Tejinder S. Bindra

The successive Indian governments have expressed great appreciation of the NRI communities at large. However they have always singled out NRI’s of North America for their exceptional achievements in technical and commercial fields. The reason for this is the presence of some larger-than-life personalities and families in the community whose phenomenal success in various fields has made the community very visible to other Americans and especially to those in high places. One such distinguished family is the “Bindra” family of Long Island, New York. Mr. T.J. Bindra is a scion and public face of this family.

Tejinder Bindra is the President of Jeetish Group of Companies. He immigrated to the United States of America in 1979, after completing his M.B.A. He co-founded Jeetish, an import company in 1979 along with his father and brother. Later Jeetish diversified into other businesses all under the umbrella of Jeetish Group of Companies, with interests in apparel, export/import and real estate.

Mr. Bindra was the founder of the Sikh temple in Long Island in 1987. In 1999, he was the convenor of Sri Hem Kun Foundation’s international conference to mark the third centennial anniversary of the Sikhs. It was a three-day event attended by delegates from all over the world.

T.J. Bindra was also the convenor for the International Punjabi Society’s Convention held on July 2000 in New York. It was the largest gathering in the United States of the Indian community. This conference was attended by leading Punjabis from all over the world. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Charles Schumer attended the events along with other V.I.P’s, senators and congressmen.

Mr.Bindra is the President of The Sikh Organization of New York. In 1999, he led a delegation of Sikh Americans to Albany and was instrumental in having April 13th, declared as Sikh American Day in the state of New York to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the Sikhs. Under his leadership, a Sikh Film Festival (Spinning Wheel Film Festival) made its debut in September 2004 and was very well recognized and now is becoming a prestigious annual event.

He along with his family have endowed a Chair for Sikh studies at Hofstra University. T.J. Bindra serves on The Advisory Committee at Hofstra University. Mr. Bindra also serves on the Board of Directors of The United Way. T.J., along with is family are working to establish an international award (Guru Nanak Prize for Interfaith) to be given to an individual or an organization that promotes harmony and peaceful co-existence among various religions. This will be an international award.

T.J. Bindra is involved in many other social, educational and cultural activities for the betterment of the society in which he lives along with his wife and two wonderful children.