Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday felicitated the Top 12 winners of HT@100 My Country, My Lens, a nationwide photography contest held to mark the centenary of Hindustan Times. The honours were presented during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025 in the presence of HT Chairperson and Editorial Director Shobhana Bhartia.

The contest invited citizens across the country to capture India through their own perspective, receiving more than 10,000 entries from over 30 cities. Submissions were spread across four themes — Borders, Rivers, Monuments, and Communities of My Country. A panel of noted photographers, including Rohit Chawla, Dhritiman Mukherjee and Ajay Aggarwal, shortlisted the Top 100 images and selected the Top 3 in each category for the felicitation.

“I watched the exhibition and will request everyone to see it. The photographer friends have captured moments in a way to make them immortal… I believe it can become a source of great strength for photography in the country,” Prime Minister Modi said after viewing the showcase.

Shobhana Bhartia said the initiative was conceived to honour not just the newspaper’s centenary but also the collective spirit of India. “As Hindustan Times marks 100 years, we wanted to celebrate not just our milestone, but the collective stories of India and its people. The photographs we received reflect the depth, diversity and dynamism of India and capture the spirit that has always inspired our journalism,” she said.

The Top 100 images were showcased at a dedicated exhibition at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025, giving policymakers, global leaders, artists and delegates a glimpse into how citizens interpret India’s geography, culture and communities. The exhibit reinforced this year’s HTLS theme, Transforming Tomorrow, and highlighted the publication’s long-standing legacy of storytelling rooted in trust and truth.

Founded by Mahatma Gandhi on September 15, 1924, Hindustan Times was envisioned as a voice for India’s freedom movement. Initially supported by the Akalis and later by leaders such as Lala Lajpat Rai and Madan Mohan Malviya, the newspaper was eventually entrusted to GD Birla at Gandhi’s request. Over the decades, it has chronicled India’s independence struggle, nation-building, and major global developments, carrying writings from icons like Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Martin Luther King Jr. and MS Swaminathan.

HT has also played a pioneering role in visual journalism in India. The unforgettable famine photographs captured by chief photographer Kishor Parekh in 1966 led to nationwide awareness and relief efforts, marking a shift in the way photographs were treated in Indian newsrooms.

In its centennial year, the publication handed the spotlight to its readers through the My Country, My Lens contest. The felicitation of the Top 12 winners and the unveiling of the Top 100 exhibition mark the culmination of Hindustan Times’ year-long centenary celebrations.

The complete collection of the winning photographs is available online at hindustantimes.com/MCML.