18 NRIs in Queen’s birthday honours list

Leading NRI entrepreneur Raj Loomba, campaigner of widows’ rights, Surina Narula, champion of street children in India...

Leading NRI entrepreneur Raj Loomba, campaigner of widows’ rights, Surina Narula, champion of street children in India, and 16 others were chosen for the Queen’s birthday honours this year.

Born in Dhilwan in Punjab and educated at DAV College in Jalandhar, sixty-four-year-old Loomba, founder of the Loomba Trust has been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for “charitable services to poor widows and their children overseas, particularly in India, and to UK-India interests more widely.”

Narula, has been chosen for an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in recognition of her “charitable services in India.”

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A tireless campaigner for improving the plight of widows and their children all over the world, Raj and his wife Veena Loomba set up the Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba Trust in 1997, of which Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the President.

In the ensuing ten years it has concentrated on building a programme to educate the children of poor widows in India. Today, the Trust educates over 3,600 children throughout India, including 500 in Tamil Nadu who lost their father or both parents in the tsunami.