Indian-American couple honoured in US
Houston, Oct 31 : An Indian-American couple has been honoured in the US for making significant contributions to the areas of literacy, education and healthcare in India.
Marie and Vijay Goradia received the Roy M Huffington Award here recently.
The Houston couple has made significant contributions in the areas of healthcare, literacy and education in India for decades now.
"We are pleased to announce that Goradias are being recognized by Asia Society Texas Center (ASTC) as the recipients of the 2018 Huffington Award," Asia Society said in a statement.
"Named after our co-founder Roy M Huffington, the award is symbolic of outstanding contributions that have furthered international understanding and diplomacy on a global scale," it said.
The Huffington Award is the highest honor granted by ASTC, and past award recipients include former Exxon CEO and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former president George W Bush and Kevin Rudd, Australia's ex prime minister.
Vijay Goradia, 67, the founder and chairman of Vinmar International, that has been in business for 35 years with a record of continued growth and profitability.
In 1998, Vijay, who is originally from Mumbai, began seriously mulling ways to help the country he left behind, along with the American charities he supports as well.
He has since become one of the major fundraisers for Pratham, an education nonprofit organisation in India, and founded the first American chapter.
Through their noble act Pratham has affected the lives of more than 50 million underprivileged children in the past two decades. Pratham USA is listed as one of the top ten charities in Houston by Charity Navigator.
Marie, also from Mumbai, received a Master's degree in biochemistry and a PhD in molecular biology from Bombay University. One of four women to be selected by the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) for their training school, Marie was later appointed as a research officer there. She did her postdoctoral studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Columbia University in New York.
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Mumbai-Pune Expressway connecting link now fully operational
Mumbai (PTI): The Mumbai-bound carriageway of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway connecting link was opened to vehicular traffic on Saturday noon after a delay caused by the dismantling of inauguration infrastructure and cleaning work, a day after the Pune section became operational.
The 13.3 km-long "missing link", which bypasses a section of the Bhor Ghat stretch of the expressway and cuts travel time between Mumbai and Pune by 25 to 30 minutes, was inaugurated a day earlier by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the presence of Deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar.
The Pune-bound carriageway of the corridor was opened to traffic immediately; however, the Mumbai-bound section remained closed to traffic for several hours after the inauguration.
An official of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation told PTI on Saturday that the opening of the Mumbai-bound carriageway was delayed mainly due to the dismantling of the inauguration infrastructure and cleaning work.
The removal of the stage and other decorations was completed in the morning. The work to load and transport the material slightly delayed the opening of the carriageway.
Vehicular movement on the carriageway began after all the remaining material was cleared and road cleaning was completed, the official added.
The expressway control room said that despite significant vehicular movement, the access-controlled highway has not witnessed any major traffic snarls since Friday evening, after the Pune-bound carriageway of the missing link was opened to traffic.
The Missing Link project connects Khopoli (in Raigad) on the Mumbai side to Kusgaon near Lonavala in Pune district and is expected to make the expressway fully access-controlled, easing congestion in the ghat section.
Developed by the MSRDC and dubbed an "engineering marvel", the project includes two tunnels, two viaducts and a cable-stayed bridge over Tiger Valley. It bypasses the steep, accident-prone ghat section, where frequent traffic snarls are reported during weekends and on public holidays.
