BCCI, Greenko, JSW among winners of PM mementos E-auction

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as well as representatives from Greenko, JSW Group, and Solar Industries are among those who have bagged the 20 most valuable items under an e-auction of the Prime Minister’s mementos.
The National Gallery of Modern Art has conducted three rounds of these e-auctions since 2019.

The first two rounds were done in 2019 while the third took place in September 2021.

Proceeds from these auctions go to the Namami Gange Mission aimed at conserving and rejuvenating the Ganga.

According to the responses to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by ET, BCCI bid the highest amount for eight of the 20 most expensive items that were auctioned.

These include the javelin used by gold medallist Neeraj Chopra at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that it bagged for a winning bid of Rs 1.5 crore, making it the most valuable item auctioned.

Mahesh Kolli, the president and joint managing director of Greenko, a renewable and energy storage player, won the javelin used by gold medallist Sumit Antil at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games for a bid of Rs 1 crore and 25,000 rupees.

The Angavastra autographed by the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic contingent is the third most valuable item bid out.

One Shyamsunder Shrikrishna Maniyar quoted the highest bid of Rs 1 crore for this item, which was presented by the Paralympians to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a breakfast hosted by him to felicitate the contingent.

Maniyar was the only bidder for this item.

At a winning bid of Rs 90 lakh and two hundred rupees, the BCCI bagged an Angavastra autographed by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic contingent.

This was the fourth most valuable item at the auction.

The BCCI kitty also comprises an autographed fence of CA Bhavani Devi used at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, a badminton racquet autographed by Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Badminton silver medallist Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, and a discus autographed by Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games silver medallist Yogesh Khatuniya.

A table tennis racquet autographed by Bhavina Patel (Tokyo 2020 silver medallist), shooting glasses used by Manish Narwal (Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games gold medallist), and a T-shirt autographed by Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Table Tennis silver medallist Bhavina Patel have also been bagged by the BCCI.

Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty, the chief executive and managing director of Greenko, made the winning bid for a badminton racquet autographed by Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Badminton gold medallist Krishna Nagar.

Another badminton racquet autographed by Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Badminton gold medallist Pramod Bhagat figures among the top 20 most valuable items. It was won by a representative from the JSW Group.

The 20th most expensive item bid out was a model of the Char Dham.

It has been acquired by Satyanarayan Nuwal, the chairman and non-executive director of industrial explosives manufacturer Solar Group.