Leading industrialist Ratan N Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, was on Wednesday named the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year 2003.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani presented the award at a ceremony in Delhi

Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley, Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy and E&Y Global's chief operating officer Paul J Ostling and a large number of country's top industrialists attended the ceremony.

Tata will now represent India at the E&Y World Entrepreneur of the Year award ceremony in Monte Carlo in June 2004.

This award went to Narayana Murthy last year.

Legendary founder of Gujarat Cooperative Mills Federation Verghese Kurien received the lifetime achievement award for making the milk cooperative movement a reality in the country.

Ajay Piramal, chairman of Nicholas Piramal, bagged the award for life sciences category while Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints secured it for manufacturing category.

The husband and wife team of NDTV, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, were named winner in the Information, Communication and Entertainment category.

Maruti Udyog chief executive Jagdish Khattar bagged the E&Y manager of the year award, while Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra won the award for services category.

The E&Y start up entrepreneur award was given to Dr Dev Prasad Shetty of Bangalore-based Narayana Hrudayala where Pakistani child Noor Fatima underwent a successful open heart surgery.