The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin will celebrate its Convention 2009 in Chennai, January 6 and 7 at the Trident Hotel, just before the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2009 event.

The GOPIO convention will be inaugurated by Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, said GOPIO Chairman Dr Thomas Abraham.

At its annual awards banquet January 6, GOPIO will honour five people with its Community Service Awards: Baroness Sheela Flather of the House of Lords (the upper House of the British parliament), Ambassador [Images] Albert Ramdin of Suriname, community activist and leader Chandru Advani [Images] of Japan [Images], Assemblyman and Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey State Assembly Upendra Chivukula, and Durban, South Africa [Images], Deputy Mayor Loganathan Naidoo.

Among the guests expected to be at the event are G K Vasan, India's minister of state for statistics and programme implementation, and M M Jacob, former governor of Meghalaya and Kerala [Images].

The GOPIO awards are to recognise non-resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin who have provided significant community and public service or done philanthropic work for the Indian Diaspora and/or India.