The Eastern Eye Asian Business Awards 2007 took place at The London Hilton, on Tuesday 8th May 2007, in the presence of HRH The Duke of York, the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. The awards were presented at a gala dinner attended by more than 1,000 VIPs, public figures, MPs and businessmen, including last year's Business of the Year Award-winner, Mike Jatania, Tom Singh of New Look, Lord Waheed Ali and Lord Paul.

Gurmeet Khangura, Chairman of Ethnic Media Group, which publishes Eastern Eye, said: ''We are proud to celebrate 11 years of honouring the Asian men and women in the UK business market. They have not only established themselves as important contributors to the nation's economy, but their innovation and hard work have further inspired younger entrepreneurs striving to achieve the same levels of success for themselves.'

ASIAN BUSINESS AWARDS 2007: WINNERS

The winners of the Eastern Eye Asian Business Awards 2007 are as follows:

• BDO Stoy Hayward Business of the Year: Kishore Lulla
• KPMG Entrepreneur of the Year: Surinder Arora
• Hamptons International Newcomer of the Year: Shamir Shah
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Young Achiever of the Year: Arti Poddar
• Fortis Bank Community Award: Sital Punja

BDO Stoy Hayward Business of the Year ' Kishore Lulla

Kishore Lulla co-founded the family business Eros International's UK office in London in 1988, an integrated media and entertainment company which today has three decades of market leadership in taking Indian cinema to an international platform.

Eros International operates in over 50 countries, with worldwide offices in India, UK, USA, Dubai, Australia, Fiji and Isle of Man. The company controls content through productions and co-productions, long term output deals with production houses and talent, and by globally distributing content across all multimedia formats. The company has a film library containing more than 1,300 titles, making it one of the largest content owners in the business with other business streams including high-definition DVDs, mobile downloads and on-demand digital online services.

Throughout Kishore's tenure he has been instrumental in evolving Eros International from a Bollywood film distribution company into a vertically integrated studio model. The company has become the world's first Indian cinema studio and has a market share of over 35%. Such a phenomenal global impact led to Eros International becoming the sole company from the Indian entertainment sector, to float on the London Stock Exchange and listed in AIM last year.

Under Kishore's leadership, Eros International has played an intrinsic part in redefining the notion of Bollywood and taking it to global shores and audiences be it through securing multiplex cinema chain distribution, finalising global television syndication to widen the TV viewership of Indian films, or by representing Indian content within major international film festivals.

This year also marks Eros International's 30th anniversary ' 30 years of its history, 30 years of powering Indian cinema globally.

KPMG Entrepreneur of the Year ' Surinder Arora

Starting his career as a wine waiter 28 years ago, Surinder Arora is now the proud owner of 14 five-star hotels in England. Arora International is the largest family-run, independent hotel chain in Britain, including purpose-built hotels at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.

Born in India to a humble mid-wife, Surinder Arora had equally modest beginnings with his working life being propelled by an extraordinary drive. He reached England in 1972 at the age of 14 and began work in a local market earning a mere £1.50 per day. Pushed into multiple jobs by his ambitious late mother, Surinder started as an office junior at BA while moonlighting as a hotel waiter. Later he became a salesman at Abbey National, rising to become branch manager.

In what spare time was left, Surinder invested the family savings into property, eventually developing a row of houses opposite Heathrow into large-scale bed-and-breakfast accommodation. From that emerged his first hotel and a deal with BA to accommodate its air crews.

When the British government decided to make terminal five at Heathrow Airport in an expansion plan, a major hotel was also to be included within this. In joining hands with Accor Sofitel, Surinder Arora was awarded the contract and is currently building the 600-bedroom joint venture.

Hamptons International Newcomer of the Year ' Shamir Shah

Fascinated with the sales process, as a child Shamir always looked for ways to make money which carried on into secondary school where he and his friends would sell perfumes and aftershaves at discounted prices. At university he supported his income by becoming a scout for Arthur Andersen and helping to persuade the top undergraduates within his department to apply to the Accountancy Firm.

Graduating from UMIST with a BSc in Management Science, Shamir Shah joined Accenture in 2000 where he worked as a Process Consultant within the Resources Market unit of the firm, providing consultancy solutions to numerous FTSE 100 firms.

With a keen entrepreneurial spirit and an interest in the health and wellbeing market, Shamir established The East India Tea House with the goal of providing customers with premium quality loose leaf teas. The Company is one of the market leaders in terms of the supply of leaf tea, and works with a number of well-known brands, supplying to the likes of Conran Shop, Habitat, Harvey Nichols and Yo! Sushi.

Capitalising on his experience within the food sector, in 2004, Shamir set up two coffee shops in Hatfield. More recently the company has diversified into the packaging and distribution of nuts, seeds and dried fruit products. Clients include brands such as Itsu, Everyman Cinema Group and Lovejuice. The East India Tea House is looking to expand its private label and branding services and open another 3 coffee shops in the space of this year.

PwC Young Achiever of the Year ' Arti Poddar

Volunteering with elderly care home activities at Lambhill Court Ltd before commencing part time work at the young age of 16, Arti Poddar has been able to continually evolve and develop with a changing care industry. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science (Honours) qualification from University of Strathclyde, she successfully transitioned from administrative roles at Lambhill to the role of Personal Assistant and then to Managing Director where she gained significant experience and expertise.

Since January 2006, Arti has been Operations Director of Lambhill Court Ltd where she is directly responsible for approximately 250 service users and 250 employees within the company.Though her objectives may have changed as her understanding and knowledge base has increased, Arti's goal to sustain and encourage the independence and happiness of elderly residents remains. Her innovative tactics to restructure management to infuse greater and diversified skills into the care homes was acknowledged in the form of an Investor in People Standard.

A woman of action, Arti frequently meets with key area leaders, industry experts and political authorities, such as Glasgow City Council, to draw attention to concerns, and to accelerate quality elderly care's move forward.

Fortis Bank Community Award ' Sital Punja

Sital Punja FRSA entered the world of social entrepreneurship in November 2002 as founder of Sari (UK) Limited, following her poignant visits to India where she would take old saris for the poor. In her ealization that such individuals needed much more than clothing in terms of welfare, Sital launched Sari as a project recycling saris into accessories to raise money for children in developing countries.

Sari has become one of UK's premiere ethical fashion labels and is stocked in high end boutiques such as Koh Samui (London) and Cricket (Liverpool) and endorsed by dignitaries such as the Prime Minister and Mrs Blair and Princess Tamara Czartoryski-Bourbon. A limited collection of lampshades made from reclaimed wood and sari fabric has also been introduced at Osprey. Sari continues to support international aid by donating 10% of its sales to a children's charity.

Sital is passionate about environmental design and a strong believer in ethical business practice and since entering the world of ethical design. She has developed the Eco Design Network for CIPS (Newham College) and provides a marketing consultancy service to eco-designers through networks such as Clerkenwell Green Association and Hidden Art.

Sital recently became the first Ethnic Minority female to be voted onto the board of Social Enterprise London and is a regular panel speaker at seminars hosted by Women and Equalities Unit of the Cabinet 'Ethnic Minority and Social Enterprise'.