SHILLONG/IMPHAL, Jan 3 (NNN): Manipur and Meghalaya have been on Thursday adjudged as one amongst the top three ‘emerging small states’ for its overall performance by the IBN7.
IBN7 Thursday announced the winners of the fourth edition of the prestigious Diamond States Awards – a unique, path-breaking editorial initiative, in association with the Alchemist Group, which lauds the major strides taken by Indian states in the areas of social and human development.
Apart from Meghalaya, the India’s Best states for their overall performance were awarded to Manipur and Himachal Pradesh. While the India’s top three emerging big states were awarded to Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the India’s Best states for their overall performance was awarded to top three big states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat while the top three small states were Sikkim Goa and Uttarakhand.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was the chief guest at the glittering awards ceremony held in New Delhi, which was attended by Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, prominent politicians, bureaucrats and other eminent personalities.
The IBN7 Diamond States Awards follows a credible and multi-pronged selection process that involves secondary data from authentic sources and primary data from a nationwide research exercise conducted by IPSOS, the Research Partner for this initiative. KPMG, the independent Knowledge Partner, manages the process, methodology and the data for arriving at the best states across various categories of the awards.
The award winners are selected basis the parameters set by the IBN Editorial Board, Outlook Editorial Board and the Jury consisting of eminent citizens from various walks of life. The Jury this year included Dr. Bimal Jalan, former RBI Governor & Chairperson of the Jury; Dr. Shaibal Gupta, Secretary of Asian Development Research Institute; TSR Subramanian, former Cabinet Secretary; M Damodaran, former Chairman of SEBI; Dr. Bakul H Dholakia, former Director of IIM-Ahmedabad and Gurcharan Das, author and public intellectual.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN, IBN7 & IBN-Lokmat, said, “IBN7 Diamond States Awards is an initiative which tries to highlight the remarkable contribution put in by the states to attain the set goals, which eventually leads to a better India.”
Ashutosh, Managing Editor, IBN7, said, “We are privileged to host the 4th edition of IBN7 Diamond States Awards. This award is an initiative to recognize the outstanding leap made by the states towards our nation’s growth.”
Winners of the IBN7 Diamond States Awards 2012 in the category of citizen security was bagged by Gujarat as best big state and Sikkim as best small state, core infrastructure – Punjab and Delhi, education – Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, employment – Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, environment – Kerala and Sikkim, healthcare – Kerala and Goa, poverty – Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir, water and sanitation – Maharashtra and Sikkim and women empowerment was bagged by Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.