Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2025 carries the theme, "The Diaspora's Contribution to a Viksit Bharat," which is organized in partnership with the State Government of Odisha from 08-10 January 2025 in Bhubaneswar. It’s an ideal occasion to remember NRIs who have contributed to lives the world over. Here are some leaders who have left an indelible mark running for a good cause across various fields around the world. 

Narinder Singh Kapany - Father of Fiber Optics

Narinder Singh Kapany, a physicist, inventor, businessman, farmer, philanthropist, an rdent art collector, but most importantly, he is remembered as the, ‘Father of Fiber Optics’. An Indian American scientist, he attended Imperial College in London after graduating from Agra University and studying in Dehradun. Kapany and Harold Hopkins developed the method for achieving high-quality picture transmission over optical fiber in 1953, and they came up with the term “fiber optics.” He is the man who questioned the impossible at the time: the idea of how light only moves in straight lines in the late 1940s. This was when he made a major breakthrough, creating what became known as fiber optics a few years later, in 1953. This technology transmitted high-quality images through fiber bundles that were only slightly thicker than human hair. 

He invented the Retinal Laser Coagulation Treatment, with his research and innovations spanning across the fields of fiber optics communication, lasers, and medical equipment.

In fact, he was the first Sikh Indian to go public with a Silicon Valley business.

 

The first permanent Sikh Art Gallery in the US and Canada was also built in 1967 by Kapany's Sikh Foundation. It pioneered the display of Sikh arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2021, Kapany received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honor, posthumously.

Abhijit Banerjee - Fighting Against Global Poverty

An Indian-American, Abhijit Banerjee won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2019 and was the 10th Indian to receive this Prize in Economic Sciences. Along with another American economist, Michael Kremer, and his French-American wife, Esther Duflo, Banerjee earned acclaim for their approach in "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

Together, the duo established the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-Pal) at MIT in 2003 to study poverty in depth. Over time, using field research employing randomized trials in Africa and India, their efforts involved understanding what the impoverished can accomplish and where and why they need encouragement.

In addition, Banerjee is the author of four books and numerous highly regarded research articles. He co-wrote "Poor Economics" with Mrs.Duflo, which was named the 2011 Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year. It explores the value of evidence-based, randomized controlled trials to address global poverty and has been translated into more than 17 languages.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta - A Neurosurgeon Voicing Health and Medical Issues through His Journalistic Abilities

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is known as the host of CNN's 'Chasing Life' podcast and a multiple Emmy Award-winning chief medical correspondent. He developed a passion for medicine during his teenage years, inspired by the neurosurgeons who treated his grandfather.

During his medical school days, he also developed an interest in writing and understood the value of storytelling in medicine. From there, he went on to write for newspapers and magazines, and gradually expanded his portfolio from authoring speeches, organizing events, and even contributing to more prestigious periodicals, including for the White House.

When he became a newscaster at CNN, he had the opportunity to reach out to people and educate them more about medicine and what doctors do. He reported about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and anthrax attacks and traveled from Iraq and Kuwait to Baghdad in 2003 while attached to the US Navy's "Devil Docs" medical unit. Dr. Sanjay performed five life-saving brain surgeries in a desert operating room and live-recorded the first-ever battlefield procedure during the war. He helped CNN win the 2005 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award by going to Sri Lanka in 2004 to report on the tsunami that claimed over 155,000 lives in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Sanjay also covered the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake and was the first Western journalist to look into the Ebola outbreak in Conakry, Guinea. He co-hosted the Emmy-winning series "Finding Hope: Battling America's Suicide Crisis" and chaired a panel with President Obama on the drug crisis.

Padma Lakshmi - Sharing Food for Thought for Humanitarian Causes

Padma Lakshmi is a model, a New York Times best-selling author, a co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, and a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, in addition to her work as an activist and television producer. Lakshmi is well-known for supporting women's rights, the independent restaurant sector, and immigration rights.

She has shared her take on multiple issues, like the impact of immigration on American cuisine and culture, through her Hulu program, "Taste the Nation." She has even spoken with and supported asylum seekers as an artist ambassador for the ACLU, which supports the rights of immigrants and women. In 2018, the ACLU also urged her to submit an opinion piece regarding her personal encounters with sexual assault.

From the start of her career, she became widely known as a culinary expert by hosting two popular cooking shows and penning the best-selling book Easy Exotic, earning her the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards' "Best First Book" title. But Lakshmi's support of social and political causes is bigger than her on-screen persona. She was one of more than 200 artists who signed a statement urging Israel and Gaza to cease hostilities. In a speech at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation event in September, Padma raised her voice on the misogyny in healthcare, indicating that cisgender women, who comprise around half of the patient population, were left out of a 2019 clinical study for an HIV medication.

Gururaj Desh Deshpande - Serial Entrepreneur Who Feeds Millions of Kids, Built 6000 Farm Ponds and More

An Indian-born entrepreneur and venture investor residing in the US, Gururaj Desh Deshpande has had a significant influence on the fields of social innovation and technology. Besides his extraordinary business career, Deshpande has equally contributed toward charitable endeavors like the Deshpande Foundation, which he and his wife, Jaishree Deshpande, co-founded, for instance.

Gururaj Deshpande and his spouse, Jaishree, reportedly gave $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to establish the Deshpande Centre for Technological Innovation. Through the Deshpande Foundation, he is making a positive social and economic impact using innovation combined with his entrepreneurial spirit.

This foundation has carried out a number of significant projects in Massachusetts and Hubli in India, creating change both inside and outside India. In the US, the foundation conducts initiatives that promote creativity and entrepreneurship across educational institutions, while supporting experiential learning.  In India, the foundation has greatly been uplifting the standard of living across rural regions. Moreover, through ‘Akshaya Patra,’ a nonprofit, he helps feed more than 1.4 million schoolchildren in India with midday meals.

He is a board member of United Way Worldwide. His dedication to promoting innovation for the good of society is further demonstrated by his role as co-chair of the US National Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.