Indian non-governmental diasporic awards

This article refers to awards presented to members of the Indian diaspora by non-governmental organisations.
Objectives and Private Enterprise
Persons of Indian origin residing outside India (officially referred to as Non-resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin by the Indian government) are an important factor not only for the Indian economy, but also for the international political aspirations of the country. Today, the Indian state is well aware of this, and takes pains to forge and maintain ties that bind such persons to India, and help in harnessing their efforts and capabilities for the country. Some well-known measures are a Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, the institution of the and the periodically held Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

But it was only relatively late that the Indian government fully realized the potential of the Indian diaspora and began taking measures accordingly. Before that, since at least the 1980s, it had been mostly private, voluntary organisations attempting to create and maintain bonds between India and the Indian diaspora that filled the gap the state left. Perhaps the most effective means these organisations adopted was to create and bestow awards to prominent members of the diaspora for outstanding achievements, particularly for achievements in the cause of Indian interests or the strengthening of ties between India and the state of domicile. The goodwill and bonding which this generated was so evident that the Indian government in 2003 finally introduced its own award, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman.
This Indian experience constitutes a rare case of private effort initiating policy steps usually in the domain of the state. On the one hand this relatively late entry of the state has led, more or less by default, to involvement of prominent persons of public life, including acting and former high office holders at both the national and regional levels, with the efforts of several of the private organisations - as their members, advisors or patrons, or officiating at award distribution ceremonies. This peculiar merger of private endeavor and public office has played a major role in making some of these awards prominent and also prestigious.
Difficulties of categorisation
On the other hand, the unregulated nature of this non-state activity has also resulted in an absence of publicly available clear criteria for award decisions, in a lack of accountability, and in opacity - particularly since a comprehensive overview of who has been awarded, and for what, is difficult, and in some cases impossible, to obtain. The awarding bodies also often seem amorphous because it is difficult to gain clear data on them. All this has allowed actors not interested in the objectives detailed above, but having business interests, to enter this stage with vanity awards reminiscent of the model adopted by the American Biographical Institute and the International Biographical Centre.
This makes it difficult to correctly evaluate all awards aimed at the Indian diaspora. Even expecting an awardee to bear certain expenses is not a dependable criterion. There are, for instance, highly prestigious awards - even some awarded by national governments, such as the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany (Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) - for which a fee is expected to be paid by the recipient. Further, awards may be presented in the course of a conference or gala with paid attendance, which in the absence of award sponsors and the perceived necessity of creating a festive atmosphere for the award ceremony may be viewed as a sensible proposition.
In such a state of affairs, the only yardstick which can be effectively applied for measuring the value of an award seems to consist of public perception and prominent association. If public, and maybe even official, media regularly and overwhelmingly label an award prestigious, then such prestigiousness must be held to be established. And if prominent persons in the limelight, particularly those who hold or held political office, are openly associated with a society or its awards, then it may be assumed that they do so also with an eye towards the public acclaim, as otherwise such association would not be attractive to them.
Prominent awarding bodies and awards
When such criteria are applied, then the two organisations which clearly stand out are
* the NRI Welfare Society of India, whose major award is the Hind Rattan award, and
* the India International Friendship Society, whose major award is the Glory of India award.
Apart from these two rival organisations, there are also a few others which are less known, but nevertheless fit the above criteria. These are
* the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, whose major award is the Pravasi Bharatiya Community Service Award,
* the NRI Institute awarding the NRI Institute Award, and
* the Canada India Foundation, whose chief award is the awarded to an Indian or person of Indian origin residing in or outside India.
* India Empire, a magazine for and of the Indian diaspora, has instituted the India Empire NRI Award.

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