BL Changemaker. RBI wins Business Line’s Changemaker of the Year award; Amul is crowned Iconic changemaker

In a glittering ceremony with humour-packed moments, a virtuoso violin recital and a scintillating hula hoop dance performance, Power Minister RK Singh presented businessline’s Changemaker of the Year award to the Reserve Bank of India for steering India through the turbulent period of the pandemic which left the economy reeling. The utterly butterly beloved brand, Amul, was crowned iconic changemaker of the year.

Women power

Receiving the award, Jayen Mehta, Managing Director, GCCMF, lightheartedly quipped, “Early in the morning, at 5.00 am, you will see only two changemakers - Newspapers and doodhwalas.” 

Mehta went on to acknowledge the 3.6 million women changemakers of Amul, on behalf of whom, he said was accepting this award. “It is the second strongest food brand in the world. Amul’s cooperative model has demonstrated that when people, the marginalised and the women, when they come together, they can create a new model of development,” he emphasised.

RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, too, dedicated the award to all officers, DFS officials, bank officials and employees of the central bank, praising their commitment and dedication. Responding humorously to Mehta’s comment about doodhwalas in the morning, he said, the intangible you don’t see at that time is either the payment made through cash or digital.

The fifth edition of the event saw awards being given in six categories – digital transformation, social transformation, financial transformation, young changemaker, iconic changemaker, and changemaker of the year. The digital transformation winner was Stellapps Technologies, a start-up that works on digitising the dairy sector.

In social transformation there were two winners – HerKey, which aims to reverse the female brain drain and EducateGirls, an NGO that aims to improve access and quality of education for girls. 

Financial Transformation was awarded to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. 

The young changemaker award went to Shrinidhi RS, creator of CherriLearn, an education app which offers gamified lessons in regional languages to children of standards 1-5.

In his address, the Chief Guest, Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, R. K. Singh said, “I was reflecting on change. Only when you make a difference, you can say you have justified your existence. When you have made a difference to a few people or to a large number of people. When the time comes for us to bid farewell to the world, this is the only thing that counts. Hearing the Amul MD and the RBI Governor made me realise that when the rest of the world is still struggling with the impact of the pandemic or other crisis, we remain among the most stable and highest growing economies in the world,” said the Power Minister.

About the change he himself effected, the Minister said:“We transformed our country from a power deficit to a power surplus country. We strengthened the distribution system. The availability of power has gone up as a result. We are the fastest growing in the renewable energy.”

Earlier, inaugurating the event, Dr Nirmala Lakshman, chairperson of THG Publishing, said, “Impactful change begins with the vision and determination of indiviudals and institutions ready to challenge the status quo.” 

Raghuvir Srinivasan, Editor, businessline, said that bl’s endeavour was to put the spotlight on unrecognised changemakers.

The 2023 awards function was presented by Sastra. Associate partners were LIC, CasaGrand, GMDC, LICHFL, Punjab & Sind Bank, United India, GAIL, NTPC, and banking partner was J&K Bank. Online Grocery Partner was BigBasket, Tourism Partner - Bihar Tourism; Education Partner SSVM Institutions and television partner was NewsX. Gift Partner was Anand Prakash and Knowledge Partners Ashoka and Deloitte. Validation partner was NIITI Consulting.