PROGRAMME Distinguished Alumni Award — 2018 Monday, 28 January 2019 at 1100-1145 hrs C.B. Muthamma Hall, JNB, New Delhi Award Lighting of Lamp followed by Vedic chants Ceremony ‘Welcome address by Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha President, ICCR Presentation of Award by Smt. Sushma Swaraj External Affairs Minister And Acceptance speeches by the awardees Address by Smt, Sushma Swaraj External Affairs Minister Vote of thanks by Smt. Riva Ganguly Das, Director General, ICCR 1145-1245, High TeaDISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD -2018 CCR disburses over 6500 scholarships every year to students from various countries for their studies at ‘undergraduate, post graduate and research levels in various universities all over India. Among various initiatives undertaken by ICCR with respect to the Aumi of ICCR sponsored and supported foreign scholars, three ofthe prominent initiatives include- () Creating database of these alumni; i) Instituting Distinguished Alumni Award; And (ii) launch of 2A (Admission to Alumni) portal Distinguished Alumni Award was instituted in 2015 to recognize foreign students who have studied in various Indian Universities under the ICCR sponsored or supported scholarship schemes and fave made exemplary contributions in varied fields, especially towards the promotion of understanding, enhancing goodwill and friendship between India and their country and ‘on arious international fora A7-member Jury selected the ive awardees from the nominations received from Indian Missions and Post abroad for third Distinguished Alumni Award forthe year2018 Hon'ble Minister for External Affairs has kindly consented to confer the ward tothe following awardees: Mr. Ajmal Hameed Abdulrahimzai (Afghanistan) Deputy Minister for Administration and Finance inthe Ministry ofIndustryand Commerce. Mr. Lyonpo Damcho Dorji (Bhutan) Former Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan. ILE. Dr. Kaba Urgessa Dinssa (Ethiopia) State Minister of Ministry of Agricultural and Live Stock Resources. Dr. Constantino C, Hermanns Xavier (Portugal) Research Fellow, Foreign Policy Brookings India, ‘Mr. Bui Ba Bong (Vietnam) Vice Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Development, Vietnam,Mr. Ajmal Hameed Abdulrahimzai (Afghanistan) Mr, Ajmal Hameed Abdulrahimzai was born on 4 October 1986 in Afghanistan. He acquired Master Degree in Management and Business Administration (MBA Finance) from Osmania University, Hyderabad tunder the ICCR scholarship programme from 2010-12. Mr. abdulrahimzai started his career as Senior Strategic and Public Communication Advisor in Ministry of Finance (MOF) in 2015 then became Director and Spokesperson in the Ministry of Finance and served tll 2018. During his tenure as Strategic and. Public Communication Director and Spokesperson, ‘Mr. Abdulrahimzai was awarded with Meer Masjidi Khan and Meer Bacha Khan high level government medals and three first rank appreciation leters by Mr. Mohammad Ashraf Ghani the President of Afghanistan for his valuable achievements in providing the accurate and on time information about the economic and financial affairs ofthe country tothe media and publicin Ministry of Finance. He also received the tte of Spokesperson of the year in a conference held by the youth of Ministry of Information and Culture and Civil Society organizations in 2017 and the Golden Key Award by Access to Information Commission fo sharing the information with the public and media with accuracyand ontime. In 2018 by a presidential decree Mr. Abdulrahimzat was assigned as the Deputy Minister for ‘ministration and Finance tothe Ministryof Industry and Commerce (MoI)