TIME India Awards to Return in 2017

The TIME India Awards, whose inaugural edition recognized the best in Indian manufacturing at a glittering awards ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai earlier this year, are set to return in 2017 with an expanded list of categories that turns the spotlight on the new breed of startups changing the way business is done in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Alongside prizes for the Manufacturing Innovator of the Year and the Global Manufacturer of the Year, the awards will recognize the country’s most exciting small and medium-sized businesses, with the winners to be announced at the Confederation of India Industry’s Partnership Summit in Andhra Pradesh state on Jan. 27. For a second year running, TIME is partnering with top management consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. to create a shortlist of finalists.

The finalists for the Manufacturing Innovator and Global Manufacturer of the Year categories will be announced at the upcoming World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Time Inc. vice chairman Norman Pearlstine will chair a seven-strong jury of international business leaders who will pick the winners. “We are delighted to continue the TIME India Awards, building on last year’s successful launch of the competition,” Pearlstine says. “Working with McKinsey, our knowledge partner, we are expanding this year’s program to recognize small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as India’s large, proven performers. The TIME awards program is designed to recognize superb financial results and innovators whose products benefit India and the world.”

McKinsey senior partner Rajat Dhawan will join Pearlstine in presenting the awards next month. “The inaugural edition of the TIME India Awards in February celebrated manufacturing companies for their excellence, innovation and entrepreneurship,” Dhawan says. “We are delighted to be partnering with TIME for the next edition, to examine an even broader canvas of Indian manufacturing enterprises which includes large, small and medium-sized companies, as well as start-ups that are catalyzing new manufacturing investment.”

The 2016 awards were held at the Make in India summit in Mumbai on Feb. 13, with TATA Steel, India’s first private sector steel company, winning the prize for Best in Class Manufacturing. Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest maker of two-wheelers by volume, was named the Manufacturing Innovator of the Year, while Yogesh and Rajesh Agrawal, joint managing directors of specialty pharmaceutical company Ajanta Pharma, took home the Young Maker of the Year Award.

The winners were selected by a jury of leading business minds, including General Electric vice chairman John Rice, Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy, ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar, and the chief executive officer of Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn. Joining them were TIME’s assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar and Kevin Sneader, Asia chairman at McKinsey & Co., with Pearlstine chairing the 2016 jury.

To enter the 2017 TIME India Awards, please apply here.