IILM’s 12th Distinguished Global Thinker Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog The IILM's 12th Distinguished Global Thinker Award was conferred on Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and a member of the Indian Administrative Service, IAS (Kerala Cadre, 1980 batch). Mrs Malvika Rai, Chairperson, IILM and Professor Jagdish Sheth, who was IILM’s 11th Distinguished Global Thinker in 2018, presented the award to Shri Amitabh Kant. The Global Thinker Award launched in 2006 celebrates and honours distinguished individuals who have contributed substantially to the global stream of consciousness, ideas and knowledge, and have made a significant difference in the national and global community. In the past years, IILM has conferred the Global Thinker Award on Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Dr M S Swaminathan, Professor C K Prahalad, Mr Sam Pitroda, Lord Meghnad Desai, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Professor Andre Beteille, Professor Soumitra Dutta, Mr Naveen Jain, Professor Ashish Nanda and Professor Jagdish Sheth. This year IILM honoured Shri Amitabh Kant who is a thought leader and innovator par excellence.
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He is the author of the book ‘Branding India: An Incredible Story’ and has recently edited the book ‘The Path Ahead: Transformative Ideas for India’ that are testament to his deep commitment to the vision of transformation of India and the role of policy makers, industrialists, academicians and common man. Shri Kant, who has been a key driver of ‘Make in India’, ‘Start up India’, ‘Incredible India’ and ‘God’s Own Country’ initiatives that positioned India and the state of Kerala as leading manufacturing and tourism destinations, vigorously drove the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiative and ranking of States on outcome parameters in his capacity as Secretary (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion), Government of India. These initiatives have led to India making a quantum jump in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’ and enabled Indian States to compete in the spirit of competitive federalism. The recipient of Economic Times Policy Change Agent of the Year Award, the Bloomberg TV Personality of the Year Award, the NDTV Administrator of the Year Award and the Distinguished Fellowship of the Institute of Directors, Shri Amitabh Kant, who is a Thinker and Doer, is a Member of the Steering Board of ‘Shaping the Future of Production Systems’ of World Economic Forum and has received the Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship awarded by the Prime Minister of New Zealand. In the opening remarks about the IILM Global Thinker Award, Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee, widely acclaimed as the Father of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India and instrumental in framing and issuing the CSR guidelines for Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), said, “Shri Amitabh Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog and Mrs Malvika Rai, Chairperson Kant has moved seamlessly of IILM, lighting the lamp at the 12th Distinguished Global Thinker Award Ceremony from being a bureaucrat to
