ET Awards: India Inc gets ready for the 1,000-watt night

The wait couldn���t get more frustrating. With just three days to go for the Big-Bang ET Awards, our phones have been ringing off the hook and our mailboxes are jammed. Everyone who is someone ��� in India and abroad ��� wants a slice of India Inc���s most exclusive event yet.

Well, we���re not in the least surprised. The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence have always had top billing in the CEO calendar. This year is even more special; it���s the first time India Inc is getting together after the horrific terror attacks in Mumbai.

It���s a Saturday night fever that���s catching on. On December 17, over 300 CEOs ��� the creme de la creme of India Inc ��� will make their way down the Queen���s Necklace in Mumbai. The event will be presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. We���re honoured that the architect of India���s economic miracle has chosen, in this climate of global economic uncertainty and domestic upheaval, the ET Awards as a platform to address India Inc.

There will also be a high-powered panel discussion on ���India���s role in the slowing global economy; and evolving corporate governance in India���.

The discussion will be moderated by Arun Sarin, former global CEO of Vodafone, while the panel members are Sunil Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises, KV Kamath, chairman ICICI Bank and Union minister for commerce and industry, Kamal Nath.

Given the profile of the participants and the wattage of the event, a crack team of the prime minister���s SPG has begun doing its recce of the location for D-Day.

For the winners who will be enshrined in India Inc���s Hall of Fame, it will be a night to remember as they walk down the red carpet to standing ovations from their peers and receive their statuettes from the PM.

And as always, the awards ceremony will be followed by dinner and will give CEOs the opportunity to catch up with old friends, make new acquaintances and exchange corporate strategies. It will also be a reminder to those who seek to undermine the superpower-in-waiting that is India, that we will not bend or break.

The ET Awards are presented by Raymond in association with The Oberoi Mumbai and television partner Times NOW.