20 shortlisted for ninth EOY Awards 2007

Twenty finalists have been identified for the ninth Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) Awards 2007, to be held in the capital on November 20.

The winner will represent India at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards (WEOY) in Monte Carlo, Monaco in May, 2008.

The finalists include Atul Punj of Punj Lloyd, D Jai Ramesh of Vijai Electricals, Ela Bhatt of SEWA, E Sudhir Reddy of IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects, Glen Saldanha of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Harsh Mariwala of Marico, HM Bangur of Shree Cement, Keshub Mahindra of the Mahindra Group, Manoj Kumar Upadhyay of Acme Telepower, Nirmal Jain of India Infoline, Raaja Kanwar and Sanjay Gaikwad of UFO Moviez, Raghav Bahl of the Network 18 Group, R Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computer Services, Sajjan Jindal of JSW Steel, Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Infoedge India, Shiv Nadar of HCL, Shashi Kiran Shetty of Allcargo Global Logistics, S Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India, Shikha Sharma of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Vineet Nayyar and CP Gurnani of Tech Mahindra.

A six-member jury chaired by K V Kamath, managing director and CEO, ICICI Bank, has selected the finalists from over 170 nominations that were received, the highest since the Awards were launched in 1999.

The other jury members were Ashish Dhawan, senior managing director of Chryscapital, Keki Dadiseth, MD of Omnicom, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of Biocon, Kumar Mangalam Birla, CMD of Aditya Birla Group and S Ramadorai, CEO of TCS.

Rajiv Memani, country managing partner, Ernst & Young, said, "Through this distinctive global business awards programme, it is our endeavour to celebrate the achievements of the truly exceptional entrepreneurs in our midst. Considering the robust and stringent processes for selection, it is indeed laudable to be named a finalist."

Ernst & Young first designed and produced the EOY Award in the US in 1986, to honour the perseverance and ingenuity of those brilliant entrepreneurs, who have created and sustained successful business ventures. Ernst & Young India launched the programme in 1999, making it the first country in the firm's Asia-Pacific region to introduce this initiative.

Past recipients of the EOY Awards in chronological order include Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, Ratan Naval Tata of Tata Group, N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Brijmohan Lall Munjal of Hero Group, Mukesh D Ambani of Reliance.