<span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue: </span>Hotel Lalit, New Delhi. | Date: February16, 2018.<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Organiser: </span>Foundation of Infrastructure Research Studies Training (FIRST).<br /> <br /> The Foundation of Infrastructure Research Studies Training (FIRST) recently hosted the <span style="font-weight: bold;">5th EQUIPMENT INDIA Annual Awards. Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co</span>, was named the 'Equipment India Person of the Year' for 2017. <br /> <br /> Singh was unanimously chosen for the honour by an eminent 11-member jury for his notable contribution in engineering a turnaround of sorts in his organisation, thereby winning the coveted award. 'I would like to dedicate this award to my team at Tata Hitachi and the dealers and vendors who have really supported us to produce good quality machines and take care of our customers,' Singh said in a video recorded message played on the occasion.<br /> <br /> The 'Equipment India Special Recognition Award' was conferred on <span style="font-weight: bold;">K Vijay, Managing Director, Ajax Fiori Engineering India,</span> for his contribution to the industry in the past year. 'I am truly humbled that I have been chosen to receive this award,' he said. 'I see it as a token of recognition for the organisation that I have been privileged to lead for a long time.' <br /> <br /> And, JCB India was honoured with the 'Equipment India Special Recognition Award' for its contribution to the construction equipment industry over the past <br /> 39 years. <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Arun Goyal, Special Secretary, Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, </span>was the guest of honour at the event. In his special address, he said, 'Many of you who are into sales of industrial or construction equipment in different states must have had to deal with a number of authorities earlier. The tax rates, forms and procedures were different. The process was quite mind-boggling and difficult, and companies had specific departments to deal with it. All that is past now as we have been able to merge central taxes, particularly service tax, excise and VAT, under GST. Now, you just have to be on the IT platform; the way the system has been designed, you don't have to interact with the tax authorities at all.' He further urged stakeholders to feel free to reach out to him if they had any concerns.<br /> <br /> Referring to the gradual improvement in the economic sentiment, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pratap Padode, Editor-in-Chief, EQUIPMENT INDIA,</span> observed, 'The budgetary expenditure on infrastructure has risen by Rs 1 trillion over the past year. Given the momentum of projects and thrust on infrastructure, the sale of construction equipment is likely to cross 90,000 units by 2021. The government obviously knows that if it has given us the pain of demonetisation and GST, it now needs to push up public spending as much as possible and press the paddle for the economy.' <br /> <br /> The EQUIPMENT INDIA Awards were also presented in 12 'Bestseller' product categories. The winners: Case New Holland Construction in Compactors; JCB India in Backhoe Loaders; Action Construction Equipment in Mobile Cranes; BEML in Crawler Dozers; Caterpillar India in Wheeled Loaders, Rigid Dump Trucks and Motor Graders; Doosan Bobcat India in Skid Steer Loaders; Ammann Apollo in Asphalt Finishers; Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co in Crawler Excavators and Mini Excavators; and Atlas Copco in Mobile Compressors.<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The jury comprised </span><br /> Mitesh Shethia, President, Crane Owners Association of India; Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India; Ranjeet R More, Vice Chairman &amp; Managing Director, Universal Construction; Samir Bansal, General Manager (India), Off-Highway Research; Sameer Malhotra, CEO, Shriram Automall India; SP Rajan, <br /> Head-Plant &amp; Equipment, L&amp;T Construction; Nand Kishore Taori, Ex-Managing Director, Petron Civil Engg; Neerav Parmar, Director, Shapoorji Pallonji; Nishant Shah, India Head, Imaginarium (India); Prof Satish Chandra, Director, Central Road Research Institute; and Satish Sharma, President, Apollo Tyres.<br /> <br /> A CEO forum on the theme 'Technology to Drive the Future of Construction and Infrastructure' was organised before the awards ceremony got underway. The panel discussion was moderated by RK Pandey, Member Projects, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).<br /> <br /> Copies of the 10th Annual Issue of EQUIPMENT INDIA and MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT INFOBANK were also released on the occasion.<br /> <br /> The event was Presented by Apollo Tyres and Powered by ExxonMobil.<br />