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| Kanwar Dhanjal |
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Ahmad Hussen |
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| Vikas Swarup |
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Gordon Bacon |
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| Nareshkumar Chavda |
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Ajay Tandon |
Insightful speeches by Hon. Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Minister for Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship; His Excellency Vikas Swarup, the High Commission of India to Ottawa; Gordon Bacon, CEO, Pulse Canada; top-of-the-line entertainment full of evocative pyrotechnics that bowled over and dazzled the audience marked the 26th Annual Awards and Gala Night of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.
On Sunday June 17, 2018, the exquisite Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge was the venue of the annual program; it was abuzz with the who’s who of Indo-Canadian community leaders, diplomats, corporate leaders, academics, small and medium entrepreneurs, bankers, and lawyers, and the representatives of the media.
The theme of the evening was the Rise of Digital Era: Excellence in Changing Time set the tone for the evening as every speaker emphasized the urgent need for humanity to understand and adjust to the rapidly expanding digitalization of our world.
Chief Guest for the evening, Minister Hussen in his remarks, emphasized the growing influence of the Indo-Canadian community in Canada and its contributions in all spheres of the Canadian society. High Commissioner Vikas Swarup said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to India had positively transformed the bilateral relations between Canada and India.
In his keynote address, Gordon Bacon, the CEO of Pulse Canada, emphasized the need for cordial relations between Canada and India on trading of pulses. Over the last three years, Canadian exports to India averaged over 2 million tons of pulses each year for an average value of $1.2 Billion dollars/year. Pulse trade has been the economic driver in Canada’s export business with India.
Canada accounts for more than one-third of global pulse trade. For many years, 50 percent of India’s pulse imports came from Canada because Canada is a cost competitive supplier, and has the range of quality at the range of prices and pulse products that India has required.
Mr. Kanwar Dhanjal, President, ICCC said that the Annual Awards have been legendary and those honored with the awards acquire not just momentary fame and glory but also lasting recognition of their achievements. About the theme, he said, “Digitalization is changing our world and we have yet to comprehend its ramifications in totality. It is changing the way we work, communicate, spend leisure time and relax.”
The highlight of the evening was, of course, the award ceremony when 10 Indo-Canadians were honoured for their achievements. The 2018 ICCC Annual Award winners who were honoured are:
| Female Entrepreneur |
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Male Entrepreneur |
Reetu Gupta
COO,Easton’s Group of Hotels
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Suneet Singh Tuli
CEO, Datawind Inc |
| Male Professional |
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Young Achiever |
Dr. Rajiv Midha
Professor,Department of Clinical Neurosciences,
University of Calgary
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Abhishek Jain
Student
University of Waterloo |
| Technology Achievement |
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Corporate Executive |
Parth Patel
CEO
Sys Creations Inc |
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Atul Tiwari
ManagingDirector,
Vanguard Investments Canada Inc
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| Humanitarian |
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Lifetime Achievement |
Haresh (Mike) Mehta
CEO, Eximcan Canada
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Dr. Sadhna Joshi
Associate Professor, University of Toronto |
| Member of the Year |
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President Award |
Chirag Shah
Director, Shubtech Inc |
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RoseannO’Reilly Runte
President& CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation
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The evening is the coming together of members, stakeholders, sponsors of the ICCC and included members of the Advisory Board, the Board of Directors, the Past Presidents and other supporters of the Chamber.
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