Anil Agarwal is E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year

Anil Agarwal, executive chairman of the London Stock Exchange-listed Vedanta Resources (pictured), is the Ernst &Young (E&Y) Entrepreneur of the Year. Agarwal will now represent India at the E&Y World Entreprenuer of the Year Award in Monte Carlo, Monaco in May 2009.

Eight other entreprenuers also received awards in various categories at a glittering function held here today.The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to PRS Oberoi, chairman and chief executive of the Oberoi group.

The 10th edition of the E&Y awards in India was decided by a six-member jury headed by KV Kamath, managing director and chief executive of ICICI Bank.

AM Naik, chairman and managing director, Larsen and Toubro, won the Manager Entrepreneur award and Arvind Rao, CEO and co-founder of OnMobile Global was the Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year.

The other Entreprenuer Award winners in various categories were Jaiprakash Gaur, founder chairman of Jaypee Group (infrastructure and construction), Gautam Thapar, chairman and CEO of Avantha Group (manufacturing), Rohinton Screwvala, CEO of UTV Software Communications (services), Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO and MD and Hitesh Oberoi, director and COO of Info Edge (business transformation), and P Namperumalsamy, chairman of Aravind Eye Care Systems (health care and life sciences).

“All the winners are outstanding individuals who have built exceptional enterprises. They have challenged existing business models, created markets where none existed, led innovation and also built global scale and structure,” said Rajiv Memani, country managing partner of E&Y.

The past recipients of the E&Y awards include Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, N R Narayana Murthy, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Mittal, Brijmohan Lall Munjal, B Ramalinga Raju and Tulsi Tanti.