India’s first individual gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, and Paralympian Deepa Malik have been honoured with Special Recognition Awards at a ceremony celebrating Indians who have made a significant impact globally. India Global Forum’s (IGF) annual UK-India Awards 2024 at Fairmont Windsor Park, near London, on Thursday evening, honoured the sporting legends alongside a ‘Global Indian Icon Award’ for social crusader Arunachalam Muruganantham, in recognition of his revolutionary work in menstrual hygiene captured in the 2018 Akshay Kumar film ‘Pad Man’. Lord Anthony Bamford, founder of multinational construction giant JCB, was honoured with the Lifetime Contribution to UK-India Relations.
“For a global sport like the Olympics, it makes complete sense to have a closer relationship with the world’s largest population. Every fourth or fifth person in the world is in India, so there’s a lot of synergy there,” said Bindra, on India potentially hosting the Olympics during a discussion around the future of sport in the country.
“But more than infrastructure, I think what we need is a vision that actually transcends far beyond the sporting events itself. The Olympics, whenever held in India, has to be seen as a catalyst for change, how the Games can really address challenges and how it can seize opportunities.
“It really has to be a springboard for how we can make India healthier and make India a more inclusive country,” he said. “We have to use it as a guide to make India better through sport,” Bhindra said.
Bindra, who is a torchbearer at the Paris Olympics next month, expressed confidence in India’s performance in the games.
“We had our best ever start with seven at Tokyo and I’m quite sure that we better that and come back with our best-ever performance; and hopefully with our first female Olympic champion,” added the retired sport shooter.
Dr Deepa Malik, the first Indian Woman Paralympic Medallist and former president of the Paralympic Committee of India, echoed the sentiment for the Paralympics.
“In Paralympics, India’s journey to Paris 2024 is going to be far better than Tokyo 2020. The number of sports has increased – the last time we participated in nine sports, this time we are participating in 12 sports. Women’s participation has increased; we do see a potential there for medals to grow. I do see them in double digits again,” she said.
The UK-India Awards, which came towards the end of the week-long IGF London summit, recognise outstanding contributions of leaders in business, professional services, government, culture and social impact, highlighting their remarkable achievements in strengthening bilateral ties.
“My ambition is to be able to put this relationship with our business partners at a stage where it is really second to none, one in which innovation that happens at universities and research centres here in the UK has Indian partners and Indian partners help take those innovations to the global market by producing in India.
“In other words, a partnership that we make together for the world,” said Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami in his address at the ceremony.
Among some of the other winners this year were a ‘Significant Contribution to UK-India Relations Award’ for London’s Science Museum Group, ‘Research & Innovation Award’ for the Serum Institute of India and the University of Oxford for their vaccine collaborations and the ‘Culture and Creativity Award’ for Teamwork Arts behind the Jaipur Literature Festival in London.
The IGF UK-India Awards founder Manoj Ladwa added: “India’s transformation is not only in India’s interest, but also in the interest of the UK, which I believe stands the most to gain and, in fact, most to contribute as a partner of choice in this incredible journey.
“Whether it’s our world-class universities, our cutting-edge research institutes, our global supply chain networks, our sports and tech expertise, our defence and security capabilities, or the sheer financial might of the City of London, the UK has it all.”
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