GOPIO Sydney Presented GYAAN

GOPIO (Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin) is dedicated to the promotion and well being of people of Indian origin. It has become a premiere global advocacy body representing the interests and continues to be at the forefront of monitoring and addressing critical issues of relevance and benefit to the non­resident Indian (NRI) community across the globe and India.

GOPIO Sydney, a local chapter of GOPIO International, in its GYAAN series of annual events has been recognising and honouring students of Indian origin for the last seven years who burning midnight oil, come out with flying colours from HSC and obtain high ATAR doing their parents proud. Over the years it has become a much sought after and awaited event among the Indian diaspora. GYAAN stands for GOPIO Young Achievers Award Night each year. In Hindi it means knowledge. GYAAN is to knowledge as knowledge is to power and GOPIO is to empowerment.

GOPIO Sydney also acknowledges and awards the young, not so young but young at heart who have excell in sports, performing arts, visual arts, public speaking, leadership and literature etc, have represented at state or national level or have made significant contribution in that sector. GOPIO Sydney also acknowledges and awards organisations, that have significantly contributed in community services, teaching and promoting Indian Languages.

This year GYAAN 2016 was organised at Roselea Community Centre, Carlingford, NSW 2118 and was well received and attended by about 400 audience. Prof John Simons, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Macquarie University presided over the function and applauded the young achievers.The event involved a three course sit down dinner, complemented by a wide range of cultural activities and lucky draws. The event was by parents, politician, prominent community and business leaders thereby provided an ideal environment professional and business networking opportunity.

Hon Dr. Geoff Lee, MP, Member for Parramatta and Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism spoke on the occasion and praised the awardees for their hard work. Mr David Citer, a prominent psychologist and counsellor spoke on the mental health, a theme adopted by GOPIO Sydney this year. The profits from the events along with the fund raised for mental health will be donated to The Australian Foundation for Mental Health and Reserch (www.affirm.org.au)

The awardees in the academic category included Ashray Narula, Aangad Bedi, Devansh Shah, Dhey Shah, Ganesh Chandrasekharan, Mansi Gupta, Neha Dave, Prasanth Parsu, Sachin Kinger, Syam Iyer, Tamanna Sapra, Thanuja Premkumar and Vidhi Nanda.

The non academic category included Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, Jugandeep Singh and Aditya Pillai (Leadership and Public Speaking); Dave Passi, Anju Kalra, MP Singh, Kittu Randhawa and Harman Foundation (Community Service) and Tej Singh, Grand Finalist for Spelling Bee.

The presence of Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, who uses satire and humour to address core social isses and recently featured in Australia Got Talent show and one of the awardees proved to be a major attraction of one all particularly the young. GOPIO Sydney is pleased to announce that she has agreed to be their Brand Ambassador for 2016.

Balvinder Ruby, President GOPIO Sydney briefed about scope and extent of the work by GOPIO Sydney. Amarjit Dhot, Vice President thanked the guests, awardees, audience, GOPIO team, sponsors and media partners for the valuable support that made the event to happen.