Manjunath Shanmugam Trust Award

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The first Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award was delivered on 24/03/07 at IIM Bangalore. The award is for deserving candidates who have reported and worked to rectify corrupt practices in government, public or corporate life. The honorary Chief Guest N. Narayana Murthy awarded the award of a citation and a cash prize of Rs. One Lakh to Prof. R. P Singh, Vice Chancellor, Lucknow University. Here is the brief history of Manjunath Shanmugam Trust and its Integrity Award.

S.Manjunath (1978-2005), a sales officer with Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and an IIM-Lucknow alumnus, was murdered on 19th 2005 in Lakshipur Khiri, UP, following his efforts to curb oil adulteration. On 23 February 2006, members of the international IIM alumni network formed The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust (MST) to ensure quick justice in Manjunath's case. The trial completed within a record time of 9 months and 18 people including a petrol pump dealer were found guilty for Manjunath's murder. Now the broader vision of the MST is to build on the network, skills and resources of the professional corporate community, to help improve governance in Indian Public life.

On 19th November 2006, Manjunath's first death anniversary, The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust invited nominations for the Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award to honour and encourage person/s or institutions who are working to uphold the values of truth and honesty in Indian Public life. The evaluation was essentially on the basis of gravity of the situation or its impact on the society, corrective action taken, and extent of the threat faced by the nominee during the action.

A jury including S.Gopalakrishnan, Rama Bijapurkar and Shekar Gupta declared five short listed nominees for the award. Mr. Ajit Kumar, Chief Finance manager, ITI Limited, New Delhi was short listed for his efforts to stop corruption rampant in PSUs. Mr. S.K Agarwal, Deputy Chief Engineer, North-Western Railway, Ajmer was short listed for exposing gross irregularities in Railway Project.Mr. Pankaj Sharma, Sales Officer at HPCL, Meerut was nominated for being a whistle blower at the malpractices at HPCL Bareily and Meerut. Prof. R.P Singh, Vice Chancellor Lucknow University was nominated for curbing the criminalisation and corruption of the University system. Urumul Jyoti Sansthan/Mr.Chetan Ram was nominated for bringing out the corruption of government employees in healthcare, rural development and public advocacy.

The award function started at 11 am on Saturday (24/03/07) at the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. Mr. Jaya Shankar and Ms. Anjali of MST gave a brief introduction about the MST and the Integrity Award. The function honoured the memory of S. Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey (Who also gave his life while exposing the corruption in the system). The special guests of the occasion were S. Manjunath's father Shanmugam and Satyendra's family friend Vinay Misra. They inaugurated the award ceremony with Chief guest N. Narayana Murthy short film about the lives of S. Shanmugam and Satyendra Dubey enlightened the audience about the extra ordinary deed of two common men.

Chief guest N. Narayana Murthy honoured the special guests and awarded the first Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award to R. P Singh. N.Narayna Murthy expressed his happiness and support for MST while remembering the actions of S. Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey. He also congratulated Prof. R.P Singh for upholding the path of truth even during the life threatening adversities. Prof. R.P Singh thanked MST for upholding the value of truth and honesty in Indian Public administration. He remembered the actions of S. Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey and paid tribute to them.

The function came to an end with the vote of thanks from MST Trustees.