PM presents BS Awards today

On the last day of a contentious session of Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have reasons to relax and smile. At the annual Business Standard Awards ceremony here tomorrow, the audience will hear a panel of his close aides look back and reflect on 20 years of economic reforms and Singh’s contribution to Rising India. The panelists will include Home Minister P Chidambaram, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and economist Shankar Acharya.

Singh will give away the BS awards to the year’s best performers from the world of business and finance. Every year, the awardees are chosen by a committee of thought leaders on the basis of hard facts and figures compiled by Business Standard. This year’s jury was headed by ICICI Chairman K V Kamath.

The event thus brings together the core team that ushered in economic reforms and liberalisation in 1991 — while Singh was the finance minister, Chidambaram was the commerce minister, Ahluwalia served in the finance ministry and Rangarajan was the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. That year was a turning point of sorts for the Indian economy — it moved from the licence-permit-quota Raj towards free markets.

PM Murty, the managing director and CEO of Asian Paints, will receive the CEO of the Year award. Homegrown Asian Paints is India’s largest maker and seller of paints. Various strategic initiatives have kept it ahead of rivals.

In the past, businessmen like Mukesh Ambani, Kumarmangalam Birla, Ratan Tata, Baba Kalyani and Anil Agarwal have won this award.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car maker and the crown jewel of Suzuki Motor Corporation, is the Company of the Year; Engineers India is the Star PSU of the Year; GlaxoSmithKline is the Star MNC of the Year; and kitchen appliance maker TTK Prestige is the Star SME of the Year. Godrej & Boyce has been selected for the Most Innovative Company of the Year award.

Aniruddha Naha of DSP Blackrock Micro Cap Fund will get the Fund Manager of the Year (equity) award, while Amanadeep Chopra and Manish Joshi of UTI Mutual Fund have been selected for the Fund Manager of the Year (debt) award.

MD Mallya, the chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda, will get the Banker of the Year award. In the last few years, Bank of Baroda has transformed itself into a nimble-footed bank by adopting high technology, undergoing an image makeover and launching a high-decibel advertising campaign.