Come September – as Autumn begins – it’s an all too familiar pattern. Back to work, schools resume, start of the university year, the political conference season underway and, yes, a string of Awards Ceremonies to celebrate Asian success in all walks of life.
These annual fixtures of the British Asian calendar started almost two decades ago, originally motivated by a desire to shine a spotlight on outstanding individuals who had overcome the odds to succeed in their respective fields, often against adversity. It provided the ultimate comfort blanket for an immigrant community craving recognition and acceptance.
Whilst being an early recipient of such awards, I was admittedly one of those who silently hoped that, sooner or later, these events might go out of fashion and become less relevant to a well integrated and more uniformly high achieving community. To my surprise the opposite has happened.
We have actually witnessed a remarkable renaissance – as demonstrated by the 16th Asian Achievers Awards held last week – at a glittering ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. This revival has been based on professionalising all the aspects of the operation.
It starts with empowering a positively inscrutable judging panel with full discretion to decide the awardees, underpinning the legitimacy of the event. It increasingly involves a slick - almost filmset like – production, with celebrity presenters and video-graphics designed to entertain, educate and inspire. And it invariably involves a charitable appeal that raises substantial sums for worthy causes. At last week’s Asian Achievers Award, an impressive £180,000 was pledged to Indian Ocean Disaster Relief, established following the devastating tsunami in 2004.
As a self-confessed cynic of self-congratulation, I have come to accept that we shouldn’t underestimate the human desire for recognition and role models - or indeed our community’s generosity to deserving charities.
Each successive year of Award Ceremonies has discovered new pockets of hitherto unrecognised talent. And in the years ahead, I am convinced that we will see a new wave of Asian achievement, beyond the traditional areas of business, media and the professions, particularly in sectors like technology and healthcare.
It is therefore no coincidence that the award for the 2016 Businessman of the Year went to Nik Kotecha of Morningside Pharmaceuticals and the Lifetime Achievement Award to my fellow peer and crossbencher, Lord Naren Patel, one of the foremost members of the British medical fraternity and a former President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Indian companies play a very significant role in providing affordable generic medicines to the UK healthcare system and Asian doctors account for over 15% of the medical profession.
Impressive as this revival is, I would urge the Awards organisers to push the envelope yet further and take these events to new heights. For example, it would be worth encouraging recipients to sign a voluntary public pledge to give something back to society, mentoring others in their field, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds. It would create a virtuous circle of inspiration and reinvestment in human capital to improve the life chances of those most in need. In this way, Awards ceremonies will truly become the “the gift that keeps on giving”.
