America
GOPIO's new officials seek closer ties with India
Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) elected a new international executive council at a warmly contested election, conducted electronically for the first time, where 208 of the 223 international delegates from 21 countries cast votes, electing Mr. Niraj Baxi of Silicon Valley (USA) as its President. Other elected officers are: Mr. Noel Lal (Sydney, Australia) as Executive Vice President, Mr. Ram Gadhavi (New Jersey, USA) Vice President, Dr. Rajeev Mehta (USA), Dr. Pradip Sewoke (France), Mrs. Suman Kapoor (New Zealand), and Mr. Rajidre Tiwari (The Netherland) as International Coordinators. The election process was supervised by GOPIO Chairman Inder Singh who will continue in that position.
Formed in 1989 at the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin, GOPIO has now reached most countries with a sizable Indian Diaspora population. Past GOPIO elections were generally held at its biennial conventions wherein only a fraction of the international delegates could participate. However, with new technologies being available, the present election was held electronically with a record participation by 93% of the international delegates.
With
“With an investment and business friendly government in
GOPIO Executive Vice President Noel Lal said that GOPIO would reach out all countries where we have the Diaspora presence.
Vice President Ram Gadhavi who has brought Gujarati Diaspora
writers on a common platform in the
GOPIO Founder President Dr. Thomas Abraham, who also serves
as the Executive Trustee of GOPIO Foundation said that GOPIO will increase its
social and philanthropic activities in
Baxi further said that he would work towards making GOPIO the voice of any and all NRIs and PIOs and would take initiatives in growing GOPIO all countries and regions of the world.
“In all our internal and external activities, we want to bring about fairness, transparency and accountability; there are many challenges that lie ahead of us and we need good wishes and continued hard work from everyone,†Baxi continued.
GOPIO elected officers are as follows:
President - Niraj Baxi (
In 1984, Niraj visited various countries, becoming the
first emissary of the National Federation of Indian American Associations
(NFIA), which sponsored the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin
in 1989. He coordinated NFIA and GOPIO organized the 90th Anniversary of
Gadar in
Executive Vice President - Noel Lal (
Originally from
Vice President - Ram Gadhavi (
For four decades, Ram Gadhavi has been involved in various community activities, starting with the India Cultural Society of NJ where he served as its Chairman, helped build the Gandhi Mandir, was Secretary/President of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA of CT, NJ & NY) where he organized the 1st India Day Parade, President of Gujarati Literary Academy of NA, Secretary of Bharatiya Vidyà Bhavan (USA), and as founding Co-Convener of the first GOPIO Convention in 1989. A chemical engineering project manager of Lummus Co., Ram, after retirement, started a home building and re-modelling company.
International Coordinator for North America - Dr. Rajeev
Mehta (
Dr. Rajeev Mehta is the Founder President of
International Coordinator for Europe - Dr. Pradip
Sewoke (
Founder and President of GOPIO
International Coordinator for Oceania - Suman Kapoor (
A founder President of GOPIO’s first chapter in
International Coordinator-at-Large - Rajindre Tewari (
Rajindre served as Chapter president of GOPIO-Amsterdam
followed by Country Coordinator, then EU coordinator, and later served as
International Coordinator for
GOPIO is a non-partisan, non-sectarian and secular global organization with 65 chapters, over 200 life members in over 24 countries. It actively promotes the interests of people of Indian origin worldwide by monitoring and addressing current critical issues of concern, and by enhancing cooperation and communication between groups of Indians living in various countries.
For more information, please email [email protected] or 408-307-9845 www.gopio.net
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Note to the Editor: If you have any question on this release, please contact Dr. Thomas Abraham at 203-329-8010 or e-mail at [email protected]