Idea's Green Globe Foundation Award announced

Delhi, 5th February, 2010: The 2nd edition of the Green Globe Foundation Awards was presented at an exclusive ceremony today on the inaugural evening of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. The Awards have been instituted as a salutation to the efforts of organizations and individuals fighting climate change through their work in environment preservation and regeneration. Idea Cellular has partnered this worthy cause, taking forward its ongoing message of "Use Mobile, Save Paper'. Gitanjali Lifestyle has also partnered with the Awards as an Associate Partner.

Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular Ltd, spoke about Idea's commitment and association with the Awards, saying, "We are happy to present the Idea Green Globe Foundation Awards, this year. Through our recent brand campaign, Idea is educating the over 500 million mobile phone users in the country, the merits of usage of mobile phone in saving paper, and therefore, the green cover necessary for the health of the planet. The association with Green Globes provides us with the right platform to communicate and further our "Use Mobile, Save Paper' campaign. "

Akshay Kumar's son, Aarav Bhatia was lauded with a Green Globe for Outstanding Contribution by a Child. Aarav is noted for being the youngest person to have sponsored a village under the "Light a Billion Lives' campaign.

Among the other eminent awardees were Reva Electric, Corporate/Business enterprise (the Private sector), Bangalore based investigative journalist, Keya Acharya, Outstanding Contribution by a Media Person, IIT Kanpur for Best Practices in Green Design and Architecture and the Green Globe for Extraordinary work by an NGO was shared jointly by SSVK (Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas Kendra) & Siruthuli. A Green Globe was also lauded on General Secretary of the Student Union at Premier Engineering College, BITS Pilani, Raghav Memani, for Outstanding Contribution by Youth.

A major highlight of the night was, the live conferencing with California state Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who addressed the audience live and spoke of his green message and the changes he would like to see come about towards energy development and sustainability. During the video-conferencing, Schwarzenegger was in direct conversation with Dr. Pachauri and noted TV personality Vikram Chandra at the second edition of the Idea Green Globe Foundation Awards. He even held up a solar lantern given to him by Dr. Pachauri and spoke of changing all kerosene based lamps to solar power.

Ajay Chacko, Director, TV18 Business Media & CEO Forbes India says "Our association with the Green Globe Awards is a reiteration of one of the core values of CNBC-TV18. We believe that the pursuit of profit and the protection of the planet are not mutually opposed concerns. We stand firm in our belief that green business is good business."

The winners were decided by an esteemed Jury panel of illustrious personalities from different walks of life. The panel constitutes, Mr. M. C. Mehta, Mr. Kartikeya Sarabhai, Mr. Darryl D'Monte, Mr. Bittu Sahgal, Ms. Ranjana Saikia, Mr. Abhijit Sinha and Ms. Mili Majumdar. The jury made their decisions, taking into consideration the innovation, social impact, cost implications and sustainability of the action, involved.