Given once every two years, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award is one of the most prestigious honour for an NRI individual or organisation from the government of India.
The award is given to the best of talents from the ever-growing Indian diaspora during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The 18th edition was hosted by India in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, in the eastern part of the country from 8 to 10 January.
This year, the award was bestowed upon 27 individuals and organisations, one of whom was Singapore’s prominent edupreneur Atul Arvind Temurnikar.
Atul is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Global Schools Group and Global Schools Foundation. This Singapore-based foundation currently facilitates quality education for over 45,000 students across 11 countries — Singapore, India, Japan, South Korea, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and the UK.
I sat down for an in-depth conversation with Singapore’s third Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award recipient, encompassing Atul’s life, philosophy, his meeting with former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, education and what motivates him to keep up.
The award was previously bestowed upon the Singapore Indian Association (SGIA) in 2017 and prominent banker, Piyush Gupta, in 2023.
When SGIA was honoured, then President of the association, Ambassador K Kesavapany, received the award from the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected To India)
