Indian-American awarded at White House for combating human trafficking
Houston, Oct 19: An Indian-American woman has been honoured with a Presidential award by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for her extraordinary contribution towards combatting human trafficking in Houston.
Minal Patel Davis, Special Advisor on Human Trafficking to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, received the 'Presidential Medal for Combating Human Trafficking' in the White House last week at a ceremony also attended by President Donald Trump.
"It was unbelievable," said Davis after winning the award, the country's highest honour in the field.
"My parents came here from India. I was the first one in my family born in the United States, so to end up in the Mayor's office a few years ago, and then to now end up in the White House, it was unbelievable," she said.
Appointed in July 2015, Davis has made a local impact on human trafficking in America's fourth largest city from a policy-level perspective and by helped in advancing systems change.
She is currently implementing Mayor Turner's Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Plan, which is the first comprehensive municipal response to human trafficking by a US city.
Davis has spoken at several local, national and international panels and presented Houston city's approach.
She is a past speaker at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit and recently travelled to India and Canada at the request of the State Department to discuss municipal leadership in trafficking with the government officials.
Davis did her MBA from the University of Connecticut and BA from New York University.
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Two pilots killed in crash of Sukhoi-30 fighter jet in Assam
Guwahati (PTI): Two pilots were killed in the crash of a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, the Indian Air Force said here on Friday.
The jet, which was on a training mission, crashed approximately 60 km from Jorhat air base, from where it had taken off on Thursday evening.
“IAF acknowledges the loss of Sqn Ldr Anuj and Flt Lt Purvesh Duragkar, who sustained fatal injuries in the Su-30 crash. All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences and stand firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the IAF said in a post on X.
A defence spokesperson said in Guwahati that the debris of the aircraft was located early on Friday.
The IAF search and rescue team, assisted by civil and police administration and villagers, had trekked to the site and located the debris around 1 am, the official told PTI.
