The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) conducted its election in January and the new team was sworn in on January 31st at a virtual Zoom ceremony.

The new President Prakash Shah of New Jersey, takes over as President of the organization.  with veteran community leader from New Jersey Mr. Prakash Shah

Shah, a former Chairman of New Jersey Development Authority, is a founding member of GOPIO since its inception in 1989 and was serving as the Global Ambassador and later as the Convener of the GOPIO Convention 2024 in New Jersey in his last term.

Others sworn in at the ceremony were media and community leader Umesh Chandra from Brisbane, Australia as Executive Vice President; Los Angeles area community leader Kewal Kanda as Vice President; and former IBM official and New York activist Jasbir “Nami” Kaur as Global Ambassador. Also elected were International Coordinators for Africa Ishwar Ramlatchman and for South Asia Dhiraj Ahuja.

The election was conducted according to the GOPIO bylaws by a four-member committee appointed by the GOPIO Executive Council. It was headed by Mridul Pathak along with Dinesh Mittal, Manohar Dev and Prashant Gupta providing technical support. The process for supervised by GOPIO Chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham, who also administered the oath of office. The election was conducted for the position Vice President using eballot.com platform. All other positions were elected unanimously.

“GOPIO chapters around the world have been doing a lot of organizational groundwork in many countries to promote leadership in public service and the thrust has been to promote and involve the Indian Diaspora in the larger society and local communities wherever they live,” Abraham is quoted saying in the press release.

Outgoing president Lal Motwani spoke on the activities done during his term and thanked his team members.

In his acceptance speech, Shah said, “It is my ambition to try and activate those regions and Chapters which are not active now so that GOPIO does become a functioning network for the 38 million strong India Diaspora, We need many young leaders to get involved in the GOPIO to take GOPIO to a New Level.”

He also added some plans for the future. “We will officially relaunch GOPIO Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in different parts of the world. We are having our next Convention in Brisbane, Australia March 28-30 2025 under the leadership of Umesh Chandra.”

The new team of officials spoke briefly about their plans for GOPIO. Many GOPIO chapter presidents and other community leaders made remarks complimenting the new officials.

(Used with permission)

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