Pakistani Sikh Student Becomes First-Ever Board Position Holder in Matric

 According to Bloom Pakistan “ A Pakistani Sikh student has made history by securing a top position in the Matric Annual Examinations 2026, becoming the first student from the Sikh community to achieve this milestone in the Board’s history.

Onkar Singh earned 1,189 marks and secured second position in the Science Group (Boys). His achievement marks a historic moment and highlights the growing academic success of students from minority communities. Speaking after his success, Onkar Singh said he aims to pursue a medical education and become a doctor to serve humanity. He added that his achievement was the result of hard work, his parents’ prayers, and the guidance of his teachers.

Furthermore, Onkar Singh stressed the need for further reforms in the education system to improve learning standards. He also urged the Govt to create better employment opportunities for young people to help address unemployment.

In addition, he said that minorities in Pakistan enjoy complete freedom and protection, expressing confidence in the opportunities available for all citizens. His remarks came as he celebrated his historic achievement in the Matric examinations.

County museum celebrating opening of ‘Sikhs in America’ exhibit at Micke Grove Park

 According to Manteca Bulletin “ Sikhs have played a vital role in shaping the history, agriculture, economy, and cultural landscape of San Joaquin County for more than a century.

For the first time in its history, the San Joaquin County Historical Museum has dedicated a major exhibition to preserving and sharing the history of the local Sikh community that is deeply woven into the fabric of the region. 

The opening celebration of “The Sikhs in America: Faith, Resilience, and Power” exhibit takes place Saturday, Aug. 22, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum located in Mike Grove Park south of Lodi.

The opening celebration will feature remarks from community leaders, authentic Punjabi cuisine, demonstrations of traditional Sikh martial arts (Gatka), and live music celebrating Sikh culture and heritage.

Presented by the San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum in collaboration with the Sikh American History Project and the Stockton Gurdwara, this dynamic bilingual exhibit (presented in both Punjabi and English) brings more than a century of Sikh history in San Joaquin County to life. 

Viewers will follow an engaging timeline that explores early migration through British Columbia, the founding of the historic Stockton Gurdwara and Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, and the Sikh American community’s continued growth despite targeted immigration laws and devastating global events. 

Along the way, immersive mini-stations spotlight Sikh contributions to agriculture and trucking, powerful traditions like gatka martial arts, political and social activism, and vibrant contemporary Sikh art.

The community invited Aug. 22 to commemorate the landmark exhibition and celebrate the people, stories, and legacy that have made San Joaquin County home to one of the oldest and most significant Sikh communities in the United States. 

Admission to the exhibit opening celebration is free and there is a $6 per car fee to enter Micke Grove Park (free for Museum members). For more information, call (209) 331-2055.

The San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum reveals the rich heritage of the region, from the Miwok and Yokuts Indians through Charles Weber (founder of Stockton and first farmer in the area) and the development of modern agriculture. 

The Museum has eight exhibit buildings and four historic buildings.

It is home to the popular Valley Days, an award-winning living history educational program for third, fourth and fifth graders. 

The 18-acre grounds include the Sunshine Trail living exhibition of native habitats and the Delta Water Path.

Sikh museum in Kurukshetra to connect new generation with history

 According to Social News “ Nirmal Singh, President of the Central Singh Sabha Gurudwara in Alambagh, Lucknow, has welcomed the laying of the foundation stone for a proposed Sikh museum in Kurukshetra, Haryana, calling it a historic step to preserve the rich legacy of Sikh Gurus and traditions.

Speaking to IANS, Nirmal Singh said the museum would play a vital role in connecting future generations with Sikh history, the sacrifices of the Gurus and warriors, and India’s cultural heritage, while strengthening national unity.

He added: “The recognition accorded to Sikh history and traditions at the national level by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a positive message to the Sikh community. Today is a very significant day for us.”

Nirmal Singh highlighted that although Sikh history spans nearly 550 years, it is filled with inspiring examples of renunciation, sacrifice, and service to humanity.

He recalled the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, who promoted equality and the tradition of Langar, community kitchens where people from all backgrounds sit together, challenging the prevailing caste system and social discrimination.

He emphasised that the museum should prominently showcase the sacrifices of the Sikh Gurus, the four Sahibzadas, Mata Gujri, and Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s family.

He said the period from December 22 to December 27 holds immense emotional significance, and presenting these events in a modern format would inspire children and youth to dedicate themselves to the nation and their faith.

