Bharat Gaurav Mr Upendra J. Chivukula - Deputy Mayor - NJ
Chivukula has served as a Councilman and as Deputy Mayor, and Mayor of Franklin Township.
Commissioner and former Deputy Speaker Upendra Chivukula were born in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, he received the Government of India’s Merit-cum-Means scholarship to study Electrical Engineering.
Chivukula worked in the industry for 35 years and entered public service in 1997. He co-authored three books on supplier management and four books on best industry practices. His recent book “The 3rd Way” addresses economic inequality.
Chivukula is currently serving as Commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities since October 2014 when he was appointed by Governor Chris Christie. He has served seven terms in the NJ State Assembly representing the 17th district and also as Deputy Speaker: Chairman of the Telecommunications and Utilities, and Vice-Chair of the Homeland Security Committees; Founder of the Science and Technology and the World Languages and International Education Legislative Caucuses; Member of the NJ Commission on Science and Technology; Asian American Study Foundation; Health Information Technology Commission.
Chivukula has served as a Councilman and as Deputy Mayor, and Mayor of Franklin Township.
Chivukula’s public service includes serving as — an Elector for the Presidential Electoral College; Member of the New Jersey State Board of Social Work Examiners; Board of State Canvassers; Democratic National Convention Delegate; Asian American Study Foundation
National Political Activities — Indian-American Community· With the Association of Indians in America (AIA), organized the installation of a Marble Bench and Chairs at Cheesequake State Park, NJ to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi and UN Declaration of International Day of Nonviolence
Bharat Gaurav Dr Swati Lodha - Doctorate in Women Entrepreneurship
With a Doctorate in Women's Entrepreneurship, she is passionate about creativity and innovation.
Dr. Swati Lodha is an author of Amazon Bestseller Book titled “Don’t Raise Your Children, Raise Yourself” (2016) and other Bestselling Books like “Come On! Get Set Go” (2002) and “Why Women are What They Are” (2004)
She has been Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, JNU, and Director — AIMSR, Mumbai.
She founded her first venture SWASH Pvt. Ltd 17 years ago which offers Training Courses to Youth, Professionals & Women.
A recipient of many prestigious awards “The Suryadutta National Award” “The Veer Durgadas Award” “and Rashtriya Rajbhasha Puraskar”, she has mentored more than 10,000 individuals from different walks of life.
Her latest venture “LIFE LEMONADE” offers Corporate Training Workshops under four verticals: Life Transformation, Women Empowerment, Parenting, and Leadership & Motivation.
She is married to noted Actor-Poet, Shailesh Lodha. She lives in Mumbai with her husband and daughter.
Bharat Gaurav Meera Gandhi - Founder The Giving Back Foundation - USA
Meera is the CEO and Founder of The Giving Back Foundation. She is an International community leader, committed humanitarian, and philanthropist dedicated to solutions to human suffering and deprivation around the globe. The Foundation is based in NY and also has offices in India, HK, and London.
Transformational Education of the girl child is the primary mission of the Giving Back Foundation.
The second arm is to act as a platform for positive dialogue and debate for young people to promote positive social change.
The three-arm announced this year is the spiritual arm “mindfulness “. To the end — a yoga all-day camp will commence on 17th July 2016 in upstate NY, moving to other destinations in the USA, India, and across the globe.
The Giving Back Foundation supports many entities with scholarships and grants which have been very carefully selected, and most often with 5-year commitments. The children of St. Michael’s School in India are being provided with meals on a daily basis and have had their entire school and its grounds refurbished as part of the 5-year commitment of The Giving Back Foundation.
The Giving Back Foundation and Meera Gandhi have received numerous awards over the year from all over the world. But most recently — She has received the Humanitarian Award of the Year from the Mayor’s Office of the City of NY in 2015, The Ellis Island Gold Medal Award in 2015, the Marc Anthony Maestro cares Humanitarian award in 2015 which President Bill Clinton was award last week in February of 2016.
Bharat Gaurav Late Rabindranath Tagore - An icon of Indian Culture
Rabindranath Tagore was an icon of Indian culture. He was a poet, philosopher, musician, writer, and educationist. Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to become a Nobel laureate when he won the Nobel Prize for his collection of poems, Gitanjali, in 1913. He was popularly called Gurudev and his songs were popularly known as Rabindra-sangeet. Two songs from his Rabindra-sangeet canon are now the national anthems of India and Bangladesh: the Jana Gana Mana and the Amar Shonar Bangla. Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861, in a wealthy Brahmin family in Calcutta.
