Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman and MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank, has been selected ET Business Leader 2015. The award is in recognition of the herculean task he had undertaken in convincing the Reserve Bank of India for the merger of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank and in making the merger a reality. According to one of the members of the jury, Sunil Mittal, Kotak is a first generation leader who has single-handedly built an institution of repute from scratch and even though his theater of operations is local, he speaks a global language. He is a port of call for many international business leaders visiting India, Mittal added. N. Chandrasekharan, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services, was a close contender for the award. SoftBank’s Nikesh Arora was chosen as the Global Indian of the Year for the impact he has had at the Japanese conglomerate. Kunal Bahl, co-founder & CEO of Snapdeal, was the winner in the Entrepreneur category.
