PETALING JAYA: Former MIC president Tan Sri Dr S.Subramaniam was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA) 2025 by the Indian government during the 18th edition of the Pravasi Bharathiya Divas (PBD) convention held in Bhubaneswar, Oddisa, India from January 8 to 10.
The PBSA is the highest honour conferred on non-citizen Indians in the field of politics.
The award was conferred on Dr Subramaniam by the President of India on January 10 as part of the PBD convention,“ according to a statement from the High Commission of India on Saturday (Jan 11).
“It’s a well deserved achievement which reflects Dr Subramaniam’s longstanding commitment and dedication to public service and positive contribution to the enhancement of India-Malaysia relations,“ it added.
The convention which is held on a biennial basis sees the Indian government gazetting a maximum of 30 people of Indian descent to be conferred this award during each edition.
Award recipients are determined by a jury cum awards committee who is chaired by the Vice President of India while assisted by the Indian Minister of External Affairs and representatives from various agencies in deciding the awardees following a long and exhaustive process Dr Subramaniam served as a cabinet Minister from 2008 to 2018, initially as the Minister of Human Resources and later as the Minister of Health.
As a long-serving Minister, Dr Subramaniam also represented the Indian community in the cabinet.
During his tenure, Dr Subramaniam also initiated the setting up of the Cabinet Committee for Indian Affairs, which formed the basis of all subsequent interventions for the benefit of the Indian community.
Significant interventions include the MyDaftar and Mega MyDaftar campaigns, a grassroots level intervention to address the documentation issues faced by the Indian community.
The initiative resulted in over 7,000 undocumented Malaysians of Indian descent receiving their citizenship.
Under his leadership, administrative structures such as SITF and SEDIC were initiated to benefit the Indian community in the country.
Post-2018, SEDIC evolved into the current MITRA.
Through these structures, the education, welfare and socio-economic issues of the Indian community were addressed.
One of the more significant aspects of this intervention was the annual government allocation given for Tamil schools.
It is understood the Indian government took these contributions into account before deciding on conferring the award to Dr Subra.
