Namma Bengaluru Awards Celebrates 10 years of Recognising Unsung Heroes - Goes Completely Online For Nominations

Ramesh Aravind launched ‘Namma Bengaluru Awards 2019’

Namma Bengaluru Awards (NBA) Trust launched the 10th edition of ‘Namma Bengaluru Awards 2019’ (NBA) in Bengaluru on 1 February 2019. NBA is a pursuit for unsung heroes, who have striven to make Bengaluru a better city, braving all odds. These awards are the city’s way of saying ‘thank you’ to its real heroes, who work relentlessly towards making the city a better place to live in.

Owing to the growing popularity of the awards, the decision was taken to create the NBA trust which will continue to recognise, honour and celebrate the efforts of the unsung heroes nominated by Bengalureans for their unparalleled contributions towards the city.

NBA Trust also unveiled its new logo with the tag line ‘My City My Heroes’ to celebrate a decade of the people’s awards. Ramesh Aravind, one of the jury members in 2010, is the Ambassador for the awards.

Namma Bengaluru Awards has seen 2,58,468 nominations and recognised 87 unsung heroes out of 261 finalists in last nine years.

The winners this year will be receiving a cash prize to help pursue their dreams. As always, the entire process is monitored and supervised by an internationally renowned audit firm, making this award process transparent. After much deliberation and debate, the winners are selected from amongst the short-listed candidates by an esteemed jury panel comprising of renowned corporate leaders, citizen activists and urban governance experts.

To enable broad-based and larger number of nominations this year, the application process has been made completely online.  Nomination for the awards is open and all citizens can nominate extraordinary Bengalureans under the following categories.

1. Citizen of the Year
2. Rising Star of the Year
3. Media Person of the Year
4. Social Entrepreneur of the Year
5. Government Official of the Year
6. ‘Namma Bengalurean of the year’ award to the Outstanding individual who is chosen from amongst the top five nominees (By the Jury).

The last date of filing nominations in 28 February, 2019.

Eminent jury comprising of 16 revered Bengalureans (some of whom have been active participants since its inception) will be involved in the process. The winners will be announced at a gala event on 27 April 2019.

Ramesh Aravind, ambassador and jury member of Namma Bengaluru Awards 2019, launched the event by lighting the lamp and said “My first love, my first fear, my first success, my first victory, everything happened in Bengaluru and that is why this city holds an important place in my life. When you have an emotional connection, it will become Namma City and for me it is Namma Bengaluru. Hence Namma Bengaluru Awards which honours ordinary people doing extraordinary work is special for me. We have an onus on us to find them, honour them and celebrate the success of unsung heroes.”

Ashwin Mahesh, trustee and Jury member said,“Everyone who is making an effort to bring some change to this city is special. This journey started 10 years ago and now we have established a tradition in Namma Bengaluru in recognising unsung heroes. Each one of them is a role model for people to look up to. It is our privilege to be a part of this 10-year journey and feels good to see Shri Ramesh Aravind making a comeback. We want to thank each and everyone of you who have been a part of this journey. We as the jury feel happy to take these 3 months journey, and participate in the process of identifying these heroes.”

The management of the trust comprises: Shri Pradeep Kar, Chairman and MD - Microland Limited is the Chair of the Jury. Other trustees are Dr Ashwin Mahesh - Urban Expert, Dr Vishal Rao - Oncology Surgeon and Shri Ravichandar - Chairman, Feedback Consulting, Shri Sanjay Prabhu - Director, ANMEL and Suresh N R, Director, Namma Bengaluru Foundation is the Managing trustee.

The jury members for the 10th edition of the awards is:

• Shri. Pradeep Kar, Chairman and Managing Director, Microland
• Dr. Ashwini Mahesh, Founder, Social Technology Firm, MapUnity
• Dr. Vishal Rao, Oncology Surgeon
• Shri. Sanjay Prabhu Director, ANMEL
• Shri. Ramesh Aravind, Cine Artist
• Shri. V Ravichandar, Chairman, Feedback Consulting
• Shri. CN Kumar, Founder Chairman, Advantage Offshore Knowledge Services Private
• Shri. Jishu Dasgupta, Musician and Marketing consultant
• Shri. N S Mukunda, Founding President, Citizens’ Action Forum
• Shri. S Vishwanath, Water Conservation Expert
• Shri. Sajan Poovayya, Senior Advocate, High Court of Karnataka and Supreme Court of India
• Dr. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Group of Hospitals
• Smt. Tara Anooradha, Cine Artist
• Shri. G Manjusainath, Senior Correspondent - Press Trust of India &
• Smt. Anita Reddy, Founder Trustee, Association for Voluntary Action and Service - AVAS

Nominations received will be duly audited in March 2019. Based on certain criteria of assessment, the jury will deliberate on the nominations and shortlist 5-6 people per category. Those who make the cut will be invited for a personal interaction with the jury, following which the final winner will be decided. The winners’ names will be revealed on the awards night.

About Namma Bengaluru Awards Trust

The Namma Bengaluru Awards Trust was created owing to the growing popularity of NBA, to continue to recognise, honour and celebrate the efforts of the unsung heroes nominated by Bengalureans for their unparalleled contributions towards the city. The awards this year is being presented with a new logo and a new tag line ‘My City My Heroes’ to encourage Bengalureans to nominate their heroes.

Media contact:

Priyadarshini SK/ Rahul Gujjer

Mob: 9986377989/ 9986130353