Deepinder Goyal named EY Entrepreneur of the Year; Uday Kotak honoured with special jury award

Deepinder Goyal, founder of Eternal Ltd, was awarded the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2025 on February 25 by an 11-member jury. Goyal earned this honour for his "extraordinary impact on India’s consumption patterns through his consumer-tech businesses," the jury's citation said.

Goyal was hailed for creating "not just shareholder value but also thousands of jobs" and "empowering an ecosystem of entrepreneurs" across the country.

The Zomato founder will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award (WEOY) in Monte Carlo, a press statement said.


The 27th edition of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards was held in Mumbai. The winners in different categories are:

• Abhishek Lodha of Lodha Group in Energy, Real Estate and Infrastructure
• Ajay Bhardwaj of Anthem Biosciences in Life Sciences and Healthcare
• Gopal Vittal of Bharti Airtel in the Entrepreneurial CEO category
• Jasbir Singh of Amber Enterprises in Manufacturing
• Karan Bhagat of 360 One WAM in Services
• Pranav Goel and Uttam Digga of Porter in the Startup category
• Sunil Vachani of Dixon Technologies in Business Transformation
• Vir S Advani of Blue Star in Consumer Products & Retail

According to the press statement, the EOY 2025 winners account for a collective revenue of nearly Rs 4 lakh crore with a combined market cap of over Rs 22 lakh crore and provide employment to almost 2.8 lakh people.

Uday Kotak, veteran banker and the new Chairman of Gift City, was honoured with the Special Jury Award, for his "transformative contributions to the Indian banking and finance industry and his enduring impact on generations of entrepreneurs."

Speaking at the event, Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said that India's entrepreneurial spirit was the driving force behind one of the most compelling growth stories in the world.

"In the last 11 years, entrepreneurship has become Bharat’s greatest strength," Goyal said.

"We are witnessing the rise of a confident, aspirational India with 65% of our population under 35 years of age, 25 crore citizens lifted out of poverty, and 2.3 million STEM graduates entering the workforce every year, creating an unmatched demographic and innovation advantage," he added.