Malkit Singh MBE visited the City of Coventry on the invitation of Panjab Radio

Following on from the announcement last week of the historic twinning of Coventry and Jalandhar (Panjab, India), the worldwide renowned music artist - Malkit Singh MBE visited the City of Coventry on the invitation of Panjab Radio, to lend his support to the twinning initiative.

The Lord Mayor of Coventry Councillor Tim Sawdon, the Leader of The City Council John Mutton and other Cabinet Members and Councillors officially welcomed Malkit Singh to the City by hosting a small civic reception at the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, Council House, Earl Street, Coventry, CV1 5RR, on Thursday 4th April 2013 at 2pm, where media and Coventry’s Community/Faith and Business leaders were present.

Surjit Singh Ghuman MBE, Managing Director of Panjab Radio said “Malkit Singh is an iconic, leading celebrity and ambassador of the Panjabi community and is known as the “King of Panjab”. We are delighted that Malkit has accepted Panjab Radio’s invitation to support the Coventry City Council’s twinning of Coventry and Jalandhar.”

Hailed the ‘King of Bhangra’, Malkit Singh is one of the few Panjabi icons around in today’s Bhangra industry. Malkit Singh has a special affinity with the City of Jalandhar as he was born and spent his early life growing up in Jalandhar. Malkit Singh became the first Panjabi singer to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London with the award of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the Panjabi music industry.

Jalandhar is the oldest and largest developed city in the north-western Indian state of Panjab, which in recent years has seen rapid urbanisation and developed into a highly industrialised centre of commercial activity. It is the central city of Panjab and provides goods like glass and furniture to the neighbouring cities and is also a hub of sports goods manufacture. Over the years, the sports goods industry has grown at an impressive rate and of late Indian sports goods are also exported to different countries including the United Kingdom. The Indian sports goods industry is a highly labour intensive industry which provides employment to the weaker sections of society and also employs a large number of women. The sports goods industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth over the past five decades and now occupies a place of prominence in the Indian economy in view of its massive potential for employment, growth and export.

The twinning with Jalandhar is Coventry City Council’s first twinning link for 30 years. Up to 20,000 Coventry residents have connections in the region and the twinning with Jalandhar had been sought because of Coventry’s deep connections with it. Historically there are two purposes for Coventry to develop twinning links - to promote international peace and reconciliation, and to develop trade links. The City hopes the twinning will help foster economic links and promote business for Coventry, following on from Prime Minister David Cameron’s UK Trade Delegation to India which has encouraged businesses to get more involved with India as a growing economy.

Surjit Singh Ghuman concluded that “Malkit Singh is in Coventry to support Panjab Radio’s application for a coveted FM radio licence to broadcast in the Coventry area and we thought it would be an excellent opportunity for him to promote the Jalandhar and Coventry twinning at the same time”.