To be conferred by the New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), the award recognises Indian citizens who have brought glory to the nation through their achievements.

As many as 27 eminent personalities have been nominated for the awards— of which The Indian Express is an associate sponsor— in seven categories of politics, sports, business, cinema, music, unsung heroes and NRI.

The nominations in the politics category are varied with veteran leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and former President APJ Abdul Kalam. All five nominations in the category represent the nominees’ commitment to democracy and public welfare and reflect on their popularity and ability to communicate.

The sports category has four nominations from the field of chess, tennis, cricket and football. Cricketer MS Dhoni, World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand, Captain of the Indian Football team Baichung Bhutia and tennis player Sania Mirza are among the nominees.

The nominations in the category of Cinema has highly acclaimed actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Rajnikanth, Shilpa Shetty and singer-turned-actor Himesh Reshammiya and the 16 reel-life state champions who came together to form a national hockey team in the movie Chak De India.

Five nominees for the award in the global Indian category are Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Indira Nooyi, CEO of Vodafone Group plc Arun Sarin, Chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change RK Pachauri and film director Mira Nair.

While Nooyi was listed among Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2007, Pachauri-headed the Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN climate body. Sarin has been instrumental in influencing the wireless industry’s global growth and Nair’s latest film —The Namesake premiered in 2006— added to her long list of acclaimed films.

In the business category, five reputed names— Chairman and MD of Suzlon Energy Tulsi Tantil, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group Kumar Mangalam Birla, President, DLF Group KP Singh, Chairman and CEO of Wipro Limited Azim Premji and Chairman and MD of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani — won nominations.

Music director-duo Vishal and Shekhar, Singer Sukhwinder Singh, Bollywood Music director and composer Pritam Singh, playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan and award-winning composer, record producer and musician AR Rahman have been nominated for awards in the Music category.

And in the unsung heroes category, the nominees include woman activist from Manipur Irom Sharmila, famous for her campaign against the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, Auto Raja, an ex-auto driver, and the Indian Soldier, the strength behind the Indian Army.

The winners will be decided by public vote through one of the four mediums — SMS Poll, Online Votes, Opinion Polls and TV shows. While NDTV announces nominations through advertisements in various mediums like TV, Radio and Print, Ernst & Young tabulates and validates the votes.