The jury (L-R): Munesh Khanna, Managing Director, NM Rothschild India; Arun Nanda, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra; Sonal Agrawal, Director, Accord Group; and Vishal Marwaha, Partner, Henderson Global Investors

What goes into the making of India's only such survey? As a first step, Business Today's own army of reporters and editors across India generates a master list of nominees under the three categories of CEO, Entrepreneur and Ideator. To do that, they speak to a wide variety of experts ranging from industry captains to fund managers to venture capitalists to hr honchos. BT's senior editors then whittle the master list down to 15. This is then handed over to an expert panel of judges, who are brought together under one roof to argue for and against each of the 15 nominees under the three categories. This year's panel comprised Arun Nanda, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra; Munesh Khanna, Managing Director, NM Rothschild India; Sonal Agrawal, Director, Accord Group; and Vishal Marwaha, Partner, Henderson Global Investors. The panel's decision, usually arrived at after hours of debate, is final. In keeping with our tradition, we will not disclose who the other 12 nominees were, except to say that they were outstanding people too. As for the three winners, you've already met them in the preceding pages.