TIOLAwards2020

Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti was the 35th Chief Justice of India. He was elevated to the Apex Court in December 1998 and was appointed as the Chief Justice of India in 2004.

He had joined the Guna District Bar in 1960 and was enrolled as an Advocate in 1962. In April, 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a District & Sessions Judge. After a year, he resigned in May 1978 and reverted to the Bar for practice mainly in the High Court. He was appointed as Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 1988 and was made permanent Judge in 1989. He was then transferred to Delhi High Court in 1994.

Justice R V Easwar commenced his journey with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in 1991. He was promoted as ITAT President in 2010. Within a year, he was elevated to the Delhi High Court from where he retired in the year 2014.

Post-retirement, Justice Easwar was appointed as the Chairman of the 10-Member Committee, set up by the Government of India, in the year 2015, to simplify the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Many recommendations of the Committee were later accepted by the Union Government.

Shri Sumit Bose, an IAS officer of 1976 Batch, held several key positions, including Revenue, in the State and Central Governments. He retired as the Union Finance Secretary in the year 2014.

Educated at the Doon School, Dehradun (class of 1970), St. Stephen_’s College, Delhi, and the London School of Economics, Mr Bose had joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1976.

Ms. Praveen Mahajan holds the record of being the first lady IRS officer to head the erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs. She joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1976. She received Presidential Award for her exemplary service. Post-retirement, she was appointed as Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi.

Post graduated in English & History and also Diploma in ‘International Economic Relations’ from IIPA, Paris.

Mr. M C Joshi is 1974 batch IRS (Income tax) officer. Besides holding many sensitive posts in the Income Tax Department, he was the Special Director in the Enforcement Directorate for several years. To his credit, he led a High-Level Committee set up to study the generation of black money in India and suggest legislative-cum-administrative measures.

He did M.A in Economics from Delhi School of Economics and was also appointed as Chairman of the Quality Review Board (QRB) an independent oversight body for the ICAI after my retirement. In this capacity he interacted with PCAOB in Washington and the CPAOB in Tokyo, the two most important independent audit oversight bodies in the world.

Mr. Ashok K. Bhattacharya, popularly known as AKB, is the Editorial Director of the Business Standard newspaper. He has authored a book titled “The Rise of Goliath” and writes a weekly column named Raisina Hill. He has been with the Business Standard for more than 23 years now.

He commenced his editorial journey with The Indian Express. Later, he worked for The Economic Times, Financial Express and The Pioneer.

Dr. Girish Ahuja is a veteran direct tax expert. He did his graduation from SRCC and Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He is a Faculty Member of the SRCC, ICAI and ICSI.

He has been teaching Direct Taxes to students at various levels for more than 35 years. He was nominated by the Central Government to the Central Council of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India for two terms. He is also on the Board of Directors of many companies and has a vast and rich experience in the field of finance and taxation.

Justice Shiva Kirti Singh was elevated to the Supreme Court of India in 2013 and retired in 2016. He was appointed as the Chairperson of Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal where his tenure was extended twice. Before coming to the Apex Court, he was the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court. He was first appointed as permanent judge of Patna High Court in 1998; appointed Acting Chief Justice of Patna HC in 2009 twice and for the third time in 2010. He was transferred to Allahabad HC in 2012 where he took oath as Chief Justice in February 2013 and then moved to Supreme Court in September 2013.

Mr. Ajay Narayan Jha is a 1982 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Manipur cadre. He was the Finance Secretary of India. He was appointed as the member of Fifteenth Finance Commission of India in place of Shaktikanta Das who was appointed as RBI Governor.

Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, 1982 batch IAS officer, retired as DIPP Secretary. As Secretary, he zealously implemented some of Prime Minister’s Schemes such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-Up India’. He was Chairman of Invest India and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation. He also headed the Indian Commodities Market Regulator and Forward Markets Commission. He was very closely associated with the e-Court project of the Supreme Court of India as a Member of the e-Committee. He did his Masters from JNU in international relations and affairs before doing Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, John F Kennedy School of Government.

Mr. Anup Vikal is a seasoned business leader with progressive experience of over 28 years in managing various aspects of strategy, operations, turnarounds, fundraising, governance and stakeholders, across sectors. Apart from CSR initiatives, he is credited with fundraising in the excess of over USD 25 billion in form of debt, equity, mezzanine funding, structured finance, among others. He has successfully turned around multi-billion USD non-performing businesses to profitability. Previously, he was the Group CFO and General Counsel at Jasper Infotech. Prior to that, he held senior group positions with InterGlobe Enterprises, COLT Technology Services, and Bharti Airtel.

Dr. Harish Hande, a social entrepreneur, was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2011 for his extraordinary endeavours to empower the poor with solar power technology through his social enterprise SELCO India which was co-founded by him in 1995.

After finishing his undergraduate from IIT Kharagpur, he did his Masters and later PhD in energy engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has won Ashden Award for sustainable Energy 2005 and Accenture Economic Development Award for 2005 in 2007, SELCO INDIA again won the Ashden Award, this time for “Outstanding Achievement” in energy sector. The award was presented by Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States of America.