IBLA 2020: Mukesh Ambani wins iconic Business Leader of the Decade award; Arun Jaitley conferred with Hall of Fame award

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries was recognised as the Iconic Business Leader of the Decade at the Indian Business Leader Awards (IBLA) held in Mumbai on Friday.

Late Arun Jaitley enters the hall of fame at #CNBCTV18IBLA. An emotional moment for his wife Sangeeta Jaitley, FM Nirmala Sitharaman & RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das #LeadersOfChange pic.twitter.com/ezLxbTnLzI

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) February 28, 2020

Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won the Outstanding Business Leader of the Year in the 15th edition of the ‘India Business Leader Awards’ in Mumbai on Friday. TCS also bagged the iconic company of the decade award.

Former Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was posthumously given the Hall of Fame award for his contribution to the Indian economy.

The IBLA, hosted by India’s Number 1 business channel CNBC-TV18, was presented to the RIL Chairman by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray at a glittering ceremony in India’s financial capital.

The CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards (IBLA) is given to high-achievers, outstanding leaders and visionaries of corporate India who demonstrate exemplary achievements in their respective fields.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,  Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Pawan Goenka were the distinguished guests at the award function.

Thanking the jury, Ambani said he was only accepting the award on behalf of the young leaders of the company, and mentioned the roles of his children, Akash and Isha Ambani in taking the company forward.

“If you have followed Reliance over the last four decades, we started as a textile company and transformed ourselves as a petrochemical company, since then transformed ourselves as a refining and energy company. In the last decade, we have built a world-scale retail and consumer tech business,” he said.

Ambani, under whom the Reliance group emerged as India’s largest company, dedicated the award to his father and company founder Dhirubhai Ambani, as well as the young leaders who, he said, have transformed the business in the last decade.

He expressed optimism for the Indian economy over the next decade and said this was a golden opportunity for business leaders to collectively drive India to consistently being among the world’s top three economies.

“I am very, very optimistic,” Ambani told an audience that consisted of some of the most outstanding leaders and true visionaries of corporate India, and termed the current economic slowdown as “temporary pains”.

Ambani said that for him, the only iconic leader was his father Dhirubhai and he had taught him that we have to dream big for Reliance and even bigger for India.

Chaired by Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank, an eminent jury selected winners from a compelling list of nominees.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was honoured with the ‘Global Indian Business Icon’. He was not present on the occasion.

NPCI, the unified payments interface, won The Disruptors award for disrupting fintech and making digital payments easy and accessible for millions of Indians.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh was given the lifetime achievement award.

Maharashtra won the state of the year award and state industries minister Subhash Desai received the honour from Sitharaman.

(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)