Rotary honours unsung heroes of city, state for their contributions

The 82-year-old Rotary Club of Bangalore has a large canvas of social service projects. The club held 'Exemplars 2017', an awards night to recognise heroes of Namma Bengaluru and Karnataka, who have contributed to society.

"We are all working for the same mission, to create a better society and world at large. Recognising, supporting and acknowledging their work is like furthering our own cause," said Rotarian Ranga Rao, president of the organisation.

"If we provide them with a platform for recognition, we would influence many others to follow them," said Pradeep Rao from the club.

The evening, at ITC Gardenia, was graced by Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty and guests of honour and judges, comprising theatre person Arundhati Nag; chief general manager, SBI, Farooque and managing director, UTC, Chris Rao.

Seven categories

Awards were given in seven categories. Youth Icon, Pride of Workmanship, Outstanding NGO, Environment Conservation, Startup Success, Corporate Citizen and the highest award, Citizen Extraordinaire, for someone who has put Karnataka on the world map.

The Youth Icon award went to Niranjan Mukundan who, despite his physical disability and surgeries, went on to become a national level swimmer. He is the current junior world champion and also a record holder with 10 medals in a single edition of the World Games. "This award is a great motivation for me and an encouragement to do even better," said Niranjan.

The Pride of Workmanship award was won by artist Badal Nanjundaswamy while the Outstanding NGO award went to Socare which supports stigmatised children and those of convicts.

"The award is a tribute to the late Mr Mani who founded this NGO. We are taking care of 157 children at the moment and it gives us a lot of joy to see these individuals settle down in their lives," said R Venkatanathan of Socare.

In the field of Environment Conservation, Mardi Ecosystems Pvt Ltd was awarded for urban conservation and waste management. In the startup space, it was Easy M2M Technologies Pvt Ltd which creates watches with security apps for the elderly and the disabled.

The Corporate Citizen award went to Sansera Foundation for their work in lake restoration, schools and dialysis treatment. T V Ramachandra, Centre for Ecological Studies, IISc, was conferred the Citizen Extraordinaire award. Ramachandra has written around 615 international papers and 17 books.

Rotary District Governor H R Ananth and chief of RV Institutions Panduranga Setty were also present at the award ceremony.