CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award honours a prominent Indian each year
By Ajit Jain
TORONTO: The Canada India Foundation on Saturday honoured Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy with the $50,000 CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award at its annual gala at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto.
Canadian finance minister Joe Oliver presented the award to Murthy at a VIP gathering which included top politicians and business heads. Among those present were Indian high commissioner Nirmal Verma, Canadian immigration minister Chris Alexander, Indian-origin sports minister Bal Gosal, chairman of the Canada India Foundation and ministers Lakshmanan, MPs and local elected representatives.
In his acceptance speech, Murthy stressed capitalism with compassion.
He said capitalism has grown without any stress on“non-economic values.’’
Calling for correction in the path followed by corporates, he said the pursuit of wealth creation should go hand in hand with care for the masses and respect for human dignity.
Inviting Canadian companies to India, Indian high commissioner Nirmal Verma said they need to adopt country-specific business model to succeed in India.
He said because of low wages and availability of skilled talent Canadian companies should use India as their supply chain (for India and the region).
Verma offered Canadian companies his mantra of 4Ps while doing business in India: patience, perseverance, price and presence.
The CIF Chanchlani Global Indian Award is the brainchild of Toronto businessman and IITian Vasdev Chanchlani who gave one million dollar for the establishment of this global award. Chanchlani is the co-founder of Sigma Systems.
Way back as this award was set up, Chanchlani was confident that it would soon grow up to assume the position of another Nobel Prize. His plan was and it is so that from his one million, it would grow up to be $10-million in their kitty that would enable the CIF to give one million dollar award to the recipients. That would attract world’s top people, people who have given name and fame to India.
Past recipients of this award include Deepak Chopra, Tulsi Tanti, Ratan Tata and Sam Pitroda.
The award recognizes an individual for demonstrates global leadership, vision and professional excellence.
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