On the national observance of Veer Bal Diwas, Nirmal Singh said it fulfilled a long‑standing demand of the Sikh community.

He noted: “This had long been a demand of the Sikh community. Today, Veer Bal Diwas is being observed not only in India but also abroad, conveying a message of courage, righteousness, and moral values to children.”

He also acknowledged the contributions and sufferings of the Sikh community, referencing the immense pain during the Partition and the 1984 anti‑Sikh riots.

Nirmal Singh noted recent efforts toward justice, compensation, and rehabilitation for riot victims, which have strengthened hope within the community.

Praising the Prime Minister’s gestures, he said the act of bowing in reverence at Gurdwaras is not merely a matter of religious faith but also a symbol of respect for the martyrdom and ideals of the Sikh Gurus. “This makes the Sikh community feel honoured,” he added.

Nirmal Singh also said that the Sikh community remains committed to India’s unity, brotherhood, and progress, and will continue to contribute wholeheartedly to nation‑building.

Sikhs for Business Announces VISTAR 2.0

 According to The Print “ Sikhs for Business, a global business networking platform for entrepreneurs and business owners, has officially announced its flagship event VISTAR 2.0, a large-scale international business networking conclave designed to connect, empower, and accelerate business growth across industries.

The event will bring together *1,500+ entrepreneurs, startup founders, and business owners from India and global markets to create meaningful partnerships, collaborations, and growth opportunities.

Sikhs for Business operates under the Ustat Foundation with a mission to strengthen entrepreneurship, business networking, and economic development through a trusted ecosystem of Sikh founders and industry leaders.

BUSINESS NETWORKING FOR GLOBAL GROWTH

VISTAR 2.0 is designed as a high-impact business networking platform where entrepreneurs can:

* Connect with industry leaders and mentors

* Explore business partnerships and expansion opportunities

* Learn from experienced business founders

* Access cross-sector collaboration opportunities

* Build long-term business relationships

The focus is on *real business growth, execution, and scalable connections*

INDUSTRY LEADERS & MENTORS

VISTAR 2.0 will feature a curated group of leading entrepreneurs, industrialists, and business mentors from diverse sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure, engineering, food industry, automotive, exports, and entrepreneurship development.

The confirmed industry leaders include:

Dr. P. J. Singh – Chairman & MD, Tynor Orthotics

S. Hartek Singh – Chairman & MD, Hartek Group

S. Baljeet Singh Jubilee – Director, Jubilee Group

Harjinder Singh (Prayagraj) – Managing Director, Milan Group

Charanjit Singh Shah – Architect & Urban Design Professional

Rajinder Singh – Kartar Valves, Industrial Manufacturing Sector

Parvinder Sahney – Windsor Group, Business Leadership

Saranjit Singh – Gopal Sweets, Food & Hospitality Industry

Paramjit Singh – Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development

Rupinder Singh Sachdeva – Hi-Tech Industries, Engineering Sector

Arvinder Singh – Seedways Tyres, Automotive Industry

Amardeep Singh Hari – Africa (Ghana), International Trade & Export

Sandeep Kaur Minnie Riat – Akal Springs, Industrial Manufacturing Sector

H.S. Cheema – Cheema Boilers, Engineering & Energy Solutions

Upkar Singh – CICU & New Swan Group, Industrial Development

Onkar Singh Pahwa – Avon Cycles, Global Bicycle Manufacturing & Export Industry

These leaders represent a powerful mix of established enterprises and global business networks, offering insights into scaling, innovation, leadership, and international expansion.

ORGANISER STATEMENT

“VISTAR 2.0 is designed to create a platform where entrepreneurs, business owners, and industry leaders come together to build real opportunities for growth and collaboration. Our goal is to strengthen business ecosystems that go beyond networking and lead to real execution.”

— Baljeet Kaur, Entrepreneur ecosystem builder

Founder, Sikhs for business & Free Mind a school for Professional skills 

BUSINESS RECOGNITION PROGRAM

Alongside networking, VISTAR 2.0 will also recognize outstanding entrepreneurs through a nomination-based award initiative.

Categories include:

* Family Business Excellence

* Rising Women Entrepreneurs

* Emerging Business Leaders

* High-Growth Startups

This initiative aims to highlight businesses showing strong performance, consistency, and growth potential.

REGISTRATION & ACCESS

Due to limited seating and premium networking structure, participation is carefully curated.

