In the Middle East region, Kuwait based Professional Mr K. Uthaman of Kuwait Oil Company won the ‘NRI of the year 2017’ award. He was honoured and facilitated in a coveted Times Now NRI of the year 2017 award ceremony held in Grand Hyatt, Mumbai on 11-7-17. In the Professional category, Uthaman was chosen for the Middle East region for his exemplary service, professional excellence and making Indian diaspora proud by his profession and prestigious international awards. Mr Uthaman after receiving the award said that he was thrilled, felt proud and honoured to receive this award among distinguished audience of international achievers and great scientists of ISRO.
Times Now group instituted these prestigious awards in 2014 and in the last 4 years these awards have gained immense popularity. MK Anand, MD and CEO, TIMES NETWORK said year there were 25000 applicants out of which 5000 made it to the final round. The winners were selected after a gruelling 5 tier process conducted by Ernst and Young. Of the 5000 only 300 made it to final round and the jury had a tough time to select 23 winners from among achievers in diverse fields spread across the four geographical boundaries.
The gala event was hosted by TV actor Karan Tacker and television presenter & singer Sophie Choudry. The event was graced by the presence of eminent personalities like Baahubali Actress Tamannaah Bhatia, Baahubali Writer Vijayendra Prasad, Actress Sana Khan, Choreographer Terence Lewis and many more from the TV and Bollywood Industry. This was the first event attended by the newly crowned Femina Miss India 2017 – Manushi Chhillar, Sana Dua– 1st Runner Up and Priyanka Kumari – 2nd Runner Up.
Apart from giving awards in the six categories there were awards for India’s Global Icon and there were also the Special Jury and Global Impact icon awards. It was a hattrick of awards for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as A S Kiran Kumar, Indian Space scientist and Chairman of ISRO won the prestigious India’s Global Icon award and Kopplli Radhakrishnan former Chairman of ISRO and Mylswamy Annadurai, Director of ISRO satellite centre Bangalore, won the Global Indian Awards for Science in recognition of their humungous contributions to Indian space research through Mangalayana and launching of 104 satellites, a first in space technology in the world.
K. Uthaman, hailing from Coimbatore, is a native of Kallappalayam in Tamil Nadu and has spent more than 40 years in the oil/petrochemical industries and won international recognition. He had a passion for saving energy and environment from his childhood days and also an animal rights activist.