India is celebrating yet another Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in 2025 on January 9. The government of India is organizing a grand celebration with the theme 'Diaspora’s Contribution to a Viksit Bharat' in partnership with the State Government of Odisha. The event, which will be held from 08-10 January 2025 in Bhubaneswar, provides an important platform to connect and engage with the Indian diaspora and enable them to interact with each other. The government started celebrating Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in 2003, highlighting the overseas Indian diaspora's achievements and their important role in uplifting the Indian economy. The event format was revised in 2015 to celebrate it once every two years and to hold theme-based conferences during the intervening period with participation from overseas diaspora experts, policy-makers, and stakeholders. Let’s learn more about the event, the Indian diaspora's global impact, and the NRI leaders' contribution to the Indian economy.

A Prologue from History

Pravasi Divas is celebrated specifically on January 9 to honor the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who returned to India from South Africa on the same day in 1915, leading India to independence. That event changed the lives of every Indian significantly. Today, Pravasi Divas also help foster relations between India and its citizens living outside India that will aid in India's progressive agenda. Let's look at some of the NRI entrepreneurs who are upholding the pride of India. 

Dr. Romesh Wadhwani

Romesh Wadhwani is the co-founder and first chairman of the Wadhwani Foundation. Throughout his career spanning over two decades, Romesh has engaged in numerous programs directed toward entrepreneurship innovation, and skill enhancement. In 2001, he founded the Wadhwani Foundation to foster economic development and generate employment opportunities in India and emerging economies. The Wadhwani Foundation is currently active in more than 20 silver nations, such as India, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Through three important programs: Wadhwani Advantage, Wadhwani Entrepreneur, and Wadhwani Innovate, the foundation helps and encourages start-up companies and the expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises which leads to the creation of new job opportunities for hundreds of people every year.

The Wadhwani Advantage program serves tens of thousands of students each year by providing necessary soft skills and helping them acquire employability, hence enabling them to get desirable job opportunities.

Rakesh Gangwal

Rakesh Gangwal is a successful Indian-American millionaire businessman who has primarily made his wealth through his association with InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo – the largest no-frills airline in India.  

Rakesh has built a significant profile after becoming the co-founder of IndiGo Airlines and acquiring 25 percent of it, which is his unshakeable faith in persistence combined with continuous self-betterment.

In addition to his financial accomplishments, Rakesh has made significant contributions, reflected in the 2020 Forbes list, ranking 359 among the 400 most affluent Americans. Despite resigning from the board of IndiGo Airlines in 2022 for personal reasons, he embodies the message of resolving, working hard, and focusing on personal growth because his story is the story of effort and results. There are lifelong lessons for those who wish to emulate Rakesh Gangwal in terms of the qualities of hard work and success.

Aneel Bhusri

Aneel has been an American business executive, leader, and product visionary in the enterprise software space for over 25 years.  As an executive chair, Aneel provides advice to the CEO and other members of the executive management team regarding matters of strategic relevance, with a focus on innovation and Workday’s technological applications and platforms in the future. He co-founded Workday in 2005, served as co-CEO alongside fellow co-founder Dave Duffield from 2009 to 2014, then served as CEO from 2014 to 2020, and is currently the co-CEO from 2020-2024. He has always been on the board of directors.

Before moving to Workday, Aneel held several executive positions at PeopleSoft, including senior vice president for business development, marketing, and product strategy and vice chair of the board.

 

Aside from his duties at Workday, he is a trustee of Stanford University and an advising partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm he has worked with since 1999. Also, he serves on the boards of Eat. Learn. Play, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, and Workday Foundation. In the past, Aneel was on the Boards of several other companies, including Passenger, General Motors, Intel, Okta, and Pure Storage.

Vinod Khosla

Vinod is a technologist, investor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a company that helps business owners create revolutionary technology-based enterprises. Despite coming from an Indian army family with no connections to the commercial or technology world, Vinod had always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. He had dreamed of launching his own technology business since he was sixteen years old when he first learned about the establishment of Intel.

Vinod's motivation stems from the conviction that technology may speed societal reinvention in areas such as food, health, energy, transportation, education, housing finance, media, retail, and entertainment for billions of people worldwide.

His main passion is mentoring business owners who are creating organizations to address the biggest issues facing society. Additionally, he supported several microfinance institutions in Africa and India.

Sri Prakash Lohia

Indorama Corporation was established by S P Lohia.

In 1975, he partnered with his father, M.L. Lohia, to create PT. Indo-Rama Synthetics.

With over 40 years of industry expertise, he serves on the boards of several of the Group's companies.

He graduated from the University of Delhi with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

He is passionate about collecting hand-colored lithographs, rare books, and artwork. The SP Lohia Foundation engages in a range of charitable endeavors with an emphasis on the arts, education, and healthcare.