Now in its fourth year, CNBC chooses the Business Leader Award winners through an extensive three-stage vetting process. A short-list is created in the first stage using quantitative techniques. The second stage involves a poll of peer-groups, senior management executives from corporations and CNBC-TV18 viewers. A jury of top business leaders selects the winners in the third stage. This year’s jury included Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Deepak Parekh, R. Seshasayee, Jagdish Khattar and Raghav Bahl. CNBC awards similar business leader awards in 12 other countries.

“This award is another confirmation of what many of us already know-- that Akshaya Patra’s is a truly inspiring, global model of innovation, efficiency and functionality,” said Madhu Sridhar, Akshaya Patra USA’s President and CEO. “We are overjoyed by this honor, and thank CNBC for recognizing Akshaya Patra’s vision and potential in the years to come.”

Akshaya Patra was also recognized by the Limca Book of Records for being the world's largest non-government midday meal program.  The Limca Book of Records is the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of World Records. The book comprises the world record breaking achievements of Indians. Limca is the only book of its kind in India and was first published in 1990.
 
"The entry into the Limca book of records comes as a recognition of Akshaya Patra's achievement in enabling needy children to receive education even as they are fed at least one wholesome meal a day,” said Madhu Pandita Das, the Chairman of Akshaya Patra in India. “Today we stand much closer to our goal of feeding one million children by the end of this decade."

About Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the world’s largest NGO midday meal program and feeds over 966,000 underprivileged children daily in 5,600 schools in six states in India.  Akshaya Patra is a public-private partnership that combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunch at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world. It costs $28 to feed a child daily for the entire year. For many of the children this is their only complete meal for the day. This gives them an incentive to come to school, stay in school and provides them with the necessary nutrients they need to develop their cognitive abilities to focus on learning.

Through kitchens specially designed by engineers to leverage technology and sourcing its food stocks from local markets, Akshaya Patra is able to reduce costs associated with transportation and food spoilage while supporting the local economy. In a short time, the foundation has grown to become the largest, and certainly most innovative, school lunch program in the world. Akshaya Patra is a great example of what a non-profit organization can achieve-- a cost effective, scalable solution with high quality service delivery. Akshaya Patra’s US offices are located in Stoneham, MA. For more information please visit www.foodforeducation.org.

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