New GOPIO team sworn-in with Lal Motwani as president

Plans to launch GOPIO Chambers of Commerce in different parts of the world

A new leadership team of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) has been sworn-in with veteran community leader from New York Lal Motwani as its president.

Motwani has been a founder life member from GOPIO’s inception in 1989 and was serving as the International Coordinator-at-Large and later as Executive Trustee of GOPIO Foundation in his last term, according to a GOPIO release.

Read: GOPIO organizes ‘Meet & Greet’ for Indian students (October 31, 2022)

Others sworn in at a virtual Zoom ceremony on March 4 were media and community leader Umesh Chandra from Brisbane, Australia as Executive Vice President; Los Angeles area community leader Kewal Kanda as Vice President, New Jersey businessman Prakash Shah as Global Ambassador and former IBM official and community activist Jasbir ‘Nami’ Kaur as International Coordinator-at-Large.

Five more Regional International Coordinators were sworn-in as follows: Businessman Roger Latchman from Johannesburg, South Africa as Africa Coordinator; Engineering Entrepreneur Deo Gosine (Trinidad and New York) as Caribbean Coordinator; Real Estate Investor Ashok Madan of Southern California as North America Coordinator; former engineer Harmohan Singh Walia of Sydney, Australia as Oceania Coordinator and New Delhi businessman Dhiraj Ahuja as South Asia Coordinator.

The election was conducted last month according to the GOPIO bylaws by a team of the Interim Committee appointed by the GOPIO general body meeting on Jan14.

The ceremony started with a universal prayer song by Devika Gadhavi, who is a young professional working for the New York Times. Dr Thomas Abraham, Chairman of GOPIO welcomed the participants from all continents and provided a brief introduction to the birth of GOPIO and many of its achievements in the last 34 years.

“GOPIO chapters around the world have been doing a lot of organizational ground work in many countries to promote leadership in public service and the thrust have been to promote and involve the Indian Diaspora in the larger society and local communities wherever they live,” said Abraham.

Read: GOPIO raises $5,000 for Building One Community for new immigrants (January 12, 2021)

In his acceptance speech, Motwani said, “We will soon activate those regions which are not active now and we will get all the councils to become active again. We need many volunteers to get involved in the Councils such as Human Rights, Cultural, Academic, Women, Science and Technology, Youth and Young Professionals, Media, Health and Wellness and on Seniors. We will officially launch GOPIO Chamber of Commerce (GICC) in different parts of the world.”

The program ended with a Bollywood celebration song by GOPIO-Edison President Pallavi Belwariar.

New President Motwani has been involved in several community groups and served as President of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), Society of Indian American Engineers and Architects (SIAEA) and Alliance of Global Sindhi Associations.

He was the Executive Trustee of GOPIO Foundation from Sep 2021 to Jan 2023. An architect by profession, Motwani retired as the Assistant Director of New York City’s Housing Authority, Office of Facility Planning and Administration.

Executive Vice President Umesh Chandra was awarded OAM — the highest civilian honour in Australia, in 2020. He is a founder member and board of trustee of the Queensland Multicultural Council and serves on the police ethnic advisory group and Lord Mayors Multicultural round table.

He has been the founder and president of GOPIO Queensland and serves as one of its Trustees. He is the chair of the White Ribbon Queensland State Committee and has been a long-standing ambassador for White Ribbon.

He has won many community service awards, including the Bharat Gaurav award in 2011. Umesh and Usha Chandra were named Brisbane City Council’s citizen of the year in 2019 and own Brisbane Indian Times, Australian Indian Radio and Globenet Realty.

Vice President Kewal Kanda retired from Boeing Company after 26 years of service as production planner, principal analyst and planning manager. He is a member of many non-profit community organizations such as Founder of Rajput Association of America (1984), Founder president of GOPIO-LA Chapter, Treasurer of GOPIO International, and President FIA-SC.

He organized RPBD in Los Angeles as NFIA RVP-Pacific South West core member, and four programs as chairman of committee to celebrate 75 years of India’s Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, including publishing a its commemorative Coffee Table Book.

Global Ambassador Prakash Shah has been involved in founding a number of leading community organizations including GOPIO, Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) , National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) and the NYC based India Chamber of Commerce of America (ICCA).

Read: GOPIO International Team Sworn-in with Community Leader Lal Motwani as the New President (March 16, 2023)

He was a presidential appointee under President Bill Clinton to the Southern Africa Fund and was Chairman of New Jersey Development Authority under Governors Florio and Whitman.

International Coordinator-at-Large Nami Kaur completed a 32 year Corporate professional career in Technology, Marketing and Communications at IBM. Since 2009, she has had been actively engaged in the Non-Profit Sector, donating her time and skills pro-bono to New York Botanical Garden, Children’s Hope India, Riveredge Cooperative Board, and GOPIO.

She has served GOPIO as a volunteer since it’s inception in 1989. Since 2009 she has served formally as the Media Council Chair, General Secretary, Chair of GOPIO Election, and Editor of GOPIO Newsletter.