The Diwali Foundation, which grew out of efforts to get the US Postal System to issue a stamp honouring the festival of Diwali, makes the award, Power of One, recognising how one person can become the agent of change.

“We will continue to carefully monitor the status of freedom of religion or belief in every country around the world and advocate for those facing religious persecution or discrimination”, Blinken said. 

“We don't need to be told what to do on democracy”, she said here on Tuesday when an Italian journalist raised the criticism that press freedom was being eroded in the country. 

At the Security Council, Kamboj is the chair of its high-profile Counter-Terrorism Committee and organised in India a rare special session outside the headquarters to bring home the dangers of international terrorism.

India last presided over the Council in August last year when T.S. Tirumurti was the permanent representative and before that in 2011 and 2012 during current Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s tenure as the envoy to the UN.

When the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) met in Mumbai last month, an audio clip of Sajid Mir directing the 26/11 terrorists at the Chabad House Jewish cultural centre was played to focus on the role of the terrorist under Beijing protection at the UN.

Several countries have pulled out of or announced plans to withdraw from the peacekeeping operations in Mali. MINUSMA is one of the deadliest operations having claimed the lives of 292 peacekeepers.

Kamboj’s mention of nuclear and missile technology proliferation putting India at risk is a reference to the well-documented swap of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear technology for North Korea's missile technology, although she did not name the countries.

In her Sunday speech, Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley, the daughter of a turban-wearing Sikh immigrant from India, repeatedly emphasised her status as a racial minority in a party associated with whiteness and said it should reach out to minorities – Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and Jews.

The paralysis of the Council, the UN’s highest decision-making body that is charged with taking action to end conflicts and ensure international peace, has brought a sense of urgency to the reform process.