After months of fierce competition, nominations have now closed for the inaugural British Indian Awards presented by the award-winning accountancy firm BDO LLP!

The prestigious event will be held on the 17th of May at the St. Johns Hotel in Birmingham, and it is set to be a fantastic evening. Being one of UK's largest cities and home to over a million people, with 42% of the residents being of ethnic background, Birmingham is the ideal location to host the British Indian Awards.

Amit Arora, Business Development Director of event organiser Oceanic Consulting said: “We are delighted and overwhelmed with such a great response of nominations from the public. The British Indian Awards are a great platform for people of Indian heritage to be recognised and rewarded for their achievements. We wish the finalist the best of luck, I am sure it will be a fantastic evening celebrating success!”

The main sponsors of the evening are BDO LLP, and Pratham UK are this year’s charity partner. Other sponsors and partners of the event include: Carlton International, Confederation of Indian Industry, Indo European Business Forum, Chilli Tickets, Saffron Events Uk, Asians UK, Grafx Media, De:strukt, Asian World, SimplyBhangra.com, The English Curry Awards and the Asian Wealth Magazine.

“The British Indian community continues to contribute to the British economy and has continued to grow in what is a difficult economic time. This is through tenacity, perseverance and demonstrating great entrepreneurial skills, we at BDO are delighted to be involved in celebrating the great achievement of all the nominees.” commented Arbinder Chatwal, Head of India Advisory Services, BDO LLP.

There are eighteen awards to be presented on the night, the finalists are:

Young Achiever of the Year

Dev Patel (British Indian Actor)

Sanju Pal (Accenture)

Anjali Pathak (Pataks )

Shireen Irani (I-Probono)

Natasha Mudhar (Sterling Media)

The Community Award

I-Partner India

Asian Foundation of Philanthropy

Loomba Foundation

Jas Jassal

Mandy Sanghera Foundation

Sports Achievement of the Year

Paranveer Singh Sethi (Watford FC)

Ravinder Bopara (England Cricketer)

Netan Sansara (FC Vestsjaelland)

Monty Panesar (England Crickter)

Akaash Bhatti (Professional Featherweight Boxer)

Best in Arts & Culture

Anish Kapoor (British Born Sculptor)

Tigerstyle

Gurinder Chadha (British Film Director)

Eternal Taal

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Best in Civil Service & Armed Forces

Baroness Shreela Flather

Parmjit Dhanda MP

Priti Patel MP

Aekta Mahajan (HM Government)

Keith Vaz MP

Best in Medical

Sam Singh (Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital)

Bijayendra Singh (Indian Orthopeadic Society)

Ramesh Mehta (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin)

Sunita Verma (Sparkle Dental Boutique)

Kamlesh Khunti (Primary Care Diabetics Society)

Best in Accountancy & Finance

Jagdeep Kaur Rai (Barclays Bank)

Baroness Shriti Vadera (Investment Banker)

Kamel Hothi (Lloyds Banking Group)

Dalip Puri (HSBC)

Sarika Patel (Zeus Capital)

Best in Legal Services

Gurjit Kaur Chahal (Charles & Co Solicitors)

Amarjit Singh (Dutton Gregory LLP Solicitors)

Mitesh Patel (Levenes Solicitors)

Renukah Pragalathan (DBS Law)

Ritu Sethi (The Sethi Partnership Solicitors)

Best in Education

Sukhbir Singh Kapoor (World Sikh University)

Ravinder Maini (Imperial College)

Spinder Dhaliwal (University of Surrey)

Parthivadi Bhayankaram Anand  - (University of Bradford)

Dr Bela Aora (University of Wales)

Best in Media

Rajan Singh (Star TV)

Avtar Lit (Sunrise Radio)

Reeta Chakrabarti (BBC)

Dr Arun Bajaj (Radio XL)

Krishan Guru-Murthy (Channel 4 News)

Best in Creative Industries &Technology

Harvinder Hungin (OrbitSound Ltd)

Moneeb Awan (eSAY Solutions Ltd)

Satwant Bains (Restaurant Sat Bains)

Arinder Bhullar (Arinder Bhullar|Asian Fashion & Bridal Couture)

Sheetal Walsh (Shanti Microfinance)

Financial Director of the Year

Bidesh Sarkar (British Council)

Tarsem Dhaliwal (Iceland)

Kulwant Singh (Delcam Plc)

Ken Sawhney (AIB Foods Ltd)

Nilesh Pandya (Skrill)

Businesswoman of the Year

Perween Warsi (S&A Foods)

Shahshi Gossan (Pharmaclinix)

Dr Rabinder Buttar (Clintec International Group)

Helen Dhaliwal (Red Hot Buffet)

Kamal Basran (Authentic Indian Food Company)

Businessman of the Year

Ranjit Singh (2 Sisters Food Group)

Kuljinder Singh Bahia (Southall Travel Ltd)

Daksh Gupta (Marshall Motor Group)

Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia (Euro Car Parts)

Arora Brothers (B&M Retail Ltd)

Business of the Year

East End Foods

Perfection Foods

Siva Plastics Ltd

HT & Co (Drinks) Ltd

Park Garages Group Plc

Entrepreneur of the Year

Rajesh Agrawal (RationalFX)

Dr Kartar Lalvani (Vitabiotics)

Manoj Badale (Blemheim Chalcot)

Amit Bhatia (Swordfish Investments)

Deepak Kuntawala (DVK Group)

Best in Science & Engineering

Roma Agrawal (Chartered Structual Engineer)

Professor Tejinder Singh Virdee (Imperial College)

Professor Varinder Kumar Aggarwal (University of Bristol)

Professor Shankar Balasubramanian (University of Cambridge)

Professor Dr Kirpal Nandra (Max Planck Institute Extraterrestrial Physics)

Outstanding Achievement Award

Ramesh and Pratibha Sachdev (Life Style Homes)

Harpal Singh Kumar (Cancer Research Technology)

Fauja Singh (British Centenarian Marathon Runner)

Further information about the event be found on our website http://thediversityawards.info/britishindian/

{jcomments off}