Tata Steel and Hero MotoCorp bagged the Best in Class Manufacturing, and Innovator of the Year awards, while the Young Makers of the Year award went to Ajanta Pharma, at Time India awards announced on the inaugural day of the Make in India Week on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the awards instituted by Time magazine for the first time to TV Narendra of Tata Steel, Pawan Munjal of Hero MotoCorp, and Yogesh & Rajesh Agarwal of Mumbai-based Ajanta Pharma at the grand inaugural ceremony at National Sports Club of India stadium in Mumbai.
The awards were announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, and Mckinsey & Co managed the awards selection process.
The winners were selected after surveying nearly 2,100 Indian companies, and their various performance parameters before short-listing 150 companies.
Prime Minister Modi also released the KPMG report on India, which highlights the various reforms initiatives taken by the NDA government.
Mr Modi, who inaugurated the Make In India Centre at Bandra Kurla Complex on Saturday morning, also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Sweden, and Finland, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland. In his talks with the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, he invited Swedish companies to forge partnerships in the fields of defence, electronic good and medical equipment. Mr Lofven announced the establishment of a Sweden-India business leaders roundtable.
In his interaction with Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila, Mr Modi invited Finland to invest in engineering, power, biotechnology, and innovation sectors.
Recalling his long association with Poland when he was the Gujarat chief minister, he invited Polish Deputy PM Dr Piotr Glinski for co-operation in sectors of food processing, clean energy, and transportation. Mr Modi also tele-inaugurated the new state-of-the-art manufacturing unit of Trivitron Healthcare in Chennai.
At the inaugural ceremony, Mr Modi also had some friendly advice to the Indian industry.
“Don’t wait. Don’t relax. There are immense opportunities in India. You should take advantage of the renewed interest of global players to work in India,” he said. “I assure you that if you take one step, we will walk two steps for you.”
Describing this century as “Asia’s century”, Mr Modi told foreign investors, “My advice to you is to make India your centre if you want this century to be your century. I invite everyone to be a part of India’s unfolding story,” he said. “This is the best time ever to be in India and it is even better to Make in India.”
