MUMBAI: CNBC - TV18 have instituted for the first time an award for chief financial officers (CFOs) of India Inc., in recognition of the contribution that they have made towards the outstanding success of their organisations. The CNBC-TV18 CFO Awards 2006 will be held on 25 and 26 November at The Hilton, Ras-Al-Khaimah (RAK), UAE.

RAK crown prince Shaikh Saud, RAK chairman Shaikh Faisal, Ministry of Economics HOD Shaikha Lubna will preside over the event and award the winners of the CFO Awards. The CFO of a company is primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of a business and also for financial planning and record-keeping. In recent years, however, the role has expanded to encompass communicating financial performance and forecasts to the analyst community, according to an official release.

Working tirelessly behind the scenes, CFOs create wealth for organizations, stakeholders and customers. CNBC-TV18's CFO Awards for the first time recognizes the experts who generate profits for India Inc's most revered companies.

The winners of the CNBC-TV18 CFO Awards, India's most definitive awards for excellence in the financial field, will be selected after an extensive three -stage selection process.

Nominations for these prestigious awards have been arrived at after a comprehensive quantitative research of India's best businesses. Some of the nominations received for the awards are of famous industry stalwarts and well known CFOs of buoyant companies like KC Birla, (UltraTech), Moses Elias (Colgate), D.D. Rathi (Grasim), S. Radhakrishnan (Cipla), Ram S. Ramasundar (Ranbaxy) and Rajiv Rattan (Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd).

A poll amongst senior management in corporate India and special industry groups will further shortlist the nominations. Eminent jury comprise Infosys Technology LTD director-HR & ENR TV Mohandas Pai, FPSB India chairman Shailesh Haribhakti, AV Brila Group CFO Sumant Sinha, Deloitte Haskins and Sells joint managing partner Dileep Choksi, ICICI Securities LTD MD Subrata Mukherji and HDFC MD Keki Mistry have been appointed to select winners in different award categories in the third stage

Commenting on the CNBC-TV18 CFO Awards 2006, a spokesperson of CNBC-TV18 said, "The CFO's function has transformed beyond recognition in recent years. Today's CFO faces immense challenges from regulators, standard setters, investors and other stakeholders. These Awards will provide an in-depth insight into the best practices adopted by industry's top CFOs across sector while benchmarking successful strategies that would help organizations across industries to enhance and maximize its potential. India Inc's top CFOs have successfully structured their finance departments towards sustainable growth and these awards will assist in shaping the agenda for the finance function of the future."

Categories for the CFO Awards are:
best CFO in the following Sectors
· Auto & Auto Ancillaries
· Telecommunication Sector
· FMCG Sector
· Healthcare Services
· Financial Services
· IT & ITES sector
· Engineering & Capital Goods
· Basic Materials - Commodities
· Oil & Allied Services
· Media
· Diversified

Most Promising Entrant into the big league
Mergers & Acquisition Category
Best CFO Viewers Choice
CFO of the year