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Mumbai, Jul 12: NRI businessman and philanthropist Ronald Colaco was awarded the prestigious Times Now Global NRI of the Year Award 2017 in the category of philanthropy in a glittering award ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Mumbai on Tuesday July 11.

A total of 23 global Indians were given the award in 6 different categories such as Entrepreneur, Academics, Professional, Art and Culture, Philanthropy and Start Up. While there were multiple winners spread across four geographies - America, U K and Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, Ronald Colaco and Pankaj Advani were the lone winners in Philanthrophy and Sports categories respectively. This was the 4th season of the award instituted by Times Now belonging to the media conglomerate Times Network Group, to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the global Indian diaspora.

Times Now group instituted these prestigious awards in 2014 and in the last 4 years these awards have gained immense popularity. This year there were 25000 applicants out of which 5000 made it to the final round. The winners were selected after a gruelling 5 tier process conducted by Ernst and Young, a global giant in the field of accounting and professional services. Of the 5000 only 300 made it to final round and the jury had a tough time to select 23 winners from among achievers in diverse fields spread across the four geographical boundaries.

Ronald Colaco who attended the award ceremony along with wife Jean Coloco, received the award from actor Dalip Tahil and Gen Sharma.

Colaco, who spoke to Daijiworld after receiving the award said, "I am thankful to Times Now of the Times Group, having its presence in over 100 countries and world famous professional group Ernst and Young and their jury, for choosing me for this coveted award. Whatever social and charitable services that I have been doing all these years is not for any award or reward but purely with the true sense of responsibility, rather social obligation towards the society that I have come from, that I have born in, that I have lived in and that I have grown up with."

Further he said, "We have been given only one opportunity to pass by this world and there is no second chance for anyone of us to come back here. Therefore whatever little things that we can do to the least of our brethern of the society that we come from, is now or never. I always wanted to lead a life of substance and when I talk about substance, it is not what I do and how much I do but what is important is how many lives I have been able to touch during my lifetime. Therefore, I follow the doctrine that instead of adding years to my life and keep celebrating my birth anniversaries I would rather add more meaningful and purposeful life to each year that I live."

Hosts of this glamorous event singer - actor Sophie Choudhary and Karan Tacker and Bahubali team members - actor Tamanna Bhatia and story writer K V Vijaya Prasad added more glitter to the glamorous event which was also graced by the three Femina Miss India winners 2017, who gave away the awards to the winners. In fact this was the first public event for the Femina Miss India award winners. Tamanna and Vijayendra Prasad were the recipient of the global impact icon award in recognition of the global success achieved by their magnum opus movie Bahubali.

Apart from giving awards in the six categories there were awards for India’s Global Icon and there were also the Special Jury and Global Impact icon awards. It was a hattrick of awards for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as A S Kiran Kumar, Indian Space scientist and Chairman of ISRO won the prestigious India’s Global Icon award and Kopplli Radhakrishnan former Chairman of ISRO and Mylswamy Annadurai, Director of ISRO satellite centre Bangalore, won the Global Indian Awards for Science in recognition of their humungous contributions to Indian space research through Mangalayana and launching of 104 satellites, a first in space technology in the world.

15-year-old Rhys Concessao, a child prodigy of Mangaluru origin, won the award in Academics category for UK Europe region for his exemplary achievements as a piano player.

ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar in her welcome speech lauded the efforts of Global Indian community not only through remittances but also by acting as a bridge between India and the globe. M K Anand, CEO and managing director of Times Groups welcomed the gathering.