Gopal Raju came to America, the land of liberty, on January 26, 1950, the day India became a free republic.

He founded India Abroad, a weekly publication in 1970, designed to serve the growing Asian-Indian community in the United States. It was the first such publication in the U.S.

Raju is a strong believer in fair, non-editorialized coverage of news. He is committed to the responsibility of the Fourth Estate. His publication grew to be an institution of great respect. He has come to be known as the doyen of South Asian journalism in the U.S.

In 1975 he started India Abroad Foundation, a non-profit organization, to raise funds from Indian Americans to support charities in India. Since then the Foundation has been sending over a million dollars a year to various charities in India. The Foundation was the first to rebuild a whole village, Hingaria, after the devastating earthquake in Gujarat.

In 1986, he started India Abroad News Service which is the only independent news service in that region currently serving approximately 80 publications all over the world.

It is now available in four languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati and Arabic. IANS is the only service from that region available in Arabic.

In 1993 he started India Abroad Center for Political Awareness. He saw that the economic success of the growing Indian-American community did not translate into political participation.

Washington Leadership Program was added to the concept in 1994. The idea was to have young Indian Americans experience first hand the political process on Capitol Hill. In 1995, WLP placed the first intern in Congressman Sherrod Brown's office. Since then 132 students have interned with 11 Senators, 46 Congressmen and 8 other organizations.

Gopal Raju currently publishes two of the only Indian language newspapers in the U.S. ---- Gujarat Times in Gujarati and Sher-E-Panjab in Panjabi.

After he sold India Abroad Publications two years ago, all his organizations went through a name change. The foundation is now Indian American Foundation, the wire service is Indo-Asian News Service and the Center in Washington is Indian American Center for Political Awareness.