BS Annual Awards: An evening lit up by the stars of India Inc

Awards also honoured institutions and people who contributed to society and made a huge impact

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Business Standard Annual Awards in the presence of top India Inc leaders, who gathered in Mumbai on Saturday to celebrate the success of some of their peers who have achieved corporate excellence.  

Business Standard also introduced the Business Standard Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards 2016 to recognise the best Social Entrepreneur, Socially Aware Corporate and Social Enterprise.

 

The government is determined to break the will of borrowers who game the banking system, thinking the lenders don’t have enough powers to strike back. Bankers are now armed with several strong laws and will soon operate without any fear of future harassment should a commercial decision go wrong, said Arun Jaitley, minister of finance, defence and corporate affairs, at the Business Standard Annual Awards for excellence in corporate and social sectors. 

“Some people are exploiting the banking system’s inability to deal with consistent defaulters. And, I think that needs to be cracked,” said the finance minister, delivering his speech as the chief guest of the event in Mumbai on Saturday. 

 

In Photos: THE BEST & THE BRIGHTEST

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Speak: 

ON ECONOMY

This year we have a record provision, almost Rs 3.96 lakh crore for infrastructure, Rs 1.87 lakh crore as far as agriculture and rural development are concerned, and I think it is going to be a high priority idea through the schemes to spend this entire money because this itself is capable of generating a large amount of economic activity.

ON BANKS 

What subsequently appears to be an erroneous decision, with the wisdom of hindsight, is not necessarily a corrupt decision. That distinction between an erroneous decision and a corrupt decision is very thin under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The law was last amended in 1988, in the pre-liberalisation era, as per the requirement of that time. It needs to be upgraded to meet the needs of a modern economic system. 

In the liberalised era, it needs to be changed to give protection to public servants, bankers and others dealing with commercial decisions in state instrumentalities. This includes bureaucrats and politicians who take decisions on policy matters and even in defence purchases.

ON GOODS AND SERVICES TAX  

Some of the states were apprehensive because of the fear of the unknown. And the fear of the unknown was what if I lose revenue? It’s quite unlikely. It didn’t happen when VAT (value added tax) was brought in and it is not likely to happen, but then the fear factor remained.

This is India’s first federal decision-making body, where the Centre and the states both sat together and came to conclusions. And this has been a truly exemplary exercise in deliberative democracy.

ON ELECTION FUNDING  

I believe one method that should become the most acceptable one, and that is followed by many countries, is that people must donate to political parties digitally

Guests at the Business Standard Awards 2016 function

(From left) BSE MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan and Multi Commodity Exchange President P K Singhal

(From left) LIC MD Hemant Bhargava, former Sebi & LIC chairman G N Bajpai, LIC MD Usha Sangwan, GIC Re CMD Alice G Vaidyan and Standard Chartered head Zarin Daruwala 

(From left) Kotak Mahindra Bank Vice-Chairman and MD Uday Kotak with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley 

(From left) EY India chief Rajiv Memani and Enam Group Chairman Vallabh Bhanshali 

Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman S Ramadorai 

(From left) KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar and Videocon Group director Anirudh Dhoot 

(From left) Ace lawyer Cyril Shroff and McKinsey’s Noshir Kaka 

Veteran investment banker and tiger conservationist Hemendra Kothari 

Former RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan 

BCG Asia-Pacific Chairman Janmejaya Sinha

CEO OF THE YEAR 

SIDDHARTHA LAL, MD & CEO, Eicher Motors
 

“I am honoured and delighted to win this award. Never in my wildest dream or in my imagination did I expect to receive something like this. This is an award for the big guys, the big corporates. That is not really me. I thank the jury. Chaps like me aren’t expected to be so successful. We enjoy ourselves and we do what we do. This was never the idea”

COMPANY OF THE YEAR

INDIGO: Aditya Ghosh, President 
 

“Being adjudged ‘the company of the year’ is not just a milestone for us, but it’s a testament to all the hard work and determination my 14,000 colleagues put every day in a tough business and an even tougher environment. An independent and unbiased public recognition is always a huge encouragement for the entire team at IndiGo… especially, when it is backed by a prestigious award of this stature. This is special in many ways.  On behalf of the entire IndiGo team, I humbly accept this award and thank the esteemed jury for recognising IndiGo’s contribution in the corporate sector"

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Sanjiv Puri, CEO, ITC, received the award on behalf of Y C Deveshwar, non-executive chairman, ITC

BANKER OF THE YEAR

Paresh Sukthankar, Deputy MD, HDFC Bank, received the award on behalf of Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank

INNOVATIVE ORGANISATION OF THE YEAR

ISRO, K Sivan, director, received the award on behalf of Chairman A S Kiran Kumar

STAR SME

DR LAL PATHLABS:  Om Manchanda, CEO
 

“It is a great feeling to win the award and will motivate us to take the business to the next level. Seventy per cent of medical decisions are based on diagnostics. India is a vast country and has a huge health care challenge. We are happy to play our role. Our vision is to expand the network across the country and serve patients”

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

SANJIT ‘BUNKER’ ROY: Founder, Barefoot College
 

"The best way of communication is not telephone, television or telegraph but ‘tell a woman’. Women are change agents and role models. They are formidable agents of change in this country”

SOCIALLY AWARE CORPORATE OF THE YEAR

AXIS BANK foundation: Som Mittal (Trustee) & Anil Kumar (CEO)

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR

PRATHAM EDUCATION FOUNDATION: Madhav Chavan, Co-founder
 

“Awards are nice but the real reward will be when the statistic that 50 per cent of children who can’t read comes down. We are working very hard to improve this”

STAR MNC

MARUTI SUZUKI, Kenichi Ayukawa, MD & CEO
 

“Our mission is to provide a good car to Indian families. We have delivered 17 million cars, but more than 90 per cent of the families are waiting to own a car. Maruti’s aim is to make India a global small-car hub and realise the Make in India goal”

STAR PSU

NTPC: Gurdeep Singh, CMD

FUND MANAGER DEBT

ANIL BAMBOLI: HDFC Mutual Fund

FUND MANAGER EQUITY

VINIT SAMBRE: DSP BlackRock

START-UP OF THE YEAR

FRESHDESK: Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO

OPINIONS

RAJIV LALL, MD & CEO, IDFC BANK

“The finance minister did not really address the elephant in the room, which is the shock of bad assets. What he said about strengthening bankers’ hands has also been tried earlier ”

R C BHARGAVA, CHAIRMAN, MARUTI SUZUKI

“The selection process has not become stereotype as we make changes every year with some improvements and some new ideas”

HARSH MARIWALA, CHAIRMAN, MARICO

“I am attending the awards function after a gap of three-four years and it has only increased in stature. The FM’s speech was pointed and focused”

FALGUNI NAYAR: FOUNDER AND CEO, NYKAA

“Business Standard awards recognise every aspect of business and have always been very comprehensive. The new categories this year have made them wider”

PHOTOS: Suryakant Niwate & Kamlesh D Pednekar