Blog: The Awards night unfolds: Glimpses of Are You In The List 2016

Leadership

The Awards night unfolds: Glimpses of Are You In The List 2016

In its 5th year, People Matters Are You In The List 2016 Awards successfully created the right ambience for the winners to walk on the red carpet and get the coveted tag of the Future HR Leader!
The Awards night unfolds: Glimpses of Are You In The List 2016

When the red carpet was finally laid down for the winners to walk through – you could see the excitement, ease of tension, happiness on the faces of the ‘Fab 15’ who were just crowned the Future HR leaders of the country. In the most anticipated HR awards events of India, People Matters in association with DDI’s ‘Are You in The List 2016’ saw about 2500+ applicants in the first phase and then 15 of them finally emerging as winners. The Jury members were seen satisfied with their decisions when they saw the winners receiving the awards!

The Keynote speaker, Harsh Mariwala, Chairman of Marico Industries Ltd, said, 

HR has to play a business role. I believe the role of the HR function has to be of a catalyst and a facilitator. The war for talent is only going to accelerate and it is very important, HR plays a different role going forward.”

Every winner was being cheered loudly at the invitation-only Gala night.

People Matters’ Editor-in-Chief Ester Martinez said,

What matters about Awards is not finally being ‘in the list or not’ – it is about the pride, the raising the bar of excellence, the competition and the aspiration to be part of such an important function of HR. People who have gone through the journey, especially those who have not made to the List – they define the process as a self-discovery journey; and how this process has helped them reflect on their role in HR and their contribution to business.” 

To commemorate the 5th year of the Awards, People Matters hosted the Gala night in the same room from where it had started five years ago. Indeed a very emotional and special moment. 

Anu Zachariah, MD of DDI India said about the journey, “It has been a fantastic five-year journey along with People Matters. About 10000+ candidates have applied to be a part of the coveted list from different parts of the country and different organizations over the past five years, but there is one common thread that ties them all – the passion for the HR function.”

Are You In The List Award journey was conceptualised in 2012 in collaboration with Development Dimensions International (DDI) with “a mission to be a promoter for recognizing emerging HR professionals and leaders who have that spark that we think would be instrumental in advancing the HR function and augmenting its long-term business value,” she added.

Here’s the list of India’s 15 future HR leaders:

  1. ABHISHEK BUDHRAJA, Associate Director, HR (Talent Management, OD & OE) at Snapdeal

  2. ANKITA PODDAR, HR Business Partner, Amazon

  3. APOORVA PRADHAN, Assistant Manager, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

  4. MEGHA GUPTA, HR Business Partner, Sapient Corporation Ltd

  5. RAVI BAJPAI, Practice Lead Talent Acquisition, Infosys

  6. SALIL RAHEJA, Deputy General Manager, Essar Steel India Ltd

  7. SHAVETA ARYA, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo.

  8. SHREYAS HARIDAS, HR Business Partner, Star India Pvt Ltd. 

  9. SIDDHARTH BHASIN, HRBP, G&A Business, APAC Region, Google

  10. SOUMYA MALKANI, Deputy Manager – OD, Tata AIG General Insurance Company

  11. ADITYA ADYAR, Chief People Officer, Faasos

  12. NIYATI GOEL, Regional Rewards, AMEA, Mondelez International 

  13. APEKSHA JAIN, Senior HR Business Partner, PepsiCo

  14. RAJESHWARI RAMACHANDRAN, HCM Consultant

  15. SNIGDHA SINGH CHAUDHURI, Sr. Manager, HRBP for Sales team, Cipla


Are You In The List Award is a platform for HR managers in the age group of 26-35 years, with minimum work experience of 3 years in the capacity of HR. The 8-month long process of selection saw about 2200 applications from India across HR verticals.

The 12-member Jury had a tough time in selecting the best from the crème-de-la -crème. The Jury include – 

  1. P. Dwarakanath Head, Group Human Capital at Max India
  2. Dr. Aquil Busrai Chief Executive Officer at Aquil Busrai Consulting
  3. Anuranjita Kumar Managing Director and CHRO at Citi South Asia
  4. S. Varadarajan (Raja) CHRO & Head of Corporate Affairs at Tata SIA Airlines
  5. Jacob Jacob Chief People Officer at Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd.
  6. Gajendra Chandel Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) of Tata Motors
  7. L Prabhakar, Vice President - Human Resources (Agri-business Division) at ITC Limited
  8. Meenal Jadhav Director - Talent Management & Organizational Development of Schneider Electric India
  9. Shalini Lal, Director HR, Deutsche Bank
  10. Yuvaraj Srivastava CHRO of MakeMyTrip.com
  11. Shalini Pillay, Head, People Performance and Culture, KPMG India
  12. Kamlesh Dangi, Group President - Human Resources at UTI AMC - ‎UTI MF 


The evening ended in an exciting note and HR professionals were seen hobnobbing with each other on how to take HR to the next level. It was not just the winners who gained but everybody who attended the event learnt something new and indispensable. A successful script is when everybody goes home happy – and this Award epitomised just that! 

For the entire list of Are You in The List Awards 2016, please click here 

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Topics: Leadership, #AreyouintheList?

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