Trustees, Settlors, Advisors and Invitees of the Global Community of Zoroastrians Trust met for their AGM in Mumbai at the West End Hotel on Sunday 2 February 2025.

 

The AGM was conducted by Trustee and the Representative of the Global Working Group from M.E region, Mrs Meher Bhesania of Dubai under the chairmanship of Neville Shroff, Chairman of the GCZT and also Chairman of the Hongkong Association.

 

The highlight of the programme was the inclusion of inspirational speeches from 4 extremely well known and prominent Zoroastrian leaders.

 

The first address came from industrialist Nadir Godrej who in his customary poetic delivery spoke on the need and value

of community service and re-capturing the glorious past heritage of the community. As a matter of coincidence, this is the 25^th year of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce and it was Nadir Godrej who inaugurated the WZCC on 28^th December 2000 in Houston in similar poetic fashion.

 

The second address was by prominent lawyer Darayus Khambatta who spoke about the work of the Tata Trusts, his memories of working with the Late Ratan Tata and emphasized the need for moderation and accommodation of differing view points in the larger interest of community welfare.

 

The third inspiring address came from the prominent Ahmedabad-based industrialist Piruz Khambatta. His speech was full of practical and actionable ideas for monetising old and disused community properties, particularly in rural areas of Gujarat and utilising those funds for community welfare, amelioration of poverty and providing support to our Mobeds.

 

The fourth speech came from the well-known surgeon Dr Keki Turel who spoke on the issues of health, well-being and betterment of mind and spirit for the young and not-so-young.

 

Prior to these 4 extremely interesting and inspiring addresses, the AGM heard from well-known solicitor Burjor Antia who was felicitated on his tireless efforts to bring the GCZT to fruition and his huge efforts to bring success to a major GCZT project on health insurance. Yazdi Tantra presented the Secretary’s Report and Sam Balsara ( Treasurer GCZT ) gave an update on the finances of the GCZT.

 

The emphasis then turned to Youth and the various measures to be undertaken to promote youth and career opportunities. The 3 Advisors to the GCZT on youth matters are Arzan Wadia of FEZANA, Homiar Madan of WZOTFI and Dorab Mistry of ZTFE. Presentations were made by Pashan Khosrawi as well as Kimiya Shahzadi & Arash Chothia representing the Zoroastrian Youth of North America, Dr Zal Canteenwala from the Young Zoroastrians wing of the ZTFE UK, Hoshang Gotla on the activities undertaken by the XYZ youth organisation in India and finally a brief word from Behnaz Nanavutti who is now the youth director on the WZCC International Board.

 

There were also reports from all the regional representatives attending the AGM either in person or by Zoom.

 

 

Post lunch an interesting film on GCZT produced by Meher Bhesania was shown to the participants which contains the blueprint of the 5 verticals the trust will pursue this year. The film added a new dimension to the meeting.

Yazdi Tantra then gave an update on the Z Funds portal (www.zfunds.org), developed exclusively for GCZT, which will be a focal point for applications and approvals for education and medical needs of the community.

Thereafter Cyrus Driver spoke on the forthcoming World Zoroastrian Congress to be hosted in Singapore in December 2026 and Viraf Mehta, Chairman BPP, Delzeen and Porushapa on the 9^th World Zoroastrian Youth Congress to be hosted by ZYNG in Mumbai in 2027.

 

Then it was time to review the major projects of the GCZT and this important session was moderated by Trustee Sam Balsara. First for review was the Health Vertical of the GCZT which is spearheaded by Dr Rati Godrej and Homi Katgara ably supported by several trustees and advisors. Maneck Dastur of the brokers K M Dastur was also on hand to explain and amplify various matters. Noshir Dadrawala also made a contribution on the subject as well. He spoke on the ‘Imperatives of giving to the community’ and raised a valid question – are we giving enough to the community and if not then why not? We need to give wisely to the community by using the 3 Ts –  time, talent and treasure of wealth.

 

The following day, Monday 3^rd Feb the venue shifted to the Dadar Athornan Madressa where Dinshaw Tamboly and his team presented a detailed paper on the topic Empowering Mobeds. This paper dealt with the crisis faced by our full-time mobeds in terms of poor salaries and lack of financial security plus the absence of any meaningful number of students entering the Mobed vocation. This subject was dear to the hearts of all the participants and various suggestions were discussed. Once again this matter will be further progressed in private discussions and efforts.

 

To sum up this landmark AGM had a first in terms of the 4 inspirational speeches from prominent community icons. And the 3 main thrust areas for the GCZT highlighted here were Youth, Heath Insurance for the needy and financial support for Mobeds. The AGM ended with heartfelt vote of thanks to the organisers and in particular  strong support  to Burjorji Antia,  Neville Shroff,  the Settlors, Trustees and Advisors of GCZT and Regional Representatives and Committee Members of the Global Working Group.