The Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Shri Omar Abdullah, who presented all the CII awards at its CII Awards Evening at the National Conference and Annual Session 2009 expressed how the awardees of the evening, particularly the recipients of the women exemplar awards “are truly a living example of turning a crisis into an opportunity” and also praised CII to act swiftly in challenging times to scale up economy. Mr. Abdullah has also mentioned that Jammu and Kashmir, which was withstanding all the crisis in the previous years now is ready to march forward with room for huge reforms in terms of governance and he invited industry to be a part of the Kashmir reforms and to leverage tremendous opportunity lying ahead.
The CII Awards evening began with the CII Corporate Wellness Award instituted in partnership with the Apollo Hospitals Group. The Award for the Best Health Promotion in the Manufacturing sector went to Saint Gobain and HCL Technologies in the Services sector. The Maximum participation Award in a health research conducted by Apollo, which revealed the overall health wellness score of the industry, went to L&T in the Manufacturing sector and HDFC in the services Sector. The final award in this category of Best overall Corporate Wellness Organization went to L&T again in the manufacturing sector and HCL Technologies again in the services sector. ITC, RMSI and Tata Steel received special awards for outstanding merits in various aspects of corporate wellness.
The Women Exemplar Awards are an effort of CII under the Social Development Initiatives to promote Women Empowerment at the Community level - in the domain of Education, Literacy, Health and Micro Enterprise. These Awards aim to discover and recognize Women who have excelled, despite all odds. P. Madhavi received the award in the Education category, for championing child rights in over 32 communities. She earned a huge round of applause when she made a warm speech of her struggle and achievements leaving the audience all in praise for her. Manorama Ben Jaiswal received the award in health category who started her career as an outreach worker to become a most significant powerhouse in Health Worker Training. Minakshi Swain received the award in Micro Enterprise category for her pioneering effort in establishing the first Self-Help group of her very backward village of Orissa after a massive cyclone.
The coveted CII Presidents awards are given to individuals who contribute immensely towards CII’s initiatives in Nation Building. Prof. C .K. Prahalad, the first recipient for this award for his outstanding contribution to the nation in the corporate sector and also to champion his vision India@75 through CII. Prof. Shoji Shiba, Visiting Professor at MIT, USA received the award for his outstanding contribution towards developing the path breaking Training Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing under the aegis of CII and National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. Mr. Sandipan Chakravorty, Chairman, CII Eastern Region received the award for providing exceptional leadership to CII’s work in the states of Eastern Region. Mr. Salil Singhal, Chairman CII Northern region received the award for scaling up, guiding and showing exceptional leadership to the corporate leaders of the northern region of CII. Dr BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, CII Southern Region received the award for making CII witness a remarkable and exhilarating year under his leadership which went through trying times and economical uncertainties. Mr. Gopal Srinvasan Chairman, Mission on India@75 received the award for developing a national agenda of CII within a year’s time, to embark on an extraordinary journey inspired by Professor C K Prahalad. Mr. James Abraham, Senior Partner and Director of the Boston Consulting Group India received the award for playing an integral role in actualizing the India@75 movement right from its nascent stage. Mr. Ramesh Datla, Chairman, National MSME Council received the award for being the true flag bearer for the more than 75% MSME members of CII. Dr Prem C Jain, Chairman, Indian Green Building Council received the award for his instrumental role in increasing Green Building footprint in the country from a meager 20000 sq.ft. to 200 million sq. ft., enabling India to have the second largest green building footprint, after USA.