Meet India's change leaders!

Swach, the low-cost water purifier from the Tatas, has bagged the New Product Innovation award from LeapVault.

LeapVault, an Indian player in organisation development consulting, training and recruitment, in association with 'Who Moved My Cheese?', announced the first-ever global 'LeapVault Change Leadership Awards' this week.

Salman Khurshid, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, appreciated the idea and the ethos of the awards and strongly endorsed the benefits of effective change management and leadership.

He felt that this was the appropriate time for India to take notice of 'Change Leaders'.

Click NEXT to read about the people and products that define the 'changing' India...

Tata Swach is one of the world's cheapest water purifiers, priced at Rs 749 and Rs 999. A collaborative effort of Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Chemicals and Titan Industries, the purifier is on an innovative concept developed by the TCS Innovation Labs -- TRDDC.

The Swach technology combines low-cost ingredients such as rice husk ash with superior nanotechnology.

The efficiency of the product has been rigorously tested to meet internationally accepted water purification standards.
Meanwhile, Tata Steel won the award for the Corus takeover.

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Poonam Kasturi

Poonam Kasturi has won the Green Change Leadership for her unique initiative Daily Dump.

Kasturi wants ordinary Indians to make a 'clean' difference to the society, by converting waste into useful compost in a simple and cost effective manner.

Her organic business venture Daily Dump offers different types of composters that convert the waste generated in one's  kitchen into compost. If the customers do not require the compost, it can be sold back to Daily Dump.

What began as a small venture with family members and potters, three years ago, Daily dump is set to treble its turnover to Rs 36,00,000 (Rs 3.6 million) this year. Today, the company has about 4,500 dedicated customers in Bangalore who use the profitable composters.

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C K Prahalad

'The Global Indian Change Leader' award was posthumously given to C K Prahalad, one of the world's most respected and influential business gurus who passed away on April 17. Alan D'Souza, his brother-in-law, accepted the award on behalf of Prahalad's family and read out an emotional acceptance message from Prahalad's wife.

C K Prahalad was the Professor of Strategy at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Professor Prahalad, who introduced the term 'core competencies' to the management lexicon, is the author of several bestselling management books, notably The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, published in 2004, which argued that the world's poor represented a market worth up to $13 trillion a year.

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Akshaya Patra

Akshaya Patra won the award for 'Social Change Leadership award in education.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the largest school meal programme. An NGO based in Bangalore, the organisation reaches out to 1.2 million underprivileged children.

The LeapVault Change Leadership Awards recognise change leaders across all walks: business, politics, media and entertainment, sports, healthcare, social change and non-profit organisations.

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Arvind Eyecare

Arvind Eyecare won the 'Social Change Leadership in healthcare. Arvind Eyecare, founded by Dr G Venkataswamy in 1976 with the mission to eliminate blindness, is the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world.

Taking its compassionate services to the doorstep of rural India, Aravind's effective strategies has crossed the barriers of distance, poverty and ignorance to create a self-sustaining system.

From April 2009 to March 2010,  over 2.5million out patients were treated and over 300,000 surgeries were performed.  Dr P Namperumalsamy, chairman was selected one among the 'World's 100 most influential people' by the Time magazine recently.

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Verghese Kurien

The father of India's White Revolution, Verghese Kurien, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Kurien helped modernise Anand model of cooperative dairy development and brought about a White Revolution in India.

Kurien was the chairman of India's National Dairy Development Board, the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation.

He has been honoured with several awards in the past - Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Prize for community leadership, the Carnegie-Wateler World Peace Prize and the World Food Prize.

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UCO Bank

UCO Bank won the Leadership award for business turnaround. The bank posted a net profit of Rs 380 crore (Rs 3.90 billion) for the quarter that ended on 31 March, 2010 comapred to Rs 103 crore (Rs 1.03 billion)  for the same quarter in the preceding year.

The rise in profit is is 269 per cent higher this quarter. Chairman and director of UCO Bank, S K Goel said the bank has managed to produce such a good show in terms of net profit due to aggressive shedding of high-cost deposits and rise in yield on advances. Founded in 1943, UCO Bank is a commercial bank owned by the government.

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Ginger Hotels

Tatas' Ginger Hotels won the Scurry award for creating a new category/segment. Developed by Indian Hotels Company, Ginger Hotels are designed to offer modern facilities at cost-effective rates.

The hotels have 100-150 air-conditioned rooms equipped with a 20-inch LCD television with satellite channels, mini-fridge and tea/coffee maker, meeting and conference room, net zone, gymnasium, vending machines, digital safe deposit boxes and Wi-Fi connectivity in the public areas and rooms.

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Tech Mahindra

The award for 'Game Changing M&A' went to Tech Mahindra. Mahindra Group took over the scam-tainted Satyam Computers and saved the company from plunging into a major crisis. Satyam got a professional makeover and has been renamed Mahindra Satyam.

Anand Mahindra, managing director, Mahindra Group, said he had never regretted over the decision to take over Satyam Computers. According to Mahindra Satyam chief executive C P Gurnani, the company would take two years to recover financially.

Tech Mahindra is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting firm focused on the communications industry.

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Vodafone

The award for 'Corporate Change Leadership Re branding' was awarded to Vodafone. On September 20, 2007, Vodafone Essar officially rebranded the 'Hutch' brand to 'Vodafone' in India.

Vodafone Essar was formed in May 2007 as the UK-based global telecom giant Vodafone Plc acquired a controlling stake in the fourth-largest mobile communication service provider in India, Hutchison Essar Ltd. Vodafone then changed the 'Hutch' brand to 'Vodafone'.

Aditya Birla Group won the Corporate Change Leadership: Restructuring award. A $29.2 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the league of Fortune 500 companies. The group which operates in 25 countries, is anchored by 130,000 employees.

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Rajkumar Hirani

Film director Rajkumar Hirani won the 'Change Leadership: Entertainment & Media' award.

Hirani is a National Award winning director, best known for films like Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots.