Big Bazaar presented ‘The Great Indian Awards' to emerging Indians at a function held in the city on Sunday. The store presented the awards to 10 persons from Coimbatore “in recognition of their significant contribution made in education, social service and sports,” according to S. Dharmendra, Senior Operations Manager, Big Bazaar.
The idea to institute such an award to honour emerging Indians in various fields was conceived when the store organised a promotion event called ‘The Great Indian Shopping Festival' in 2010 with the aim of highlighting the services rendered by unsung heroes.
Mr. Dharmendra said a good number of people in Coimbatore have made a mark in their fields of activity but their contributions were not known to many.
V. Sukuntha, a former UN programme officer, and Sushanth, manager, Chinmaya Mission, selected the awardees. The awardees were Soundarya, a best NCC cadet, P. Lalitha, an academic and recipient of best faculty award, Anand Kumar, an activist working for the differently abled, Stanley Peter, a social worker, Prabhakaran, an NSS co-ordinator, Loganathan, who works for the poor and needy, Kousalya, a participant in the 2008 Asian Athletic Championship, Nataraj, a carom player, Sansitha Nanda Kumar, a table tennis player, and Siddharth, also a table tennis player.
Sanjeev Rajput, a 2009/2010 Arjuna Awardee, was the chief guest. Harpreet Singh and Onkar Singh, Commonwealth Games 2010 winners, were also present on the occasion.