He met William Rothenstein, a noted British painter, in London. Rosenstein was impressed by the poems, made copies, and gave them to Yeats and other English poets. Yeats was enthralled. He later wrote the introduction to Gitanjali when it was published in September 1912 in a limited edition by the India Society in London. Rabindranath Tagore was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali. In 1915 he was knighted by the British King George V. In 1919, following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Tagore renounced his knighthood. He was a supporter of Gandhi Ji but he stayed out of politics. He was opposed to nationalism and militarism as a matter of principle, and instead promoted spiritual value and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity, and tolerance. Unable to gain ideological support for his views, here tired into relative solitude. Between the years 1916 and 1934, he traveled widely.
In 1921, Rabindranath Tagore established Viswabharati University. He gave all his money from Nobel Prize and royalty money from his books to this University. Tagore was not only a creative genius, he was quite knowledgeable of Western culture, especially Western poetry and science too. Tagore had a good grasp of modern-post-Newtonian-physics and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos.
His meetings and tape-recorded conversations with his contemporaries such Albert Einstein and H. G. Wells, epitomize his brilliance. In 1940 Oxford University arranged a special ceremony in Santiniketan and awarded Rabindranath Tagore with a Doctorate of Literature. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore passed away on August 7, 1941, in his ancestral home in Calcutta.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote both the words and the music for what would (some16 years after his death) become the National Anthem of India (Jana Gana Mana).
Patriotism: Rabindranath was not only a great poet. He was also a great lover of his country. In 1919 occurred the shameful Jalinwallabag massacre in Amritsar, where innocent men, women, and children were killed by the British. Rabindranath immediately gave up his Knighthood. He also props he sied that such brutality was sure to end the British rule in India very soon.
Viswa-Bharati and Santiniketan: One of the greatest achievements of Tagore was the creation of Viswa-Bharati at Santi Niketan near Bolpur in West Bengal. His aim was to combine the cultural ideals of the East and the West. He was a seminent in painting, music, acting, and dancing, as in poetry. He took part in his plays and recited his poems with sweetness and charm. Therefore, he introduced the cultivation of different arts in Viswa-Bharati. It has now become a famous Indian University.
His message: The poet toured almost all around the world. Everywhere he received the love and respect of all, the rich and the poor, the high and the low. Wherever he went, people came to him to hear his message of love and hope. He was also a religious man. He looked like a saint and lived like a saint. Gandhiji regarded him as the greatest master of culture and sanctity, peace and love; so he called the poet his Gurudeva.
His death: Full of glory and honors the poet passed away on August 7, 1941, at his ancestral home in Calcutta (now Kolkata). His death was mourned all over the world. His centenary has been celebrated throughout India and other Countries in 1961. Many academies and libraries have been established in the name of the immortal Rabindranath to celebrate his birth centenary.
Bharat Gaurav Sumeeti Mittal - Pratham Shiksha
Sumeeti Mittal is the Founder & Trustee of Pratham Shiksha; a Jaipur Rajasthan (India) based charitable organization promoting basic education for underprivileged children living in slum areas of Jaipur, Rajasthan. She has been recently awarded the 100 Women Achievers Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India.
The major innovative initiatives of Pratham Shiksha, include Flexi timing classes for the students. The flexible hours help students to work during the day and study in their free hours. This way they are able to earn a livelihood and continue their studies also. Recently the school has collaborated with a private hospital to impart nursing training to around 100 girls and boys. This is in line with the Government’s initiative of Skill India, to develop the skills of people and empower them for a better life. The nursing students will be provided with certifications from the government and will be eligible for nursing posts in both public and private hospitals.
An abroad trip to the US made her ponder over the thought that even the underprivileged children in developed countries go to school and are educated but not so in India. This inspired Sumeeti to start ‘Pratham Shiksha’. The school which started in a garage portion of her house has now evolved to become a full-fledged school up to 8th grade in a rented premise with seven classrooms and other amenities along with conveyance facilities for students. To date, 3000+ students have been educated at Pratham Shiksha. She plans to expand the student base and upgrade the school to the 10th standard. The school also runs vocational classes of basic home services like electrical, plumbing, and stitching courses for boys, girls, and their family members. These courses will equip children with skills to move ahead in life and earn a livelihood for themselves.
Pratham Shiksha has been recognized at Make In India Awards for Excellence — 2015 under NGO Category for its contribution to social development.
In addition, Mittal is also Co-founder & Director of Pratham Software (P) Ltd, a Jaipur-based global IT Service Company focussing on software development, IT consulting and offering offshore outsourcing solutions to enterprises worldwide. She has also set up Robo Galaxy, an e-learning portal and robotic lab catering to students from Grade 3 to Grade 10.
She has been instrumental in founding V-Technos, a global IT training services company focussing on software training and development. V- Technos is imparting a real-world training experience & assist in enhancing skills through intensive hands-on exercises under the guidance of expert instructors. The focus is to provide students with real-life software project experience so that they upscale themselves to the next level of execution of the project thus transforming their skills into quality software delivery.
