News18 India to host 1st edition of 'Amrit Ratna Samman' on August 2

NR Narayana Murthy will be among several personalities who will be honoured at the Amrit Ratna Samman on August 2

TV news channel News18 will be holding the first edition of ‘Amrit Ratna Samman’ on August 2 to honour individuals, who with their path-breaking accomplishments have “contributed immensely to the India story”. The prestigious award will be presented at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, to mark the 75th year of India’s independence.

The TV channel aims to establish the ‘Amrit Ratna Samman’ as an annual celebration of the achievements of Indian icons across different fields who have made the country proud and use it as an occasion to express the nation’s gratitude towards such stalwarts.

In the first edition of the ‘Amrit Ratna Samman’, NR Narayana Murthy, Rajinikanth, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Dr Naresh Trehan, Adar Poonawalla, PT Usha, Tesy Thomas, Bachendri Pal, and Pankaj Tripathi will be honoured by News18.

The noted personalities to be awarded during the first edition of the event were selected through a rigorous process involving not only the channel’s editorial board but also a jury comprising other eminent personalities such as Retired Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Gen (Retd) VP Malik (former Chief of Army Staff), Dr Sonal Mansingh, Abhinav Bindra -- the first Indian to win an individual Olympics Gold -- and Prakash Singh (former DG, BSF & DGP, Uttar Pradesh and Assam).

The media channel said in a release: “The ‘Amrit Ratna Samman’ aims to not only be amongst the most coveted honours to be conferred in the country but it also aspires to serve another objective – to become the nation’s biggest platform to reflect upon how India and Indians can continue to make giant strides across different fields. The ceremony hence will see top leaders attend the event and discuss the vision for a bright and prosperous future India.”

The event will be attended by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Railways Ashwani Vaishnav, Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minster for Health Mansukh Mandaviya, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha.

Karan Abhishek Singh, CEO, Hindi News Cluster of News18 Network, said: “As India’s number one Hindi news channel, we take great pride in contributing to the building of the India story. As the nation celebrates 75 years of Independence, it is our privilege to honour those men and women amongst us who are the true flag bearers of India’s emergence as a leader on the world stage. Amrit Ratna Samman is a humble attempt at our end to honour these giants and express the nation’s gratitude towards their contributions.”

Kishore Ajwani, Managing Editor, News18 India, added: “The idea behind Amrit Ratna was to partake in the momentous celebrations for 75 years of India’s independence. Hence, we have launched an equally momentous initiative to bring forth for our viewers key milestones in our country’s recent past through those personalities who have played a huge role in shaping the India of today. As the country’s most preferred news channel, we strongly believe that bringing such inspirational content to our viewers will allow us to create a huge positive impact and enable us to contribute to nation building.”

The event will be broadcast live on News18 India on August 2 as well as on the channel’s social/digital handles.