The Karmaveer Puraskaar are National People's Awards for Citizen Social Justice and Action instituted by the citizens and people of India. These awards are instituted by iCONGO- Confederation of NGOs – a Public-Private-People partnership in association with other partners from industry, media, government, students, SMEs and other sectors as a part of the Right every Wrong Movement. All the awardees are dubbed ‘The Noble Laureates’. These awards seek to celebrate and inspire individual citizen social responsibility, justice and action initiatives and are held every year on 26 November, the day the Indian Constitutional Pledge was signed.

Awards for real-life unsung heroes

"In a country of almost 1.2 billion Indians, we have many awards for movie stars and other achievers launched by tobacco, FMCG, media and beverage brands as marketing campaigns but we are yet to recognise the real-life unsung heroes who believe that it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness by leading a change.Karmaveer Puraskaar is given to change dreamers and doers who practise philanthropy for social justice"-Jeroninio Almeida, founder and chief volunteer, iCONGO.

For the first time, these awards are for individual citizens from various sectors, for excellence and best practices in promoting social justice & action in their sector. Citizens are nominated and selected in the corporate, government, media, SME, students & other sectors, who have contributed to social justice & action. The award is given to citizens individually for their contribution in leading change and is not for any organization.

Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates, 2009

Category 1: Lifetime Achievement

Nirmala Narula

Lifelong Fight for Social Justice Karmaveer Puraskar

Virendar Mohan Trehan

Category 2: Government Citizen Karmaveer Puraskar

D R Kaarthikeyan 

Panchayati Raj

Panchayati Raj

The panchayat raj is a South Asian political system mainly in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. "Panchayat" literally means assembly of five wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the local community. Traditionally, these assemblies settled disputes between individuals and villages...

Vijaytai Prabhakar Patil

Category 3: Civil Society

Sub Category: Disability

Anjlee Agarwal

Sanjeev Sachdeva 

Sub Category: HIV

Dr. Chinkholal Thangsing

Sub Category: Health

Dr. K Srinath Reddy

Sub Category: Education

Manju Bharatram

Sub Category: Education Health and Empowerment

Mamoon Akhtar

Sub category: Peace and Harmony

Armando Gonsalves

Sub Category: Fundraising

Noshir Dadrawala

Sub category: Community Welfare

Anouradha Bakshi

Khirod Chandra Malick

Sub category: Women Empowerment

raniti Shinde

Sub Category: Social Communication and Campaign Strategist

Sharad Sharma

Sharad Sharma

Sharad Sharma is an Indian cartoonist based in New Delhi, India. He was associated with many newspapers and magazines before he switched to electronic media and introduced political animation to Indian TV news channels. In late nineties he formed an organisation World Comics India to introduce the...

Sub Category: Social entrepreneurship/ transformation

Emmanuel Upputuru

Shalindendra Uniyal

Sub Category: Philanthropy

Rohini Nilekani


Category 4: Communal Harmony

Shri Idris Nizami

Category5: Global Indian Karmaveer

Kayzad Namdarian

Mallika Dutt

Mallika Dutt

Mallika Dutt is the Founder, President, and CEO of Breakthrough a global human rights organization that uses the power of media, popular culture, and community mobilization to inspire people to take bold action for dignity, equality, and justice...

Category 6: Global Citizen

Claudia Ciesla

Claudia Ciesla

Claudia Ciesla is a German model, actress, and singer of Polish descent.-Early life:Born in Wodzisław Śląski, Poland, she grew up in Buków, part of Silesia, five miles from the Czech border...

Princess Francoise

Lindsay Levin

Jitman Basnet

Category 7: Corporate Citizen

Holistic CSR Initiatives

Nakul Anand (CEO)

Niranjan Khatri(CSR Head)

Holistic Media Initiatives

Pradeep Gupta

Pradeep Gupta

Pradeep Gupta is the chairman and managing director of Cyber Media, one of India’s leading specialty media house and a public company with an ICT focus. He has received national awards for his championship of the disabled, and alumni awards for entrepreneurship...

