Siddharth Balachandran is also one of the youngest PBSA recipients from the UAE so far
UAE-based Indian businessman and philanthropist Siddharth Balachandran has become the only GCC recipient of India’s top honour for its expatriate population across the world, reported gulfnews.com.
Balachandran, Executive chairman and CEO of Buimerc Corporation Limited, has won the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) 2023 for business and community welfare, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has announced.
He is among 27 winners of the PBSA, the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians. Hailing from Kerala, Balachandran, 46, is also one of the youngest PBSA recipients from the UAE so far.
Commenting about his achievement, Balachandran said the announcement of the award has “infused a lot of energy in me and validated whatever little I have done”. “I am very happy and honoured to receive this recognition from my motherland. I have treated it as a motivation, a new infusion of energy so that I can make even more of a positive impact in the community,” he told Gulf News.
He also said that he would be accepting the recognition on behalf of all the organisations he has been associated with. “Though I am getting the award, a huge number of people have worked for all these institutions. It is always a team effort.”
Balachandran also credited his achievements to the ‘magic of Dubai.’ “I was lucky to be here at the right time. All the opportunities that I found here … it is the Dubai magic.”
Balachandran is a patron of over half a dozen charitable organisations in India and is also a director of the Chinmaya International Residential School in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. As a business tycoon, he has become the single largest individual shareholder of Bombay Stock Exchange among other similar achievements
Arriving in the UAE in 2002, Balachandran rose in ranks from being an employee to the owner of a diverse business conglomerate headquartered in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
He has also been associated with several social and philanthropic organisations in the UAE. A founding member and the current Chairman of India Club, Dubai, he is one of the patron governors of the Indian Social and Cultural Centre, Abu Dhabi. He is also a member of the board of governors of People of Indian Origin Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PIOCCI), GCC, and that of Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC), Dubai.
He is a patron of Al Jalila Foundation, Smart Life Dubai, KMCC Dubai, Dubai Autism Centre, Science India Forum UAE, Abu Dhabi Centre for Special Needs, and a supporter of Al Noor Training Centre for Special Needs, Rashid Pediatric Centre for Special Needs and Senses Residential and Day Care for Special Needs.
Balachandran is a patron of over half a dozen charitable organisations in India and is also a director of the Chinmaya International Residential School in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. As a business tycoon, he has become the single largest individual shareholder of Bombay Stock Exchange among other similar achievements.
******************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com