The PoleStar Foundation, an independent Trust established in 1998 to recognise Excellence in Business and IT Journalism, announced the winners of the 15th Annual PoleStar Awards. Hon’ble Chief Guest, R Gopalakrishnan-Executive Director, Tata Sons, inaugurated the ceremony and gave away the awards to the winners. Arun Jain, Founder, PoleStar Foundation and Chairman & CEO, Polaris Financial Technology Limited, was present at the event along with eminent dignitaries from Industry, Media and Academia.
The Winners of the 15th Annual PoleStar Awards are:
1.Best Feature in IT Journalism – Srikanth RP, Executive Editor, Information Week (India) for his story ‘How Indian TV show Satyamev Jayate used Big Data to inspire the world’ published in The Information Week dated 27th August 2012.
2.Best Feature in Business Journalism – Kandula Subramaniam, Outlook Business, for his story ‘Stinking Rich’ published in Outlook Business dated 21st July 2012
3.Jury’s Special Mention – Ayushman Baruah, Principal Correspondent, InformationWeek (India) for his story ‘Healthcare industry prescribing a dose of technology’ published in The InformationWeek dated 22nd October 2012
4.Jury’s Special Mention – Geetika Rustagi, Web Editor at Mint for her story ‘Internal networks at work go social’ published in Mint on 24th October 2012
The Polestar Award categories include Best Feature in IT Journalism, Best Feature in Business Journalism and The Jury’s Special Recognition. The awards consist of a trophy, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000 for their knowledge upgrade. The Jury’s Special Mention award includes a trophy and a citation.
This year, the Foundation received over 500 nominations from Journalists across India. A team of esteemed Jury members from the corporate world and academia selected winners in the categories of IT and Business Journalism.
The jury panel comprises Abhay Gupte, CEO, Manipal Technology Limited; Ananth S. Narayanan Director, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Aruna Rao Group CTO, Kotak Mahindra Bank & Group Companies; Chand Das CEO, Education & Stationery Products Business, ITC; David Appasamy, Management Consultant; Pravir Vohra Former President & Group CTO, ICICI Bank Ltd; P. R. Venketrama Raja Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Ramco Systems; and Vijayalakshmi Rao, Business Advisor/ Mentor.
Presiding over the award function, the Chief Guest, R Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, threw light on history of corruption in India and in other societies across the world. He said, “Just as adolescence is a necessary part of a person’s growth, widespread corruption that touches almost everybody represents an adolescent phase in a development of a nation. Just as adolescence passed, corruption also morphed from being widespread and petty to fewer but bigger instances”. When commenting about the media in India, he pointed out that “as a nation, India is the only country among the emerging markets to have a vibrant media. Though media in India can go overboard, it is however good to have an active media than a docile media.”
Congratulating the winners, Arun Jain, Founder, PoleStar Foundation and Chairman & Group CEO, Polaris Financial Technology Limited said, “Journalists play a key role in building positivism that was so vital in the growth journey of Corporate India , more specifically, the IT sector in the yester years. I would seek their support in converting some of the brilliant innovations shaping up in our labs to headline stories. Fostering such innovations and encouraging creation of Intellectual Property in India are key to creating the next $100 bn wave for the IT Industry, that would be the Growth engine for the coming decade.”
The awards ceremony included a panel discussion on the topic ‘Are standards being compromised in journalism today?’ Moderated by Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder-Editor, Ping Digital Network, the panel comprised distinguished personalities including Anil Dharker- author, columnist and editor; Aditya Jha, CEO, Krayon Pictures; Padma Chandrasekaran, Angel Investor; and Pravir Vohra, Former President and Group CTO, ICICI Bank Ltd.
The awards ceremony witnessed eminent media personalities, leaders from the Industry and students from Journalism schools in Chennai.
