Corporate India works hard. Last Friday, it also played hard.In an evening that saw finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, captains of industry, and the cream of the financial and economic world gathered under one glittering roof at the spanking new Jio Convention Centre in Mumbai, The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence seemed to pick up where the Filmfare Awards a day before at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre next door had left off. The ET Awards, the winners and the evening had a different kind of glamour quotient, of course – of the GDP kind.With the business end of business meeting under the Lotus Ballroom’s imposing chandelier – which one guest who knows his high-end luxury products described as a ‘gigantic brooch’ – master of ceremonies Cyrus Sahukar kept the evening on even keel, mixing the funnies with the celebratory. The audience travelled with aplomb through the just-under-three-hour-long ceremony, taking note, as well as notes, of the collective wisdom being shared in the room.99897248The panel discussion on private sector capex revival had people hear loud and clear views of those who regularly put their money where their mouths are. Finance Minister in Lighter Mood JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal, for instance, was frank enough to share his thoughts about the steel industry’s expectations from the government: “I don’t think in India the government will pay (for helping out in the manufacture of more expensive green steel)… I’m not a great believer of government supporting or subsidising – I don’t even want that, we have to sustain ourselves.” GoI’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant sharing the stage with Jindal, and FM Sitharaman following the proceedings sitting in the audience, heard him loud and clear.99897252The ET Awards also saw Sitharaman in a lighter mood. “For once, I will speak completely in favour of the private sector – from their side,” she started her reply to a query about private sector capex not picking up as much as expected. She commended India Inc for how, despite the immense challenges it faced during the pandemic and subsequently the Russia-Ukraine war, there has been “many expansions happening, new investments happening” after the government brought down the corporate tax in 2019. Then pointing to the audience, with a grin on her face, “I’m sure they are ready (to invest). Aren’t you?’Noticing smiles – and ‘polite’ smiles alone – across the room, Sitharaman ‘fauxdmonished’ her ‘private sector’ audience: “Why? I’m supporting you! Why?” squeezing out a more enthusiastic response. And finally the applause ensued. Continuing her finger wag, the FM added, big smile still intact, “See, that is the problem with Indian industry… They don’t (flashes her arm), ‘Yes, we’re there!’ They gently, on being asked to clap…. (clap)”. All the ice in the Lotus Room was broken, melted away with the finance minister playing business encourager-cum-ice breaker. The laughter across the hall that followed was a real public-private partnership in action.99897257The ET Award 2022 winners who followed were part of this very ambience – combative, ceremonial, celebratory, and counter-intuitive – sharing their stories of success with a crowd hungry for fresh chapters in the India success story.That’s the kind of evening the ET Awards ceremony was on that good Friday – a perfect cocktail of business and pleasure over wine, wisdom and power cuisine. Business was very, very pleasant, indeed.