MUMBAI, India, June 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Rediff.com
India Pvt. Ltd (NASDAQ: REDF) ("Rediff" or "the Company"),
India-based internet company which
delivers digital content and commerce services, announced that Dr
Vivek H Murthy, the first Indian American to be appointed United
States Surgeon General, is the India Abroad Person of the Year
2014. The India Abroad Person of the Year Awards, held at the
National Museum of the American Indian in New York City on June
12, 2015, honoured 14 achievers in seven categories.
"It can be tempting to think of seva as service to others. But
it inevitably benefits the person performing the seva as well," Dr
Murthy, who holds the rank of Vice Admiral and is America's top
health officer, said before the event. "I believe there is a great
deal to be gained by pursuing a path of service in one's
career."
Dr Manjul Bhargava, who won the
Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize and the highest
honour for a mathematician under 40, and the distinguished poet
Vijay Seshadri, who won the Pulitzer
Prize for Poetry last year, were awarded the India Abroad
Publisher's Award for Special Achievement 2014.
Dr Bhargava is one of the world's most influential
mathematicians, a genius whose mind is widely considered as
beautiful as his late Princeton
mathematician colleague, Professor John
Nash.
"India's needs are often quite
different than those of the rest of the world, as India has its own unique problems that only
exist in India and are not
foremost in the minds of developed countries," Dr Bhargava told
India Abroad.
"That's why it is important for India to have its own network of scientists
and their repertoire of research, both pure and applied, so that
they can all work together to make the fundamental creative
breakthroughs and connections that will be needed to solve
India's problems in the decades to
come," Dr Bhargava, who heads Prime Minister's Gyan initiative,
said.
The poet and the mathematician received their awards from India
Abroad Publisher and Rediff.com Founder, Chairman and CEO
Ajit Balakrishnan.
Dr Pranav Shetty and Dr
Jay Varma, who were at the forefront
of fighting Ebola in Africa and
the US, were awarded the first India Abroad Doctors of the Year
Award 2014.
"Epidemics need to be respected — it's the first time Ebola got
on a plane and that really opened the world's eyes to really, the
global nature of diseases," Dr Shetty told India Abroad in an
interview, speaking from Nepal,
where he had rushed to help following the devastating
earthquake.
"In 1976, Ebola was some kind of a Central African issue at that
time. But now, it's a world issue and the world's problem. So, we
need to be prepared as kind of a global community to deal with it,"
Dr Shetty added.
"My laboratory is actually the world around us. For me, the
greatest satisfaction in life comes from service to others, not to
serving my bank account," Dr Varma, who has been at the forefront
of fighting infectious diseases around the world, said, speaking
from Sierra Leone in Africa where he is currently based.
Vivek Ranadive, the well-known
software businessman who became the first Indian American to own an
NBA team when he bought the Sacramento Kings, was honoured with the
India Abroad Businessman of the Year Award, another new category
introduced at this year's event.
"India wants to be a world
power, and India's knocking at
that door. Sports has to be a part of it. You can't be a world
power and get no medals in the Olympics — maybe get one in hockey
or one in shooting, but not really be on the sports map," Ranadive
told India Abroad.
"I see basketball as a sport that can take off in India and provide yet another reason for
India and the US to be together,"
the Mumbai-born and raised
Ranadive added. "I see it as a sport that over the next 10 years
will grow to be the second-most popular sport in India. Obviously, it will never surpass
cricket as the national pastime, but if it's the second-most
popular, that's a big deal."
The India Abroad Face of the Future Award 2014 went to
Nina Davuluri who in 2013 created
history by becoming the first Indian American to win the Miss
America title, and Neha Gupta, who
won the International Children's Peace Price.
"I would say the biggest game-changer I had was filling a niche
between Indians abroad here and Indians in India through things like the Modi event,"
Davuluri -- one of the MCs at the prime minister's Madison Square Garden event last September --
told India Abroad. "That's when I really shifted focus. I
definitely see myself in the political arena."
Rising stars of the community Shubham
Banerjee, Ansun Sujoe, Sriram Hathwar and Akhil Rekulapelli
were honoured with the India Abroad Special Award for Achievement
2014.
Shubham, who is only 13, has set up a company to manufacture
Braille printers for the blind. Ansun and Sriram were the joint
winners at the Scripps National Spelling Bee 2014, while Akhil won
the National Geographic Bee 2014.
As Indian Americans expand their footprint in America it is also
important to recognize those who -- though not Indian by origin --
contributed to deepening the understanding of India outside the subcontinent.
In recognition of this, the India Abroad Friend of India Award
2014 went to Shelley and Donald
Rubin who have set up the Rubin Museum of Art which houses
the greatest collection of Himalayan Art in the Western World.
"When we started the Rubin Museum," Shelley Rubin said in an interview to India
Abroad, "there was virtually no interest in Asia. It seems extraordinary because it's not
that long ago. But we felt somehow that Asia was rising. If you opened your eyes a
little bit you could see that Asia, especially India and China, were rising powers of the world and
their art was not seen at all, even though it was incredibly
beautiful, well crafted and meaningful."
Among the audience at this year's event were Ambassador
Arun Singh, India's Ambassador to the United States, Judge Sri Srinivasan; legendary actress Madhur Jaffrey; novelist Bharti Mukherjee; Ambassador Dyaneshwar Mulay,
India's Consul General in
New York; Ambassador Vijay Nambiar, the United Nations
Secretary-General's special advisor on Myanmar; US Attorney for the Southern District
of New York Preet Bharara; Acting US Assistant General Vanita Gupta; Basement Bhangra pioneer DJ Rekha;
Oscar winner Megan Mylan among
others.
This was the 12th year of the India Abroad Person of the Year
awards, a pioneering effort to recognize Indian-American
achievement that has in the past honoured achievers like Nobel
Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan; PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi;
astronaut Sunita Williams; music
conductor Zubin Mehta and
Grammy-nominated musician Vijay
Iyer; Judge Sri Srinivasan,
USAID Administrator Raj Shah; lawmakers like US Congressman
Ami Bera, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal; Olympic gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj; US Attorney for the Southern
District of New York Preet Bharara; novelists Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri,
writer Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee; and filmmaker Mira Nair.
About Rediff.com India Limited
Rediff India (NASDAQ:
REDF) is an India-based internet
company which delivers digital content and commerce services.
Founded in 1996, Rediff.com is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and New
York. For additional information, please visit
http://investor.rediff.com.
Safe Harbor
Except for historical information and
discussions contained herein, statements included in this release
may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and reflect
our current expectations. Forward-looking statements are identified
by certain words or phrases such as "may", "will", "aim", "will
likely result", "believe", "expect", "will continue", "anticipate",
"estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future",
"objective", "goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar
expressions or variations of such expressions. These statements
involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those that may
be projected by these forward looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties include but are not limited to the slowdown in the
economies worldwide and in the sectors in which our clients are
based, the slowdown in the Internet and IT sectors world-wide,
competition, success of our past and future acquisitions,
attracting, recruiting and retaining highly skilled employees,
technology, acceptance of new products, legal and regulatory
policies, managing risks associated with customer products, the
wide spread acceptance of the Internet as well as other risks
detailed in the Form 20-F and other reports filed by Rediff.com
India Limited with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Rediff.com India Limited and its subsidiaries may, from time to
time, make additional written and oral forward looking statements,
including statements contained in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders.
Rediff.com India Limited does not undertake to update any
forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or
on behalf of the Company.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-surgeon-general-vivek-h-murthy-named-india-abroad-person-of-the-year-2014-300098962.html
SOURCE Rediff.com
