Asian Power Couples
Baroness Sandip Verma & Ashok Verma
Baroness Sandip Verma is a British businesswoman, member of the House of Lords, and has been
a junior minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change since 6th September 2012.
She was formerly a Government Whip and Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, International
Development and Equalities and Women’s Issues. In 2006 Lady Verma was made a Patron of the
Tory Reform Group. Born in Amritsar in Punjab, India she moved as a child with her parents to
England in 1960. She was created a Conservative life peer as Baroness Verma, of Leicester in the
County of Leicestershire in May 2006.
Baroness Sandip Verma & Ashok Verma
Ashok Verma is businessman who with his wife started a family business in textiles in 1980. The
business manufactured high fashion garments that were supplied to high street multiples and
wholesale distributors across the United Kingdom and Europe. They turned the business into
a success story with a multi million pound turnover. In 2000, the couple started Domiciliary
Care Services providing home care to Leicester City. Ashok Verma also has a stake in A & B
Foods which has sole distribution rights for Maharani Rice, suitable for diabetics, throughout
the U.K. and Europe. Both he & Lady Verma have philanthropic interests and Ashok Verma is
also President of the Global Punjabi Society (UK).
Manjinder Virk & Neil Biswas
Manjinder Virk is British Indian actress, director and writer born in Coventry, England. She
began acting at the Belgrade Youth Theatre in Coventry and went on to become artistic
director of Pangram Dance Theatre with her brother, Hardish. She went on to earn a degree in
contemporary dance at De Montfort University in Leicester. In 1999, Manjinder appeared in the
British TV series Holby City and later in three separate episodes of the TV soap opera Doctors.
However, she is most notable for her 2007 role in Britz. She met husband Neil Biswas on the set
of the TV drama Bradford Riots that same year.
Manjinder Virk
Neil Biswas is a writer and director whose credits include Bradford Riots (winner of the Arts
Council England Decibel Award), The Take, Skins and Second Generation. He has recently
written an episode of the new TV series Sinbad. He is about to direct his original feature film
Darkness Visible (Newscope Films), and is currently writing a new drama series for HBO called
Geisha Assassins.
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