The Sikh Awards were held at London’s Hilton Hotel on Saturday (9th November). The Awards recognised Sikh contributions and excellence in a variety of fields from nominations received from around the world.
Vancouver publisher, Harbinder Singh Sewak, whose work with the Canadian military and with newspapers to highlight social issues facing immigrants in Canada, took the top media prize at the World Sikh awards in London on Saturday night.
The World Sikh Awards which celebrates the achievements of the global Sikh community also presented British Prime Minister David Cameron a Special Recognition Award for his work with the Sikh community in India.
Other winners at The Sikh Awards were Jatinder Singh Durhailay, 25, from Ilford, who won the People’s Choice Award. The artist’s work has been exhibited around the world, including at the Tate Modern at the National Army Museum.
Professor Harminder Singh Dua, who is the chair and professor of ophthalmology at the
University Hospital Nottingham, won the award for Professions. He is the current president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
India-based Harpal Singh Saggu received the Sikh Businessman Award. Saggu operates ‘Synergy Group’ which has an annual turnover of USD 200 million and over 4,000 employees.
Harpreet Kaur won the Sikh Business Woman Award. She was only 11-year-old when she began investing in the stock market. She is the founder of GICF Group, which consists of GICF Education, Finance, Productions and Soch Trust.
Kenya’s Avtar Singh Sohal – affectionately known as Tari –  was honoured in the sports category.
A veteran of six Olympic Games, Avtar, aged 75, has been involved in hockey all his life. After playing for City Primary School and Duke of Gloucester School in Nairobi, he was gained his first international cap for Kenya when he was selected to play against South Africa at the age of 19. Three years later he was selected for the Rome 1960 Olympic Games.
Since being appointed as the National Team captain in 1962 for a  Test series against Pakistan, he led for Kenya for a period of 10 years during which time Kenya were amongst the best teams in the world and they played India and Pakistan regularly, both home and away.
He captained his country’s Olympic teams at Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972 and was also captain at the 1st World Cup in Barcelona in 1971 where Kenya finished fourth, narrowly losing 1 – 2 after extra time to India in the semi-finals.
Tari even got a mention in the 1984 Guinness Book of Records as having the most international appearances at that time, having represented Kenya 167 times between 1957 and 1972.
In the Sewa Category, Dr. Sarup Singh Alag was honoured. Sarup Singh is the founder of ‘AlagShabadYug International Charitable Trust’ and is known for his selfless service to humanity in variety of ways. He is highly educated and a holder of many superior posts, throughout his life he has always served humanity with dedication and devotionally creates awareness on the uniqueness of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in his own humble way. Hehas written 94 publications concerning Sikhism and humanitarianism. These have been distributed throughout the world, free of charge. Sarup Singh recently started the campaign‘save Oora and Joorafor Sikh youth around the world.
The ceremony, which was organized by The Sikh Directory, was hosted by former London Mayoral adviser Kulveer Ranger and Kiss FM radio presenter DJ Neev.
Here are the Sikh Awards 2012 winners in all categories:
Business Man – Mr Harpal Singh Saggu (India)
Business Woman – Mrs Harpreet Kaur (India)
Sports Man – Mr Avtar Singh Sohal (Kenya)
Media – Mr Harbinder Singh Sewak (Canada)
People’s choice Award – Jatinder Singh Durhailay (Ilford)
Profession – Prof Harminder Singh Dua (Nottingham)
Sewa –Â Dr Sarup Singh Alag (India)
 The page will be updated with winners in other categories as we get more updates.