London: Mother Teresa has been posthumously conferred with the UK’s prestigious Founders Award this year which is given to recognise and reward exemplary achievements of people within the global Asian community.
Teresa’s only living relative, her 72-year old niece, Agi Bojazhiu flew especially from Italy to receive the award yesterday.
Teresa, who will be made a saint on September 4, founded the Missionaries of Charity and spent 45 years serving the poor, the sick, the orphaned, and the dying on the streets of Kolkata. She died at the age of 87 in Kolkata in 1997.
The Founders Award at the 6th Asian Awards takes place in the UK to recognise and reward exemplary achievement within the global Asian community across 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport.
The Asian awards was launched in 2010 by Paul Sagoo, entrepreneur and founder of the Lemon group.
“It is great to honour Mother Teresa in the year of her canonisation which marks a great point in our history,” Sagoo said.
Leading NRI entrepreneur and philanthropist Rami Ranger who contributed GBP 1,00,000 for the Mahatma Gandhi statue here, received the outstanding achievement in Community Service award.
Receiving the award, Rami Ranger, founder of Sun Mark Ltd, said “I’m truly humbled by this award,” and dedicated it to the “British sense of fairness” and to his family and the workers in his factory.
Sri Prakash Lohia, Chairman and co-founder of Indorama Corporation, who is worth an estimated USD 4.5 billion, won the Business Leader of the Year award.
He received the award from GP Hinduja, co-chairman of the Hinduja Group.
Kunal Nayyar, actor from the hit American comedy series The Big Bang Theory, was chosen for the ‘Outstanding achievement in Television’ award.
Oscar and BAFT-winning documentary-maker Asif Kapadia was given the Outstanding Achievement in Cinema award.
Tottenham Hotspurs football star Son Heung-Min of South Korea won the Outstanding achievement in Sports award.
The Entrepreneur of the Year award went to Anil Agrawal, founder and Executive Chairman of the metal and mining company, Vedanta Resources Corporation while Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED, bagged the award for Outstanding achievement in Science and Technology.
Vikram Patel, the leading mental health researcher of India, was awarded the Social Entrepreneur of the year accolade.
PTI