Today, BusinessLine will honour changemakers of the nation

The day has finally come to celebrate changemakers. At a glittering ceremony this evening, winners of the BusinessLine Changemaker Awards 2020 will be announced and they will be felicitated by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu.

The winners will be rewarded across six categories of Awards: Changemaker - Social Transformation, Changemaker - Digital Transformation, Changemaker - Financial Transformation, Young Changemaker, Iconic Changemaker, and Changemaker of the Year.

The third edition of the Awards saw unprecedented response in terms of number and quality of nominations. After multiple rounds of screening by editors of BusinessLine and Knowledge Partners — Deloitte and Ashoka University — the shortlisted nominations were validated independently by Niiti Consulting. The validated nominees were sent to the jury for the selection of winners. The jury met in New Delhi on January 17 and identified the winners.

The awards ceremony will also be graced by Union Minister of Commerce and Industries, and Railways Piyush Goyal, who will be in conversation with Raghavan Srinivasan, Editor, BusinessLine.

The event will also have a panel discussion on ‘The role of corporates as harbingers of social change’ and an inspirational talk by a Changemaker. The event, which will be attended by entrepreneurs, corporate honchos, social transformers and others, will also be live streamed on BusinessLine and The Hindu websites.

One of the following five nominees will bag the flagship Changemaker of the Year Award:

ISRO

One of the six biggest space agencies in the world, the Indian Space Research Organisation made India the first Asian nation to reach the Martian orbit, and the first in the world to achieve the feat in its maiden attempt. ISRO has the expertise to design its own satellites and has inspired many developing countries to dream of space programmes. Most importantly, it has ensured that the technology it develops is transferred for the benefit of common man.

Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin

One of the world’s largest drives, the Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin, seeks to accelerate universal access to sanitation across the country. Through this mission, as many as 10 crore household toilets have been built since October 2014. According to government data, India now has so far 706 districts in 36 States/Union Territories that are free of open defecation.

Dutee Chand

Born into a weaver’s family in Jajpur, Odisha, Dutee Chand is a national record holder in 100-metre sprint. She also won India’s first medal in 20 years, in the 100-metre race at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018. She is pushing the boundaries on other fronts too — and is helping to shatter gender and sexuality stereotypes.

Hima Das

Fondly called the Dhing Express, Hima Das was initially interested in football and wanted to pursue a career in the game. But she moved to sprinting and raced to become the first Indian to win a gold medal at an international track event. What’s more, last July, she won five gold medals at international events within the space of a month.

Reliance Jio

The only telecom company that has rolled out optical fibre cables connecting over 1,000 cities in the country, RJio has helped millions of Indian users gain access to high-speed internet at affordable rates, making India the world’s largest mobile-data-consuming nation.

The BusinessLine Changemaker Awards ceremony is supported by LIC, Tata Sons, Dell, Qualcomm, PepsiCo and Nestle among other partners.