India-Canada Association of Waterloo Region (ICA) is one of the first South Asian organizations in the Waterloo Region, fostered by the faculties at the University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University.
ICA was a social and cultural group to celebrate the special and unique culture of India and welcomed other South Asians in a collective wish to gather together with food, talk and entertainment.
As the community of South Asians grew in this Region, ICA became the representative of Indian immigrants and retained its ability to celebrate the Indian culture as it took its role to connect the diaspora in its activities, which included the celebration of India’s Independence and Republic day. The celebrations included discussions and talks of matters relevant to the community.
In the 1990s as the community grew larger, each ethnic group began their own associations to celebrate their own festivals and ICA collaborated with these associations to successfully hold its annual events. ICA remains vital as the association with its mission statement of no political, religious or ethnic group that welcomes anyone interested in India and its culture to become members.
The Board Members of India Canada Association of Waterloo Region (ICA) are elected at the Annual General Meeting normally held in January/February each year, and are all volunteers, paying the same membership fees and entrance fees at all ICA events as other members of the Association.
Years | Secretary | Treasurer | President |
2024 – Onwards | Venkat Ramachandran | Shalini Gupta | Kokila Khanna |
2019 - 2023 | Tushar Upadhyay | Uma Arya | Vinesh Bakhru |
2016 - 2018 | Kamal Gill | Uma Arya | Kokila Khanna |