The Indian Cultural Center (ICC), an apex body and a socio-cultural wing of Embassy of India in Qatar, elected Milaan Arun, as President for the new term.
More than 49 percent ICC members turned out for voting despite bad weather predictions. Milaan Arun bagged about 90 percent votes, from the 1,000 odd votes casted in the election, to become the first woman president of ICC. The entire election process was under held the patronage of the Ambassador of India, P Kumaran, and under the advise and supervision of the coordinating officer for ICC K S Dhiman, who is the Second Secretary (Head of Chancery) at the embassy.
Milaan Arun is a multitalented prominent community leader who is in her third term in the managing committee of the ICC. She has been in the forefront of the socio cultural activities of the Indian community for many years. She has also served in the managing committee of the Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF) and has led many events and programmes for both the apex bodies of the embassy (ICC and ICBF). Apart from her contribution to all the Karnataka based organisations she also played active part as advisor in the North India Associations and contributed to support Gujarathi Samaj, Qatar Tamizar Sangam, Bharathi, etc. She has been a resident in Qatar since 1996.
Along with elections for president, the ICC also conducted elections for five positions of managing committee members. Eleven candidates had contested and Jutias Paul, Jaffer Khan M, A P Manikantan, Suresh Babu and K S Prasad were elected.
Juttas Paul is the current assistant division director and the past area director of the Toastmasters International. Advocate Jaffer Khan is the current head of legal and social welfare wing of the ICBF. A P Manikantan is the Vice-President of the Bhavans Public School and Suresh Babu is convener of Akshara, a Literary Forum. K S Prasad is a founder member Telugu Kala Samiti, and associated with various organisations like Pan IIT.
ICC is also the platform to serve the interest of almost 650,000 Indians residing in Qatar. The proclaimed objective of ICC includes promoting the rich Indian culture among Qatari nationals and expatriates of all other nationalities living in Qatar. Further, ICC is committed to function as a body of Indian Embassy to strengthen the deep-rooted Indo-Qatar friendship and cultural relationship.
