Former MIC President and Former Minister of Health, Tan Sri Dr S.Subramaniam was conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2025 by the Indian government at the recent !8th Edition of the Pravasi Bharathiya Divas Convention held in Bhubaneswar, Oddisa from the 8th to the 10th of January. The Convention is held on a biennial basis and at each Convention, the Indian Government has gazetted that a maximum of 30 Persons of Indian will be conferred this award.

The award is conferred by the President of India in a valedictory ceremony held in conjunction with the convention. A Jury cum Awards Committee Chaired by the Vice President of India assisted by the Minister of External affairs and representatives from various agencies decide upon the awardees in a long and exhaustive process

Tan Sri Subramaniam served as a Cabinet Minister from 2008 to 2018, initially as the Minister of Human Resource and later as the Minister of Health. As a Minister he was also representing the Indian Community in the Cabinet. For 8 of these years he worked under Dato Seri Najib as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Generally Malaysian Indians consider this as a Golden period of the Indian community.

He initiated the setting up of the Cabinet Committee for Indian Affairs, which formed the base of all the subsequent interventions for the Indian community. Significant amongst this was the My Daftar and Mega My daftar Campaigns a, grassroots level intervention to address the documentation issues faced by the Indian community. The initiative resulted in 7000 over Indians getting their citizenship .

It was during this period administrative structures like SITF and Sedic were started. After 2018 Sedic metamorphosed into the current MITRA. Through these sructures the education, welfare and socio economic issues of the Indian community were addressed.

One of the more significant aspects of this intervention was the annual allocation given for Tamil Schools Beginning from 2010 the Minister of Finance announced specific targeted allocations for Tamil Schools. These annual allocations have brought much needed improvement to the infrastructure in Tamil schools. Many historically dilapidated schools have now have obtained a much needed facelift.

In response to the crying need from the Indian community to increase the opportunities for higher education, the Cabinet Committee allowed the entry of Indian students to the Matriculation Program which was hitherto restricted to the Bumiputra Community only . Initially 1500 places were allocated and was gradually increased to 2200 places. This intervention singularly has enabled Indian students particularly from the lower socio economic bracket to enter into public universities. Many have become doctors, engineers and accountants through this opportunity.

The other initiatives under the Cabinet Committee included special business loans for Indians , increased skill training for Indian youth, opportunities to invest in Amanah Saham Malaysia as an attempt to incease Indian participation in the equity market and many others.

The pinnacle of this was the launching of the Malaysian Indian Blueprint in 2017. It was a comprehensive well thought of implementation strategy to address all the systemic problems faced by the Indian Community. When fully implemented it was intended to create a resilient, competitive, progressive and successful Indian Community.

It is understood the Indian government took these contributions into account before deciding on conferring this award Tan Sri Subra.