Present during the award ceremony were an array of celebrities belonging to different fields including politics, cinema, sports, business, and art and culture. Our Home minister Mr. P Chidambaram, played the guest of honor at the function, that began by observing a two minute silence as a mark of commemorating those who lost their lives at the 26/12 attack in Mumbai.

Mr. P Chidambaram, while addressing the gathering pointed out that, “The people of our country, including the government, need to change their attitude to fight against any odds and at the same time be a civilized society”.

Talking about the Satyam fiasco, he urged his country men not to panic since the Indian economy was doing fine and should not lose faith in the country’s fiscal and monitory set-up. He said, “Satyam is a case of fraud and not a collapse, unlike what has happened in other countries. No bank or non-banking financial company (NBFC) has collapsed in India. Public sector banks will hire 60,000 new recruits in the coming fiscal year and we will see a 7 per cent growth.”

Among the other celebrities attending the function were Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sheila Dixit, Omar Abdullah, L.K. Advani, Praful Patel, Kavita Karkare and Sushma Swaraj.

The NDTV Indian of the Year Award was collectively won by those uniformed as well as non uniformed men and women who laid down their lives braving the recent Mumbai terror attack. Among those honored by this award were ASI Tukaram G. Omble, ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, Encounter Specialist Vijay Salaskar, ACP Ashok Kamte, Hawaldar Gajendra Singh, Announcer CST Vishnu Zende, Ticket Collector Sushil Kumar Sharma, NSG Director General J. K. Dutta along with his NSG commandos and Management & Staff of Hotel Oberoi, Hotel Trident and Hotel Taj.

The other recipients of the award were:
Sheila Dixit for the Leader of the Year
Abhinav Bindra for Sportsperson of the Year
Aamir Khan for Entertainer of the Year
Deepak Parekh for Businessleader of the Year
Dr. Kiran Seth, Spic Macay for 25 years of promoting Indian Culture
G. Madhavan Nair & ISRO Moon Team for being the Unsung Hero of the Year

On this occasion, NDTV also gave away certain special recognitions. Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister J&K, won the award for Gen Next Politician of the Year 2008, the Cast & Crew of Slumdog Millionaire won it for Global Excellence of the Year, LK Advani, was given the Lifetime Achievement award and Prasoon Joshi for penning the lyrics of the song “Maa” from the film 'Taare Zameen Par'.

These winners of the ‘NDTV Indian of the Year 2008' were chosen by a bench of jury comprising of famous personalities from different areas of excellence. It comprised of Shashi Tharoor (well-known author and former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations), Rahul Bajaj (Chairman, Bajaj Auto), Harsha Bhogle (renowned cricket commenter), Fali S. Nariman (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India), Anu Aga (former Executive Chairperson of Thermax Group and social activist) and William Dalrymple (internationally acclaimed writer and historian).