The event was co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of Belarus, Georgia, and India and was co-sponsored by the missions of 22 countries including the US.
An Indian civil servant was among six diplomats honored by the UN for their contributions to world peace and development.
Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, was honored with the inaugural Diwali ‘Power of One’ award at the UN headquarters on Monday, reported Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).
Puri, who joined the UN leadership team in 2011 at the inception of UN Women, has contributed strategically and vitally to building this new and dynamic entity.
She is directly responsible for the leadership and management of the Bureau for Intergovernmental Support, UN System Coordination, and Strategic Partnerships, and was the Acting Head of UN Women from March to August 2013.
The award was given at a ceremony hosted by the Diwali Foundation, US, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the US Postal Service’s issuing of a forever Diwali stamp last year.
“The inaugural ‘Power of One’ award is bestowed upon exceptional people – who have toiled selflessly to help form a more perfect peaceful and secure world for all of us,” said Ranju Batra of the Diwali Foundation.
“In October 2016, we won and got our Forever Diwali Stamp. I personally sold over 170,000 stamps to make the Diwali Stamp the USPS’ #1 Bestseller for Day One in it’s over 200-year existence,” Batra added.
India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said that foundational power of the UN reflected Diwali’s spirit of doing universal good and overcoming evil.
The other awardees were outgoing British Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft; Lebanese Ambassador to the UN Nawaf Salam who was elected to the International Court of Justice last month, Maged Abdelaziz, the former Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN; Ion Botnaru, the former Permanent Representative of Moldova to the UN and Yuriy Sergeyev, the former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.
The event was co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of Belarus, Georgia, and India and was co-sponsored by the missions of 22 countries including the US.
Speaking at the ceremony, Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative Kairat Umarov suggested that the UN adopt an International Diwali Day to commemorate the festival.