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Tamil as an ethnic identification. Tamil is present in schools. One of the official languages. Faced hardships during civil war which lead to mass migration
Sri Lanka- Level 1( National)
South Africa- Level 4( Educational) Tamil is one of the languages offered as third language in state run schools. Indian Tamils are accepted as permanent members of the community. Tamil is used in Religious( Mostly known as Tamil religion not Hindu) domains. But, Tamils are discriminated under the apartheid system
Topic of Interest: How we can strengthen our Tamil identity by establishing connections with other Tamil diasporas around the world and what are the benefits that we can gain from it?
CASE STUDY: Modern Montessori International( MMI)
DR T Chandroo, Chairman and Chief executive officer Source: http:// business. asiaone. com / sites / default / files / styl es / articleimage / public / 2014 / 04 / 04 / 20140404 _ DrTChandro oPhilanthropist _ franchisingandlicensingassociation. jpg
• Story of encyclopaedia salesman who became a founder of a global chain of pre-schools.
• Started in 1989
• A Singapore based education group which has branched out to many parts of the world.
• With its head office located in UK, it has branches in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, the U. A. E, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
• Locations where MMI have been established also tend to be countries where Tamil diasporic communities thrive.
• International company with over 100 teacher training centers and pre-school centers
• First pre-school in Singapore which was of international standards
• Dr Chandroo had won the“ Asia’ s Most Promising Business Leader” award in 2013
• As part of the Tamil diasporic community, Dr Chandroo has proven to be an example of one of the many success stories of the Tamil diasporic community.
CASE STUDY: OLAM
• Leading agricultural products exporter
• Started in 1989
• It was found by the Kewalram Chanrai groups, who were part of the Singaporean Indian diasporic community.
• Mr Verghese is a Bangalore born Indian who had migrated to Singapore in 1995.
• He had won many awards, including the Public Service Medal by the Singapore Government in 2010.
• Trades 47 different products at 16 platforms in 70 countries.
• Olam plays a major role in the African trade centre with enterprises spread over 19 African nations.
• Social responsibility: Environmental sustainability
• Olam has tackled low productivity, social vulnerability among small holder farmers using SECO, their inclusive cotton business model. This project has led to an increase in small holder farmer network which in turn contributed to an increase in yields.
• Alongside the networking, Olam has established literacy centres, business schools which offer modules on nutrition and crop diversity, training sessions on climate-smart agricultural practices and distribution of highly subsidised fertilisers and pesticides to farmers.
• Olam definitely exemplifies the major part Indian diasporic community plays in the trade sector around the world.
Mr. Sunny Verghese, Co-Founder, Group Managing Director and CEO
http:// images. forbes. com / media / lists / 79 / 2010 / sunny-george-verghese. jpg