Sub Category of corporate executive

Dr. Villoo Morawala Patell

Corporate CEO’s Foundation

Satya Narayanan


Category 8: Real Wealth Creators for Communities

Siva Cotipalli


Category 9: Artist for change

Gautam Ghosh

Sub-category of Music Singer

Dharmendra Jai Narain


Category 10: Art Citizens

Isha Singh

Ritam Banerjee

Ritam Banerjee

Ritam Banerjee is an Indian photographer, specializing in a variety of fields such as Travel, Fashion, Photojournalism, Advertising, Interiors, Portraits and Automobiles, among others. He started pursuing photography in 1996...

Category 11: Kids for Change

Rijuta Lamba


Category 12: Sports people for change

Bittoo Sondhi

Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla

Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla

Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla is an International para athlete from India. She was awarded Arjuna award and Padma Shri for her achievements.- References :**...

Category 11: Professional Citizen

Asim Sarode

Sub Category of IT Professional

Partho Bhowmick


Category 12: Media Citizen

Mainstream Maker

Onir

Onir

Onir is an Indian film director, editor, writer and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother... Nikhil, one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.-Life and career:...

Sub category: Media Citizen-Filmmaker-contemporary issues

Girish Joshi

Sub category: short films

Geeta Kumar Singh

Avinash Kumar Singh

Sub category: Documentary

Ridhesh Sejpal

Sub Category: Print

Tarun Tejpal

Sub Category: Authors

Gregory David Robert


Category 13: Young Social Entrepreneur

Joe Winston


Category 14: Student Citizen

Dhirendra Pratap Singh

Jithin C Nedumala

Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates, 2008

Artistes for Change ,Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates

Mr. Arvind Gaur

Arvind Gaur

Arvind Gaur , Indian theatre director, is known for his work in innovative, socially and politically relevant theatre. Gaur's plays are contemporary and thought-provoking, connecting intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social political issues...

, theatre director

Mrs. Kajol Devgan, film actress

Mrs. Lushin Dubey

Lushin Dubey

Lushin Dubey is an Indian stage actor and director. She directed, acted and scripted many drama productions for over twenty years. Lushin is also known for her Solo plays Untitled and Pinki Virani's Bitter Chocolate with theatre director Arvind Gaur She also acted in film like Partition ,Murder...

, theatre actress

Geeta Chandran, Bharatnatyam Dancer & recipient of the Padma Shri

Bobby Cash, Gautam Ghosh and Ritika Sahni,for Music

Media Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Umesh Anand and Rita Anand ,Print Media

Pritish Nandy

Pritish Nandy

Pritish Nandy is a Indian poet, painter, journalist, politician, media and television personality, animal activist and film producer. He is Bengali by ethnicity. He was member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament representing Maharashtra based party Shiv Sena...

,Film maker

Bhavna Talwar

Bhavna Talwar

Bhavna Talwar is an Indian journalist turned film director. Her debut film, Dharm , won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration at the 2007 National Film Award...

,Filmmaker on contemporary Issues

Nitin Das and Akanksha Joshi, Documentary film maker

Swati D'Souza, Sahej Mantri, Aalap Deboor and Sheetal Bhan ,Short Film makers

Vandana Shah,Author

Mita kapur,Literary Consultant

Lifetime Achievement Karmaveer Puraskaar

Maj. Gen. Raghubir Singh Pannu

Global Indian Karmveer Puraskaar

Dr. Venkat Pullla and Dr.Sailesh Rao

Real Wealth Creators For The Communities

Mr.Rajendra Joshi and Vipin Sharma

Lifelong Fight for Social Justice Through Citizen Action

Pamela Gale Malhotra

Government Citizen Karmveer Puraskaar

Syeda Hameed

Corporate Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Corporate Citizens for Holistic CSR Initiatives- CEO- Ajay Bijli ,CSR Head- Deepa Menon

Corporate Citizens for Holistic Media Initiatives - Chairman- Indu Jain, Director- Pooran Pandey

