21 finalists line up for 2011 Namma Bengaluru Awards

This year's finalists for the Namma Bengaluru Awards have thrown up a whole new set of Bangaloreans worth knowing about.

Suhas Gopinath who founded online portal designing company Globals Inc Private Limited at the age of 14,  Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) an NGO which aims to bring about civic awareness through youth, Bangalore City Traffic Police for their continued efforts to regulate the traffic of abngalore and Srilakshmi Goru, a long distance swimmer are a few of the 21 finalists for the Namma Bengaluru Awards 2011.

Gopinath started Globals Inc Private Limited, a company that develops portals at the age of 14 and started his foray by building Coolhindustan.com. A release from the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, organiser of the awards, says he operated initially from cyber cafes across Bangalore and now has 11 offices across the globe with over 600 employees. His employees are all below 22 Yrs, most of them dropouts. He encourages these youth and helps reduce unemployment. He has been awarded the Karnataka state’s Rajyotsava Award, "Young Achiever Award" at the European Parliament, 2008 and "Young Global Leader" for 2008-2009 by the World Economic Forum’.

Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness is an initiative that aims to create civic awareness and inculcate civic friendly practices amongst households, communities and others through children, youth and volunteers, To energize the civic education curriculum in schools and colleges, To develop innovative  models of civic education, which can be replicated in any part of the country, To be an advocate for child and human rights, To be self reliant , To emerge as a global resource and training centre on civic education and active citizenship, To be a leader in education for democracy and active citizenship.

Bangalore City Traffic Police (BTP) have been tirelessly working towards solving the problem of burgeoning traffic of Bangalore city. They also carry out traffic rules awareness campaigns in schools and colleges and have opened traffic management centers to streamline traffic. BTP has initiated an interactive website and a program called B-Trac 2010, which aims at managing the traffic in optimum manner within the resources available at present. The major components of B-Trac include junction improvement, intelligent transport system, surveillance and enforcement system, installation of street furniture and spreading awareness and education about traffic rules.

The 21 finalists for the Namma Bengaluru Awards were chosen from more than 10,000 applications. They will be competing for ten awards in three categories. Namma Bengalurean of the Year award along with Sportsperson of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year are this year’s addition to the categories in the Namma Bengaluru Awards.

The jury comprises of eminent Bengalureans including: Hon’ble Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, A Ravindra (IAS Retired, ABIDe member), Anil Kumble, K Jairaj (IAS),  Ramesh Arvind, H S Balram, Ruth Manorama, Gen Nanjappa, Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, Pradeep Kar, Ashok Soota, Anil Menon, Vinod Hayagriv, Suresh Heblikar, Ashwin Mahesh, R K Misra, Subhashini Vasanth, Ashish Ballal, Reeth Abraham, Prakash Belawadi, Sajan Poovayya , G S Siddalingaiah, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament.

"The shortlisted candidates are the quintessential Bengalureans who we all should admire and emulate", says Lokayukta Justice Hegde.

Chairman of Jury and head of Namma Bengaluru Foundation Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the awards were meant to set high standards of social and civic contribution to Bengaluru. "The 21 selected are the best we have seen so far. I wish them the best for the awards and hope the candidates will continue their good work", he says.

The winners will be announced at the finale on the 9th of February, 2011 at the Bangalore Palace. Interested people may call on 080-25501126 and ask for their invitation.

The 21 Finalists

PRIVATE

Individual-

1. Mr Shivakumar Hosamani

2. Mr Mahantesh

3. Dr S Radha Murthy

Institution-

1. BOSCO-Bangalore Oniyavara Seva Coota

2. CMCA-Children’s Movement For Civic Awareness

3. Sumanahalli Society

Sportsperson-

1. Mr Vijay Rao Shinde

2. Ms Anupama Puchimanda-Profile Unavailable in the annexure

3. Mr Arjun Hallappa- Profile Unavailable in the annexure

4. Srilakshmi Goror

Entrepreneur-

1. Mr K.N Vasudeva Adiga-MD Adigas Food PVT Ltd

2. Mr Suhas Gopinath-CEO, Global ITES

3. Mr K Ahmed Khan, KK Plastics

PUBLIC

Individual-

1. Joint Commissioner Alok Kumar

2. BBMP Commissioner H Siddaiah (IAS)

Institution-

1. BMTC

2. Traffic Police authority- Profile Unavailable in the annexure

3. Commercial Street Police Station- Profile Unavailable in the annexure

Namma Bengalurean of the Year

1.      Mrs Anitha Reddy-AVAS

2.      Mr Pankaj Advani

3.      Dr H Paramesh-Lakeside Hospital

Last year’s winners. 

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