Sumeeti's zeal to learn new things stimulated her to get PMP certification from the Project Management Institute, Inc. She actively participates in various industry-academia programs organized by institutes and colleges in Jaipur. She interacts with students about emerging trends in corporate culture and the IT industry. She also delivered lectures at International Robotics Conference, Russia in 2014.
A widely traveled and noted speaker, she is on the board of various social forums. She is part of the ‘Mentoring Walk’ group helping her mentees by discussing and resolving issues faced in their personal and professional lives. She has also served on the governing body of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO), Jaipur Chapter. She is also involved in guiding women entrepreneurs through the Swayam group in setting up and growing their businesses. Sumeeti is Chairperson of Yuva Sanskriti Sansthan, the women's wing. The institution works for the upliftment of the backward sections of society. They organize mass marriage ceremonies for low-income groups and conduct blood donation camps, computer literacy courses, and summer camps for students offering various skill-based short-term courses. The purpose of these initiatives is to help people in raising their standard of living and get respectable jobs.
Puneet Mittal, Sumeeti’s husband, a B.Arch. from MNIT, is the Founder, MD, and CEO of Pratham Software and has always supported them in all her endeavors. He himself is also associated with various professional and charitable organizations including TIE, MNIT Alumni, etc. He feels passionately for society and pursues avenues that can contribute to making this world a more equitable society to live in.
Awards & Honours
1) Awarded among 100Women Achievers by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India. Attended lunch and felicitation ceremony hosted by President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 22 Jan 2016.
2) Pratham Shiksha has been recognized at Make In India Awards for Excellence — 2015 under NGO Category for its contribution to social development. The award was presented by the Hon. Governor of Gujrat Sh Kalraj Mishra.
3) Honoured with the top 100 successful women in Rajasthan in an initiative by NGO Tammana an event called ‘Tamanna Udaan Ki’.
4) She has been felicitated by Mayor Jyoti Khandelwal on Women’s day for her outstanding contribution to society.
5) Honoured with “Vivekanand Sammaan” by Rajasthan Yuva Chhatra Sansthan and Nehru Yuva Kendra.
6) Awarded as “Women of the Future Award 2016”. The award ceremony is conducted by First News Channel and FICCI Ladies Organization.
7) She was a part of the Speaker Panel at the Third National Conference on Youth 2025 at Jaipuriya Institute of Management, Jaipur.
Bharat Gaurav Arunachal Muruganantham - PADMAN
From a small village in Coimbatore, INDIA came a man who revolutionized menstrual hygiene. He is a household name in many villages and among youth. In a country where Menstruation is taboo and only 12% of women use sanitary pads, he came forward with innovation to break the taboo. He is the inventor of the world’s first Low-Cost Sanitary Pad Making Machine. It all started when he found his wife using unhygienic collecting filthy rags and newspapers to use during Menstruation.
Troubled by this, he started designing experimental pads. He wanted to provide a hygiene product for her and the rest is history. He tried the pads himself and he is called Menstrual Man. Initially, he made pads out of cotton, but these were rejected by his wife and sisters. Eventually, they stopped co-operating with him and refused to be the test subjects for his innovations. He realized that the raw materials cost ₹10 (14¢ US), but the end product sold for 40 times that price. He looked for female volunteers who could test his inventions, but most were too shy to discuss their menstrual issues with him. He started testing it on himself, using a bladder with animal blood but became the subject of ridicule when the “sanitary pad” was discovered in his village. As menstruation was a taboo subject in India, it left him ostracized by his community and family. He distributed his products free to girls in a local medical college, hoping that they would give him feedback.
It took him two years to discover that the commercial pads used cellulose fibers derived from pine bark wood pulp. The fibers helped the pads absorb while retaining shape. Imported machines that made the pads cost ₹35 million (US$490,000). he devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training. He sourced the processed pine wood pulp from a supplier in Mumbai, and the machines would grind, de-fibrate, press and sterilize the pads under ultraviolet light before packaging them for sale. The machine costs ₹65,000 (US$900).
He works with women groups and self-help groups across the world. His model is for the women by the women. Muruganantham’s invention is widely praised as a key step in changing women’s lives in India. The machine creates jobs and income for many women, and affordable pads enable many more women to earn their livelihood during menstruation. In addition to his own outreach, Muruganantham’s work has also inspired many other entrepreneurs to enter this area, including some who propose to use waste banana fiber or bamboo for the purpose.
This brought him widespread accolades He was featured as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Influential People of the world in the year 2014 along with Mr. Barack Obama, Mr. Narendra Modi, Mr. Vladimir Putin, and Mr. Pope Francis, Ms. Hillary Clinton, Mr. Jack Ma, and many leaders.