RIYADH: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) — Overseas Indians Day 2016 — was celebrated at the Indian Embassy in the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh.

Held for the first time by the Indian Embassy in the Kingdom, the event was attended by Indian community members representing various groups, including community members, embassy officials, business professionals, students and teachers. This was the first time that Indian embassies all over the world have organize

Opening the celebration, Hemant Kotalwar, chargé d’affaires at the embassy, highlighted the importance of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, saying that it is celebrated annually on Jan. 9 to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community toward the development of India. The day was originally celebrated in 2003 as a commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi’s return from South Africa to India on Jan. 9, 1915.

In his remarks, Kotalwar thanked the transformational role that the large Indian community had played in the development of India’s relations with the Kingdom.

He also urged the community to continue contributions to government schemes such as the Clean India Campaign, which has been responsible for the cleaning of national rivers as well as many other projects.

Two panel discussions were also featured. The first was on he Indian diaspora’s contributions to India’s social and economic development and the other was on medical tourism in India. Senior community representatives, including Ramnarayan Iyer, Shihab Kottukad, Syed Ziaur Rahman, Rajeev Shukla, Mirza Zaheer Baig, Irfan Iqbal Khan, Balachandran Nair and Vijay Devdas, sat on the panels, discussing the points and taking questions from the audience.

Students from the International Indian School-Dammam (IISD) donned patriotic colors to perform national songs. They received thunderous applause from the audience. The participating students, teachers and panelists were congratulated by Kotalwar during his remarks.

Earlier, Indian Embassy spokesman Hifzur Rahman began the program with a welcome address and introductory remarks.