Shri Amitabh Kant IAS, CEO of NITI Aayog, delivers the Memorial Lecture
The eighth V.C. Padmanabhan Memorial Awards for Excellence for 2017 were conferred on the distinguished awardees at a function held on June 15th, 2017 at the Lulu International Convention Centre, Thrissur.
Prominent winners for the year included the former Union cabinet minister and member of parliament, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, NITI Aayog CEO Shri. Amitabh Kant IAS, eminent playback singer Padma Shri K.S. Chithra, and the wildlife conservationist, Shri Vava Suresh.
The awards were given away by Prof. P.J. Kurien, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and it carried a cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs and a plaque. Mr. V.P. Nandakumar, MD & CEO, Manappuram Finance Ltd., welcomed the gathering and delivered the presidential address.
The V.C. Padmanabhan Memorial Awards were instituted in the year 2010 to commemorate the illustrious founder of the Manappuram Group. They are presented every year to eminent personalities who have made significant contributions in the five categories of Arts and Literature, Civil Servant achieving Excellence in Public Administration, Public Representative achieving
Excellence in Good Governance, Business Excellence leading to development of Society at large and Ecology and Environment Conservation.
The following is the list of Awardees for the year 2017:
| Category | Awardees |
| Arts and Literature | Padma Shri K.S. Chithra Eminent playback singer |
| A Public Representative with Excellence in Good Governance | Dr. Shashi Tharoor Member of Parliament |
| A Civil Servant Achieving Excellence in Public Administration | Shri. Amitabh Kant IAS CEO, NITI Aayog |
| Ecology and Environment Conservation | Shri. Vava Suresh Wild Life Conservationist |
The awards function was followed by the 15th V.C. Padmanabhan Memorial Annual Lecture delivered by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NIti Aayog, on the topic “Transforming India.” Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It-SE--yvQ8&t=4785s
Shri Kant spoke about the need to step up India’s economic growth rate in order to emerge as a developed country in the shortest time. He pointed out that wealth creation is primarily a function of the private sector and therefore the need of the hour is to make it easy for the private sector to function effectively. However, the Indian experience historically has been that we have made India a complicated, complex and difficult country for the private sector to do business. Accordingly, the focus of the government of India now is to improve the ease of doing business in the country and over the last three years, a lot has been done in this regard. The introduction of GST, the passing of the bankruptcy law, the scrapping of over 11,000 outdated laws, and the practice of ranking states on the basis of ease of doing business are all recent measures to improve the climate for private sector activity in India, he said.
Earlier, Shri Amitabh Kant was introduced by Shri B.N. Raveendra Babu, Executive Director, Manappuram Finance Ltd. Shri Sooraj Nandan, Senior Vice President of the company, delivered the vote of thanks.
