- Ajay Banga, President and CEO of MasterCard bags the Jury Award in Corporate Leadership
- Salman Rushdie, Acclaimed Novelist honored with Power of Influence Award in Journalism & Literature
A beautiful evening in New York mirrored the excitement resonating around the first ever Remit2India ‘The Light of India Awards’ 2011 held on 22nd April. The awards were constituted by Remit2India, ranked the world’s #1 online money transfer portal for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) by AC Nielsen, to recognize exemplary achievements by NRIs in the fields of business leadership, corporate leadership, political leadership, science and technology, journalism and literature and arts and entertainment.
The event received an overwhelming response, from the who’s who of the South Asian community in New York to special dignitaries and performers from India. The attendance of celebrated personalities like Javed Akhtar, Salman Rushdie, Ajay Banga, Naveen Jain, Vinod Khosla, Harman Baweja, Vivek Kundra, Mukesh Majmudar and Vinod Dham made the night a runaway success.
Special chief guest, Her Excellency Meera Shankar, the Indian Ambassador to the United States, was honored by legendary Indian film and stage actor Shabana Azmi. Indian musician and singer, Raghav Sachar, wowed the audience with his patriotic tunes while actor and comedian Aasif Mandvi, of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, entertained the crowd with his anecdotes of being a first generation American-Indian. The venue the iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel was as grand as the sentiment attached with the award ceremony.
Speaking on the success of the event Avijit Nanda, President of TimesofMoney, said, “One of the definitions of the word ‘Light’ in the dictionary is ‘a person who is an outstanding leader, celebrity or luminary – The Light of India Awards is just about that. India is on the path of being a major superpower - and one of the main reasons behind this is our global Indian community. The philosophy of the Times Group has always been to recognize excellence in various fields be it movies, business or beauty. And being a part of the Group’s global arm serving the Indian diaspora, it seemed logical for us to create this platform.”
Winners were announced in 6 categories ranging from corporate excellence to arts & entertainment. The esteemed Jury comprising of names like Sulaja Firodia Motwani, Javed Akhtar, Priya Paul, Prasoon Joshi, Shiv Khera, Mahesh Dattani, Shabana Azmi, Pranay Gupte and Madhu Trehan chose their winners from each category. In accordance with the Jury Awards, NRIs and Indians across the world voted online to choose their ‘Light of India’ People’s Choice Awards.
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A Special Award called the “Power of Influence” was also created to honor a special person in some of these categories who has influenced his or her field in such a prominent way that it has changed the course of that field.
More details on the event & red carpet pictures are available on the website, www.lightofindiaawards.com.
The following includes the list of the winners for the Light of India Awards 2011
LIGHT of INDIA AWARDS 2011 TROPHY WINNERS – JURY AWARDS
Category Winner
Corporate Leadership Ajay Banga
Business Leadership Vinod Khosla
Political Leadership Ruby Dhalla
Arts & Entertainment Mira Nair
Journalism & Literature Chitra Divakaruni
Science & Technology Vinod Dham
LIGHT of INDIA AWARDS 2011 TROPHY WINNERS – The People’s Choice Award
Category Winner
Corporate Leadership Vikram Pandit
Business Leadership Naveen Jain
Political Leadership Swati Dandekar
Arts & Entertainment Mira Nair
Journalism & Literature Vikram Seth
Science & Technology Vinod Dham
LIGHT of INDIA AWARDS 2011 TROPHY WINNERS – Special Award
Category Winner
Journalism & Literature Salman Rushdie
Science & Technology Narasimha Chari & Shiladitya Sengupta
