PM Modi chosen for award for outstanding leadership, says Prof Philip Kotler

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chosen for the first Philip Kotler Presidential award for his outstanding leadership and selfless service towards India, internationally acclaimed economist Prof Philip Kotler, in whose name the honour has been instituted, said on Tuesday.

Modi's "efforts in India have resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in India", Kotler tweeted, justifying the Indian Prime Minister's selection.

" I congratulate PM @narendramodi for being conferred the first ever Philip Kotler Presidential Award. He has been selected for his outstanding leadership & selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy," he said in a tweet.

Kotler added that Modi's winning the award "raises the bar for future recipients."

Earlier, he hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for advancing the common good in India and expressed delight on the presentation of the award here yesterday.

Kotler, in a mail addressed to Dr Jagdish Seth on Tuesday whom he had deputed to confer the award on PM Modi, said: "I can't find the words to express how wonderful you have been making it possible to give the Kotler Award to Prime Minister Modi for his public leadership."

Outlining the idea behind the award, Kotler said: "Our idea with the World Marketing Summit is to choose each year a national leader who epitomises the best ideas for advancing their society with democratic values and ideals."

He said he "talked to a number of people from India and elsewhere who felt that Prime Minister Modi is doing his best to advance the common good in India."

Endorsing further the choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the first recipient of the award, he said: "We choose a public leader who encourages companies in that country to pursue the triple bottom line of profits, people and the planet."

Prof Kotler is a world-renowned professor of marketing at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, US. Owing to his ill-health.

His tweet came hours after Congress President Rahul Gandhi mocked the award.

"I want to congratulate our PM, on winning the world famous "Kotler Presidential Award"! In fact it's so famous it has no jury, has never been given out before & is backed by an unheard of Aligarh company. Event Partners: Patanjali & Republic TV :)," Gandhi tweeted.

After Gandhi's tweet, Union Minister Smriti Irani hit out at the Congress President.

"Rich !!! Coming from a person whose illustrious family decided to confer the 'Bharat Ratna' on themselves," she tweeted.