India hailed the CNN-News18 ‘INDIAN OF THE YEAR’ 2017 winners

The awards night of the annual and flagship initiative of CNN-News18, ‘Indian of the Year – 2017’ will be telecasted on the 9^th & 10^th of December at 9:30 PM on the channel. The initiative, which recognizes and awards the exceptional contribution and achievements of the iconic Indian citizens and organizations, has already received exceptional interest from all over India.

The prestigious event, in its eleventh year, was a tremendous success, witnessing participation from several industry stalwarts, ministers, and renowned personalities from the sports and film fraternity  - Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce, Suresh Prabhu, Stalwarts of the Indian Cricket Fraternity, Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Mithali Raj and Kapil Dev, the newly crowned Miss World Manushi Chhillar, Actors Rajkkumar Rao & Ramya Krishnan, Business Honchos Adar Poonawala & Acharya Balkrishna to name a few.

Sharing his thoughts on the Awards, Joy Chakraborthy, President - Revenue, TV18 and CEO Forbes India said, “Over the past ten years, CNN-News18 Indian of the Year awards have evolved to a significant stature, recognizing the outstanding contributions of the Indians in various categories. The colossal success of this initiative in the past decade, including participation by some of the country’s most distinguished citizens, has raised the bar for this platform making it one of the most accredited awards in the industry. I am of the firm belief that a marquee event like this not only builds equity for the channel but also creates tremendous value for the brands associating with it and my belief was validated when over 10 sponsors partnered with us this year.”

Presented by Jio, this year, the reach of the Awards was multifold. The audience included not just the ones seated at the venue but also across the nation with the event being digitally streamed live on the JioTV app & news18.com and through live television dip-ins on CNN-News18, engaging audiences across the country. It was followed widely on social media and trended on twitter with #IndianoftheYear all through the star-studded evening.

Ace badminton player, Kidambi Srikanth was the winner in the sports category while lawyer and environmentalist Afroz Shah took the honors in the Public Service category. Acharya Balkrishna emerged as 2017’s ‘Indian of the Year’ in Business and Rajkummar Rao was adjudged the winner in the entertainment category. In addition to these, Adar Poonawalla was conferred the Outstanding Achievement in Business & CSR award, Indian Women's Cricket Team and Miss World Manushi Chhillar were Special Achievement awardees and Team Baahubali was given the Outstanding Achievement award.

The highlight of the grand finale was the final award of the night, the overall ‘CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2017’, an honour that went to the Captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli.

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Instituted in 2006, the CNN-News18 Indian of the Year has over the years achieved credibility unmatched by others in the media industry. The award distinguishes itself by celebrating not only exemplary individuals and their achievements but also the ideas that have inspired India and impacted lives of the citizens. The awards adhere to a transparent and robust selection process that includes drawing up a list of nominees, further leading to the final selection of winners by the Editorial board of the news channel. Over the years, the recipients of this prestigious award have included People of Chennai (2015) Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2014), the NGO Stop Acid Attacks (2013), Indian Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand (2012), Anna Hazare (2011), Bihar CM Nitish Kumar (2010), A R Rahman(2009), G Madhavan Nair (2008), E Sreedharan (2007) and Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2006).