GMR Group Chairman has been awarded by Channel TV5 for his contributions in nation and institution building

GMR Group Chairman, Mr. G.M. Rao today received the prestigious TV5 Life Time Achievement Award for his immense contributions towards nation building and philanthropic activities. The award was presented to Mr. G M Rao at TV5 Business Leader Awards 2015, organized by Channel TV5 at HICC Novotel, Hyderabad.

Mr. G. M. Rao has set the benchmarks for creating and operating national and international assets of global scale and quality. A go-getter and a serial entrepreneur, who started his entrepreneurial journey from a small jute mill in the remote village and went on to create a mammoth infrastructure conglomerate.

Talking about this entrepreneurial journey Mr. GM Rao said “Throughout my journey, I had series of small dreams which led to a series of small business ventures. Then the economic reforms of the country opened up a big opportunity, which I could ride on and build landmark infrastructure assets for the nation. The biggest turning points in my entrepreneurial journey came when I successfully turned around the Vysya bank and Won the Delhi Airport and made it World’s number 1 airport.”

A visionary and an institution builder, Mr.G.M.Rao’s vision is to make GMR Group an institution in perpetuity and for that family constitution was the first step. He believes that Corporate Governance and Family Governance are inter-linked blocks completing the cycle of Institution Building.

A committed philanthropist, Mr. G. M. Rao has dedicated his entire personal wealth to the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, which funds charitable activities and institutions in the areas of education, healthcare, livelihood support and community development.

Elaborating on the philanthropic activities Mr. GM Rao said “Aligning with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan of our Hon’ble Prime minister, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation is working on the three areas of sanitation - Public Toilets, Individual Sanitary Lavatories and creating sanitation awareness. We started our sanitation programs 10 years back and till date we have built toilets across 9 States of India and supported more than 450 families to build individual toilets. All these have resulted in improving health and hygiene for various underprivileged sections of the society.”

Skill development is also a key focus area of Mr. GM Rao, where through his foundation he has built 8 state-of-the-art vocational training institutes which, apart from imparting technical skills also focuses on entrepreneurship development, personality development, yoga, spoken English etc.

In its second year, TV5 Business Leader Award has more than 35 winners from different sectors including IT, pharma, agri-processing etc.