Nagpur: Today ( Saturday 27 DEC ) morning, a dream three Nagpurians saw in Chicago circa 2006 is partially coming true by way of the first Global Nagpur Summit 2014 to be held on 27 – 28 December, 2014.
Dinesh Jain, Nishad Somalwar and Shashank Rao are the three gentlemen dispersed in different parts of the US now but still united in their vision for their ‘home town’ Nagpur. All three were born here, two of them educated here, and all still have roots that keep enticing them back. They are so motivated to do something concrete for their city that their actions have motivated hundreds of other Nagpurians settled globally to become part of the “Nagpur First” initiative that now has a strength of 1500 in linked-in and has over 50 Global Outreach Ambassadors on a global basis working on the theme of making Nagpur a global city in the 6 years to come. Not just men, it has some accomplished Nagpur women too as partners. Shilpa Padole and Kavita Joshi are two such ladies.
Dinesh Jain, Nishad Somalwar and Shashank Rao
The three main features of this endeavor are – it is Volunteer driven, it is non profit and it is a registered trust in Nagpur. It is probably a unique phenomenon of its kind in the country where Indians of one city have got together to change the destiny of that city.
“There is something about Nagpur – koi baat hai is shahar ki!” says Dinesh Jain, the current President of Nagpur First.
“We shall be the catalysts, the enablers, who will entice international business to come to Nagpur rather than going anywhere else in the country or even the state” says Nishad Somalwar a member of the famous Somalwar family of Nagpur.
They have already enticed some Europe based companies to set up shop here and have enabled some laudable ventures in the health care segment to begin their operations from here like the latest technology kidney dialysis centres and Mamogram units in Matru Seva Sangh and a mobile mammogram unit that is coming up soon that will screen rural women for breast cancer and help save their lives by detecting this dreaded disease at an early state.
They have helped poor and underprivileged, but talented Nagpur children go to NASA to learn about Space technology. Describing this project Shashank pointed out that a lady called Gauri Jog, who teaches Kathak Chicago paid for the children’s tickets to USA and helped organize their stays with Indians settled there. Her daughter Esha, has recently been adjudged Miss Illinois.
Another Indian based in US, Mr. Suresh Vasu is responsible for the dialysis centres.
To create the buzz about Nagpur the Nagpur First members first began holding ‘Global leadership’ talks in Nagpur where the speakers inspired Nagpurians to think big, think global. Such talks have been held till now in VMA, Raisoni colleges and now VNIT.
The global summit tommorow is the culmination.
Also on the anvil is the grand project of making Nagpur ‘sister city’ with US cities like Santa Clara (California), Naper Ville in Illinois and Memphis in Tennesee.
Memphis is the logistics centre of USA situated as it is in the mid west equidistant from east and west coasts of USA. Nagpur similarly is at the heart of the country.
“There are many diamonds waiting to be discovered in this heartland. We hope to uncover them for the world” said the Nagpur First trio.
True to their world, they have got many internationally famed scientists, Doctors and businessmen to come for the first Nagpur summit which they plan to make an annual event.
… Sunita Mudliyar
