This year’s awards will be given to outstanding organizations and individuals who have advanced their respective fields of operations.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Business Standard Annual Awards in the presence of top India Inc. leaders and senior government officials, who will gather at the ITC Maurya in New Delhi on Friday to celebrate excellence in the corporate, banking, and social sectors.
This year’s awards will be given to outstanding organizations and individuals who took their respective fields of operations to newer heights while delivering on scale, sustainability, leadership, and innovation. They were chosen by three separate juries comprising some of the most respected names in India Inc. While the corporate excellence awards were selected by a jury led by Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Banker of the Year was chosen by a jury led by former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor S S Mundra. The CSR awards were selected by a jury headed by Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman S Ramadorai.
The jury chose Ashok LeLeyland’sanaging Director and CEO Vinod K Dasari, ashe CEO of the Year, or drafting the company’s growth strategy and focusing on three verticals to address the cyclical challenges of the trucking business.
He introduced new products, focused on light commercial vehicles, and built a strong intermediate commercial vehicle franchise, all of which increased its market share from 12-14 percent four years ago to around 25 percent.
One of India’s oldest success stories of foreign investment, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), has changed the way Indians go about their daily life – ranging from home care, beauty, and personal care to food and refreshments. The jury recognized HUL’s hard work, which earned it the Company of the Year award. The Unilever subsidiary stands miles ahead of formidable global and home-grown challengers such as Procter & Gamble and Patanjali Ayurved. With the GlaxoSmithKline Consumer acquisition, it will also become a leader in the health and wellness segment.
The jury discussed several outstanding individuals who left a deep and lasting impact on India’s corporate history but quickly decided on Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej as the Lifetime Achievement winner. The Banker of the Year award will be presented to IndusInd Bank MD and CEO Romesh Sobti.
Power Grid Corporation won the Star PSU of the Year award. Honeywell Automation India was declared the Star MNC of the Year, while Jamna Auto bagged the Star SME of the Year.
Foodtech player Swiggy was chosen the Start-Up of the Year.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year award was jointly won by Katha founder Geeta Dharmarajan and Srijan founder Ved Arya. Srijan is a rural development initiative that collaborates with the government, citizen organizations, donor agencies, and private businesses. A hybrid organization works as a consulting firm and a grassroots development agency, involved at every level — from design to staffing and resource management to implementation in the field.
Dharmarajan wanted to solve the problem of children dropping out of school not because their parents could not afford to send them but because they did not find it interesting enough. Katha makes learning fun and meaningful with Dharmarajan’s trademark story pedagogy. Today, it works with 700 municipal schools in New Delhi.
Piramal Enterprises was chosen as the Socially Aware Corporate of the Year. The jury appreciated the company’s targeted and hugely impactful work in Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh towards improving the healthcare facilities for tribal communities. The Social Enterprise of the Year award was won by Naz Foundation, which was founded by Anjali Gopalan in 1994 with a focus on gender, sexuality, and providing care and support to children and people living with HIV/AIDS. Its women empowerment program, which imparts life skills to adolescent girls to access their rights using sports, has grown from 70 girls to 90,000 today.
