COMMERCIAL PROPERTY BBC’s Anita saluted as ‘very best of our region’
ARENOWNED BBC journalist who has devoted herself to improving the West Midlands has been honoured with the President’s Award at the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) dinner at the ICC.
Anita Bhalla’s achievements include setting up the BBC Asian Network in the West Midlands and paving the way for British Asian culture to enter the mainstream.
She has also held senior roles at the BBC, including head of political and community affairs. Ms Bhalla was head of public space broadcasting overseeing the big outdoor screens showing the Last Night of the Proms and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
In awarding the gong to Ms Bhalla, Asian Business Chamber of Commerce president Saqib Bhatti said the decision was “one of the easiest I have had to make”.
He said: “While there are many exceptional people deserving of this award, I believe Birmingham and the West Midlands are extremely lucky to have someone of this calibre working tirelessly to improve our region.
“For me, Anita epitomises the very best this region has to offer and we would be lucky to have many more like her.”
Ms Bhalla is a former chairman of the Midland Arts Centre and now chairs Performances Birmingham, which manages the Town Hall and Symphony Hall, and Creative City, an initiative of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, to create jobs and wealth in the region.
Ms Bhalla has also won several awards, including the CRE’s Race in the Midlands national television news award and, in 2009, was awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting and communities.
She was also a community worker in Handsworth, Birmingham, where she set up and ran one of the first hostels for Asian women, as well as dealing with wider issues around welfare and social care.
In receiving the ABCC President’s Award, she join a distinguished list of individuals, including Nobel prize winner Malala Yousufzai.
The awards night welcomed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and MP for Bromsgrove, Sajid Javid, as principal guest. He told guests that Birmingham was “going through a great period of transformation”.
He added: “Birmingham today is a city unrecognisable from a few years ago. Our Birmingham business men and women are working together to make the city all that it can be and to ensure it is the economic engine of growth.” KASIM Choudhry created his business in 2014 and has developed it into a dynamic and innovative company which aims to design something different for every occasion. His first big success came when in 2014 he won the tender to run the Birmingham Mela for Birmingham City Council.
Since then the business has grown to organising five major events nationwide plus 15 smaller events. Kasim attributes his success to hard work and recruiting a good team. country), to short-term floating support for women who have settled into new tenancies. opportunities that are available to them.