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The NDTV Car & Bike Awards, now in their 7th edition,
have grown to clearly stand out amongst the clutter of auto awards as the most credible
and fair. The awards have also been trendsetters, with many categories like the
Green Award and a special set of awards for Communications and Marketing being emulated
by others. Eminent and multi-skilled set of jurors judge the product and marketing
categories.
Besides that India’s most voted for Viewers’ Choice category (with over 2.5 lakh
votes registered in past editions) crown the popular Car and Bike of the Year, presented
to two lucky viewers. Key awards also include: Car of the Year 2011, Two Wheeler
of the Year 2011, Car Manufacturer of the Year, Two Wheeler Manufacturer of the
Year and Automotive Man of the Year.
Inception:
The awards were conceived in 2005-06 as an attempt to truly honour products in a
fast-changing and exploding automobile industry, and especially so from a user’s
perspective. NDTV partnered with Car India – a monthly from NextGen Publishing,
with Adil Jal Darukhanawala at the helm. The Maruti Suzuki Swift and the Hero Honda
Achiever were our first winners, chosen through a hectic and gruelling selection
carried out at the first Jury Meet in Pune in December 2005.
Today:
NDTV’s automotive programming, led by the flagship CNB (The Car & Bike Show) has
achieved critical mass in terms of viewership, appeal and acclaim. This has always
had a positive rub-off on the awards too – both from our viewers and the industry.
Largely accepted as the most credible awards, the NDTV Car & Bike Awards have gone
independent since 2010-11, with no partners. The stringent and unbiased approach
to the jury selection process has become even more strict, and this was evident
when we had completely unmotivated results for Car and Two Wheeler of the Year in
2011.
Milestones:
- CNB-AAA
We were the first to recognise the people behind the products, by awarding technology,
marketing, communications and PR efforts. The CNB-AAA categories were conceived
by NDTV’s auto Editor Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, and he received tremendous support
from our in-house marketing and ad specialist Shruti Verma Singh of All About Ads.
- Green Award
NDTV was the first to institute an honour for the year’s most green technologies
or products. This practice has been a pioneering effort at our awards, one that
finds many replications today.
- Viewers' Choice Awards
Given NDTV’s massive viewership, the Viewers’ Choice categories are truly special
to us. And we reward the massive voting support we get by also giving away a car
and bike to two lucky viewers. We are the only award to have this practice – now
a tradition, which we cherish. The voting usually exceeds an average of 200,000
votes.
- Motorsport
NDTV Car & Bike Awards have also consistently honoured Indian homegrown talent in
motorsport, with the likes of Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, and Force India
bagging the awards in the past.
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And
the winners are...
