20 India Inc icons in E&Y awards shortlist

Twenty of India's top business leaders have been selected as finalists for the forthcoming Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2004.

The list consists of Rajinder Gupta of Abhishek Industries, Onkar S Kanwar of Apollo Tyres, Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, Ashish Dhawan of Chrys Capital, G R Gopinath, Deccan Aviation, Proshanto Banerjee of GAIL Ltd, Narotam Sekhsaria of Gujarat Ambuja Cements, M S Ramachandran of Indian Oil Corporation.

The others in the list are Srinivasan Rajam of Ittiam Systems, Shyam S & Hari S Bhartia of Jubilant Organosys, Ramdas M Pai of Manipal Education & Medical Group, Subir Raha of ONGC, P N C Menon of Sobha Developers, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Kalanidhi Maran of Sun TV, Tulsi R Tanti of Suzlon Energy, Habil F Khorakiwala of Wockhardt and Ramesh Chandra Agrawal of Writers & Publishers.

This is the sixth year in India and the awards will be announced on November 1 in New Delhi. A six-member jury chaired by N R Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor, Infosys Technologies, has selected the finalists from over 100 nominations received this year.

The jury panel includes A K Purwar, chairman, State Bank of India, Jamshed J Irani, director, Tata Sons, Kalpana Morparia, deputy managing director, ICICI Bank, Naresh Chandra, chairman, committee on civil aviation policy; and T N Ninan, editor and publisher, Business Standard.

The EOY 2004 finalists represent emerging sectors such as real estate, venture capital and education, as also old economy manufacturing companies and several public sector undertakings. The key criterion for selection is entrepreneurial spirit, financial performance, strategic direction, global impact, innovation, personal integrity and influence.

"The nomination and selection process is rigorous for this fully integrated World's Business Award. The process has evolved over the last about two decades and is now standardised across fifty countries" V V Ranganathan, Ernst & Young's National Director and Country Leader for the EOY Program said.

The winner of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Award will represent India at The Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards (WEOY) 2005 in Monte Carlo.

In 2003, Narayana Murthy became the first Indian to win World Entrepreneur title in Monte Carlo. Earlier, Hero Honda's Brij Mohan Lall Munjal had become the first from India to be on the Jury of the WEOY. Recipients of the Entrepreneur of The Year award become lifetime members of the Entrepreneur of The Year Hall of Fame.