Pravasi Bharatiya Divas: A tribute to NRIs who made India proud

New Delhi, Jan 09: They might have roots of India but they made their mark abroad. From art to science, literature to business these people left their footprints in almost every key sector. Their contributions usher glory to the nation and inspire the youth for chasing their altruistic dreams.

Prabasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is observed once in every two years to show gratitude to the overseas Indian community for their contribution towards development of the country. Celebrating PBD or Non-Indian Residents (NRI) day also increases engagement of the NRIs with the govt of India.

As on the very day of 9 January 1915, Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India, the day is the most appropriate for the govts to commemorate the NRIs.

Here is a tribute to some of the names:

Swaraj Paul

Swaraj Paul is a UK- based business tycoon and philanthropist.

Born in Punjab in 1931, he went to obtain Masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States after finishing degree in the Punjab University. He returned to India joined the Apeejay Group, founded by his father. Paul relocated to London in 1966 permanently and renamed the company as Caparo from the earlier name of Apeejay.

After years, Caparo became one of the UK's leading producers of welded steel tubes and spiral welded pipes. Now, Caparo group is one of the richest family-owned business in the UK. In the year 1978 Swaraj Paul was knighted by the Queen.

Indra Nooyi

The former CEO and present chairperson of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, the first woman who led the soft-drink and snack-food giant assumed the title as CEO in 2006. In 1994, Nooyi joined Pepsico and became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo's history. The Chennai-born woman has consistently been featured as world's 100 Most Powerful Women and ranked 2nd most powerful woman in the Fortune List in 2015.

Laxmi Mittal

The chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal which is the world's largest steel-making company, Laxmi Mittal, the Rajasthan born business tycoon was ranked as the sixth-richest person in the world in 2011 by Forbes. In 2012, according to the Forbes list, he was 47th "most powerful person" and by TIME "100 most influential persons in the world" in 2007. His Mittal Champions Trust $9 million supports 10 promising Indian athletes every year.

Kalpana Chawla

The first woman in the space, the first Indian-American astronaut, the role model of many women in the country and world-wide, Kalpana Chawla needs no introduction. She joined NASA's Ames Research Center in 1988. The career span of the Karnal-born lady includes two space missions and before being killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, she spent 30 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes in space as a whole. India named its first weather satellite ‘Kalpana-1' as an honour to the national hero.

Satya Nadella

Today's last name in the list is the man who holds the position of CEO for the last five years of the world's largest company at the turn of the millennium, the Microsoft. Before becoming CEO, Hyderabad born Nadella was the executive vice president of the company's cloud and enterprise group. The engineer from the Manipal Institute of Technology played an important role in the transformation to cloud infrastructure and services business which occupied the market for the company.