New York: The New York chapter of Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) along with Professional Indian Networking Association (PRINA) and the Indian American Kerala Cultural and Civic Centre on June 29 awarded seven winners of the Indian American Youth Scholarship Award, 2002 competition at a banquet held at the Kerala Centre in Elmont, Long Island, according to an official press release.

The chief guest for the occasion was Pramathesh Rath, India's new Consul General in New York. Consul General Rath spoke about the recent Indo-Pakistan issues and told the audience that India has done its utmost to avoid a war with Pakistan.

Among those who spoke on the occasion were New Jersey assembly man Upendra Chivukula and Gopal Khanna, who has just been appointed by President Bush as the chief information officer for Peace Corps, the release said.

Chivukula in his address urged the youngsters to take active part in the political process. Recounting his own experience in doing grass root level work for the last 15 years, Chivukula said that achieving political success is a slow process and one has to have perseverance.

Khanna spoke on what he learnt in 12 days since joining the Peace Corps. "Working as a Peace Corps volunteer is one of the noblest thing one could do in life," Khanna said and urged the youngsters to consider joining and supporting Peace Corps.

In the competition, of the two dozen applications received, seven were invited to participate. The highest prize of $ 2,000 for Outstanding Academic Achievement sponsored by Columbia professors Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai went to Sarika Bansal, a student of Ramapo High School, who will join Harvard in the fall, the release said.

The second highest price of $ 1,000 for Outstanding Performance in extra-curricular activities, sponsored by Association of Indians in Construction Industry was won by Princy Thottathil, a student New Hyde Park Memorial High School.

Another contestant, Prem Trivedi of Freehold High School won two prices, $ 500 for Outstanding Application Essay and $ 300 for Short Answer Presentation.

Second place in Short Answer Presentation was won by Paras Shah of Stuyvesant High School. Three awards were presented for India Quiz Challenge, Anusha George (Brentwood High School), Nupur Jhawar (The Loomie Chaffee School) and Santosh Varghese (New Rochelle High School), with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize respectively. Other award sponsors were Anil Roy of ANR Mechanical Corp., Vijay Desai of VJ Associates, Dharmatma Saran of Miss India Worldwide Pageant, Deo Gosine of Amatech Corp., Romesh Tewari in memory of his wife Late Saroj Tewari and G. Mathai of Hanover Mortage Bank.

The programme was co-ordinated by GOPIO New York president Lal Motwani and PRINA president Sejal Lakhani. Motwani in his welcome address said that the Youth Scholarship Award would be continued as an annual event.

GOPIO international president said that such programmes will prepare Indian American youth to compete well in the American society and urged the sponsors to continue their support in the future. Kerala Centre president E M Stephen welcomed every one to the Centre and said that the Kerala Centre would continue to do activities catered to the larger Indian community, the release added.