Eternal founder Deepinder Goyal bags EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award 2025

Founder of Eternal, Deepinder Goyal today bagged the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2025 (EOY Award) on the back of his extraordinary impact on India’s consumption patterns through his consumer-tech businesses. Also, veteran banker Uday Kotak was honoured with the Special Jury Award, for his transformative contributions to the Indian banking. 

An eminent 11-member jury acknowledged Deepinder's steadfast focus on innovation, operational excellence, and long-term thinking, said a release from EY.  

Deepinder created exceptional shareholder value, jobs: EY 

"Deepinder has not only created exceptional shareholder value but has also created thousands of jobs for youth and gig workers and empowered an ecosystem of entrepreneurs across the country," the release said.

"Deepinder will represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award (WEOY) in Monte Carlo to be held in June 2025," it added. 

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, who was the chief guest at the event, felicitated Goyal and Kotak along with the EOY 2025 category winners.

Abhishek Lodha of Lodha Group won the award in energy, real estate, and infrastructure category, while Ajay Bhardwaj of Anthem Biosciences won the award in life sciences and healthcare category, according to the release. Gopal Vittal of Bharti Airtel won the award in the Entrepreneurial CEO category. 

Jasbir Singh of Amber Enterprises bagged the award in manufacturing and Karan Bhagat of 360 One WAM was awarded in services category. The other winners were Pranav Goel and Uttam Digga of Porter in the start-up category, Sunil Vachani of Dixon Technologies in business transformation, and Vir S Advani of Blue Star in consumer products & retail.

Entrepreneurial spirit is Bharat's greatest strength: Piyush Goyal

Speaking at the 27th edition of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Mumbai, Piyush Goyal said, “India’s entrepreneurial spirit is today the driving force behind one of the most compelling growth stories in the world. In the last 11 years, entrepreneurship has become Bharat’s greatest strength."

"We are witnessing the rise of a confident, aspirational India with 65% of our population under 35 years of age, 25 crore citizens lifted out of poverty, and 2.3 million STEM graduates entering the workforce every year, creating an unmatched demographic and innovation advantage," he said. 

"Our macroeconomic fundamentals remain robust real GDP growth of 8.2% in Q2 FY26, inflation on a downward trajectory, foreign exchange reserves touching $725 billion, and banking sector NPAs at historic lows. India attracted $80 billion in FDI in FY25 alone, reflecting global confidence in our reforms and policy stability," he said.

"Our high-quality Free Trade Agreements, concluded during Modi Government, now provide preferential market access to 38 nations, to about two-third of global trade," he added.

"Notably, trade with Australia and the UAE has doubled since the FTAs came into force. Moreover, these FTAs fully protect sensitive sectors like agriculture, MSMEs, dairy, fisheries, labour intensive sectors like textiles, etc," he said. 

Highlighting the winners’ achievements, Rajiv Memani, Chaiman and CEO of EY India said, “Accelerated reforms, deeper global integration and AI revolution are together reshaping India’s economy, unlocking unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurs. Our 2025 winners represent the very best of Indian entrepreneurship. Their stories remind us that a new India is emerging - inspired by bold ideas, worldclass execution and constant innovation. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the winners for the exceptional impact they have created.”

Led by Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group, the Jury included Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharmaceuticals, Harsh Mariwala of Marico, Nilesh Gupta of Lupin, Ravi Lambah of Temasek, Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Info Edge Ltd, Saurabh Agarwal of Tata Sons, Shailendra Singh of Peak XV, Shweta Jalan of Advent International, Suneeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, and Vellayan Subbiah of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance and Tube Investments of India.