UK speaker lauds Indian Diaspora's contribution to Britain

Lauding the huge contribution of Indian diaspora to British life, the Speaker of the House of Commons has asked the Indian community to build on its successes and achieve better representation in parliament by engaging more with mainstream politics.
John Bercow, while presenting awards to seven eminent persons from the diaspora for their outstanding achievements, said, "The Indian diaspora makes a huge contribution to British life, and I hope its members will continue to build on its successes, both in terms of representation in Parliament and more widely across our national life".
The Pranam award recipients are economist Lord Meghnad Desai, NRI politician Shreela Flather, Executive Director of Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan here Dr N Nandakumara, rights activist and writer Zerbanoo Gifford and CEO, MD of Bristol Laboratories T Ramachandran, BBC's former sports editor Mihir Bose and NRI entrepreneur Rami Ranger.

The Pranam awards, instituted by the Asian Lite daily, were presented last week at a function attended by prominent members of the Indian community and British MPs.
A Labour Peer Lord Meghnad Desai, spearheaded the campaign to install the Mahatma Gandhi Statue at the Parliament Square here. A former professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), he has written several books on economics.
Flather, the first Asian woman to receive a peerage, has worked for several humanitarian causes, fighting for social justice, refugees and race relations.

Nandakumara is a Sanskrit scholar who taught at Cambridge and Eton University. He hails from the only Sanskrit speaking village of Mattur in Karnataka and holds a PhD in devotional literature from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Zerbanoo Gifford is the first non-white woman to stand for British Parliament in 1982. She won several recognition for her involvement in national and international humanitarian activities.
Ramachandran helped Bristol Laboratories grow from a company with one person and one product in 2001 to the one that employs more than 600 people across the UK today.
Ranger, one of the most successful Indian-origin businessmen in the UK, has won six Queen's awards for the outstanding performance of his firm the Sun Mark Limited.
Youngest son of Indian freedom fighter Nanak Singh, he began his life as a refugee boy in Delhi and now runs a USD 280-million turnover worth company.

Bose, who came to England to study engineering but trained in accountancy, became one of the most respected journalists. He has worked with Sunday Times, daily Telegraph and became the first sports editor for BBC. Later, he worked with the Evening Standard.