Mangalore, 20 Oct 2014: Rachana Catholic Chamber of Commerce has announced Rachana awardees for 2014. They are Jeanette Pinto of Mumbai (Rachana Woman of the Year); Stany Veigus, Perar (Rachana agriculturist of the year); Raphael Sequeira, Mumbai (Rachana entrepreneur of the year); Dr Anil Kieth D’Cruz, Mumbai (Rachana professional of the year); and Ligoury D’Mello, Oman (Rachana NRI entrepreneur of the year).
The award ceremony will be held on November 16 at Milagres Jubilee Hall. Most Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Bishop of Mangalore will preside over the awards presentation ceremony. Union minister for railways D V Sadananda Gowda will be the chief guest. J R Lobo, Mangalore City South MLA, Ivan D’Souza, MLC and Nalin Kumar Kateel, DK MP will be guests of honour, John B Monteiro, president, Rachana said.
It was in 1998 that Catholic businessmen, agriculturists and professionals formed Rachana, with an objective of encouraging youth to take up entrepreneurship, for training them in investment and for supporting them with technical backup. In the last 16 years Rachana has worked to achieve its goals and has trained more than 50 youth through Rachana Entrepreneur Development Cell (REDC), John said.
The youth who have been trained have started printing press, nano taxi, poultry farming, candle manufacturing and other enterprises. Rachana has recognized the successful entrepreneurs, professionals, agriculturists, NRI entrepreneurs and women who have achieved in their distinctive field and brought them into limelight, more so that their example may be emulated by the young and the upcoming, John added.
Rachana also organized Magnet 2014 conference in April, which was attended by Catholic achievers from the world over. As a result of this conference a Rachana Cooperative Society and Rachana Venture Capital Fund was formed and Roy Castelino, Dr Norman Mendonca and Louis J Pinto were appointed as executives. The funds saved through conference will be used as seed money for running these associations.