JSW Group Sajjan Jindal named Business Leader of the Year at ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 🏆

Honorable Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharamanji, Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Chandrababu Naidu garu, distinguished members of the jury, and friends. Thank you. Thank you for this honor. When I was in my early 20s, I would always attend shareholder meetings, AGMs of Tata Steel, Hindustan Lever, and Reliance. I would sit there as a young boy, wide-eyed, watching men who had built empires from nothing answer questions from ordinary shareholders with complete dignity. No airs, just quiet confidence and an absolute respect for every single person in the room. I didn't always follow every number on the balance sheet. But I understood something far more important. I understood what it feels like to build something that belongs to everyone. That stayed with me. Every furnace we have lit, every ton of steel we have poured, every megawatt we have added to this country's grid, it has never felt like business to me. It has always felt like participation in India's story. People ask me, aren't you afraid? Isn't it frightening to bet so much, so often? And I tell them honestly, no. Because I always believed in the potential of my country, my people, and my company every single time. But here is what I have learned: the joy of creation is always greater than the fear of failure. None of these creations would have been possible without my team. Awards like this belong to all the tens of thousands of workmen that work relentlessly in hot weather, handling 1500-degree centigrade steel and toil all day to help us realize the vision that we see for our group. My father once told me, it is these workmen who are your real strength. You must always take care of them as they are the ones who are building or fulfilling your ambitions and your dreams. It is to this effect that since the inception of JSW, we have never lost a single mandate to any unrest or any operation due to workmen issues. This award belongs to the top management of JSW who have been with me for a very long time. This award belongs to all my three brothers who have stayed together through thick and thin. And this award also belongs to the shareholders and the partners who have believed in me all through my journey. This award also belongs to all the engineers in the organization, the managers, the chartered accountants, and everybody who are united by a single dream. Not my dream, our dream to build something worthy of this country. And it belongs to India because in the end, every one of us here is only as significant as the nation we are building together. That is all I have ever tried to do. And with your support, with India's energy behind us, that is exactly what JSW will keep doing. Thank you once again to the jury and to Economic Times for this recognition. Thank you.