Five of the six new directors on the board of Belgium’s newly restructured High Diamond Council (HRD) are of Indian lineage. The six: Kaushik Mehta, Shimson Parnas, Nishit Parikh, Mehul A. Kothari, Nilang Mehta and Joshi Mukund, will be inducted on May 8, 2006, at the HRD General Assembly. The elections were conducted from May 3-4.%%“The fact that for the first time democratic elections have been implemented is a real breakthrough,” said André Gumuchdjian of the BVGD. “Let’s hope that now that the elections are over, we’ll be able to build a stronger future for Antwerp,” added Daniel Van Dievoet of BVGD. “But I still believe that if it was indeed appropriate to ask the candidate to enlist according to their turnover, it would have been more fair to allow all voting people to choose across the board, and not only in their turnover category,” he remarked.%%“Out of the 1,800 or so companies that are registered by the ministry of economic affairs, many of which are not in activity, I’m glad to see that 678 votes have been recorded,” said HRD spokesperson Philip Claes.