GOPIO Sydney’s signature event “GOPIO Young Achievers Awards Night” (GYAAN-2014) was held at Castle Grande, Castle Hill, Sydney, on February 9. There was a capacity audience of around 400 people.
Prof Wai Fong Chua, Pro Vice Chancellor (Students) UNSW, was the chief guest.
Other dignitaries included Philip Ruddock Member House of Representatives for Berowra, Greg Smith SC, Attorney General & Minister of Justice, Member Legislative Assembly for Epping, Michelle Rowland MP, Hon John Robertson Shadow Minister for Western Sydney, Member Legislative Assembly for Blacktown, Hon Dominic Perrottet Member Legislative Assembly for Castle Hill, Mr Vinod Bahade, Deputy Consul General Sydney, Government of India, Ms Michelle Byrne Fuentes, Mayor, The Hills Council, Raj Datta, Councillor, Strathfield Council, Gurdeep Singh, Councillor, Hornsby Council, and Mr Dilip Chopra, ex Councillor of Hornsby Council.
Young achievers in the academic category included Mathew Jacob, Prabha Sekhar, Paurush Tyagi, Vishal Uppal, Manroop Bal, Nivedita Rattan, Haleen Mohammad Abdul, Tarunpreet Saluja, Rizul Makkar, Daniel Koleth, Charu Singh, Shonie Kaushik, Shakti Srikanth, Jimmy Sharma, Ronic Bedi, and Harsharndeep Singh Kahlon.
The achievers in the non-academic category included Lakhwinder Singh Dhillon Exceptional Honesty: Meenakashi Srinivasan Promoting Indian Language – Sanskrit; Inderjeet Singh Virdi Promoting Indian Language – Punjabi; Manjit Thind Photography and Videography; Jai Raman Community Service – Aged care; Aditya Pillai Oratory & Public Speaking; Angelene Singh, Music (Instrumental) –Veena; Priyanka Pri Pri Music Direction and Singing; Manish Kumar Music (Vocal) Singing; Ami Surti Music (Vocal) Singer; Usha Barya Dance and Choreography; Nishan Gill Dancing-Bhangra; Kumud Meerani Media Production TV & Radio; Ana Tiwary Film Producer; Monty Simmons Sports- Rugby and Vinay Karamil Sports-Triple Jump.
Mr Dilip Chopra, distinguished guest, read a message from the Prime Minister.
Published in The Indian Sun (Indian Newspaper in Sydney)
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