Sam Balsara, president AAAI, presented the award to Nanda at a well-attended ceremony last night at The Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai.

Speaking on the occasion, Nanda talked of how the industry had grown from being worth a mere Rs 50 million in the early-70s to the Rs 100 billion industry it is today. Nanda had a special mention of people and professionals from the client side who had given him the "freedom to innovate at their cost and with their money."

The Premnarayen Awards were instituted in the 1988 by AAAI and is awarded to individuals with outstanding performance in the advertising industry. Nanda is the 15th recipient of this prestigious award. In the last fourteen years, the award has been conferred on doyens like Gerson da Cunha, Alyque Padamsee, (late) RK Swamy, (late) Ravi Gupta, Subhas Ghosal, amongst others.

The award, presented annually, recognizes the individuals contribution in the following areas:

- Leadership of the industry as an individual
- Contribution towards professionalism in the industry
- Example of personal integrity, values and ethics consistent with the standards expected of an advertising professional

Nanda has the distinction of becoming the first Indian to become co-chairman of Dentsu, Young & Rubicam / Wunderman, Asia Pacific. He manages DYR & Wunderman operations in 33 offices across the Asia Pacific region and has CEOs of 17 countries reporting to him.

Amongst his various assignments with the government of India, Nanda has been on board of Air India as Director in the mid 80's. He was also as a Member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Committee, which was a part of the Cabinet secretariat. During this period, he was involved in planning and executing major cultural and other events, both nationally and internationally.

Nanda has also been the president of the AAAI between 1993 and 1995 and later in the year 1999-2000. He was the leader and the key speaker at the 1993 Asian Advertising Congress in Tokyo. In 1998, Nanda was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Advertising Club of Calcutta.