The awardees were Meena Sathiyamoorthy (Women of Wonder), Karthik of ‘Dulkal Library (Reading Ambassador), Sandhiyan of Aware (Awareness Creator), Srivatsa Vema of Platelet Club (Life Saving Leader), Shakeera Banu (Super Social Woman), Gokula Rao (Rural Warrior), Arun Kumar of No Food Waste (Annapurna), Srijith Sundaram of Trans Community Kitchen (Changemaker), Asha Bhagyaraj and Anita Raj of At Connect (Group Magic), and Karthikeyan Imayavaramban of Aatrupadai (Eco Warriors).

These 10 persons were chosen by a five-member jury that took about 40 days to identify them based on their work for the city in the last decade.

“This award will be given every year on Madras Day, as we want to recognise youngsters who work for the betterment of Chennai and Tamil Nadu,” said Shankar N Shiv, co-founder, The Idea Factory.

The awards were handed over by former minister and CMD of CIEL - HR Services, K Pandiarajan; Suresh Sambandam, convenor of Dream Tamil Nadu and EO of Kiss Flow; culinary expert Chef Damu; and actor, social activist and founder of G-Mime Studio, ‘Mime’ Gopi.