CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: The Grihshobha Inspire Awards 2025, held on 03rd November, 2025 at the Bengaluru International Centre, celebrated extraordinary women who have created a lasting impact in their fields. The event honoured fearless pioneers, changemakers, and achievers in fields such as folk arts, governance, public policy, social impact, business, STEM, automotive, and entertainment. The awards recognized those who have redefined leadership and broken barriers in their respective domains.
The Inspire Awards at Bengaluru captivated the audience and created a warm, collaborative spirit within them. Each winner’s accomplishment was celebrated with much warmth. As each winner spoke, their achievement seemed to build upon the previous winners and a collective sense of belonging and camaraderie permeated within the august hall. This was a coming together of extremely capable and gifted minds driven by a strong sense of commitment and purpose and lifted the spirits of all those present and left them yearning to hear more tales from these trailblazing women achievers. The Grihshobha Inspire Awards was not just another awards night, but a night of sharing, warmth, a sense of collective achievement and most importantly, a platform to inspire.
The host for the evening was the award winning journalist and CEO of Pickle Jar Media, Vasanthi Hariprakash and the evening began with a performance by Ananyaa Gaur, a performer, composer, researcher, and documentarian whose gayiki has resonated with rasiks across the subcontinent.
Among the most celebrated honourees, celebrated actress Ms. Urvashi was honoured as Empowerment through Entertainment – Icon for her contributions to cinema, a strong body of work of more than 750 films, and portrayal of strong and complex characters, and for her versatile performances. Dr. Kamini Rao, received the Editor’s Choice Award for her pioneering leadership in reproductive medicine and advancement of women’s healthcare with compassion and innovation. Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, was recognized as the Social Impact Icon for her relentless fight for justice, rehabilitation and dignity saving thousands from trafficking and sexual exploitation. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, said, “I feel very very humbled, because I think recognizing me is also about recognizing the cause that I’m fighting for.”
Nigar Shaji, was honoured as STEM Icon. As Project Director of ISRO’s Aditya – L 1 mission, Nigar exemplifies India’s growing leadership in space science.
Other distinguished awardees included Ms. Parvathy Thiruvothu, an actor known for her fearless choice of roles, honoured as Empowerment through Entertainment, Ms. Jamma Mallari honoured as Folk Heritage Icon for dedicating her life to preserving and promoting Oggu Katha and other native art forms. While accepting the award, Parvathy Thiruvothu, said, “Every category that we have seen here, the women who have won, everything that they’ve said has actually helped me in good stead…every aspect of every category has impacted me as an artist to bring my best self.”
In the Sports world, C. A. Bhavani Devi, India’s first Olympian in fencing was honoured as Sports Achiever for her efforts in inspiring a new generation of dream beyond boundaries and Aishwarya Pissay, honoured as Automotive Achiever, as India’s first world champion in motorsport.
In the business world, Neha Bagaria, Founder and CEO of HerKey was honoured as Business Achiever for transforming the landscape of women’s workforce participation and Aparna Thyagarajan won the Editor’s Choice Award for weaving India’s rich handloom heritage into a global movement.
Kirthi Jayakumar was honoured with the Social Impact Achiever for her efforts as a peace educator and gender quality advocate.
Dinaz Vervatwala and Dhivyaa Vikram were honoured as Digital Content Creators. Dinaz, for Health and Fitness for inspiring thousands through her transformative approach to wellness and Dhivyaa Vikram, for being a powerful voice of self-acceptance and inclusivity.
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