NDTV Indian of The Year Award 2011 announced

Anna Hazare & Arvind Kejriwal declared NDTV Indian of The Year 2011; Dev Anand & Rahul Dravid got Lifetime Achievement Awards

October 18, 2011:

NDTV announced the much awaited 'Indian of the Year Award 2011' in a star studded ceremony held in Delhi at the Taj Palace Hotel today. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal were declared as NDTV Indian of The Year 2011 for their exceptional contribution towards the society in the past year.

Evergreen actor Dev Anand and Cricketer Rahul Dravid were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

M.S. Dhoni received the Indian Heroes Award along with his team and key members- Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, S Sreesanth, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla and R Ashwin.

Dr. Pronnoy Roy, Chaiman, NDTV in his opening address spoke about the eventful year gone by being a transformational year for the country. “The Indian media today is the most fearless around the world. As part of the media, we are proud to be country's fourth pillar. I feel it's imperative now to have strong and effective defamation laws in the country.” He also added “Media cannot be above the law.”

Arvind Kejriwal on being felicitated as the Indian of the Year 2011 said, “I would like to dedicate this award to Anna Hazare and people of this country since I believe that every Indian is truly an Indian of the Year.”

Anna Hazare also extended his gratitude by thanking NDTV on being awarded with the title of the Indian of the Year by writing a message on a paper. He wrote, “If the Government fails to pass the bill then I will be forced to launch the agitation movement again.”(Since Anna Hazare is currently on the 'Maun Vrat' in his village – the channel connected with him live through a videoconferencing).

On winning the Entertainer of the year (Music) title, Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy said, “We have to thank Zoya and Farhan as working with them brings out the best in us.“

The team of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was excited on being awarded as the Entertainer of the Year award for the year 2011. Expressing their happiness the team thanked NDTV. Adding to this Farhan Akhtrar said, “For me to receive this award from Prannoy is an achievement. I watch TV because of him only”

88 year old Evergreen actor, Dev Anand while thanking on being conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Awards said “I am honoured with the gratification. I would like to dedicate this award to people of the country who have inspired me over six and a half decades”

Also, receiving the Lifetime Achievement award, Rahul Dravid said 'I am grateful to NDTV for this honour. I would like to thank all my fans for their love and support.'

Bestowed with the award of Indian Heroes of 2011, Cricket World Cup Champions 2011 team spoke about their performance in the World Cup, Captain – M.S.Dhoni. On being asked about India's current performance against England, Indian Captain, M.S.Dhoni said “We believe in consistent cricket that's why first we lost consistently and now we are winning consistently.”

Nandan Nilekani on receiving the award for Transformational Idea of the Year Award said, “I am confident that through project Aadhar millions of anonymous people will get an identity. We also hope that people will value our effort. We have already enrolled 100 million people and are in the process of adding more day by day.”

Special Recognition was also conferred upon 'LIC Unsung Heroes. These were:' -

• § RTI Activist Late Mr. Satish Shetty (Posthumous), the 39 year old activist was credited with exposing several major land scams in the Talegaon-Lonavala regions
• § RTI activists Mr. Brijmohan Mishra and Late Mr. Vitthal Gite, exposed major irregularities in a Maharashtra village school
• § Late Mr. Vishram Dodia, contributed in seeking information from a private power company, local corporation and police about the illegal electricity connections in Surat
• § Late Mr. Dattatreya Patil, exposed corruption among local politicians and bureaucrats. He had unearthed a corruption racket which led to the sacking of the local Deputy Superintendent of Police and a senior Police Inspector
• § Late Mr. Amit Jethva, campaigned against alleged illegal mining in the Gir Sanctuary areas in Saurashtra region, which is allegedly backed by some politicians

The awards were presented by  Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance, Ambika Soni, Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Rural Development, N Srinivasan, President, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and DK Mehrotra, Chairman, LIC (Life Corporation of India)

The award function was attended by Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Kalki Koechlin, Zoya Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy, Dev Anand, M.S Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, S Sreesanth, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Sunil Gavaskar, Yuvraj Singh, Laloo Prasad Yadav among other celebrities, bureaucrats and eminent personalities.

'NDTV Indian of The Year' in its sixth successful year, honoured extraordinary Indians who have shown excellence in their respective fields like business, sports, entertainment and have done the nation proud.

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