New Delhi: Cricketer Virat Kohli was given CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2017 Award in a ceremony at the Taj Diplomatic Enclave here on Thursday.
The ceremony was a glitzy affair, headlined by the band Indian Ocean, and were several awards given in a number of categories before Kohli was anointed Indian of the Year
The award in the first category, public service, was presented to Afroz Shah by Union minister Suresh Prabhu.
Shah is the man behind world’s biggest beach clean-up campaign. His team of volunteers cleared over 7 million tonnes of trash from Versova Beach in Mumbai. He has also won the UN Green Award for the effort.
Kidambi Srikanth was given the award in the sports category for his contribution to badminton, presented by Prabhu. Srikanth emerged as India’s most successful male badminton player this year, having won four Super Series titles in 2017. He is only the fourth player ever to win four Super Series titles in one year.
The next award was given for individual contribution in the entertainment category, which went to actor Rajkumar Rao. Rao has emerged as Bollywood’s most versatile actor in 2017 with three strong and diverse performances in ‘Trapped’, ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ & ‘Newton’. The award was presented to him by film critic Rajeev Masand and BJP Delhi president and actor, Manoj Tiwari.
Next up was the award for outstanding achievement in entertainment, which went to team Baahubali. The film has emerged as biggest blockbuster of the Indian film industry, grossing over Rs 2000 crores. They were given the award by Masand and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Winner of the award in the Business category was Acharya Balakrishnan. Balakrishnan converted Patanjali into a marketing powerhouse to become India’s second largest FMCG Company. His wealth has also grown by 173% and he is now Rs 70,000 crore. He was presented the award by Jaitley.
The individual winner for special achievement went to Manushi Chhillar. The 20-year-old won Miss World 2017 Pageant. She is the first Miss World from India since Priyanka Chopra won in 2000. She was presented the award by Kohli and Jaitley.
The group special achievement award was won by the Indian Women’s Cricket Team. The team went to the 2017 ICC World Cup in England as underdogs but finished runners-up at the tournament. They beat world number one and defending champions Australia in the semi-final. The award was accepted by the team captain Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami from Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Kapil Dev and Jaitley.
Kohli also won the Jio Popular Choice for Indian of the Year award. He is only captain to score ten international hundreds in a calendar year, fastest to 9,000 runs in international cricket and has the most centuries scored as captain for the Indian team. He is the only one after Brian Lara to score 5 double hundreds as captain. He has led team India to no. 1 rank in test cricket. He was given the award by Jaitley.
The award for outstanding contribution to business and Corporate Social Responsibility went to Adar Poonawalla. As CEO of Serum Institute, he has taken the pharma company to new heights. Nearly two-thirds of world’s children are vaccinated with a Serum Institute product. Serum Institute vaccines sold at a fraction of global prices his charitable foundation supports path-breaking civic initiatives in Pune. He was given the award by Jaitley.
A special achievement award was also given former cricketer and current Indian team coach Ravi Shastri for his contribution to the sport. He was given the award by Jaitley, Kohli and Dev.
Comments
0 comment