Announcing Swarajya Awards 2017 – Celebrating And Honouring The Best Minds Of India

Swarajya, in collaboration with India Foundation and Indic Book Club, has instituted ‘Swarajya Awards’ to recognise individuals and institutions doing stellar work in various walks of life while being largely committed to advancing values like open market, freedom of enterprise, national interest, innovation, entrepreneurship and celebrating richness of India’s vast cultural heritage.

The awards are presented during a special session of the annual India Ideas Conclave organised by the India Foundation and held in Goa. The India Ideas Conclave 2017 edition will be held in December 2017 during which the winners of our awards for 2017 will be announced and felicitated.

Four awards (named after illustrious individuals) encompassing economics, politics, society and cultural spheres will be presented.

Dr B R Shenoy Award, named in honour of a great Indian free-market economist who challenged the Nehruvian dirigisme, will be presented every year to an individual who has consistently advocated the value of the open market, stood for a reduced role for government in enterprise and thereby made a significant contribution to advance human freedom.

Dr S P Mukherjee Award, named in honour of a great Indian statesman – politician and an intellectual progenitor of a uniquely Indian political philosophy, will be presented every year to an active politician who has consistently strived to uphold values that Dr Mukherjee epitomised – commitment to constitutional values, and thoughtful interventions to enrich the quality of public life.

Sree Narayana Guru Award, named in honour of the great Hindu Social reformer from Kerala who worked for social equality, spiritual freedom and economic empowerment of underprivileged, will be presented every year to individuals or institutions engaged in fields such as transformational social work projects, inspiring grassroots activism in rural education healthcare, tribal welfare, empowerment of marginalised communities and rural entrepreneurship.

Ustad Bismillah Khan Award, named in honour of one of India’s greatest musicians who embodied the essence of India’s cultural syncretism and shared a civilisational heritage, will be presented every year to an individual who has achieved the highest level of excellence in fields like arts, culture, literature, philosophy and folk tradition.

The award will carry a citation, a specially designed trophy and a cash prize of one lakh rupees. Previous awardees include Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan, TemsutalaImsong, Jaya Jaitly, Dr Arvind Panagariya, Sajjad Lone, Joe D'Cruz and the NGO Robinhood Army.

The awards committee invites nominations for the four awards described above from our readers. Nominations must include a detailed profile of the nominee, the award being nominated for and a brief justification for the nomination. You may send in your nominations to awards@swarajyamag.com.