1. On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, Consul General Mr. Dnyaneshwar M.  Mulay hosted a dinner reception in the Consulate Ballroom to honor the recipients of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award, an annual event established in 2001 by the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC), to acknowledge the achievements of Asian American corporate executives and entrepreneurs across a wide spectrum of industries and their contributions to the U.S. economy. The event was attended by 25 awardees.

2. Deputy Consul General, Dr. Devyani Khobragade in her opening remarks welcomed the awardees and commended the AABDC in institutionalizing this prestigious award. Consul General, Mr. Dnyaneshwar Mulay thanked Mr John Wang, President, Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC) for this encouraging initiative. He spoke about the investment opportunities available in India in various sectors and urged the awardees to enhance their economic and cultural engagements with India. India in turn would strive hard in creating conditions, partnerships and institutions that will enable her to connect with its Diaspora comprehensively.

3.Mr. John Wang, President, AABDC appreciated the Consul General for hosting this event and gave a brief insight of the activities of AABDC following which, the awardees introduced themselves to the gathering and shared their personal thoughts, experiences and advances in their respective fields of endeavour.  A few of them expressed their desire to work with the Consulate in their respective areas of expertise and use their skill sets for bringing about constructive linkages with their motherland, be it by supporting entrepreneurs in India, or other unique  path breaking organizations such as Sankara Nethralaya, or by supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). An interest was also shown by some of the awardees in contributing towards raising the profile of Indian Art and Contemporary India as a whole, so as to promote a better appreciation of Indian thought, culture, civilization and contemporary issues in the main stream media in the United States.

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