Managing India Awards Press Release
Sunil Mittal, Karan Adani, Ananya Birla, Micron Technology among AIMA Managing India Awards 2026 winners
Education Minister seeks industry’s help in increasing India's workforce from 55 crore to 70 crore
21 February 2026
New Delhi
All India Management Association (AIMA) presented its 16th Managing India Awards (MIA) to India’s stalwart business leaders. Minister of Education, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan handed over trophies to the award winners.
The Managing India Awards winners included industry veterans and young founders, Indian and foreign multinationals, public sector companies, and leaders from media and entertainment.
Presenting the Managing India Awards, Mr Pradhan exhorted the industry to contribute to education, skilling, reskilling and upskilling of India’s working age population. “The government cannot do it without your cooperation,” he said.
The minister pointed out that India’s 40 crore population in the age bracket of 3-23 years cannot be developed unless empowered with industry’s process efficiency, ideas and imagination. He said that for India to become a developed country, it must bring 70 crore of its 90 crore people in the 15-59 age group into the workforce, which is currently 55 crore.
The minister congratulated AIMA on its 70th Foundation Day and commended the organization for its contribution to Indian management for the past seven decades. He sought AIMA’s help in enhancing India’s students’ imagination and ambition.
AIMA President and CEO and Managing Director, Tata Steel, Mr TV Narendran congratulated the awardees on their achievements and reminded India’s management leadership that it needed to prepare for the challenges ahead. He said that the future winners of AIMA awards would be those who can harness change and uncertainty.
The Managing India Awards jury chairman, Mr Sanjiv Goenka pointed out that there has been a big change in the age of awardees in recent years. Today, the younger ones are leading, excelling and transforming business and economy, he said and pointed out Karan Adani, Ananya Birla, Mohit Suri, and Rahul Kanwal among the awardees.
Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises received the Business Leader of the Decade Award. Accepting the award, Mr Mittal said that the last decade has been one of upheavals, storms and tsunamis for Airtel and he would remember this period for a long time. “I take this award with a great degree of pride because the institution of Airtel stands tall,” he said.
Mr Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico collected the Lifetime Contribution Award. He thanked AIMA for recognizing both his business and philanthropic contribution. “When you start a business, you want to earn money, and then you want recognition, and after a few years you want to give back,” he said.
Mr Vineet Jain, Managing Director, Bennett Coleman & Co Limited received the Lifetime Contribution to Media Award. He dedicated the award to his colleagues who ensure that the Times Group is number one in every media vertical it gets into.
Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise and Mr TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman 3one4 Capital, were given the AIMA Excellence Award. Mr Munjal described AIMA award as a unique honour, as AIMA supports and promotes management without any lobbying of any kind. Mr Pai recalled his time as AIMA President and pointed out that AIMA was a pioneer management institution in promoting technology’s marriage with management.
Micron Technology was felicitated with MNC in India of the Year Award. Accepting the award the company’s Chairman, President and CEO, Mr Sanjay Mehrotra expressed pride in the contribution made by Micron’s Indian engineers in Hyderabad and Bangalore in designing most advanced memory products.
The Indian MNC of the Year Award went to Motherson Group. Group chairman, Mr Vivek Chaand Sehgal accepted the award on behalf of the company and said that the AIMA award felt very good, especially as it coincided with the completion of 50 years of the group.
Mr Karan Adani, Managing Director, Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd and Adani Cement Ltd, received the Business Leader of the Year Award. In his acceptance speech, he thanked his family for the opportunity and support. “We really value the legacy that my father has created, and we’re very confident that together we’ll be able to take it forward,” he said.
The Young Business Leader of the Year Award went to Ms Ananya Birla, Founder, Svatantra Microfin and Founder and MD, Birla Cosmetics. She said that she has not seen her father - Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla - so excited in a while because she has got an award from AIMA.
Mr Mohit Suri, director of the movie Saiyaara, received the Director of the Year Award. He said that he is particularly pleased to get an award for the movie because it was made without stars and without expectations of a sequel.
The founders of Rapido - Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli and SR Rishikesh - got the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Mr SR Rishikesh, Co-founder, accepted the award.
Mr Vishal Kampani, Senior Vice President-AIMA and Vice Chairman & Managing Director, JM Financial Ltd brought down the curtain on the award ceremony by thanking the minister, the jury, sponsors, citation readers, past AIMA leaders, LMA representatives from around the country, and media.
KPMG provided the research and analytics support in shortlisting and evaluating the award nominees.
The award ceremony was live-streamed on AIMA’s social media channels.
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