India Day coming up at Mahatma Gandhi Centre on February 13

A good reason to celebrate India’s impressive growth plans and wellbeing

More than 1000 men, women, youngsters of Indian origin and other ethnicities will gather at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre located at 145 New North Road in Auckland Eden Terrace at 3pm on Saturday, February 13, 2021 to celebrate ‘India Day.’

Organised by the Auckland Indian Association (AIA) in partnership with the Wellington based Indian High Commission and ‘Auckland Indian Diaspora,’ an informal group, the event will include speeches and a cultural programme, hopefully representing various States of India.

AIA Centenary Celebrations launch

The occasion will also witness the launch of the Centenary Celebrations of AIA, which were held back last year because of the Covid-19 travel and other restrictions. Plans were in place to showcase an Exhibition, world-class cultural and musical programmes, Bhagwat Katha by Jignesh Dada from India, a Gala Dinner with high profile personalities and a Special Centenary Publication. Some of these will be held this year.

AIA President Narendra Bhana said that a key objective of the Association is to protect and preserve Indian culture in New Zealand.

“We celebrate all Indian cultural and religious events with the real Indian spirit. The forthcoming ‘India Day’ will celebrate ‘the Indian’ in all of us and demonstrate that we are a community of solidarity, unity and goodwill. Our various programmes, held throughout the year, are useful to our people. For instance, our Health and Fitness Committee conducts three fitness classes a week, while the Mahila Samaj (Women’s Wing) promotes women’s wellbeing in New Zealand and the Senior Citizens Committee organises various activities throughout the year,” he said.

MGC, a grand venue

Mr Bhana said that the Mahatma Gandhi Centre is the most sought-after venue for small, medium and large gatherings including meetings, conferences, festivals, weddings, exhibitions and a host of other events of not only the Indian community but also of others.

“The Complex has at its threshold, the Radha Krishna Temple, with its own Priest, who conducts individual, family and community Poojas every day of the week. With ample free parking, the Mahatma Gandhi Centre is a busy venue. It also houses a number of commercial organisations and the offices of AIA and the New Zealand Indian Central Association. We run a Sunday school at which about 70 children of Indian origin learn about Indian culture and language,” he said.

World’s biggest Vaccination Programme

Year 2020 was a challenging year for the world economy, and the troubles orchestrated by Coronavirus -Covid-19 have their disturbing effects on businesses and lives of people.

India has also been bearing its brunt and its sheer vastness and thick demography have proved to be major obstacles in controlling the rapid spread of the Virus. Today, the country accounts for the second largest number of cases in the world (USA being the first) but the daily increases of infection have been somewhat contained in recent weeks.

The Federal Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi realised during the early days of the Virus, that the best solution was development an antidote- a Vaccine, that would effectively bring down the proliferation of the disease and its provide the essential cure.

Three weeks ago, Mr Modi launched a massive programme to vaccinate the country’s 1.3 billion people, with shipments of Covishield and Covaxin (the two approved vaccines) shipped across the country. While Covishield was developed jointly by Oxford University and UK based Astra Zeneca, Covaxin is the result of collaboration between India’s Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (the National Institute of Virology), another matter of pride.

Coming up: India’s Budget 2021 sets the pace for next phase of growth

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