Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal has agreed to serve as the GOPIO USA Coordinator, a position in which he will provide leadership in developing new GOPIO chapters and strengthen the existing ones in the United States.
Dr. Agrawal has the distinct honor to have led the effort to start Diwali celebrations at The White House in 2003. Since then, Diwali has been celebrated every year in the White House.
Dr. Agrawal has a very long and distinguished record of Indian civic organization in the United States. He served as the National President of the Association of Indians in America (AIA). He chaired the Education
Committee of the Rotary Club of Miami. He is the current Chairman of Asian American Foundation, Asian American Alliance, and the Asian American Community forum - all three organizations serve the Asian American Community in Florida. He is also the President of The Asian American Federation of Florida established in 1984.
Dr. Agrawal has worked in the field of education since 1955 in various capacities, from a classroom teacher to a United Nations Expert to a Superintendent of Schools. He has about two dozen publications to his credit and has received several notable honors and awards.
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In 1989, for the first time in the history of overseas Indians, a successful attempt was made to bring the global Indian community together on one platform by organizing the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin. During the five-day convention in New York, delegates from twenty-two countries including some ministers and heads of state took active part in the deliberations. At the conclusion of the convention, the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) was formed to network the global Indian community.
Thirteen years later in 2002, Government of India organized
a conference of overseas Indians at a scale much bigger than
what the volunteers had done in 1989 in New York and named
it Pravasi Bhartiya
Divas which since then has become an annual event.
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GOPIO is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, secular organization linking the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) wherever they reside, and promoting awareness and understanding of issues of concern -- social, cultural, educational, economic, or political, to the global NRI/PIO community. GOPIO provides an active and well recognized platform for dialogue and discussion to the worldwide Indian diaspora, to foster fellowship and friendship and to connect/reconnect with their fellow NRIs/PIOs living in various countries of the world with a sense of common interest and shared feeling of brotherhood. GOPIO continues to be the advocacy organization on behalf of NRIs/PIOs at national and international level while at chapter level, promoting its outreach as a community service organization.
An estimated 22 million people of Indian origin (NRIs and PIOs) are living outside India, just about 2 percent of India's population, but its spread is extensive. Since inception, GOPIO has been at the forefront to network the globally scattered overseas Indian community by organizing conferences in various parts of the world. In 2004-05, in combination with its chapters, GOPIO organized five international conferences, in New Delhi in January, 2004, Human Rights conference in New York in March, 2004, in Brussels in October, 2004, in Mumbai in January, 2005 and another in Brussels in November, 2005. GOPIO conferences and conventions continue to bring the Indian diaspora closer to mother India and strengthen the inherent bonds of
heritage, culture and tradition.
GOPIO is organizing a conference on Indian diapsora in Hyderabad on January 5-6, 2006 in conjunction with Pravasi Bhartiya Divas. For more information, please contact GOPIO President Inder Singh at Tel: 818-708-3885 or by email:
gopio-intl@sbcglobal.net
or GOPIO Secretary General Ashook Ramsaran, Tel:718/939-8194, E-mail:
ramsaran@aol.com
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