TAPMI and People Business Announce Top 75 Finalists for the T. A. Pai Young HR Leader Awards 2025

The collaboration celebrates emerging HR leadership and marks the eighth year of partnership between TAPMI and People Business

Manipal, Karnataka, October 30, 2025: T A  Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) in Manipal, in association with People Business Consulting, has released the Top 75 finalists for the T A  Pai Young HR Leader Awards 2025, which is a part of the Great Manager Awards (GMA) flagship segment. This initiative seeks to identify and nurture the HR Leaders of the future who are shaping the future of work and demonstrating innovation and leadership in organizations across India.

The Great Manager Awards, established by People Business, is a prestigious national platform that recognizes and honors excellence in leadership in three marquee categories: Top 50 Companies with Great Managers, Top 100 Great Managers, and Top 30 Young HR Leaders. This year, there were over 1,500 nominations from all over India, and after a rigorous evaluation process, 75 talented HR professionals have been shortlisted.

The orientation for the 75 shortlisted HR professionals was conducted on 24th October 2025. The session commenced with a welcome address by Mr. Rahul Mahajan, Country Head- Great Manager Awards, from People Business, who congratulated all attendees for their achievement. He spoke about how the program is designed to identify and develop the future HR leaders of India, who may become the future CHRO of large organizations, and positively disrupt organizational performance and success.

Dr. Sandeep Krishnan, CEO of People Business, spoke about the intention and journey of this initiative, commenting, “The intention of this program is simply to create a cohort of HR professionals, who can develop the future of our profession. The Great Manager Awards not only acknowledge excellence in leadership but also enhance the HR community through visibility and development of future talent,” he stated.

Professor Dr. Jayanthi Thanigan, the Chairperson of PR & Branding at T A Pai Management Institute, highlighted TAPMI’s vision of creating responsible, compassionate and competent leaders. “At TAPMI, we are not just creating managers, we are creating responsible leaders. Our partnership with People Business over the last eight years has underscored our commitment to developing leadership that marries competence with compassion. TAPMI’s MBA–HRM is well aligned with the Great Manager Awards’ vision,” she emphasized.

Dr. Praveen Purohit, Senior HR leader at Vedanta Group and a long-time jury member for the GMA, also contributed depth to the session by sharing concrete examples from his corporate experience to the finalists. He pointed out the increasing importance of HR as the enabler of business outcomes, “Organizations that regard HR and developing talent as important, outperform those that do not. HR leaders will now need to pay attention to organizational design, talent mobility, rewards and the incorporation of AI into talent assessment to build organizations in preparation for the future.”

Empowering the Next Generation of HR Leaders

In the weeks ahead, the participants selected for the final round will undergo assessments and interactions with diverse jury members, culminating in the announcement of the Top 30 Young HR Leaders at the Great Manager Awards Ceremony on December 3, 2025, which will be held at The Westin Garden City, Mumbai.

TAPMI and People Business have a tradition of strengthening the leadership ecosystem in India by developing HR professionals who are ready for the future and are capable of creating impact in organizations and society at large.