Recognising emerging entrepreneurs is important for more than one reason.

It inspires entrepreneurial spirit in others, highlights the individual effort and attracts support and nurtures the enterprise, says Mr C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director, CavinKare Pvt Ltd, a first generation entrepreneur himself.

The Confederation of Indian Industry and The Hindu Business Line are ideally suited to award such a recognition. They have jointly instituted the CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards which in the second edition this year has been expanded to cover South India, he said. Addressing the awards ceremony, Mr Ranganathan said over 200 applicants contended for the CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards 2011, being given away in association with Business Line, and 36 were shortlisted. Among them five were selected in various areas of business including entertainment, online retail, food processing, healthcare and ITES.

The winners are Mr Sachin Bansal and Mr Binny Bansal, Founders, Flipkart.com (Category: Strategy & Scaling Up); Mr K.K.Karnan, Chairman, KKR Group of Companies (Niche Market Initiative); Mr Vishwanath Alluri, CEO, IMI Mobile (International Business); Mr Rajiv Chilaka, Founder and Managing Director, Green Gold Animation Pvt Ltd (Concept & Execution); and Mr Dinesh Madhavan, Director, Marketing, HealthCare Global Enterprise Ltd, representing Dr Ajai Kumar, Founder of the company (New Market Initiative).

The previous edition, the Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards in 2010, was restricted to Tamil Nadu and this year it was expanded to cover the four southern States and Puducherry.

Mr N. Kumar, Chairman, Jury Committee, CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneur Award and Vice-Chairman, Sanmar Group, said the jury assessed the participants on a range of aspects including the vision, execution, excellence, innovation, leadership, ethics and the ability to scale up. “The winners among the winners” were chosen after extensive deliberation by the jury that met twice and had many rounds of teleconferences.

The winners of the first edition of the award have exceeded expectations and “outdid their dreams” and have gone on to do well. So will the awardees today, he said. In the next edition, he hoped the award would go national.

Grant Thornton was the knowledge partner for the award and Sequoia Capital India Advisors Pvt Ltd, the principal sponsor.

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