The ninth year of the BITEIN Awards took place on the 15th of Dec, 2018 at Hotel Ramada, Powai, Mumbai at 5.30 PM. The event was done in conjunction with the Nyudent conference and as always, ten awards were given away in the usual ten categories. The event was anchored by Dr. Rajeev Chitguppi. The evening opened up with the Adminstrative Excellent Award which was given to Dr. Vivek Govila who is the Dean of Babu Banarsidas Dental College in Lucknow. The award was given away to Dr. Govila by Mr. Kendall Beecham, Associate Dean of New York University.

The next award given was to Dr.Hemant Umarji who received it in the Outstanding Teacher category. He just retired from G.D.C, Mumbai. The award was given away by Dr.Christian Stappert from Switzerland. The next award given away was an exceptional award. This was the award in the Beyond Dentistry category. The recepient of the award was Dr. Rajalakshmi S.J from Bangalore. The uniquenes was the spirit of this young lady. On compeletion of her B.D.S, she met with a very unforrtunate car accident in which she was paralyzed waist downwards. She had to fight an uphill battle from then on, but she went on to become an Orthodontist, but did not lose her spirit to do what she always wanted to do. She won a number of beauty contests and became Miss Wheelchair India and world. THe award was given to her by Dr. Jan Paulics from Sweden. Dr.Devchand Gala, a permanent patron of the event was then called up to honour Dr. Rajalakshmi with a floral bouquet. Mr. Rajesh Khakar and Mr. Sameer Merchant who are directors of Illusion dental and who were present in the audience were so touched that they immediately announced a cash amount of Rs 1.5 lacs to the work Dr. Rajalakshmi carries out for others who are similarly differently abled people.

The award for Dental Research was given to Dr. Puneet Gupta who has done his masters in Community Dentistry and also has done further education in Statistics. He has a number of publications to his name and is one of the most in demand dentists for clincial investicators. The award was given away to him by Dr. Piotr Majweski from Poland. The award for the Clinician of the year was given to Dr.V.S.Mohan from Mumbai, India. The award was given away by Dr.Tania Thukral. The next award given away was the Corporate Enntrepreneur category to Dr. Abhishek Nanda who is currently the CEO of Wizdent, a new dental materials company. This award was given away by Dr. Sabita Ram, Dean of M.G.M Dental college.

The award in the Technical Excellenc category was given away to Mr.Sarfraz Merchant and he recieved the award from Mr. Rajesh Khakar, Director of Illusion Dental. AFter this award Dr. Sumedh Shindey entertained the audience with his wit and impresions of various known celebrities. The next award given away was the UG award. The three top nominees were Dr.Projesh Mukherjee from M.G.M Dental, Dr. Wendy Lobo from Y.M.T and Dr. Namita Damle from Sihngad Dental, Pune. The three judges for the UG category were Dr. S.S.Gambhir from Indore, Dr. Tapan Desai from Daman and Mr. Rakesh Nanda from Mumbai. The nominees had to answer rapid fire questions put to them by Dr. Ajay Kakar and Dr.A.Kumarswamy. The winner of the UG award was Dr. Projesh Mukherjee and he received the award from Dr. S.S.Gambhir. The nominee for the Dentistry Imprinted award was Dr.P.V Subramanium from Mumbai. He was unable to make it for the awards evening due to a legal matter that he had to attend in Nagpur.

The last award of the evening was the PG category. There were four nominee for this category. Dr. Manikanandan from G.D.C, Trivandrum, Dr. Allisa Varella from S.D.M, Dharwad, Dr. Anusha Mohan from Chennai and Dr. Ritvi Bagadia from Chennai. The judges for this category were Dr.A Kumarswamy from Mumbai, Dr. Vaibhav Kumar from Mumbai and Dr. Ratin Das from Navi Mumbai. The rapid fire questions were fielded by Dr. AjiT Shetty, Dr. Rajeev Chitguppi and Dr. Ajay Kakar. The initial round resulted in a tie and an additional question was given to the nominees and the award was taken away by Dr. Anusha Mohan who has done her post graduation in Paediatric Dentistry

Dr. Sumedh Shindey further entertained the audience with one more performance. The awards evening was then concluded with a photography session. Dr.Sabita Ram was very emotionally touched and eloquently shared her emotions with the audience as the evening concluded with dinner.

The program concluded with thanks to all the sponsors Hindustan Lever, Illusions and the Rushabh Gala Foundation.