MUMBAI: India's leading business news channel, NDTV Profit, in association with Car India and Bike India will celebrate the New Year with the best design, unmatched technology, style and performance in the automobile industry in the third edition of ‘NDTV Profit- Car India and Bike India Awards 2008’.

This year, the awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Hamsadhwani Theatre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, on January 10, 2008 to coincide with the biggest festival of Indian Automobile Industry ‘Auto Expo 2008’. Prominent personalities from the automobile sector will attend this event, including leaders from the auto industry, ancillary industry and design houses.

Among twenty-nine award categories this year, the top awards are Car of the Year and Motorcycle of the Year, which will be awarded to the best car and bike of the year, respectively.

There are seven awards each in both Car and Bike categories. The awards in the Car category are: Car of the Year; Small Car of the Year (Hyundai i10, Chevrolet Spark); Mid Size Car of the Year (Mahindra-Renault Logan, Maruti Suzuki SX4); Executive Car of the Year (BMW 3-series, Volkswagen Passat, Nisan Teana); Premium Luxury Car of the Year (BMW 5-series, Audi A6, Volvo S80.6); SUV of the Year and Car Maker of the Year.

The awards in the Bike category include: Motorcycle of the Year; Bike of the Year - upto 125cc (Bajaj XCD125, TVS Flame); Bike of the Year - upto 160cc (TVS Apache, Hero Honda Hunk); Bike of the Year - 160 to 250cc (Bajaj 220DTS-FI); Scooter of the Year (Suzuki Access, Kinetic Flyte, Bajaj Krystal), Design of the Year and Bike Maker of the Year (Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motors Co.)

Also up for the grabs are two special Viewer’s Choice awards: NDTV Profit Viewer’s Choice awards and ICICI Viewer’s Choice awards for both Car and Bike categories respectively.

Keeping in mind the new trends in the Indian Auto Industry this year some new categories have been inducted into the awards, these include the Technology Pack, the Imported Pack, the Green Awards and the Automotive Component Manufacturer of the Year.

Shivnath Thukral, Managing Editor of NDTV Profit said, "With its past two editions, the NDTV Profit- CNB Awards has established itself as one of country’s most coveted automobile honors. We are going to host this award ceremony this year at the Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi, where distinguished industry leaders will evaluate, choose and recognize excellence in automobiles, based on key parameters like design and performance."

To ensure a free and fair selection process, two separate juries have been formed for the Car category and the Bike category and each car and bike nominated for these prestigious awards are tried and tested by the esteemed jury members before announcing their final verdict.

The jury in the Car category includes, Dr V Sumantran, formerly with Tata Motors; Aspi Bhatena, Car India; Rayomand Banajee, a prolific racing driver; Raj Nayak, NDTV Media; H S Billimoria, NextGen Publishing; former ace rallyist Sam Katgara; Pawan Sabharwal, Subros Auto Air-conditioning Systems; Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, NDTV; Kranti Sambhav, NDTV; John Sootheran, Emap UK; Auto Expert Rajiv Saharia; Amit Chhangani, NextGen Publishing.

Jury members for the bike category include, Dr V Sumantran; Aspi Bhatena, Bike India; Rayomand Banajee; Sam Katgara; Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, NDTV; Kranti Sambhav, NDTV; John Sootheran; Rajiv Saharia; Amit Chhangani and Bunny Punia, Bike India.

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