Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa to be Chief Guest of 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

António Costa (54), the Indian origin Prime Minister of Portugal will be the chief guest at the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention.
The PBD Convention is scheduled to be held from January 7 to 9, 2017 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Mr. Costa will participate in the inaugural session of the PBD Convention on January 8 and address the delegates.
Besides, Surinam Vice president Michael Ashwin Satyandre Adhin will be the Special Guest at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to be held in Bengaluru on January 7, 2017.

About Antonio Costa

• Atonio Costa was born on 17 July 1961 in Lisbon, capital city of Portugal. By profession he is lawyer. He traces his paternal roots to Goa (India)
• He is son of Orlando Costa, an accomplished poet and writer and has several relatives at Margao in Goa. His grandfather, Luis Afonso Maria da Costa hailed from Goa.
• After Portugal’s 2015 general election, he was appointed as Prime Minister after he had put together a coalition of left parties that is currently in power in Portugal.
• In 2004, he was elected as one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament and also had served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
• He was Mayor of Lisbon City from 2007 to 2015. He was elected as Secretary-General of the Socialist Party in September 2014.

About Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD)

• The PBD is celebrated every year on January 9 to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community in the development of India. It is celebrated every year since 2003.
• It provides a platform to the overseas Indian community to engage with the government and people of the land of their ancestors for mutually beneficial activities.
• January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa.
• Thus, this event marks the importance of arrival of India’s greatest Pravasi who led India’s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2016