Engagement with the Northern Ireland community and with India, my homeland, underpins my business strategy. I have sought to encourage and support social development in both regions through donations to charitable bodies and through charitable trusts that I have established.

I recognise the importance of sustainability and the role that our business can play in the community.

Around one per cent of my company's profits is donated annually to local charities and to initiatives to counter poverty through education in India. I was among the earliest director of the Lagan Integrated College in Belfast which seeks to bring young people of different religious, political and ethnic backgrounds together.

Over the years I have been involved in fund-raising for many groups, including the Lord Mayor's Fund in Belfast, Action Cancer, Rotary, PHAB, Trocaire, Bryson House, the Flax Trust, and Thanksgiving Square.

Rana Charitable Trust

I established the Rana Charitable Trust in 1996 with two main objectives to:

channel donations to various social and educational initiatives in Northern Ireland and India; and in particular to

promote diversity and understanding between different cultures.

The Trust has supported a broad range of charities in Northern Ireland and is promoting education and economic initiatives in India.

As far back as 1985, I helped to establish the Indian Business Forum to encourage closer contact between Indian residents and the wider community. This focus was also recognised in 1996 when I was awarded the MBE.

Receiving the CBI Award

Flax Trust Award

In 1997, I received the prestigious Flax Trust Award for contribution to the regeneration of Belfast that encouraged social and economic advance.

The Flax Trust is a respected cross-community body in Belfast that is actively involved in creating job opportunities, social housing and other charitable work.

The award was given to me in recognition of my investments and confidence that helped to bring what is now known as the "Golden Mile' to life during a period of violence and instability. Other recipients of the award include President Bill Clinton.

CBI Growing Business Award - Judges Special Award for Services to the Community

Further recognition of my investment in schemes that would promote social and economic development came in 1999 from the Confederation of British Industry, the leading employers' organisation.

Harmony in Thanksgiving Square, Belfast

Thanksgiving Square, Belfast

In my work to promote understanding between people from all sections of the Belfast community I have been privileged to chair the cross-community group behind the development of Thanksgiving Square and Harmony, the towering status that overlooks the River Lagan at Queen's Bridge and is the square's central feature.

The female figure of steel tubes and standing on a bronze-cast globe symbolises peace and reconciliation across a once-troubled city.

Significantly, the Thanksgiving concept is truly international and inter-denominational, and the statue represent the work and creativity of a wide range of people.

The 15-metre tall statue represents a beacon of hope and progress for Northern Ireland. Thanksgiving Square provides a space for reflection.

School Project at Haibowal

Cordia Education Complex, officially opened in 2006 by Dr Abdul Kalam, President of India, is an investment in the future growth of the region around Sanghol, my birthplace in the Punjab. It is funded by another trust I founded, the Shardhanjali Charitable Trust.

My vision of Sanghol is as a role model for modern India and as a hub for rural regeneration. The investment through my trust reflects my commitment that poverty can best by tackled through education.

Cordia Education Complex is providing opportunities for young people to gain knowledge and essential skills that will enable them to drive economic and social development in this region of the Punjab.

The complex includes university-linked colleges providing degree courses in Arts, the Humanities, Science and IT. Under development are institutes specialising in management, tourism and hospitality, as well as a teacher training college and a secondary school.

The scheme, in addition, will embrace alternative energies, sustainability and agriculture. The objective is to increase self-sufficiency and thereby address poverty throughout the region.

The Rana Charitable Trust also raised a substantial funds for the India Earthquake Appeal and the Asian Tsunami Appeal.

Receiving the Samman Award

Leading from the Front

Over the years I've been honored to have been chosen to important leadership roles particularly within the business community. These have included the Presidency of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2004-6).

In 1991/92 I was President of Belfast Chamber of Trade.

My work to build links between Northern Ireland and India was recognised in 2004 when I was appointed Honorary Consul for India in Northern Ireland. In that year, I was also appointed to the House of Lords.

In 2007 I received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from Dr Abdul Kalam, President of India, for my work to support the development of India.

At The Rana charitable trust we strongly believe that Children should be provided with the best education possibly enabling them to perform better in their lives. One of the projects, which my trust adopted, was to refurbish the junior secondary school at Haibowal. This move was specifically aimed at village children seeking better education standards and for other economically challenged groups in the society.

Located at Village Haibowal, in Tehsil Garhshankar, Distt Hoshiarpur, the school provides enjoyable and relevant quality education to first-generation learners and to children from in and around villages near Haibowal. The school also aims at children's overall development in an eco friendly environment.

It is now because of the inputs of the Rana Charitable trust in the schools refurbishment, that the Government has upgraded the School to provide Higher Secondary studies.