Bajaj Finserv managing director Sanjiv Bajaj was named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 on Thursday, in a ceremony held in Mumbai. He will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award to be held in Monte Carlo from 13-17 June.
EY also named nine other category winners, with SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh winning the award for business transformation.
The award for manufacturing went to Puneet Dalmia, MD, Dalmia Bharat Group. Enzen Global Solutions CMD Satheesh Kumar K R emerged the winner in the services category.
Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO, Zerodha won the award for start-ups, and in financial services, Edelweiss Group chairman and CEO Rashesh Shah bagged the award.
Among other notable winners are Glenmark Pharmaceuticals CMD Glenn Saldanha (in life sciences & healthcare), ReNew Power founder chairman and CEO Ventures Sumant Sinha (energy, real estate & infrastructure), Page Industries MD Sunder Genomal (consumer products & retail), and Akhil Gupta, executive chairman, Bharti Infratel won the award for entrepreneurial CEO.
The lifetime achievement award went to E Sreedharan, who was instrumental in the planning and execution of the Kolkata Metro, Delhi Metro, Kochi Metro and Lucknow Metro.
Rajiv Memani, chairman, EY India, said in a press release, "The winners this year comprise first-time entrepreneurs who are disrupting sectors with innovation or dominating new industries as also individuals from family enterprises, where despite being in conventional businesses, they have created massive differentiation with their aspirations, innovation and execution intensity."
A distinguished nine-member jury, led by Dilip Shanghvi, MD, Sun Pharmaceuticals selected the winners. The other jury members included Jalaj Dani, co-promoter, Asian Paints; Harsh Goenka, chairperson, RPG Enterprises; Naina Lal Kidwai, chairman, Max Financial Services; Meher Pudumjee, chairperson, Thermax Ltd; Renuka Ramnath, MD and CEO, Multiples Alternate Asset Management; Vijay Sankar, deputy chairman, Sanmar Group; MK Sharma, chairman, ICICI Bank and Romesh Sobti, MD and CEO, IndusInd Bank.
