were the two charities cited in the event and contributed towards.

â€˜FIA initiative which is the first of its kind will not be our last one and we will contribute and support towards more causes that empower our women,â€™ said Ramesh Patel, chairman of FIA.

he ceremony was followed by a visa camp were a total of 107 applications were processed during the course of the work day. The three states (NJ, MA, NY) visa camps are a collective effort of FIA/Indus American Bank /CKGS/CGI-NY and have been a grand success with close to 1000 applications processed during the camps.

Honoring women at a unique event in New Jersey