PRODUCT JURY: CAR
Aditya Patel – Racer
One of India’s brightest young racers, Aditya has already made waves in the Indian motorsport arena. With several titles to his name, Aditya has been Audi’s only Indian driver in the ADAC GT Masters Series in Europe. He has also competed in the Polo Cup, Scirocco Cup, 24 Hours of Nurburgring and various national and international karting and racing championships. Aditya remains our youngest juror!
Dilip Chhabria – Founder, DC Design
An eminent and internationally acclaimed automobile designer, Dilip heads his own company DC Design, which produces modification kits for automobiles, and also takes on design work for the global industry. Dilip is also the founder and heads the faculty of Design at the DYP-DC School, a part of the DY Patil University, Pune.
Dhruv Behl – Editor, autoX
Founder and Managing Editor of autoX, Dhruv has chased his dreams passionately. Needless to say, everything automotive lights up his day. autoX is testimony to his passion and commitment. In 2014 Dhruv was inducted into the prestigious World Car Awards Jury.
Gul Panag – Actor, Politician & Automobile Enthusiast
Known as much for being an auto enthusiast and biker, as her silver-screen avatar, Gul Panag is now a familiar face in the motoring scene. Gul has been a regular juror with CNB since 2010. She has also participated in the Polo Cup and is a regular at global auto events like motor shows or the Le Mans 24 Hours. Gul also makes a number of adventure trips in her 4X4 and loves biking on the weekends.
Jens Meiners – Motoring Journalist & Vice-Chair, World Car Awards
Splitting his time between Germany and in New York, Jens is one of the foremost international motor journalists. Jens has covered the automotive industry from the business, product and technological perspective for the past 17 years. He writes for a number of highly respected global outlets and serves as the vice-chair on the Steering Committee of the World Car Awards. Jens owns a collection of classic cars of the 1970s and 80s back home in Bavaria.
Karun Chandhok – Racer
India’s youngest Formula One driver, Karun Chandhok has excelled in almost every racing category he has competed in. He is the only Indian to race in the historic Le Mans 24 hours. He affiliation with cars goes back a long way and is well known for his technical know-how and feedback. He has also been spearheading the FIA Formula-E Championship, and is one of the drivers for Mahindra Racing.
Pablo Chaterji – Managing Editor, Man’s World
Pablo has built an impressive career as a motoring and lifestyle journalist. Besides testing cars & bikes, and tracking the auto industry, Pablo is an avid photographer and has a keen ear for music. Prior to his innings at Man’s World, he was editor of Motoring World.
Siddharth Vinayak Patankar – Editor-Auto, NDTV Group & Director, World Car Awards
Senior financial correspondent, primetime news anchor and Editor-Auto for the NDTV Group, Siddharth has worn many hats, and also conceived all the automobile programming at the network. He now heads the Auto Prime band of programming launched by NDTV in 2014. He also spearheads India’s biggest auto quiz, which he hosts every year – the Mahindra AQ – which completed its 6th season in 2014. Siddharth is also now a Director on the Steering Committee for the prestigious World Car Awards, and has served on that jury since 2010.
Dr V Sumantran – Senior Industry Consultant
A career spanning many years spent at big names like GM, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, Dr Sumantran brings with him a mountain of knowledge and several years of experience working in the passenger car, commercial vehicle and defence space. He now consults the global industry, and in between all his travels has been a loyal supporter of the CNB Awards. Dr Sumantran has been with us since the very first year of the awards and heads the car and two wheeler juries.
PRODUCT JURY: TWO WHEELER
Gul Panag – Actor, Politician & Automobile Enthusiast
Known as much for being an auto enthusiast and biker, as her silver-screen avatar, Gul Panag is now a familiar face in the motoring scene. Gul has been a regular juror with CNB since 2010. She has also participated in the Polo Cup and is a regular at global auto events like motor shows or the Le Mans 24 Hours. Gul also makes a number of adventure trips in her 4X4 and loves biking on the weekends.
Kamlesh Patel – Rallyist & Enthusiast
Former Rallyist and automobile enthusiast, Kamlesh is also a keen contributor to the development of Indian motorsport. Having been in the auto business, he understands what consumers are looking for in the market and has been on the CNB jury for several years now.
Pablo Chaterji – Managing Editor, Man’s World
Pablo has built an impressive career as a motoring and lifestyle journalist. Besides testing cars & bikes, and tracking the auto industry, Pablo is an avid photographer and has a keen ear for music. Prior to his innings at Man’s World, he was editor of Motoring World.
