Mumbai: Ever since our launch in May‘ 2009, Forbes India has championed the cause of business that can do well for its own stakeholders as well as for society at large. We share the vision that over the next ten years, India has a never-before chance to create an entrepreneurial renaissance that will reshape its contours.

As a business magazine we are chroniclers of this journey, but we also hope to play a catalytic role in spotting and recognising outstanding entrepreneurs. It is in this role, that we have instituted a distinctive set of awards this year.

The themes behind each award category reflect the editorial agenda of our magazine. We have been at the cutting edge of business journalism with stories about start-up companies, multinationals, entrepreneur-driven corporates as well as public sector corporations.

But we strongly believe in the spirit of fair play. Rather than let our nominations and final selections be guided only by our editorial judgement, we enlisted some of the most respected names in India to be part of the process. We worked on a long-list, and then, with the help of our knowledge partners, Grant Thornton, measured them and their impact against rigorous criteria, eliminating all but the strongest contenders.

The short-listed nominees were then scrutinised by a high-powered jury which included Baba Kalyani, Akhil Gupta, Janmejaya Sinha and Rama Bijapurkar, and was headed by Infosys chairman KV Kamath.

The FILA 2011 winners are:

1) Outstanding StartUp - Rahul Bhatia, IndiGo Airlines
2) NextGen Entrepreneur of the year - VG Siddhartha, Caf? Coffee Day
3) Best CEO - MNC - Shanker Annaswamy, IBM
4) Best CEO - PSU - BP Rao, BHEL
5) Best CEO - Private sector - Rajiv Bajaj, Bajaj Auto
6) Woman Leader of the year - Vinita Bali, Britannia
7) Lifetime Achievement - NRN Murthy, Infosys Technogies
8) Conscious Capitalist - Tata Steel
9) Entrepreneur with Social Impact - Manish Sabharwal, Team Lease Services
10) Entrepreneur for the year - Ratan Tata, Tata Sons

The first Forbes India Leadership Awards were given out at a scintillating event attended by the cr?me de la cr?me of corporate India in Mumbai today. Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Veerappa Moily presented trophies and commendations to ten winners from across India‘s entrepreneurial firmament.

Network18 group chairman Raghav Bahl hosted an in-depth panel discussion on ‘Building an Enterprise/ Transforming an Industry,‘ where five award winners shared their perspective on what it took to transform their businesses. Actor Shah Rukh Khan, who upped the glamour quotient in the room, was presented a plaque by chairman of Forbes Digital, Tim Forbes for being one of India‘s finest entertainers.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Gurmeet Singh, CEO, Forbes India said, "At Forbes, we wanted to recognise the contribution of leaders from various sectors across the country. Over the last several years, there have been stellar performances by various industries which have played a very crucial role in the emerging India. The Forbes India Leadership Awards are our attempt to felicitate and honour outstanding leaders who have made pivotal contributions to our society. We will be organising this awards every year and will add more categories in forthcoming editions."