Corporate CEO's Foundation -Ashok Kurien

Corporate Executive Citizen - Meera Sanyal

Civil Society Karmaveer Puraskaar

Disability - Divya Arora

HIV – Dr Ashok Rau

Community Welfare - T. K. Mathew

Fund Raising - Surat Sandhu

Education, Health and Empowerment - Shobha Murthy

Women Empowerment and Child labour - Nusrat Naqvi

Animal Welfare and Environment - Nigel Otter

Cancer - Harmala Gupta

Care for the Elderly - Sailesh Mishra

Social Communications and Campaign Strategist - Meenakshi Madhwani

Social Venture Mentoring - Varun Sahni

Social Entrepreneurship/Transformation - Rejendra Misra

Student Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Inir Pinheiro

Young Social Entrepreneur Citizen

Meghna Agrawal

Madhusudan Agrawal

Professional Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Madhu Bhatnagar

Shrenik Rao

Kids 4 Change

Aradhna Chhachhi

Diwakar

Young Creative Citizen

Ambar Prakash

Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates,March,2007

Lifetime Achievement Award for creating real wealth for the community

Dr. Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien is the founder of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation , an apex cooperative organization that manages the Amul food brand. He is recognised as the man behind the success of the Amul brand.He is credited with being the architect of Operation Flood – the largest dairy...

Recognition for promoting social responsibility

Mr. Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander

Harsh Mander is an Indian social activist and writer. He came into prominence after 2002 Gujarat riots and heads "Aman Biradari" which work for communal harmony. He became member of National Advisory Council of the UPA government in 2010 and special commissioner to the Supreme Court...

Mr. James Michael Lyngdoh

Ms. Anu Aga

Anu Aga

Anu Aga is an Indian businesswoman and social worker, who led Thermax Ltd., the Rs 3246-crore energy and environment engineering major, as its chairperson 1996-2004...

Mr. Arun Maira

Mr. Crispino Lobo & Ms. Marcella D'souza

Mr. Vikram Akula

Vikram Akula

Vikram Akula is the founder and former chairperson of SKS Microfinance, an organization that offers microloans and insurance to poor women in impoverished areas of India. He stepped down as the SKS chief in November 2011.-Early life:...

Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates,26 Nov,2007

Lifetime Achievement Karmaveer Puraskaar

Dr. M.S. Swaminathan

Lifelong Fight for Social Justice and Action Karmaveer Puraskaar

Dr. Leo Rebello

Mr. Alyque Padamsee

Alyque Padamsee

Alyque Padamsee is an Indian theater personality and ad film maker. He is probably best known in the English-speaking world for playing Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the film Gandhi...

Global Indian Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mr. Pavan Sukhdev 

Civil Society Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mr. Nanda Rana

Dr. Latika Rana

Mrs Shanti Raghavan

Professional Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mr. Raj Bhandare

iCONGO-Deakin University Student Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Ms. Ishita Chaudhry

The Youth Parliament

The Youth Parliament is a support organization for young people in India. It was established in July 2002 by social entrepreneur Ishita Chaudhry with support from the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi...

iCONGO-Business World Corporate Citizen in CSR Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mrs. Mamta Saikia

iCONGO-Business World Corporate Citizen in IT Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mr. P Sridhar Reddy

iCONGO- Tehelka- CMS Media Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Ms. Revathi

Revathi

Revathi is an award-winning Indian actress and film director. She has acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi movies, directed several feature-length films, and has acted in and produced multiple television programs, totaling over twenty years of experience in the entertainment...

Mr. Altaf Ahmad

Artistes for Change Karmaveer Puraskaar

Mr. Rahul Bose

Rahul Bose

Rahul Bose is an Indian actor, screenwriter, director, social activist, and rugby union player.Bose has appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Jhankaar Beats. Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English,...

Mr. Remo Fernandes

Remo Fernandes

Luís Remo de Maria Bernardo Fernandes, more popularly known as Remo Fernandes is a pop/rock/Indian fusion artist and playback singer from the state of Goa, India. His musical work is a fusion of many different cultures and styles he's been exposed to as a child in Goa and in his later travels...

Ms. Sushma Veer

Kids for Change Karmaveer Puraskaar

Baby Benzy

Akhil Akkineni

iCONGO-Exchange 4 Media Young Creative Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar

Ankur Garg and Vivek Kumar Singh

Sportspeople for Change Karmaveer Puraskaar

Gopichand Pullela

Pullela Gopichand

Pullela Gopichand is an Indian Badminton player.He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 defeating Chen Hong of China in the finals by 15-12,15-6. He became the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone, who won it in 1980...

Mahesh Bhupathi

Mahesh Bhupathi

Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi is an Indian professional tennis player widely regarded as among the best doubles players in the world with 11 Grand Slam titles to his credit. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam tournament...

and Shvetha Bhupathi

Young Social Entrepreneur Karmaveer Puraskaar

Abhishek Bharadwaj