Siddharth Vinayak Patankar – Editor-Auto, NDTV Group & Director, World Car Awards
Senior financial correspondent, primetime news anchor and Editor-Auto for the NDTV Group, Siddharth has worn many hats, and also conceived all the automobile programming at the network. He now heads the Auto Prime band of programming launched by NDTV in 2014. He also spearheads India’s biggest auto quiz, which he hosts every year – the Mahindra AQ – which completed its 6th season in 2014. Siddharth is also now a Director on the Steering Committee for the prestigious World Car Awards, and has served on that jury since 2010.
Sulajja Firodia Motwani – Joint MD, Kinetic Engineering
Sulajja is an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. She has led the Kinetic business back when the group was still an active OEM. The Company has witnessed tremendous expansion during her term. From being a mere moped manufacturer it now focusses on being a key component supplier to the country’s biggest brands. Sulajja is also a two wheeler enthusiast and avidly follows the MotoGP and Superbike World Championships.
Dr V Sumantran – Senior Industry Consultant
A career spanning many years spent at big names like GM, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, Dr Sumantran brings with him a mountain of knowledge and several years of experience working in the passenger car, commercial vehicle and defence space. He now consults the global industry, and in between all his travels has been a loyal supporter of the CNB Awards. Dr Sumantran has been with us since the very first year of the awards and heads the car and two wheeler juries.
JURY: CNB – AAA
Prahlad Kakkar – Advertising Film Director, Genesis Film Production
Prahlad has ruled the advertising world with his brand of irreverent humour, some memorable brand building campaigns and has created Award winning commercials for the most reputed corporates and agencies in India and the Asia Pacific region. After having assisted renowned feature filmmaker, Shyam Benegal, he moved on to advertising films. Known as the “Ad Guru” Prahlad has been instrumental in changing the face of advertising in our country bringing in the appropriate “regional Indian-ness” and values into an urban context through his films, creative workshops, articles and interviews. He has helped create memorable campaigns for brands like Pepsi with “Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby! AHA!”, Gold Spot with “The Zing Thing”, Maggi with it’s “2 Minutes?”, Britannia and it’s signature “Ting Ting Ti Ting”, Limca “Zor ka Jhatka” and Maggi Sauces and “It’s different”. Prahlad has been on the CNB-AAA jury in the past too.
Prema Sagar – Principal and Founder of Genesis Burson-Marsteller, India
Genesis Public Relations, which Prema established in November of 1992, mirrors the journey of the profession in India. It is recognised today as India’s most trusted public relations and public affairs firm. Prema has played a leadership role in the industry, demonstrated by her role as the Founding President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (www.prcai.org), Council Member for India of the International Public Relations Association (www.ipra.org) & in recognition of her contribution to global public relations, Prema was invited as the only Indian on the global jury for the first ever PR Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. She was earlier inducted into the ‘ICCO Hall of Fame’, the first Asian to receive this rare honour. She has also served on the NDTV Awards jury twice before.
Sam Balsara – Chairman and MD, Madison World
Highly considered as one of the founding fathers of motoring journalism in India, Adil’s over 30 years of experience in the field is only surpassed by his energy, enthusiasm and one of the biggest scale model collections of cars and bikes in the country! He loves his bikes and rides as often as he can in and around his beloved hometown of Pune.
Shruti Verma Singh – Head, Strategy & Brand , NDTV Prime and Senior Editor & Anchor
She has nearly 20 years of experience in the media as a reporter & news anchor and subsequently moving on to Head Branded Programming on NDTV Good Times, conceptualising and producing several successful shows like Heavy Petting, Lounge (With Rajat Kapoor), Women on Top etc
As senior editor and anchor for All About Ads Prime, she has been regularly moderating and speaking at events related to marketing, advertising, digital and other media forums.
Siddharth Vinayak Patankar – Editor-Auto, NDTV Group & Director, World Car Awards
Senior financial correspondent, primetime news anchor and Editor-Auto for the NDTV Group, Siddharth has worn many hats, and also conceived all the automobile programming at the network. He now heads the Auto Prime band of programming launched by NDTV in 2014. He also spearheads India’s biggest auto quiz, which he hosts every year – the Mahindra AQ – which completed its 6th season in 2014. Siddharth is also now a Director on the Steering Committee for the prestigious World Car Awards, and has served on that jury since 2010. He has also interviewed many personalities across the globe including Ratan Tata, Carlos Ghosn, Anand Mahindra, Warren Buffet, Alan Mulally, Mukesh Ambani, Pranab Mukherjee, Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Schumacher, Boris Becker, Priyanka Chopra, amongst others.