* Registration: vistar.sikhs4business.com

* WhatsApp: +91 73992 50001

Sikh Community to Celebrate 200 Years of Settlement in Assam

 According to Sentinel Assam “ The Sikhs of Assam have a rich and glorious history. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, visited Assam during his first Udasi (missionary journey) in 1505. Later, at another important point in history, the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, visited Assam in 1667, adding further significance to the history of Sikhs in the state.

Although Sikhs migrated to Assam at different times for various reasons, the most significant permanent settlement began during the Burmese (Maan) invasion of Assam between 1818 and 1822. At the request of Swargadeo Chandrakanta Singha, the King of Assam, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab sent a force of 500 Sikh soldiers under the leadership of the brave Chaitanya Singh to fight against the Burmese. After the final battle of Hadirachaki, many of these Sikh soldiers settled permanently in Assam. This marked the beginning of the indigenous Sikh community in Assam, a history that now spans more than two centuries.

In fact, if the establishment of Gurdwara Mataji at Chaparmukh in 1820 is taken as the base year, the bicentenary of the permanent settlement of Assamese Sikhs should have been celebrated in 2020. However, the event could not be organised due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the Assamese Sikh Santha, the state's traditional social organisation of Sikhs, has become divided and weakened because of prolonged inaction by its leadership.

Against this backdrop, a special general meeting held on June 7, 2026, at the Borkola Central Gurdwara resolved to organise a grand bicentenary celebration of the permanent Sikh settlement in Assam. Accordingly, a general meeting of the Indigenous Sikhs of Assam has been scheduled for July 12 at the Borkola Central Gurdwara, the cultural and religious centre for Assamese Sikhs.

The meeting will discuss the present condition and future direction of the Assamese Sikh Santha. It will also initiate the formation of the organising committee for the grand celebration marking 206 years of the permanent settlement of Sikhs in Assam.

Kaur becomes first Sikh to serve on U.S. religious freedom commission

 

According to NorthWest Asian Weekly “ Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer announced on May 21 the appointment of Dr. Gunisha Kaur to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), making her the first Sikh to serve on the bipartisan federal panel.

Kaur, a physician, researcher and human rights advocate based in New York, was recommended by Schumer for a two-year term on USCIRF. The independent legislative branch agency monitors religious freedom conditions abroad and advises the president, Congress and the State Department on policy recommendations.

Kaur serves as the Salvatore Family Medical Director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights and is the founding director of the Human Rights Impact Lab. She is also an associate professor of anesthesiology and director of the Anesthesiology Global Health Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine.

An anesthesiologist by training, Kaur’s work has focused on displaced populations, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Her research has received support from institutions including the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Medicine.

USCIRF was created under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The commission is composed of nine members appointed by the president and congressional leaders and is tasked with monitoring violations of religious liberty worldwide.

Jubilee Health Insurance, Sikh Council launch community-based medical cover

 According to KBC “ Jubilee Health Insurance and the Sikh Council of Kenya have launched a tailored community medical cover for members of the Sikh community in Kenya, including their families and businesses.

This marks the first in a series of partnerships designed to extend healthcare access through organised affinity groups.

The scheme enables members to access quality healthcare through collective participation and pooled risk, making cover more affordable and sustainable than traditional individual plans. The solution offers essential inpatient and outpatient benefits, helping address one of the biggest barriers many households continue to face – the high upfront cost of accessing quality medical cover individually.

Eligibility spans from children as young as 38 weeks to senior citizens aged 65 years and above, with inpatient benefit options starting from Ksh 250,000 and extending up to Ksh 10 million. Enrolment will be facilitated through appointed agents within the community structure.

As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, more Kenyans are finding it increasingly difficult to access quality medical cover individually. Yet across the country, communities, associations, SACCOs, professional bodies, and faith-based groups already exist as trusted support systems for millions of people.

Jubilee Health Insurance is positioning these organised communities as one of the most direct gateways to affordable, dignified healthcare access.

Speaking during the announcement, Jubilee Health Insurance CEO and Principal Officer, Njeri Jomo, said the future of healthcare access will depend on how insurers design solutions around the realities of how people live, work, and organise themselves.

“Healthcare should not feel out of reach. We are seeing a powerful shift where communities and affinity groups are becoming gateways to access. By designing solutions around how people naturally organise themselves – through faith, profession, or shared identity – we are making healthcare simpler, more affordable, and more human.”

