London: The UK government announced the inaugural Dadabhai Naoroji Awards to honour individuals who have worked to strengthen the UK-India relationship over the years. The three winners included UK India Business Council chair Patricia Hewitt in the commerce category, Dame Asha Khemka for services in the field of education and actor Madhav Sharma for culture. Khemka, who became the first India-born woman to be made a Dame in the New Year's Honours List earlier this year, described the award as a "recognition for the entire Indian community in the UK". The awards were judged by ministers following nominations from the public and were presented at a Foreign and Commonwealth Office reception here last evening as part of the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. "You carry India in your hearts and we Indians are very proud of you," Swaraj said.

The new awards are dedicated to Dadabhai Naoroji as the first Asian member of the British Parliament and the man who brought the first Indian business to the UK. Over 80 nominations for the awards were received from members of the public. After a shortlisting process agreed by a UK ministerial panel comprising David Laws, Hugo Swire, Lord Livingston, Greg Clarke and Ed Vaizey, Clegg selected the winner for each category. "As advocates of UK-India relations, their work continues in the same spirit as that of Dadabhai Naoroji, helping our two great nations work together to achieve fairness, mutual understanding and economic prosperity," Clegg said. "The awards remind us that our relationship with India is one which we must continue to foster, and one from which both our nations have a great deal to gain," he added. The awards themselves were designed by Andrew Vickers, a prominent stone sculptor from the north of England who creates abstract and figurative sculptures in a variety of stone. He took inspiration from the striking image of Dadabhai Naoroji, whose figure he has set upon a stone block.