United Indian Association started 2016 with a grand Indian Republic Day and Australia Day celebration which was held on 24th January, 2016 at Roselea Community Centre, Carlingford.

The highlight of the celebration was the honouring of HSC High Achievers who received an ATAR score of over 95. Students honoured included: Aashray Narula, Keertana Avalur Venkateshwar, Devansh Shah, Piyush Pius, Neha Dave, Anandita Soundappan, Prasanth Parasu, Dave Mohan Anand, Rohan Balani, Angad Bedi, Harjot Singh Grewal, Syam Iyer, Mansi Gupta, Adithya Sridhar, Mahima Mandal, Shivani Kaushik, Aman  Sanghvi, Sachin Kinger, Chandni Suresh, Yashas Bhatt, Judy Vinmini Kennedy, Jaiparteek Singh, Saahil Jotsingani and Nihal Almeida.

Students were awarded a certificate of appreciation and medal. All students also received a gift voucher sponsored by Westpac.

Three lucky students also received additional gifts awarded by Mr Mohan Sundar of Sunlegal Blacktown. Aashray Narula highest achieving student who has enrolled in  Combined Law was awarded  $1000 and Keertana Avalur Venkateshwar and Devansh Shah both shared $1000 awarded  to highest achieving student who has enrolled in Medicine.

Arjun Nair, all rounder top order batsman who is a part of Australia Under 19’s Cricket World Cup Team 2016 and has won several championship awards was honoured as Sportsperson of the Year 2015.

Sonia Gandhi, Director Gandhi Creations and IABCA, event specialist with over 10 years of experience in strategic marketing and end to end event  management  services in both government and corporate services across  the Asia Pacific Region was honoured with the Outstanding Person of the Year award 2015. Sonia is a 2015 Australian Event Award winner for NSW for her cultural diversity concepts  across the state,  2013 Australian  Event Award winner  for delivering Premier’s Harmony Day Dinner and Multicultural Media Awards and has raised nearly $50,000  for charities  such  as  Polio Foundation, White Ribbon  Australia  and  Alzheimer’s Australia.

Dilip Chopra, past Vice President UIA and former Councillor Hornsby Council was honoured as Senior of the Year 2015 for his continued work and support to the seniors community.

Mili  Dakshin who alongwith her  sister  Khushi  enthralled the audience  with her  speed painting to music in 8 minutes was honoured as Community Person of  the Year 2015. Mili is a young artist studying at Macquarie Fields High School and

has used her skill to  raise  money  for  several noble causes such as Nepali earthquake relief  fund, NSW Bushfire victims relief  fund, Sewa  Australia  and Ekal  Vidyalaya charities. Paintings created on that day were donated to Tamil Manram to help them raise valuable funds for Chennai Flood Affected victims. A raffle was also  held to raise further funds to provide relief to the Chennai Flood Victims. Other nominees for Community Person of the Year Award included Dr Rohitas Batta,  Rekha Rajvanshi, Harita Mehta, Bijinder Dugal,  Jagdish Chaudhary, Yashas Bhatt  and Syam Iyer were presented certificate of appreciation for their work.

Ross Watts, Regional General Manager, Westpac was given special recognition for

his valuable support  to UIA and Indian Australian  migrant community  and for

Westpac’s  efforts to raise funds for Chennai Flood Relief.

Dignitaries who attended the event included  A/Consul General of India, Dr Vinod Bahade,  Senator Lee Rhiannon, Damien Tudehope  MP, Dr Hugh McDermott MP,  Clr Gurdeep Singh, Clr Susai Benjamin and Clr Raj Datta.

UIA thanked their event sponsors Westpac, Best & Less Travel, MoneyGram,  Sunlegal, Bank of Baroda and  Jet  Airways.

UIA has invited all to their next major event– International Women’s Day Celebration and Beyondblue Bash to be held on 5^th March  2016  at  Parravilla Function Centre, Parramatta. For more information, visit: www.uia.org.au.