New Delhi: A unique 12 hour LIVE programming initiative collected 5.81 crores to SAVE OUR TIGERS as NDTV, in association with Aircel, brought together Brand Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, NDTV?s Prannoy Roy and Vikram Chandra, along with the country?s wildlife and conservation experts, to raise funds for the preservation of our national animal. Joining them in Ranthambore were celebrity lyricist composers and singers Pankaj Udhas, Swanand Kirkire, Kailash Kher and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Contributions to this Cause poured in from across the country, ranging from forest guards salaries, neighbourhood collections by children to corporate, Bollywood personalities and concerned individuals and activists. Among those who generously donated were Hemendra Kothari, Chairman, Wildlife Conservation Trust with 2.5 crore rupees. Corporate donors who came forward to show their support included TATA Consultancy Services, HDFC Limited, Exide Industries Limited, GMR Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Housing Company and Shell India. Other donors included Uday Kotak, Ajay and Swati Piramal, Atul Kirloskar, Anu Agha, Nemesh Shah, Dhananjay Mungle, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rajesh Kapadia, Madhu Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Ms Aishwariya, Amit Chandra, Ramesh Chauhan, Surinder Kumar, Chandru Raheja, Anuradha Yadav, Aditya Raman and friends, Deepika Padukone, Dr RS Murthy and the forest guards from Panna and Suhel Seth. Renowned wildlife artist MD Parasher painted a tiger picture during the Telethon which was auctioned by saffronart.com. Dr RK Pachauri of TERI pledged to provide solar lamps to 20 training camps.

Also lending their support from around the country were John Abraham, Purab Kohli, Kunal Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Karan Johar and cricketers Zaheer Khan & Yusuf Pathan.

Encouraged by the fantastic response in its first year, where fund were raised for over 40 Rapid Response Units in 30 National Parks and Reserves, the NDTV-Aircel SAVE OUR TIGERS campaign aims to now focus on strengthening protection mechanisms with better equipped Tiger Defence Units, running anti-poaching training camps, and collaborating with NGOs already working at the grass roots level to include local communities in all efforts to Save Our Tigers.

Wildlife conservationists and activists Valmik Thapar, Govardhan Singh Rathore, Belinda Wright, Bittu Sahgal, Anish Dhaneria, Prerna Bindra, Mike Pandey, Ajay Dubey, Ravi Singh, Ratna Shah, Dr Hemendra Kothari, park officials and wildlife experts from Panna, Karnataka, Tadoba and the Head of the National Tiger Conservation Authority Dr Rajesh Gopal joined Brand Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan and NDTV in discussions ranging from poaching problems to taking lessons from successful wildlife tourism management in other countries, and a vision of future park management. Committing their State government efforts to actively protecting this highly endangered animal and national heritage of our country, Chief Ministers Prithviraj Chavan of Maharashtra, Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Madhya Pradesh, Vijay Bahuguna of Uttarakhand, Bina Kak, Rajasthan?s Environment & Forests Minister, Principal Secretary (Forests) Maharashtra Praveen Pradesi, and senior politicians including BJP President Nitin Gadkari, cut across party lines and committed to framing policies and implementing conservation practices, such as a ban on the manufacture and possession of wire snares and claw traps to increasing buffer zone areas and animal corridors.

As part of the NDTV-Aircel SAVE OUR TIGERS 12 hour LIVE telethon, Defenders of The Wild Awards were presented by Amitabh Bachchan to forest guards from Goa, Assam, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra for their immense bravery and courage in protecting the big cat from poachers. Kids For Tigers melas were organised in Mumbai, Delhi and Sawai Madhopur, where painting competitions, flash mobs and stage performances saw Gen Next sending the powerful message "Save Tigers, if not for you, then for us".

Committing his time and efforts to furthering this cause, Campaign Ambassador, Mr Amitabh Bachchan said, "Every time you destroy a tiger, you destroy a part of country. I am glad that NDTV has taken an initiative to address this concern. I?m glad to be associated with Save Our Tigers campaign and would like to congratulate the channel for their continuous commitment towards the cause.?

NDTV Chairman, Dr Prannoy Roy said, ?We at NDTV are delighted to see the remarkable response to the Save our Tigers campaign. Generous contributions from people across the country reflect how sensitive they are towards the cause and we strongly believe that funds generated through the telethon will bring visible results in preventing tiger poaching.?

Commenting on the initiative Mr. Sandip Das, Director, Aircel added: ?We need to leave a legacy behind for our children. The Tiger symbolizes everything we stand for as a country. The Save Our Tiger campaign has made a huge difference by bringing forth not only the issues impacting the national animal but environment and people too. We are extremely honoured and pleased to see the profound impact it has created in the last 3 years."

Since its inception in 2010 the campaign has been able to generate funds over 50 million rupees.

New Delhi: BloombergUTV, India?s premier business news channel, presented the FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP AWARDS 2012 to honour the extraordinary Financial Leaders and Visionaries of India?s Financial Sector. The Hon?ble Finance Minister, Shri. Pranab Mukherjee and a host of other dignitaries from the industry presented the awards to winners.

The Financial Leadership Awards were bestowed on 20 corporates across Banking, Equity, Currency, Commodity, Insurance and Mutual Fund sectors. This year, BloombergUTV has instituted two new awards viz., ?Woman Leader of the Year? and ?Life Time Achievement Award? to recognise and honour the achievements and contribution of individuals from the sector.

Deepak Lamba, Business Head ? BloombergUTV, speaking on the occasion said, ?It is an honour and privilege for BloombergUTV that Shri. Mukherjee consented to grace the Financial Leadership Awards this evening. I would like to extend hearty congratulations to all the winners. This is the second consecutive year that Shri. Mukherjee joined us to honour and recognise the visionaries and achievers of the Indian Financial Sector, which is a testimony to the fact that these Awards are held in high esteem by all the stakeholders of the Indian financial sector.?

Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chairman ? HDFC has guided and nurtured the growth of HDFC to the conglomerate that it is today and was aptly honoured with the ?Life Time Achievement Award?. Ms. Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO ? Axis Bank was awarded the ?Woman Leader of the Year? award.

In the Banking Category, Axis Bank bagged the ?Fastest Growing Bank? award; Bank of Baroda won the ?Best PSU Bank? award; Karur Vyasa Bank won the ?Best Private Sector Bank; and Standard Chartered Bank won the ?Best Foreign Bank? award.

In the Insurance Category, HDFC Standard Life Insurance bagged the Life Insurer of the Year award; United India Insurance Co. Ltd. bagged the General Insurance of the Year - Public Sector and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd. won the ?General Insurance of the Year - Private Sector? awards.

In the Mutual Funds category, HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd. won the ?Best Mutual Fund ? Equity? award and Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co. Ltd. won the ?Best Mutual Fund ? Debt? award.

In the Broking Category, Religare Commodities Ltd. was awarded the ?Best Commodity Broker?; Nirmal Bang Commodities Pvt. Ltd. won the ?Best Emerging Commodity Broker? award; Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. bagged the ?Best Equity Broker? award and SMC Global Securities Ltd. won the ?Best Currency Broker? award.

The Jury Panel comprised of well-known and highly respected personalities from the Indian Financial sector. The jury members were Ashok Wadhwa (Group CEO - Ambit Holdings), Keki Mistry (Vice Chairman & CEO - HDFC Ltd.), Shardul Shroff (Managing Partner - Amarchand Mangaldas), Ridham Desai (MD & Co-Head - Morgan Stanley), G N Bajpai (Former Chairman ? SEBI), Dr. Janmejaya Sinha (Chairman - Asia Pacific ? BCG), Shailesh Haribhakti (Exec Chairman & Managing Partner - BDO Consulting), Amarjit Chopra (President ? ICAI), Tamal Bandopadhyay (Dy. Managing Editor ? MINT), Kaushal Aggarwal (MD - Avendus Capital), Dr. Chiragra Chakrabarty (Director - Financial Advisory, Deloitte), Karthik Srinivasan (Co-Head - Financial Sector, ICRA) and L Shivakumar (Sr. Group VP & Head - Western Region ? ICRA)

The BloombergUTV Financial Leadership Awards were presented by MCX and powered by Sonata with ICRA as the Knowledge Partner, Taj Lands End as the Hospitality Partner and DSN as the OOH Partner. The detailed list of winners is annexed along with.

Mumbai: CNBC-TV18, India?s no. 1 English business news channel has yet again hosted the 7th edition of ?India Business Leader Awards 2012? (IBLA)-Asia?s most distinguished awards for Excellence in Leadership, presented by Omkar Realtors and Developers Pvt Ltd. The awards witnessed some of the brightest stars from India Inc. take centre stage in a glittering ceremony, which was presided over by the Honorable Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee at The Lalit, Connaught Place, New Delhi. The India Business Leader Awards are a continuation of the tradition set by CNBC?s Asia Business Leader Awards.

?India Business Leader Awards 2012? has been established to honor the individuals and organizations that have created new benchmarks for corporate excellence and have taken Indian Business to a new echelon of fame.

The winners of IBLA were selected through an extensive multi stage selection process, perfected over the years with an experience in over 12 countries. In the final stage, an eminent jury selected the leaders in different award categories. This year the Jury was chaired by Mr. Mukesh Ambani. Mr. KM Birla, Mr. Anand Mahindra, Ms. Chanda Kochhar and Mr. Deepak Parekh joined Mr. Ambani to draw up a stellar list of winners.

The awards witnessed luminaries from the Business fraternity like Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank; Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group; Mr. Deepak Parekh, Non-Executive Chairman, HDFC; Mr. B. Muthuraman, Vice Chairman, Tata Steel; Mayank Pareek, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki; Renu karnad, Additional Director, HDFC; Ajai Chowdhry, Founder & Chairman - HCL Infosystems; Kris Gopalkrishnan, Co-Founder & Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys amongst others.

Speaking at the occasion, Honorable Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said; ?I would like to congratulate CNBC TV 18 on an excellent programme, India Business Leader Awards 2012, a platform that recognizes the individuals and organization who have created new benchmarks for corporate excellence and have taken Indian Business to a new echelon of fame.?

Further adding to this, he stated that; ?The Indian economy cannot be fully insulated from global threats as the world economy particularly the Eurozone remains fragile; the growth rate could fall below seven per cent in the current financial year from 8.5 per cent a year ago. There are some clear signals of inflation moderating in the coming months. I am expecting (inflation) to be in the range of 6-7 per cent by end March, Our growth for 2011-12 may be around seven per cent. Despite the challengesbefore us, I am confident that we will improve our short term growth prospects in the coming months. The Indian currency has depreciated by over 16 per cent against US dollar in the current financial year.

In the year of extreme difficulty, success can only be achieved by hard work.?

Speaking about the awards, Mr. Udayan Mukherjee, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18 said, ?IBLA was initiated 7 years ago to honor India?s most outstanding business leaders for their contribution to India Inc. Its success can be dictated by the fact that it has become a benchmark in achievement. This year we have continued this initiative to salute those captains of industry who have braved the turbulent international conditions and kept India?s flag flying high.?

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Babulal Varma, Managing Director, Omkar Realtors and Developers Pvt Ltd said, ?We salute the genius and valor of the Indian business fraternity and are proud to be associated with CNBC?s Indian Business Leader Awards, which commend and appreciate such pioneers.?