| London, UK | 28 Nov 2016 | Asia Samachar |
Sikh musician Manika Kaur and humanitarian worker Ravinder Singh from Khalsa Aid were among the recipients of the recent Sikh Award 2016 in London.
Manika, the Australia born devotional singer who now resides in Dubai, won Sikh Awards for Sikhs in Entertainment at the 7th annual award ceremony on which took place on 19 Nov 2016.
Ravinder, the founder of the London-based humanitarian relief agency Khalsa Aid, won the award for Sikh in Charity.
Manika’s devotion to ‘seva’ or selfless service of others through her music played a big part in her winning this year’s award, said Sikh Awards Founder Navdeep Singh Bansal in a statement.
“She represents all that is right about the younger generation of today,” he said.
Manika was nominated online and a panel of five judges picked her out of 130 nominations that we received. Amongst those nominated were film stars, authors and famous singers.
Manika runs Kirtan For Causes where she raises funds and awareness for worthy causes. At the moment, she has adopted the cause of helping the less fortunate children in Punjab.
Manika donates all the proceeds from her album sales and concert tickets to charity. The proceeds from her first album went towards the funding the construction of the first ever gurdwara in Dubai.
The Sikh Lifetime Achievement Award went to Iqbal Singh, a retired agriculture director who now runs the Kalgidhar Trust and Society which oversees 129 schools and two universities in Bharru, Himachal Pradesh.
The Business Man Award went to Bob Dhillon, the Founder/President/CEO of Mainstreet Equity Corp, Canada’s highest performing real estate company with assets valued over $1.5 billion.
The other winners:
Kiran Singh (UK), life coach at Design the Lifestyle You Desire,
an author and residential and hospitality interior designer at Studio Kiran Singh, founder and chief editor of Vivacious Mum, My Unique Home and Passion for Food – Business Woman Award;
Supreet Singh Manchanda (USA), CEO of Akal Global a $1Billon global security firm – Entrepreneur award;
Dr Brinder Singh Mahon (UK), Chief Executive Officer and Director of The Nishkam School Trust – Sikhs in Education;
Akaal Television / Amrik Singh Kooner (UK), Founder of Akaal Television, the most watched Sikh channel in 106 countries – Sikhs in Media;
Jaspal Singh Bindra (India), a global financial services industry executive with a consistent track record of driving profitable growth and increasing brand and shareholder value in a broad range of leadership roles with major banking groups such as Standard Chartered Bank, UBS and Bank of America. He has successfully led businesses with revenues ranging from $1-13 billion – Sikhs in Profession;
Gurmeet Singh (India), a 55-year old small business owner from Patna, Bihar in India. For over 20 years he has been visiting the abandoned patient’s ward of Bihar’s biggest government hospital every night with food, medicine and compassion for poor patients who have no one to turn to. – Sikhs in Seva;
Ram Singh Nayyar (Canada), the first turbaned Sikh to have led a Canadian team to the Olympic games – Sikh in Sport;
Natasha Kaur Mudhar (UK), CEO & MD of the international communications agency Sterling Media representing United Nations backed projects to end poverty to Bollywood and Hollywood talent – The Sikh People’s Choice Award.
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