Murthy, Gates bag Indian & American Achiever Awards

WASHINGTON: Infosys chairperson N.R. Narayana Murthy, Microsoft chief Bill Gates, music composer A.R. Rahman, Hollywood actor Richard Gere and the late Dhirubhai Ambani have won the Indian & American Achiever Awards.

While Murthy and Gates won the award for innovation, science & technology, Rahman and Gere were honoured in the arts, entertainment and media category.  The Gandhi lifetime achievement awards went to Ambani and Gates. Data Group of India and New York Life Assurance were given the award for multinational companies.

The inaugural CineMaya Media Group Indian & American Achiever Awards celebrating the 60th anniversary of India's independence were presented at the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts here on Thursday.

Composer Rahman, who was the only winner to receive the award in person, presented India's national anthem at the function. Messages from Indian President Pratibha Patil and US President George Bush were read out.

The Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen described it as a "celebration of the achievements of Indians and Americans who excelled in their respective fields, while contributing significantly to India-US relations".

The award function featured performances by noted artistes like Balamurali Krishna and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty (classical music), Pandit Birju Maharaj (kathak), Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma (santoor) and Yogesh Samsi (tabla).

Indian actor Kunal Khemu of "Kalyug" fame hosted the function with the Penn Masala group singing the US and Indian national anthems.