community. It is our way of saying thanks on behalf of the Indian American community."
"Tonight's event is a continuation of our great tradition to honor the pioneers who have handsomely contributed in promoting a healthy relationship between India and the United States in their own way, from S Chandrasekhar to Amartya Sen, and from Norman Borlaug to Lawrence Klein, former honorees of AIA who later became Noble Laureates," said Piyush Agrawal before bestowing the honors. "This evening we are honoring once again those who are worthy of our community's salutations," he noted.
In attendance were about 400 guests including a number of federal, local and state officials such as Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, US Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois Chief Justice Timothy Evans, Commissioner of Aviation Thomas Walker, Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen; Also present were Indian Consul General Surendra Kumar, Indian American Judges Rina Van Tine and Sanjay Tailor. Various AIA Chapter Presidents from other states were also present at the banquet including Dr. Urmilesh Arya & Dr. Pushpa Shah from New York, Mr. & Mrs. Ravi Mehrotra, and D.C. Agrawal from New Jersey, Mr. Sunil Nath from Tallahassee, Florida, Mrs. & Mr. Kusum Soin from Pennsylvania, Mr. Raj Male from Connecticut, and Mr. & Mrs. Virendra Gupta from Rochester, NY.
Dr. Ghanshyam Pandey, the event Co-Chair emceed the function and Mr. Nand Kapoor, Illinois Chapter President & Co-Chair of the event welcomed the guests.
AIA President Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal in his Presidential address called for unity between various NRI organizations, emphasizing the common cause of community service to a population of more than 2 million people. "When our community was small, it was much more cohesive and we felt challenged to create a more supportive environment for future generations. Even in the eighties when newer organizations came into being the focus remained on community service and a spirit of cohesiveness prevailed. However, the same cohesiveness and unity has not been sustained lately. We are very happy that so many organizations have mushroomed to serve a population of more than two million people, but it would be wise for the leadership of these organizations to maintain unity and harmony among themselves to support the common cause of community service. Diverse opinions are a healthy sign of a democratic society but division of the community for whatever reasons must be discouraged. It seems there is a crisis in the ranks of leadership in the Indian community that is bound to negatively impact on the progress we have made so far. Unity is extremely important, and all of us must strive to maintain it."
He recalled the difficulties the first Indian immigrants had to face in the 60s and 70s, and remembers the struggle Indian physicians had to go through to convince the licensing authorities that the MBBS degree from India was the equivalent college preparation to the MD degree awarded in this country. In the 1970 Census Indians were still classified in the "White-Others" category. AIA deserves credit for creating a completely new category of "Asian Indians," on the 1980 Census Form so that Indians can be counted in the Census.
"This awareness of the growing numbers of Asian Indians from a few thousand in 1970 to the more than two million today is having a political and social impact that we should definitely cherish and further nourish."
Chief Guest of Honor was India Ambassador Lalit Mansingh. In his speech Ambassador Lalit Mansingh pointed out that while the Indian community has done much in the fields of science and technology there was a pressing need for the Indian community to make its mark in politics. "The first generation has done very well in whatever they did, now do not ask your children to become engineers and doctors only," he said. "Let them use their parents' money and let them take part in the political process if they are interested in that," Mansingh said. "Give them a long rope and they would do well," he said. He also brought to notice the disunity between the various community organizations, telling them to make sure Dalip Singh does not become the first and last Indian American to be elected to Congress. Dalip Singh was the first Indian to be elected to the Congress in the 1950s from California.
Presenting Dr. Sam Pitroda, Dr. Shaheen Sayeed praised Dr. Pitroda for bringing the lagging Indian telecom industry into the 20th century by revamping the telephone system and introducing 38 million telephones all over India between 1984 and 2002. She further noted that her honoree has become a household name in India.
In his acceptance remarks, Dr. Pitroda said that he was accepting the honor on behalf of a lot of young people in India who had done a great job in the field of IT and other related fields "Without their great work my adventures would have been difficult," he said. He was extremely upbeat about the future and the technological development of India. "With what Indians have demonstrated in the field of technology in the recent years, it is possible to dream for a better future for India today," he said amid applause.
Presenting Prof. Ralph W. Nichols for the Award, Dr. Vinod Bansal described his love for India since 1960 when he spent about two years in villages of West Bengal while conducting