“But affordability is only the entry point. Organised communities give us a platform to do something more important: embed preventive care, simplify referrals, and design care pathways around real member journeys. Healthcare cost in Africa is fundamentally a system-design problem, and partnerships like this are where the next generation of value in health insurance will be created.”

On his part, Jubilee Holdings Limited Chairman, Zul Abdul, noted that driving insurance uptake will require innovative and inclusive models that reflect the cultural reality of how communities support one another, including a strong tradition of pooling resources.

“In our society, the culture of pooling resources – whether through harambees, SACCOs, or other community structures – is deeply rooted. This presents a powerful opportunity to design solutions that enable people to come together and pool risk in a structured way. As a company, our focus on organized groups is deliberate, as we continue to expand access to protection and make insurance more inclusive, accessible, and relevant to more people.”

National Chairman of the Sikh Council of Kenya Gurdeep Singh Flora said the partnership reflects the community’s long-standing values of collective support and shared responsibility.

“Our community has always believed in standing together and supporting one another. This partnership reflects that spirit by ensuring our members and their families can access healthcare with dignity, peace of mind, and financial protection.”

The partnership forms part of Jubilee Health Insurance’s broader strategy to expand healthcare inclusion by embedding insurance solutions within trusted ecosystems and organised communities, rather than relying solely on traditional retail models. The model is designed to complement, not compete with, the Social Health Authority framework, providing structured private cover that strengthens overall protection for participating households.

As healthcare financing continues to evolve, Jubilee Health Insurance sees community-based models as one of the most practical levers for closing Kenya’s insurance penetration gap, particularly for groups that may otherwise remain uninsured.

The shift in the market is from selling insurance products to building healthcare access around people, communities, and everyday realities, because healthcare becomes more powerful when no one has to face it alone.

600,000 people set to attend largest Vaisakhi parade outside India in Surrey

 According to CBC “ Hundreds of thousands of people are set to attend the Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, B.C., on Saturday, as the annual Sikh harvest festival draws the largest parade crowd of its kind outside of India.

Organizers estimate at least 600,000 people will attend the annual parade — with attendees celebrating delicious food, community and the Sikh faith's commitment to service and selflessness.

Road closures will be in place for the duration of the event, according to Surrey police, who said commuters should expect significant delays between 72 Avenue and 88 Avenue, as well as between Scott Road and King George Boulevard.

The colourful parade will kick off at 9 a.m. PT at the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar on 85 Avenue. On The Coast10:10 Surrey Vaisakhi parade takes place this weekend

One of the largest Vaisakhi parades outside of India takes place on Saturday. Two organizers, Moninder Singh and Akashdeep Singh, join host Gloria Macarenko for a conversation on the upcoming festivities.

Akashdeep Singh, who has attended the parade since he was a child, has helped organize it for over half a decade now.

He said that the parade allowed the local Sikh community to showcase its traditions — especially that of serving free food, in honour of the traditions of seva and langar.

"It means more than just looking out for your own ... the ability for a Sikh to go and be there for everyone and anyone," he said on CBC's On The Coast.

"A lot of our events and programming and our celebrations definitely revolve around that." Everything you need to know about Vaisakhi

The CBC's Anita Bathe explains what Vancouver and Surrey's massive Vaisakhi celebrations are all about

Vaisakhi celebrates the creation of the order of the Khalsa in 1699, a defining moment in Sikh history that gave the Sikh faith its final form.

Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar who has been helping organize the event since 2007, said it has grown from one that attracted 55,000 people to the massive celebration it is today.

"I think the growth has been really [about] ... a vibrant community in Surrey, the multiculturalism that is in Canada, other people wanting to learn about the Sikh faith and us obviously wanting to learn about our neighbours as well," he said. Moninder said that the parade had never seen any significant security breaches in the nearly two decades since it has been organized in Surrey.

But in light of the car-ramming that claimed 11 lives at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver last year, he said police and organizers would be stepping up security.

"Major arterial roadways are blocked [so] that cars and other larger vehicles are not able to make it through into the parade route," he said. 

"So, it has been that way for a few years. But we are definitely upping the security just to make sure that people feel safe coming to the event."  The Surrey Police Service advises families attending the event to have safety plans in place and keep children within eyesight at all times.

It also says drones would be prohibited over the parade.

Full details on road closures are available on the City of Surrey website. Organizers are recommending that attendees take transit to the event, which would drop them off near the parade's starting point.