The Hindu Business Line : Sami Labs chief among Ellis Island Medal winners

DR Muhammed Majeed, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of New Jersey-based Sabinsa Corporation, is among the four Indian Americans to have been selected by the US-based National Ethnic coalition of Organisations (Neco) to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honour.

Neco, with over five million family members, is among the largest organisations of its kind in the US.

It serves as an umbrella group for more than 250 organisations that span the spectrum of ethnic heritages, cultures and religions. Dr Muhammed Majeed is also the Managing Director of the Bangalore-based Sami Labs, a major producer and exporter of standardised herbal extracts, fine chemicals and nutraceuticals.

The other Indian Americans selected by Neco for receiving the medal are Mr Gopal Raju, founder of the New York-based India Abroad weekly publication, the Indian American Foundation and the Indo Asian News Service (IANS), Dr R. Vidyasagar, a Florida-based cardio thoracic surgeon and Dr Jay S. Yadav, a Cleveland-based author, inventor, interventional cardiologist and Director of Vascular Intervention at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

The medals will be bestowed on the awardees at a function to be held at Ellis Island in New York on May 15, an official of the Global Organisation of People of India Origin (Gopio) told Business Line.

Meanwhile, Dr Vishakha Desai, a person of Indian Origin (PIO) originally from Ahmedabad, has become the Asian American woman to head Asia Society, the nearly 50-year old educational non-profit institution. Asia Society's primary objective is to foster an understanding of Asia in the US and promote communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific.

Prior to this Dr Desai served as the society's Senior Vice-President and Curator of Indian, South-east Asian and Islamic art at the Boston-based Museum of Fine Arts. She also taught at several American universities.

Dr Desai takes over from the former US ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Nicholas Platt, who is retiring after 12 years at the helm.

Asia Society was founded in 1956 by the late John D. Rockefeller III, noted industrialist and philanthropist. Its centres in the Asia-Pacific region are based in Hong Kong, Manila, Melbourne and Shanghai.

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