CNBC-TV18 hosts the India Business Leader Awards 2023

CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards 2023 (IBLA) presented by Standard Chartered, held its annual awards ceremony in Mumbai. The event was a gathering of individuals who embody the spirit of entrepreneurship and contribute significantly to India's upward growth trajectory.

Shereen Bhan, managing editor, CNBC-TV18 commented, "India is in a position of undeniable strength and the IBLA 2023 celebrates leaders who are driving change and clocking new milestones with their purposeful actions. 2023 also marks CNBC-TV18's 25th year as a news brand and my decade as managing editor”.

The event hosted one-on-one discussions with Piyush Goyal, minister of commerce & industry and consumer affairs, food & public distribution and minister of textiles and Hardeep Singh Puri , union minister of housing and urban affairs and petroleum & natural gas. 

Highlighting the shift towards electric vehicles in India, Goyal in a chat led by Rahul Joshi, managing director and editor in chief, Network18, said, “The age of electric vehicles has arrived. In three-wheeler sales, we are close to 100% electric or CNG-driven, while the figure for four-wheelers was only around 2%, the future was bright as local manufacturers - Maruti, Tata and Mahindra, among others - were coming out with some fantastic offerings. We will see a lot of action in the four-wheeler space.”

Puri commented, "India is leading the global transition from fossil fuel to green energy, so, instead of being known as the minister of petroleum and coal, I should be known as the minister of energy transition." 

The event celebrated some of the towering leaders. The ‘Young Turk of the Year' award was bagged by Sameer Nigam, CEO, PhonePe and the ‘Young Turk Startup of the Year’ was awarded to BluSmart. While ONDC bagged ‘The Disruptor Award’, Persistent Systems received the ‘Most Promising Company of the Year’ recognition. The ‘IBLA Trailblazers of 2023’ title was awarded to India’s Javelin gold medallist at Asian Games 2023 Annu Rani, India's champion steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary and the Indian Men’s Relay team. Sheetal Devi was honoured with the title ‘Special and Para Sports Leader of the Year Award’.

‘The Sports Leader of the Year Award’ was given to Shubman Gill, Chandrayaan 3 received IBLA ‘Outstanding Contribution to Brand India' title and Apollo Hospitals received the ‘Outstanding Company of the Year Award’. Deepak Parekh got inducted into IBLA’s ‘Hall of Fame’. IBLA In Memoriam, honoured industry stalwarts posthumously - MS Swaminathan and Ashwin Dani. 

Sunny Deol was honoured with 'Entertainment Leader of the Year Award' for ‘Gadar 2’ and Katrina’s Kay Beauty got ‘Breakout Brand of the Year’ title, while Amitabh Kant, former CEO, NITI Aayog, received the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Public Service Award’. 

Nepra’s Lets Recycle was awarded in the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Climate Consciousness’ category and the ‘Brand Campaign of the Year’ was given to Spotify. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson, Biocon Ltd & Biocon Biologics was felicitated with the ‘Outstanding Business Leader of the Year’ title. Uday Kotak, founder, Kotak Mahindra Bank, received the prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.

The Jury panel of IBLA 2023 included Manny Maceda (worldwide managing partner, Bain & Company), Zarin Daruwala (cluster CEO, India & South Asia Markets, Standard Chartered Bank), Anish Shah (MD & CEO, Mahindra Group), Shyam Srinivasan (managing director & CEO, The Federal Bank), Rohit Jawa (president, Unilever, South Asia and CEO and managing director, HUL), Mithun Sacheti (founder, CaratLane) Abhinav A. Bindra (olympic champion, entrepreneur), Sandhya Devanathan (head and vice president, Meta India) and Nikhil Kamath (co-founder, Zerodha).